Doomed

A Tory majority of nearly 8,000 in Crewe is pretty much as bad as it could get for Labour. We now have the pleasure of either watching a leadership challenge (which is what they should do) or watching the great ship, fatally holed, sail on with its increasingly isolated captain a sad and lonely figure on the bridge.

I think Bloggers4Labour might be an entertaining read for the next few days.

It could have been worse for NuLab too. I was surprised the BNP had no candidate - Crewe being one of those towns which has seen a massive increase in (mostly Polish) immigration post-EU enlargement. I think it likely they'd have taken some votes which went to the Tories - but they'd have sheared away the Labour core vote even more - perhaps to below 10,000.

I note that the 'respectable' anti-immigration, out-of-Europe party, UKIP, got exactly 922 votes. It's partly that they just don't seem to be able to speak to working-class Brits (being a pretty (old, respectable) middle-class lot themselves, but perhaps its also that the consistently bad press the BNP get makes them uniquely qualified to pick up the 'up yours - all of you' protest vote.

Given current circumstances, it's impressive that 12,000 people still voted Labour - but their share of the vote dropped 18%. Once a tribal vote goes elsewhere, it may return, but it can never be relied on again.

* Edward Timpson (Con) 20,539 (49.49%, +16.93%)
* Tamsin Dunwoody (Lab) 12,679 (30.55%, -18.29%)
* Elizabeth Shenton (Lib Dem) 6,040 (14.55%, -4.03%)
* Mike Nattrass (UKIP) 922 (2.22%)
* Robert Smith (Green) 359 (0.87%)
* David Roberts (Eng Dem) 275 (0.66%)
* The Flying Brick (Monster Raving Loony) 236 (0.57%)
* Mark Walklate (Ind) 217 (0.52%)
* Paul Thorogood (Cut Tax on Diesel and Petrol) 118 (0.28%)
* Gemma Garrett (Ind) 113 (0.27%)

Farewell To The Thirty-Foot Trailer (and the Lamborghini)

Despite the fact that, as everyone knows, travellers are poor people who never have any money, one does find the occasional band of tarmacers or roof-repairers who target old ladies and are then found at the trial to have hundreds of thousands of pounds salted away.

This chap doesn't deal with such small change.

A convicted fraudster who masterminded a huge tax scam has been ordered to pay back almost £7m. Noel Young, who imported and sold luxury cars, was sentenced to 28 months after admitting conspiracy to commit VAT fraud and money laundering. The 32-year-old, from Carlisle, is already serving seven years for causing death by dangerous driving.

The £7m order, granted at Liverpool Crown Court, is thought to be one of the largest ever made. Young, of The Green, Houghton, was found to have benefited by £10,551,747, and was described by Judge David Aubrey QC as "a manipulative and deceitful individual". The fraud involved more than 250 vehicles and the total value of the scam was more than £14m, the court heard.

During proceedings last month, Young claimed that he could barely read or write as he is "a Gypsy" and never had any schooling as his family had travelled around.

Hmmm. He can add up, though, can't he ?

It's the long hours culture I tell you ...

what stops one's blogging ... and the fact that I got back last night and slumped in front of what turned into a cracking match, played at hight speed with 'high commitment' aka tackles flying in all over the place.

With a few minutes of normal time to go .. 'I bet someone'll be sent off in extra time' - but I thought it would be for a late tackle, not a piece of foolishness like Drogba's. Tevez (who seemed to start it off) must have been delighted, but fair play to those from both sides who hauled Vidic away - he's a great player and his battle with Drogba was epic.

Poor John Terry. Remember Beckham's penalty slip ? And poor Avram Grant - I hope he stays.

Meanwhile ... the handcart to hell rattles on its predestined path ... the Fatherless Children Bill is passed, another little black girl dies in suspicious circumstances while the social workers are looking the other way, more feral youths are convicted of murder even as the last-but-five gang of feral youths are granted leave to appeal, and a "Justice Minister" makes soothing noises to the family of the last-but-twenty-three, just like a "Justice Minister" made soothing noises to the family of the last-but-five gang's victim. 'Tis a familiar tale. Still, say not the struggle nought availeth - even if it does look that way.

Victimhood Poker - UK style

In the American version of the game, Muslim trumps transgender. How will it pan out in the UK ?

A sex swap instructor at an all-female driving school was left devastated when the Sheffield husband of one of her pupils threatened to sue her firm - for sending a man to teach his Muslim wife. Emma Sherdley - formerly a married dad of two called Andrew but now legally a woman - has the full support of her boss Joanne Dixon who says she is a popular and respected instructor with 32 female pupils on her books who have no problem with her past.

Emma, aged 42, has a birth certificate and a "gender recognition certificate" to prove her legal status as a woman although she is still waiting for final surgery to make her transition from male to female physically complete. She says she has never had a problem with any of her other pupils and says the complaints made by the man from the Meadowhall area of Sheffield, were: "hurtful, offensive and deeply upsetting".

Joanne, who set up Laugh n Pass with all-female teachers designed to put ladies learning to drive completely at their ease, told The Star: "Emma is a popular and very well-respected instructor.

"That man accused us of being racist, yet his attitude towards Emma showed prejudice of the very worst kind."

The problem began when the man booked a two hour driving lesson for his wife. Emma travelled from her Holmfirth home to Meadowhall and collected the woman from her home and the lesson began. But after the first hour of the lesson she told Emma she would have to cancel the remainder of the lesson because she had to go home to breast feed her baby.

Joanne said: "Then the husband rang me and said he was going to sue us. He was saying, 'You have sent me a man, send me a proper female, how dare you send a man with a deep voice'. Then he claimed we had deliberately sent a man disguised as a woman because he was a Muslim. His attitude and his behaviour was outrageous and has upset me and Emma and everyone else who works here. We are not racist, we are not sexist - if anyone was being so it was that man."

Some feminists would agree that 'they'd sent a chap'. For Julie Bindel, he's just 'a man in a dress'. Turns out gender's not a social construct after all !

Light blogging ...

But I see our masters are trying to change the language again.

Should the term 'asylum' be banned?

Ironic really. They were previously known as "aliens seeking political asylum", but it was decided that had overtones of ... well, difference.

Now apparently they'll be'sanctuary-seekers' or similar.

In the survey of 1,000 people aged over 17, which was conducted by Efeedback, more than 81% of those surveyed felt "sanctuary" had positive connotations.

With its connotations of posh women-only health clubs.

(The Independent Asylum Commission, btw is independent - in the same way that the SWP is independent. It's the usual mix of activist judges and activist lawyers, with the odd leftie cleric thrown in for respectability.)



(Further to my post on African anti-immigration riots, I see the Berbers and Arabs are also kicking up rather than celebrating difference)

Some Baby Jackdaws From The Curate's Chimney

Le Monde conned :

Le Monde devoted a page to a report on “Hiroshima: What the world never saw” last weekend. It recounted the discovery of “ten pictures hidden for more than 60 years by an American soldier which show for the first time the victims of the bomb dropped on the Japanese city on August 6, 1945”. It emerged however that the pictures, from the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, depicted the aftermath of a 1923 earthquake near Tokyo. They were immediately recognised by experts in Japan and the US.

Get digging : coal makes a comeback

If oil prices remain above the critical threshold of $50 per barrel, there's even a good chance we will soon be flying in coal-powered airliners. Indeed, if you have flown from Johannesburg International Airport in the last seven years, your aircraft ran on a mixture of kerosene and liquidised, pulverised coal.

Coal-rich and oil-poor, South Africa became a pioneer of this work during the apartheid era. Sanctions blocked imports of oil, but it required transport fuel at any cost. Now Sasol, the South African chemical firm that leads the world in coal-oil production, is to offer a new version of its aviation fuel, 100% derived from coal, for international approval later this year.

Soaring oil prices now mean the rest of the world is getting interested, too. The US Air Force spends $4.5bn a year on jet fuel, and is already showing interest. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, recognising that many USAF scenarios involve bombing its own traditional oil suppliers in the Middle East, has ordered his forces to explore alternative fuels that don't require foreign oil. In September the USAF will conduct its first test flight with a synthetic fuel derived from natural gas, using technology similar to coal-to-oil.

That name rings a bell :

He came to the attention of Durham Police after he was arrested by officers in Scotland, where he was sending indecent images of children to somebody called “Big Gordy from Kirkcaldy.”

In January last year he was jailed for 14 months by a Scottish court for emailing 10 images of youngsters aged between five and 12 to “Big Gordy.”

Big Gordy from Kirkcaldy ? Hmm.

Black and black unite and fight

The Rainbow Nation seems not to be as inclusive as all that :

The violence in Alexandra started on Sunday evening when an enraged mob marched to a hostel in London Road, targeting foreigners mainly from Zimbabwe whom they accuse of stealing precious jobs and contributing to worsening crime rates.

The crowd beat the immigrants, forced others from their rooms and shot dead two men – one a South African who refused to take part in the attack.

Scores of refugees, many “illegal” immigrants, flocked to Alexandra police station for protection. Despite extra police with riot gear taking up positions across the township, violence again erupted on Monday night, drawing condemnation from politicians and soul-searching on the part of other South Africans.

“Is this the new South Africa?” screamed the front page of the South African Times under a picture of a bloodied Ms Ndlovu. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has condemned the attacks, but others point to frequent warnings of mounting tensions in townships that the ANC Government has ignored.

Complaints of jobs being taken and a government ignoring tensions ? Sounds familiar. But in the UK the natives don't go in for this sort of stuff. Instead, a Labour leaflet accusing the Tories of not wanting foreigners to carry ID cards is seen by the the massed and hysterical ranks of Guardianistas as one step away from requiring them to wear yellow stars.

For once, I agree with idiot CiF poster tooter, a glass-three-quarters-full kind of chap whose motif is 'surely, comrades, you do not want Mr Jones back ?'. His thesis is that this is all just part of the cut'n'thrust of politics and that the end sometimes has to justify the means. Horrified lefties point out to him that this means using the language of the right and ipso facto conceding that their arguments may have a point.

Both tooter and his critics are right. It's true that Labour are using language that sits better with the right - or with Old Labour. I don't think Bevin or Attlee would have had trouble distinguising Brits from non-Brits. Whereas, as every post-60s leftie knows, foreigners are exactly like "us" - and anyway, who's "us" - we're a nation of immigrants, don'tcha know ?

But the simple fact is that a campaign of 'we welcome immigration and see no upper limit to it', while pretty well describing the de facto Labour position, would lead to an even greater hammering than the one they're going to get. Labour have always been prepared to talk tough on crime and immigration, while letting all the prisoners out and the asylum-seekers in. It's what they do. And it worked pretty well (electorally) for ten years.

I've said before that the Brits don't do fascism.

Can't say that about the Italians. They invented it. I must say I can't imagine scenes like this in the UK, where the travelling community are the ones with the unity, the willingness to use force, and the firepower.

Italian police began a nationwide round-up of nearly 400 illegal immigrants from the Balkans and North Africa yesterday in the midst of a series of arson attacks on Roma gypsy camps in the suburbs of Naples.

The first step in a drive on crime promised by the new centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi targeted temporary encampments on the outskirts of cities from Naples to northern Italy. Some 118 people held in the operation were ordered to be expelled immediately for offences ranging from drug dealing and robbery to prostitution.

But in Naples local people have anticipated the new policy, taking the law into their own hands.

This week’s assaults on Roma shanty towns by scores of youths on scooters and motorbikes wielding iron bars and throwing Molotov cocktails were sparked off by the capture of a 17-year-old Roma girl who last weekend entered a flat in Ponticelli and tried to steal a 6-year-old girl. Chased by the mother and neighbours, she had to be rescued by police from being lynched.

The city erupted in fury, with local women leading the marches on the Roma camps to the chant of “Fuori, fuori [Out, out]”. Night after night young men — allegedly acting on the orders of powerful local clans of the Camorra, the Naples Mafia — have set the sites ablaze, blocking attempts by the fire brigade to put out the fires, with exploding gas canisters completing the destruction. The women jeered at the firemen, shouting, "You put these fires out, we start them again”.

Plumes of smoke were still rising yesterday from the smouldering, blackened ruins of a Roma gypsy camp attacked and burnt to the ground by local vigilantes in Ponticelli, a rundown industrial suburb in the east of Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

The charred remains of the makeshift wooden shacks at the site on Via Malibran crunch underfoot. The only sign of life is dogs scavenging through the neighbouring mountain of uncollected, rotting rubbish.

There are similar scenes of devastation at camps nearby, including one in the incongruously named Via Virginia Woolf. At one squalid “nomad camp” beneath a motorway flyover, intact but deserted, a policeman guarding the site said that the inhabitants had fled during the night to avoid being attacked.

Hmm. I've always thought of Naples as the Scallyland of Italy.

The Naples arson attacks, however, are the result of long-festering anger throughout Italy over rising crime levels and urban degradation, much of it blamed on Roma gypsies and the estimated half a million Romanians who have emigrated to Italy since Romania joined the European Union.

But I can't see even the Scallies going in for this sort of thing. Rising crime levels and urban degradation ? If that were the criterion, Kirkby would have been a heap of smouldering ruins long ago.

To make the punishment fit the space ... the punishment fit the space !

Prison sentences would be set nationally by an independent body depending on the amount of space in jails, under government plans.

Proposals for a Sentencing Commission are in the draft Queen's Speech.

A Justice Ministry spokesman said it could lead to more community sentences - but there would not be shorter jail terms for serious offenders.

For once the Tories have got it right - refusing to join the Parliamentary working group on these disastrous proposals.

Having a national framework for sentencing would make it easier to predict the future size of the prison population and would not be constantly adjusted to reflect fluctuations in capacity, the government argues.

Can't argue with that. It certainly will be easier to predict. And the advantage of that in reducing crime will be .. ?

It's interesting to look at this foolishness in the light of reports from the Youth 'Justice' Board that violent offences by young men and women have risen by 40% in the last three years.

It looks as if the Youth 'Justice' system is working on the 'let the punishment fit the space' principle :

The figures show that robberies committed by youngsters rose by 45 per cent to 6,855, criminal damage increased by 32 per cent to 40,900 and public order crimes increased by 17 per cent to 23,000.

The number of youngsters sent to child jails or other secure accommodation remains stable and is running at about 7,000 a year.

So the offences are rocketing - but it's certainly easy to predict the size of the banged-up youth population. The only bit that falls by the wayside is " there would not be shorter jail terms for serious offenders".

In related news, Pauline Campbell, the mother of Sarah Campbell, has died a pointless and wasteful death of an overdose beside the grave of her daughter, who died a pointless and wasteful death of an overdose in Styal Prison, Cheshire.

Poor Pauline Campbell. I must say that in our one communication she expressed great pity and feeling for the family of the man her daughter killed. It's just that you never saw that in the Guardian. But she responded to the death of her daughter, a smackhead convicted of manslaughter, not by campaigning against smack or for the victims of manslaughter, but by campaigning for more resources to be devoted to caring for imprisoned criminals. She hadn't lost a moral compass - the poor thing never had one to lose. Like one or two other mothers of dead children, she was happy to be used as a weapon by activists. It's a tragedy.

I wonder where Sarah Campbell's dad is ? He's been the dog that didn't bark all the way along.

Oops !

Medics and nurses have been known to make the odd unflattering remark about their patients - but strictly between themselves. Few have gone so far as to leave them on the patient's answerphone.

A hospital has apologised after staff inadvertently left an insulting message on a teenage patient's telephone.

The message said Sharon Roberts, 19, was a "smelly drunk with black teeth".

It was left by staff at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, who were reminding her about an appointment - but then carried on talking.

Surprise

I wanted Rangers to win, but win or lose this was a pretty predictable headline. I was in Manchester in 1974 when Rangers played at Old Trafford in a 'friendly'. United supporters were hiding their scarves as they got off the train at Victoria and 'the violence was the worst Old Trafford has ever seen'.

Don't talk to me about Bagel Street

Thanks for the cash and the work ...

Cheers, Gordon. An extra £120 a year will go a little way to offsetting the (approx) £350 a year extra fuel duty we're paying - and the extra £150 for taxing the cars.

I might even get to code the tax changes. It's all work.

They seem to be running scared at the moment.

And it looks as if even the current social care ripoff (for the English) is considered too generous.

There was "no option" but to sell the house to fund the cost of the home, which they are very happy with but is costly at £700 a week, says Susan.

"After a while it dawned on Mum that this was for good. She became very low when the house was actually gone."

My uncle felt just the same way when his house had to be sold to pay nursing home fees when he had terminal cancer. I thought the NHS was for sick people like that, but there you go. He was an independent sort who spent every spare minute on the house and it broke his heart having to sell it. Naked he came into the world and naked departed it.

Once upon a time families would care for their elderly. Now fewer and fewer even care for their own children.

The number of stay-at-home parents has fallen by a fifth to its lowest level in 15 years, a YouGov poll has found.

Now, 2.2 million parents stay at home, down on 2.8 million in 1993, the survey commissioned by uSwitch.com said.

Many of the 2,198 adults surveyed - of which 1,391 were parents - cited the rising cost of living as the main reason for returning to work.

We were lucky that I earned enough for Susan to stay at home for eight years. For many it's a choice between raising your own kids and keeping a roof over your head. Yet some people manage it, sacrificing the holidays and consumer durables for the chance to raise the next generation.



PS - knee hurting. Switching to rowing machine !

A Very Good Year

Mark Steyn's stuff on music is as good as his political writing. A year or two back he wrote a wonderful piece about the creation of Wimoweh (aka 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'). Then it disappeared behind the Steyn firewall, never to be seen again by mortal man.

Here's his take on Frank Sinatra's A Very Good Year. Get it while you can.

And while you're at it, before it goes - get the strange story of the man who wrote Nature Boy.

(Frank's arranger Gordon Jenkins also arranged the first American version of Wimoweh, after collector Alan Lomax introduced Solomon Linda's original to folkie Pete Seeger. Not much resemblance between it and this.)

Gut busting

I used to be thin - very thin. At 21 I weighted 9 stone and had a 30-in waist, and was still pretty skinny (and fit) in my mid-thirties - but a desk job, three meals a day and lots of kids and D.I.Y (meaning far fewer weekends in the hills) left a fiftysomething Laban looking at 13 stone and a 38-inch gut. Euuch ! (I'm 5'9'')

When I noticed the tops of my thighs rubbing together and my GP started dropping hints about blood pressure, statins and the possibility of diabetes, it was time to do something. So for the last 5 weeks or so a greying, teddy-bear shaped figure has been pounding the lanes at lunchtime or in the evening pretty much every day. I try to do about 4 miles at lunchtime or 3 in the evening.

The routine tends to be :

Run 150 yards ... walk 25 while recovering wind ... run 150 yards ... walk 25 ... and so on - although the running machine seems easier (no gradients ?) and one can do a mile non stop on that at about 5-6 mph (well, 1500 metres at 9kph says the machine).

It's having an effect. My legs never had this sort of muscle on them when I was 10 stone and fit - presumably having to shift 13 stone gives them that much more to do. The thigh fat has almost gone and been replaced by muscle.

But ... I've put on half a stone and the gut looks just as it did before ! Should I be doing something apart from running ?

Tower Hamlets Church Attack Update

The second in the last couple of months.

Mr Scully, however, insists it was not a ‘policing’ problem, but a ‘community’ problem.

“These are someone’s sons, someone’s brothers,” he said. “These people are known in the community. There is a certain racial and religious element to this, I have been and was taunted religiously — and that is a worrying aspect of it. But I would not make that a ‘flag of convenience.’ These are drunken yobs and that is the shame of it. They could probably have a very bright future ahead of them if they only did something about it.”

Police are investigating the assault and say they are looking for three Asian youths, all aged about 16.

The attack has also brought condemnation from Tower Hamlets Council.

The authority’s community cohesion spokesman, Cllr Ohid Ahmed, said: “The idiots who carried out this attack have let their community down as well as themselves and their families.

Elsewhere in East Lahndahn - underclass man 'loses marbles'.

THIS is the yob who has been slapped with a unique anti-social behaviour order banning him from carrying rocks, pebbles and marbles for four years anywhere in London's East End.

Kalum Lamptey admitted using stones to smash car windows when he went before magistrates.

The order also bans him from touching any motor vehicle without the permission of the owner for the same period. The 20-year-old was sentenced to an 18-month Supervision Order by Thames magistrates after pleading guilty to stealing from a car on April 30.
He appeared in the dock after being arrested in Wapping on April 22, when he asked for 13 other similar offences to be taken into account. A 60-day curfew banning him from leaving his home in Zetland Street, Poplar, between 8pm and 6am has also been imposed.

"Kalum". Really. Reminds me of this.

"Please, please can someone help us"

The travellers encamped illegally at Crays Hill have won their High Court battle against eviction after Lawrence Collins ruled they they could stay 'while concerns about their needs and welfare are further investigated.'

Tragically the needs and welfare of those whom obey the planning (and other) legislation don't seem such a high priority.

Posted by: Hovefields resident, wickford on 2:59pm Fri 9 May 08

We have been totally let down by this government. I don't know which cloud this judge has been sitting on for the past 6 years but he should be knocked off his perch and told to live in the real world. We have suffered so much down here I just want to sit down and cry buckets but no I have to pick myself up and fight again. Our human rights are non existent, why will no-one listen to us, why is this allowed to happen to us. We have no faith in our judicial system whatsoever. Please, please can someone help us because we are at a loss as to what to do. Most of the comments are realistic and supportive and I thank you for these.

Love Music Love Racism

From the East London Advertiser, via reader Jockney :

"A gang of 20 youths attacked four Asian youngsters outside Victoria Park's Love Music Hate Racism carnival last month, leaving them needing hospital treatment. As they left the festival ground, the group was set upon by the gang of between 15 and 20 white and black youths around 6.30 pm on Sunday, April 27"

They don't seem to have quite got the hang of this "Black and White Unite and Fight" business, do they ? I wonder if they're the same crowd that were such a sign of progress for Simon Price ?



(also another attack on the clergy in Tower Hamlets)

Posting Is Light

I'm back on a revamped Harry's Place blogroll - for reasons as mysterious as those which led to my removal ... as I said about Expat Yank a couple of years back :

Having a favourite blog undergo a makeover is like the wife returning from town with radical new hairstyle. You'll get used to it and grow to love it, but what was wrong with the way it was before ?

I don't know why, but the new HP layout has a touch of the Iain Dale's about it. Or something. Not sure it's got the same bold identity as before - the previous layouts shouted 'Harry' to a visually impaired man 50 feet from the monitor and this doesn't. Get more red in there for starters !

I'm fully entitled to say this of course, as I chose my layout and colour scheme from the 2003 blogger defaults - and since then it's been like unto the laws of the Medes and Persians - unchanged and unchangeable.

Now if only Clive Davis would put me back ...

Blogging is light due to work-type things, have a look at some of these ... Ross at Unenlightened Commentary, Sam Tarran, and the mighty EU Referendum - easily IMHO the best, most informed blog around, its only drawback being that you have to sit and think when reading it. Gordon Brown being still doomed, the site Bloggers4Labour also offers entertainment to those of a sadistic disposition.

State Broadcaster Does Its Bit

Maddy frets because it creates low paid, insecure jobs.

Johann frets because it creates BNP voters.

Laban chips in :

Mass immigration is IMHO the main engine of insecure employment/low wages - and that's what it's there for.

Jon Cruddas pointed out two years back that the govt "tacitly used immigration to help forge the preferred flexible North American labour market. Especially in London, legal and illegal immigration has been central in replenishing the stock of cheap labour across the public and private services, construction and civil engineering."

Immigrant labour "is the axis for the domestic agenda of the Government".

They certainly have a flexible labour market in the States, thanks to mass illegal immigration from Mexico and points South. During the Republican primaries it seemed that every other day some populist anti-immigrant candidate was busted for having an 'undocumented' gardener or nanny. Might be hard to credit, but evil fascist GWB was only stopped from 'regularising' millions of illegal migrants by a revolt from his own party.

Some say mass immigration is the Left's revenge on the working class for the Thatcher years, but that implies a degree of planning and forethought so is unlikely. It's more a cultural thing, but it does neatly coincide with a need for cheap workers.

People like Johann Hari and some Guardian commenters are calling for an increase in the minimum wage as the answer to the "problem" - the problem being that the natives are restless. They've missed the point. Keeping wages low are what it's all about.

(Of course if immigration stopped tomorrow and all the Poles went home OR if the minimum wage was doubled then yes, wages would rise and that would cause a rise in inflation. But to a great extent inflation has been 'hidden' over the last 10 years via a combination of the Chinese miracle (goods) and mass immigration/offshoring (services). In one sense it OUGHT to rise - that would give a truer picture of where we actually are economically. Then we might look hard at our education and manufacturing disasters and start doing something about them)

And talking of restless natives, did you see the State broadcaster doing its little bit for social cohesion on all its news bulletins tonight, with the video (kindly provided by HMG) of the UK Border Agency (60 guys in Clockwork Orange white boiler-suits, backed by police) in action ?

"Shocked, scared, confused - 56 workers are lined up"

Putin can't teach this lot anything about media control.

"There are dodgy employers out there who are trying to undercut their competitors and drive down British wages by employing people illegally, so we've come up with this new way of taking much faster on-the-spot action," Immigration Minister Liam Byrne told the BBC.

Ah, those British wages ! Can't you just see Britannia on the coins and the Queen (God bless her) on the notes ? Drive them down illegally and the white boiler-suits will nail you ! (drive them down legally and anyone who doesn't like it is a Nazi).

Thus far has the party of Keir Hardie advanced. But hey, it'll help convince the stupid natives that 'they' are doing something.

(There was also an interesting discussion on utility which alas time prevented me from joining)

I Make No Comment - I Merely Report ...

Music journalist Simon Price sounds like a bit of a Steve Strange for the Noughties - small town Welsh boy who's discovered the glorious freedom of swanning round the big city in makeup and outrageous garb. I wonder if he tries that in Stockwell or Harlesden ?

I confess to knowing zilch about him other than that he's noticed that the hippie/crusty/traveller scene is/was hideously white and middle class - which it generally was and probably still is, when I look at its modern enviro-activist manifestation. He thinks that's a bad thing, which is odd when you look at the profile of the club he runs in London - it looks pretty low on melanin to me (and looks like somewhere I'd have loved in my degenerate days).

He's written this for the Indie, on the Love Music Hate Racism concert last week :

I've been mugged three times in London. Now, looking at it objectively, spread over 20 years of living in one of the world's most crowded cities, that's not a bad tally. The trouble is this: every time, the perpetrators were young, male and black. On the third and most serious occasion, I was clubbed on the head with a metal bar, dragged into an alley, and held with a knife to my neck by one guy while his accomplice raided £500 from my bank account.

What do I "do" with that? The progressive thing to do is, if not write it off as a statistical blip, at least place it in the context of wider sociological factors. But one's intellectual and visceral responses are two different things, and as a committed anti-racist I was shocked to find myself flinching every time a young black male (particularly if dressed in a particular fashion) passed me in the street. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown that victim counselling leaflet in the bin.

This is precisely why Love Music Hate Racism needs to exist.

To keep Simon from having bad, Daily Mail thoughts ... he's 40 years old. I don't know, but I think it's unlikely he's bringing up a family.

At Angel Tube afterwards, I'm harassed by a gang of young guys with a Stanley knife. A couple of them are black; a few of them are mixed race; a couple of them are white. That may not be the kind of progress LMHR has in mind, but it's progress of sorts.

Well. What do you make of that ? As the psychiatrist in Fawlty Towers put it "There's enough material here for a whole conference !". I have no time to write a long essay, so let's just leave this as it is.