Another nail in Labour's coffin!

According to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett, Labour wanted mass immigration to make the UK more multicultural.

If this report is correct, it is conclusive proof that Labour has created the conditions for the increasing (albeit, small) rise in the BNP's support in some parts of the UK.

You reap what you sow.

What's Wrong With GB's GB?

Like the many tens of thousands of parents who support their children's sporting activities, I spent about four hours this morning being frozen to the bone whilst my rugby-mad son and his chums were competing in a "festival" (hah, where did they get that word from?).

But I am a bit of a rugby nut myself so it's not really such a chore to support these events where a couple of hundred youngsters have fun and, hopefully, improve their skills and develop their love of the game. All the people involved - the administrators, the referees, the coaches, the parents, the people who serve up the bacon butties, everyone - are volunteers and give up their time willingly to create experiences like this for their kids. Experiences that they will remember for a very long time.

It's also a good opportunity for the adults to interact and strengthen their bonds in this endeavour. (We always need volunteers to help out in organising raffles and cooking the bacon butties!) In between games there is always a chance for "administrators" like me to chat with other parents to persuade them to become even more involved.

Today I was dumbstruck by a conversation with one parent. She's a 50 year-old school teacher who doesn't see a future for her children in this country because of the high levels of immigration to Great Britain. She doesn't work in an inner city area but in a primary school on the outskirts of a small provincial town in the North Midlands - so no major influx of east Europeans (yet!) - and she's not what could be described as typical "middle class". She also sees this country as being dominated by people only interested in money.

What's happening? This is the sort of thing that was said in the Thatcher era, not when Gordon Brown (may God forever bless him) is our glorious leader. So, is this the way that "ordinary" people see Brown's Britain?

Well, the Coffee House blog links here to an article by John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday which asks "What does Brown stand for?"

I don't know about you but he gives me the "heebeegeebees"!

And if he and his ilk are re-elected I'll be joining my school teacher friend in advising my son to emigrate. I will probably go with him.

A "brown hole" in the Government's figures on immigration? Countdown to meltdown?

The Coffee House blog links to yet another story about the Government's inability to get any of its numbers right here.

Is this a "Brown Hole"? After all, his acclaimed clever economic planning over the last 10 years has been based on Government statistics. (He has recently told us that he wished Carol Vorderman from Countdown had been helping him get his figures right - and she only got a Third Class degree in Engineering from Cambridge.)

So, remember, when you hear Brown & Co telling you that there is a "black hole" in the Conservatives' economic plans, they are not necessarily the best ones to judge!

Enoch Powell returns to haunt the Conservatives

After David Cameron's very measured and sensible speech on immigration and population growth earlier this week I had a small bet with myself who would be the first give to Brown and his crew the opportunity to cry "same old Tories, same old racists". I just knew it would be a Tory!

This is Nigel Hastilow, the Conservative Party candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, ironically, in the heart of the Black Country, who has been reported as quoting Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech in an article in The Observer here.

No matter that he was actually writing in the Wolverhampton Express and Star paper and quoting the views he has encountered on the doorstep whilst canvassing in the constituency that he hoped to represent as an MP.

I say "hoped" because it is very likely he will be "pressed" to step down as a result of the ensuing furore.

I know nothing of Mr Hastilow's personal views on the issue of immigration and the problems of a rapidly expanding population but he has a right to reflect the views of the people he is asking to vote for him. That doesn't make him a racist - but he will be labelled as such by the media and Labour will use it to punish David Cameron whatever he does about Mr Hastilow.

But what did Enoch Powell actually say? It might not surprise us that in today's more "grown up" discussions there are still echoes of the concerns that Powell quoted nearly 40 years ago. Perhaps the concerns are now more about the overall numbers of immigrants rather than the colour of their skin and their country of origin. Is that progress?

UPDATE:

Cabinet minister Peter Hain told BBC1's Andrew Marr show: "This Conservative candidate really exposes the racist underbelly of the Tory party." Well, there's a surprise.

And Mr Hastilow did step down as a Conservative parliamentary candidate on Sunday 4th November after meeting the party chairman, Caroline Spelman. Mr Hastilow said: "They wanted me to issue a statement apologising and I don't feel I had anything to apologise for. If I had said sorry I could have stayed on, but I am not sorry. I have definitely not said anything racist."

NuLabour Spin on Immigration

Lots of NuLabour spinning here - but John Kampfner does edit the "Newt" so I suppose it's inevitable.

If John is really looking for information on immigration he should ask the Government - oh no, they don't know do they?

How about asking Migration Watch - they do have a handle on what's happening and have been vilified for saying it for the last six years or so.

Kampfner's article is another sad example of NuLabour being unable to accept that their own incompetence over the last 10 years has stored up problems that will take many years to resolve.

He says "In truth, nobody could have envisaged the scale of the influx" Oh yes they could - and they were told by the Conservatives in 2005 - who were then roundly condemned for playing the "race card". The Labour Party (new and old) needs to realise that they need to grow up very quickly and just admit we can't accommodate all the current and projected scale of immigration without a coherent policy on the actual numbers that can settle on our island.

Stop spinning. Agree you've got it all wrong and start to put it right. If you don't (or can't) then the Conservatives will have to deal with your mess.

"Migration to Britain Reaches Record Levels"

In case you think this relates to today's announcement by the Office of National Statistics, have a look at a report by the same body from June 2001 here. It says "....migration to Britain is running at record levels and has helped to increase the population by more than 2 million in less than 10 years."

The much maligned Sir Andrew Green, head of Migration Watch has today written in the Daily Telegraph about the latest ONS report.

"We must act now to cut immigrant numbers....... official figures now indicate that England's population will increase by nearly 16 million by mid century - that is twice the population of Greater London. This increase will be 90 per cent due to immigration."

I go back to one of my previous suggestions: France has a landmass about four times the size of the UK with about the same size population. There is far more scope for them to increase their population by 16 million than Britain. Come on, France, be a bit more communitaire!

Oh, and by the way, if Al Gore and his ilk are to be believed, global warming will shrink the size of Britain's landmass by quite a chunk anyway so there'll be even less space for all these hopeful immigrants! Bring it on.

The Real Facts on the Effects of Immigration on the UK

This article by Bob Rowthorne, Professor of Economics at Cambridge University, in the Sunday Telegraph entitled " We need an honest debate on immigration" is required reading for all politicians. Read it here.

It's important to know that he is not a Conservative Party supporting academic. Check him out on the internet.

Personally, this is the first time I have come across his writings and they certainly do provide food for thought. There is nothing racist in what he says. Unlike some of the comments from Labour - whenever this topic is raised they always play the race card and the "same old Tories" jibes are wheeled out. They really do need to grow up - and very fast.

Is it racist to talk about immigration?

We are a small island; there's is a finite limit to the number of people who can live here; in some parts of the country there are already severe pressures on our basic infrastructure - schools, hospitals, housing, transport and some areas of some cities are already "swamped" (as a previous Labour Home Secretary once said) with such a large volume of non-indigenous, non-English speaking extended families that the established populations feel overwhelmed.

Even in the small (100,000 population) town where I live in the North Midlands we are beginning to see far more groups of people from all over the world (who stand out, not so much by the colour of their skin, but by their style of clothing, language, etc) but not to the extent that we feel "swamped" - yet.

But if current trends are allowed to continue without some form of control (for example, the points system that the Conservatives suggested and has been adopted in part by NuLabour) then the nature of this small town will change very quickly.

It's all very well NuLabour et al saying that immigration has had a positive benefit on the economy (that might be true in parts of the country and in certain sectors of the economy) but to ordinary Joe Public they just see that their world has changed without them being asked if they agree.

That's why we need to be able to discuss immigration policy in a mature way without being accused of being racist.

Here's a thought: France has about the same population as the UK but it's landmass is four times bigger than the UK's. Lot's of room for new (Brown-style) eco-towns and they already have sustainable nuclear power as their main source of energy. Wouldn't it be great if they absorbed the vast majority of the projected numbers of immigrants to Europe from the Middle East and the north, east, west and south of Africa? They have got more space after all.

But then again, the French are more racist than we are!