Gordon - you can fool some of the people....

This is so blatant an attempt by Brown to seize a political advantage over the Conservative Party as to be risible. The fact it was originally announced on YouTube without any consultation was bad enough. But the subsequent so-called discussions with David Cameron and Nick Clegg were so acrimonious that no consensus was possible. And now we have assorted Labour politicians who have denounced Brown as a bully.

But the way it is being rushed through Parliament in such a botched manner is an outrage. As Mrs Ted - not a lover of the Great Leader on a good day - said to me at teatime today: "Has he gone completely barmy now? Does he take us all for fools?"

To which my answer, of course, was yes.

"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.