The wealthy right-winger Yvette Cooper has just been on television intoning Labour’s new mantra “It isn’t racist to be worried about immigration.” This should be challenged robustly at all times. Above all, it is very, very racist for politicians to go around saying “It isn’t racist to be worried about immigration” when they are using it nakedly and cynically to bid for the votes of racists.
I can never recall any by-election that got as much BBC publicity as that in Rochester, not even Hillhead or Warrington. The BBC and media establishment are continuing their massive promotion of UKIP at all times. The Labour Party is responding by pandering to racism. Yvette spoke of the “race to the bottom in the labour market”. The country’s real problem is the race to the bottom in the fascist market.
Promising 1.000 new uniformed border guards as their headline policy initiative is a pretty impressive spurt by Labour in this fascist race.
It shows how sour politics have gone when it takes the Confederation of British Industry to inject some sense from a liberal perspective into the immigration debate. Over 60% of CBI embers say that immigration has benefited their company. Only 3% believe it has hurt their company. Immigration is a tremendous boon to the British economy. Without it we would be deep in recession. Nor is it in the least responsible for the growing wealth gap. The period of highest immigration into the UK coincided with the period when social mobility and social equality were making the most progress.
That people still fall for the old con-trick astonishes me. Don’t blame Britain’s 100 billionaires, multi millionaire bankers or grasping landlords for your poverty – look! blame that foreign-looking poor man over there. He is eating a bit of cheese. He has taken that cheese from the mouths of your children!
It is primal and it is ludicrous, but the appeal to atavism can work and Labour are seeking to profit from it.
The Labour Party’s deliberate conflation of the unrelated questions of corporate, banker and executive rapacity, the exploitation of the workforce, and immigration is deeply, deeply, shameful. There was very little Yvette Cooper said that Nigel Farage would not second. But that, after all, was the purpose of the exercise.
An increasing number of young people are being made homeless after running into financial problems caused by the Government’s controversial welfare reforms, according to a report published today.
The survey of more than 200 homelessness charities and council agencies across England uncovered clear signs that the Coalition’s tougher regime of benefit sanctions is driving young people out of their homes.
Reports of homelessness among under 25s who had experienced benefit reductions have increased sixfold in the space of a year, from 1.7 per cent of cases in 2013 to 10 per cent in 2014, the charities said. More than 90 per cent of providers also reported that the sanctions had affected young people’s ability to access new accommodation.
In 2012, the Department for Work and Pensions brought in a tougher sanctions regime for those claiming Job Seekers Allowance and Employment Support Allowance, increasing the requirements needed to qualify for the benefits and the amount of time for which claimants can be penalised.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/controversial-benefit-sanctions-driving-more-young-people-to-homelessness-charity-warns-9868906.html
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I’m pretty sure Ian Duncan Smith and Esther McVile (McVey) will be well chuffed with this one.
We’re presently spending £3 million quid a day in Iraq, whilst people in the UK suffer.
Craig
Could we have more posts on “internal” UK affairs please? And keep them coming at a fair rate.
I think you’d agree that the quality of the exchanges and the relative “on-topicness” of comments* are an improvement on what we usually see on posts dealing with foreign policy?
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things are starting to drift a little now, but still, 180 overwhelmingly on-topic comments isn’t bad at all.
Craig
Could we have more posts on “internal” UK affairs please? And keep them coming at a fair rate.
Yes because that uncomfortable subject of Israhell makes some people refrain from comments.
Troll I will speak when I wish to, not at your command.
Mary
“Troll,I will speak when I wish to, not at your command.”
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That goes without saying, Mary.
But it’s just that as you always have a lot to say about a certain number of other themes and are a major contributor to this blog I – and no doubt others? – was looking forward to hearing your thoughts on immigration into the UK (legal and illegal).
But if you have no opinion on it (or do not wish to share your opinion) that’s OK as well of course.
But if you have no views
“But it’s just that as you always have a lot to say about a certain number of other themes”
Must..not..mention….the…subject of phear, Israhell.
“Craig
Could we have more posts on “internal” UK affairs please? And keep them coming at a fair rate.
Yes because that uncomfortable subject of Israhell makes some people refrain from comments”
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Not at all, Ben.
As I’ve said already, it is no bad thing to have threads on matters which affect the individual UK citizen directly, which are near to home, on which the degree of expertise/experience might be somewhat greater than it is on foreign policy and developments in other countries, and which the readers of this blog might actually be able to influence if only through their votes. That includes matters Scottish, of course.
But anyway, I’m sure we would agree that whereas it’s of course up to our host, everyone is allowed to make suggestions, right?
Another question worth pondering might be this: what is the desirable or practical upper number for the population of Britain? An “open door” policy of immigration is certainly going to push up the population, without question. Not only because more people migrate in than out, but because newcomers tend to have more children than those who have been here for generations.
I’ve heard the rather ludicrous argument plenty of times, that we need large numbers of immigrants to assist the ageing population. This rather overlooks the fact that the new migrants will, in due course, get old themselves and require looking after. Not every migrant will devote themselves to looking after the elderly either, so we will require an ever increasing number of incoming young to look after the increasing numbers of the elderly.
But as for the ideal carrying capacity of this country – what should that be? 100 million? Have we passed it already? France, with over twice the surface area of the UK has a similar population. Do we not appreciate the fact that it is rather less crowded there, and all the more agreeable for the fact.
Our infrastructure clearly cannot work well with indefinite expansion. If the population doubles, we cannot just double the number of cities. That means cities become more densely packed. Try to double the traffic on the roads, and we will become gridlocked in short order – it wouldn’t work at all.
This says nothing about the schools, hospitals and so on which need to serve increased populations. Or the extra CO2 and rubbish produced, food required, energy used, living space needed, jobs needed, prisons, on and on.
The only part of our infrastructure that appears to be ready for such demands are the vast numbers of mobile ‘phone shops.
Any thoughts?
“Any thoughts?”
It’s a condundrum, Glenn. Like the ‘Lifeboat’ theory there are no good ethical/moral solutions to accepting more survivors who might tip the boat over. But there are ways to prepare, like having more working lifeboats, as long as the wealthiest occupants don’t buy extras for themselves which may go unused to the peril of the weak and poor.
I do not wish to see my Country turned into an overcrowded multi-culti hell hole . Also I do not wish to see the English,Scots Welsh and Irish replaced by aliens from alien cultures . You obviously do ,along with the LibLabCon (EU) elite . Should you really be keeping such execrable company Mr Murray ?
Ben-9260th dojo katana
19 Nov, 2014 – 3:03 pm
“Buffalo gets more snow in three days than a normal year”
……………
I feel sorry for those poor animals Ben.
A polite request is not a “command”, it is only fair to note.
As a further note, someone who makes an awful lot of posts (most of them off-topic) and derogatory comments about others, asks direct questions but never answers any, and calls others “trolls”, “usual suspects” “doggies”, “racists”, “Resident Inviligator”, etc, yet refuses to engage in any form of discussion, is showing a rather startling level of imperiousness.
Immigration policy is about globalization. Mongrelize the population, destroy the indigenous culture and that’s the end of the sovereign nation state and meaningful democracy. When there are no racial or cultural differences among countries, the New World Ordure will have arrived. Universal submission to the globalist institutions will follow automatically.
Global governance and democracy are a contradiction in terms. Democracy has to be local. The only effective form of democracy is thus based on the independent nation state. Anything larger is less democratic, anything smaller such as an independent Scotland, will be buggered about by the globalist institutions, the EU, WTO, NATO, etc.
Those who call opponents of mass immigration racist are simply saying that opposition to the decadent, life-destroying ideology of the self-hating white liberal is racism. In the globalist West, such use of the term racist and racism is protected hate speech.
Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)
19 Nov, 2014 – 4:50 pm
“Craig, could we have more posts on “internal” UK affairs please? And keep them coming at a fair rate.”
“I think you’d agree that the quality of the exchanges and the relative “on-topicness” of comments* are an improvement on what we usually see on posts dealing with foreign policy?”
……………
Yes, no more threads on you know which country, Habbabkuk doesn’t like it.
sraeli settlers have hanged a Palestinian man in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in another incident of brutality against Palestinians in the occupied territories, local sources say.
Hassan Yousef Rammouni, 32, a Palestinian bus driver, was driving back home from work on Sunday when he was abducted and then hanged by Israelis in his bus in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood.
Signs of strangulation on Rammouni’s neck as well as signs of violence on his body were apparent, sources said.
The residents staged a protest against the killing in the area with clashes breaking out between Israeli forces and the Palestinian protesters, according to reports.
Tensions have been running high in East al-Quds after Israeli troops shot dead a young Palestinian man in northern occupied territories last week.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/11/17/386335/israeli-settlers-hang-palestinian/
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Nope I can’t recall Ed Miliband at PMQ’s today denouncing this one, or John Kerry and Phil Hammond, calling the perpetrators terrorists, or even Sky news or the state broadcaster the BBC giving it perpetual coverage, I wonder why?
An interview with Hilary Mantel who, I presume, is not a racist, but who speaks about immigration because others do with vehemence. Page 1 is all about Thatcher, the issue is discussed on page 2 of the interview.
SPIEGEL: It seems as though Britain today wants to retreat from the world, as though it has become war-weary, disinterested in global affairs and obsessed with immigration. Where does this come from?
Mantel: It’s a retreat into insularity, into a mood of harshness. When people feel they’re being mistreated, they lash out against people who are weaker than themselves, immigrants for example. What’s happening here at the moment is really ugly. The government portrays poor and unfortunate people as being morally defective. This is a return to the thinking of the Victorians. Even in the 16th century, Thomas Cromwell was trying to tell people that a thriving economy has casualties and that something must be done by the state for people out of work. Even back then, you saw the tide turning against this idea that poverty was a moral weakness. Who could have predicted that it would come back into style? It’s myth making on a grand scale, and it’s poisonous.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/hilary-mantel-in-an-interview-with-spiegel-on-the-britain-of-today-a-1002263.html
“Retard“? Nice.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2014/05/whole-lott-more-201451174924511761.html
(“A fascinating look at how people with developmental disabilities are competing in a struggling US work force.”)
Watch the video. Look at the struggles those not born as blessed as us go through, just to try and contribute something back to society. Then someone comes along and regularly uses the term “retard” as a witty pejorative.
Unbelievable.
O/T
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntt3wy-L8Ok
An Israeli train driver earlier this week took to Facebook to encourage his compatriots to run over Palestinians for “the Jewish nation.”
On the afternoon of 11 November, Benny Levy, a train operator for Israel Railways, wrote the message on his personal Facebook page. Apparently attempting to start a chain message intended to be passed on and shared by other Facebook users, he called on every Israeli to “invest one small effort” and “run over only one Arab.”
The full status reads:
Forward, don’t break!!!! In light of the difficult situation of the Jewish Nation we’ve got to wake up! Everyone takes one little action into his own hands, run over only one Arab, that’s all, and God Willing together we’ll manage to make a difference! Each person will invest one small effort for us all!
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/train-driver-calls-every-israeli-run-over-arab
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Words fail me on this one.
Glenn + Ben
Glenn : good post. The point you made – that today’s immigrant young will also grow old (and that there may then be a need for even more young immigrants to “pay for” them – is sometimes made, but of course not often enough. And, so far, I have not come across a convincing counter-argument.
The maximum sustainable population? Difficult to evaluate and population density figures make little sense (pace Mr Scorgie) if just given UK-wide; It is the figure for the South-East (including London) that needs to be looked at when considering the various factor’s you’ve mentioned.
Funnily enough, I came across exactly the same considerations wrt to population increase as you’ve advanced when re-reading, recently, Vance Packard’s “The Waste Makers” (1960). Noting the already-evident and predicted rapid population increase(175 million in 1958, predicted to almost double by the early 2000s – a rather accurate estimation, actually), Packard goes in depth into the questions of where the jobs, resources (both natural and public) and living space will be found for those extra millions.
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Ben : you wrote “It’s a condundrum, Glenn. Like the ‘Lifeboat’ theory there are no good ethical/moral solutions to accepting more survivors who might tip the boat over. But there are ways to prepare, like having more working lifeboats..”.
I like the lifeboat image, but what are you thinking of when you suggest “more working lifeboats”? What would such lifeboats be and what form would they take?
If you study the photo RoS it looks more like garrotting rather than strangling.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/11/17/386335/israeli-settlers-hang-palestinian/
The circle of the bruised/killed skin is low on the neck. The ‘ligature’ is closed from the back. Whatever – the greatest evil has been done to a native of Palestine. His suffering would have been terrible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrote
Note its use by ‘elite’ forces and see how US Rangers were instructed in the ‘art’
http://www.military.com/video/forces/army-training/1942-us-rangers-garrotting-class/1810850062001/
You can bet the Givati Brigade and others are very familiar with it – as is the SAS. We descend down the terraces into Dante’s inferno.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Givati_Brigade
The total insanity of over-medication in America has reached a new low as Arizona State University has installed a prescription drug vending machine called InstyMeds.
American college students — who are already the most over-medicated population on the planet — now have an even easier way to pollute their brains with SSRI drugs, antidepressants, antipsychotics and prescription “speed” amphetamines which are routinely abused by students for final exam cram study sessions.
“School officials didn’t specify exactly what kind of drugs will be available in the machine, but said it would contain 50 medications that are most commonly prescribed to college students,” reports CBS News. [1]
“You know, the things that you’d like to have right now to feel better,” said InstyMeds Vice President Bob Bang, according to CBS News.
http://www.naturalnews.com/047701_prescription_drugs_vending_machines_college_campuses.html#
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Big Pharma scores a blinder in the US, soon buying medicine/drugs will be as easy as buying a coke from a vending machine.
What a crazy world we live in.
“If you study the photo RoS it looks more like garrotting rather than strangling.”
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Mary here’s the follow up pathologist report.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69750
Following similar moves across Europe, Spanish lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a resolution recognizing Palestine.
Though non-binding and largely symbolic, the resolution gleaned 319 votes in its favor, two against it, and one abstention.
The motion was proposed by the main opposition Socialists.
While still susceptible of amendment, it has called on the Spanish government to “recognize Palestine as a state.”
It has also urged Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy “to promote in coordination with the European Union the recognition of the Palestinian state as sovereign, contiguous, democratic and independent….”
Britain and Ireland have already passed similar non-binding motions.
On October 30, Sweden went a step further and officially recognized the state of Palestine, drawing stringent criticism from Israel and the United States.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom dismissed the criticism leveled at the Scandinavian country by the US, saying, “It’s not the US that decides our politics.”
The French National Assembly will also vote on a proposal to urge the government to recognize Palestine as a state on November 28.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/11/18/386584/spain-symbolically-recognizes-palestine/
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Although Spain’s actions aren’t binding, its a step in the right direction, it would appear Sweden has started a European trend, now who’s next.
Ben, I’ve posted a comment on squonk so I could put a graphic in the reply – See https://squonk.tk/blog/2014/01/20/the-general-discussion-thread/comment-page-29/#comment-11593
Dougie, I presume you occupy the extreme left end of the political spectrum (that part of it with miniscule popular support but massive over-representation in the leadership of the Yes movement). There is something very Orwellian about the fact that it won’t be safe to be ‘worried’ about immigration until we get to that point where the indigenous population is in the minority. How ironic indeed. Kosovo is a warning to Europe. After WW2, any Serbs who expressed their concern about the ethnography of Kosovo were labelled nationalists or racists, so people tended to keep quiet about the subject. The world, if it were remotely interested, can now see that Kosovo has become Kosova and Serbs are treated like dirt in their own country. But I guess you’re delighted with that too. One world and all that.
Explosive charges, including the naming of names, on the pedophile murder ring now in a Newsweek article that I guess still could not be published in the UK.
Habbabkuk & Ben: Thanks for the replies. It’s not just the carrying capacity of our own countries we have to be concerned about, of course, the population of the entire planet has its sustainable limits. I feel that we have long since passed the upper limit.
Even more alarming is the amount of extra resources a 1st world inhabitant requires. We’re probably talking about factors of 10, 20 or more. We see the huge rates of increased resources consumed per capita as countries develop. So taking on immigrants – unless they are from equally developed places – is going to have an environmental cost.
With migration, are we talking about the entire world – open door, unlimited to all – or just the rest of Europe (which is bad enough, IMO). I daresay a significant percentage of the third world would favour a poor existence in Britain (relative to the rest of the population) compared to a typical standard of living back home.
Should they all be invited? If we question the feasibility, never mind the wisdom of such a move, does that open one to accusations of racism too?
I was wrong. The Daily Mail also names names.
However, I have yet to see an article naming the Tory MP (said to be still alive) who allegedly strangled a young boy at a sex party.
Lysias – have you seen the Bill Maloney interview with Chris Fay on Youtube? I think that person is mentioned there.