The Chorus Of 'Amnesty In The UK' Begins To Ring

By an odd coincidence, this entry is this blog's 500th post; a statistic which, given that the forum is only ten weeks old, might say more about its principal author's lifestyle than either its literary or journalistic merit.

However it's with no sense of satisfaction that one can note that my previously noted suspicions concerning the possible granting of an amnesty to all illegal aliens within the UK were neither unfounded nor hysterical.

On March 14, I wrote that several media reports on the scale of the UK's asylum backlog might be 'softening us up for an asylum amnesty'.

On March 16, after Camilla Cavendish had called upon the government to 'give up on the backlog', I wrote that,

"Letting subsidised liars and fraudsters get a free pass to legal residence would be convenience politics at its very worst."

Yesterday, the Institute for Public Policy Research, a so-called 'progressive think tank' published a document entitled 'Irregular migration in the UK (.pdf)'.

From a very quick parsing of their online editions, its publication seems to have escaped the attentions of both 'The Times' and 'The Guardian'. If they have reported on it today, then I am more than willing to be corrected.

But it did not escape, with dreary predictability, the notice of 'The Daily Telegraph'.

The Telegraph's report on the document is entitled 'Amnesty call for 500,000 migrants'.

It reports the document's finding that,

"The bill for deporting each immigrant, based on the cost of enforced removal of asylum seekers, would be £11,000 per individual, meaning a total bill of £4.7 billion.

If the same immigrants were able to work legally, the Treasury would receive enough revenue to abolish the starting rate of stamp duty on house purchases. "

It also quotes IPPR's Nick Pearce as saying that,

"Nobody likes illegal immigration, and the subject is a deeply difficult one for politicians to tackle. But the bare truth is that we are not going to deport hundreds of thousands of people from the UK. Our economy would shrink and we would notice it straightaway in uncleaned offices, dirty streets and unstaffed pubs and clubs."

Oddly, it doesn't quote the rest of Pearce's press release:

"So we have a choice: make people live in the shadows, exploited and fearful for the future; or bring them into the mainstream, to pay taxes and live an honest life."

The realisation that criminal irregular migrants might want to live an honest life is tempered by the knowledge that their conduct in entering this country, which is ours and not theirs, was either a deliberately criminal act or became criminal through their later actions.

I'll be giving the document a right old fisking in the next day or so to see whether it offers any genuine insight or belongs in The Camp Of The Cliches; but its publisher's tone of defeat, of pragmatism, of abandonment of the rule of law in favour of a political fix, makes one wonder whether Nick Pearce and the besandalled lentil-eaters of the Institute for Public Policy Research are actually 'Washington Post' columnists in disguise.

Laws Are Stubborn Things

As one whose hobby is words, there are times when one wonders whether the phrase 'immigration reform' adequately describes the measures now necessary to prevent the United States, history's greatest experiment in civic government, from becoming an annex of its un-neighbourly southern neighbour.

'Immigration repair' might be more appropriate. American immigration policy is so thoroughly chaotic that it's best described as having been smashed into pieces; and if you crash your car you don't 'reform' it, but assess whether the cost of repair is less then the replacement value.

Metal is easy enough to bang back into shape after a mishap. Repairing a broken culture is another matter alogether.

It's with that thought in mind that I read George Will's column 'Needed: Practical and comprehensive immigration reform'.

The man who coined the phrase 'statecraft is soulcraft' has taken a deserved pasting for it from Mark Krikorian, but there is one phrase in it that almost jumped off the page and poked me in the eye.

After narrating the difficulties involved in ejecting illegals from the USA, Will wrote,

"Facts, a conservative (John Adams) said, are stubborn things, and regarding immigration, true conservatives take their bearings from facts such as those in the preceding paragraph."

Facts may indeed be stubborn things - but so are laws. And if a society previously jealous of its adherence to its laws and the rule of law suddenly abandons them, its trajectory is one of steep and terminal decline.

The facts narrated by Will only became facts through the deliberate abandonment of law by those charged with its enforcement.

And Will's putative pragmatism, so reasonable on the page, is nothing but the Kool-Aid of cultural suicide.

The Three Wise Monkeys

Lawrence Auster And The First Amendment

One would have thought that such a committed traditionalist as Lawrence Auster would be interested in defending free speech.

Not advocating the removal of that right from Paul Craig Roberts.

Bit...un-American, that sort of behaviour, one might have thought...

The Wheels Fly Off The First Bus

It seems the wheels have been coming off First Bus - literally.

Cost was hopefully not a factor in these incidents.

As one would also hope it had nothing to do with the same company's recruitment of drunk-driving Polish bail absconders into the ranks of its drivers.

The Dark Subtleties Of Reporting Immigrant Crime

Read this RTE report on the arraignment of Armondas Degimas for allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car in Buncrana; and then marvel at how beautifully Radio Telefis Eireann manages not to imply that the car in which the four dead Letts and the dead Litvak were travelling was stolen.

USS Neverdock On Matt Frei On Immigration

Marc Landers has taken righteous aim at the pious immigrationist fatuities spouted by the BBC's Washington correspondent Matt Frei.

Marc recounts the difficulties he encountered as an American, albeit one with a British wife and three British children, in trying to settle in the UK, and asks,

"So, how about it BBC, care to take a look the UK's immigration policies?"

The pity is, they have.

And speaking as probably the only Glaswegian who links to The Minuteman Pledge, Frei, of course, has form for slurring opponents of mass immigration.

Foreign Criminal Of The Day, Part I: The Arbitage Of Murder, Part I - Viktor Dembovskis

Advocates of globalisation sell it as 'the rising tide that lifts all boats'; that we all become richer through the flow of goods, services and persons from nation to nation.

However, one of the purposes of this weblog is to show that for all intents and purposes it's nothing more than the sort of cup-and-ball game which might baffle a child, who is then amused by the simplicity of the trick; but which an attentive adult should be able to see through with ease.

As Stephen Roach and Paul Craig Roberts tirelessly record, it's nothing more than an arbitrage of labour between nations, with capital finding its greatest return in those nations where labour is cheapest.

The process is sold as the best possible way of lifting the average Third World income, when its salesmen culpably fail to acknowledge that it will do this, yes, but only by eventually equallising First and Third World incomes, with those in the Third rising and those in the First falling until they meet.

But the free flow of labour into nations, whether through mass immigration or so-called 'onshore offsourcing', is also a critical part of the globalisation process. Mass immigration, which expands the labour pool and displaces native workers with migrants who then forward remittances in hard (or harder) currency back to their homelands, speeds up the globalisation process. And so the arbitage continues.

Of course, that's how it should work.

One of the consequences of this process is that it is not merely the labour which is subject to arbitrage; it is also everything to do with the labourers.

Such as the crimes they commit. Crimes of which they have a history.

Although he manages the feat by a very narrow margin ahead of some very strong competition, the case of Viktor Dembovskis (pictured) is the worst to be featured in 'Foreign Criminal Of The Day' thus far.

Dembovskis, a Latvian national, had served two prison terms for rape in his homeland. One rape conviction is a cause for serious concern; two, perhaps symptomatic of a pathological offending pattern.

After the eastward expansion of the EU in 2004, and the British government's insistent belief that mass immigration is a collective good, Dembovskis exercised his rights as a citizen of a member nation and settled in the UK, without any checks being performed on his background.

He was today convicted of the rape and murder of 17 year old Jeshma Raithatha, by all accounts a very talented and accomplished young woman.

Dembovskis fled the UK for Latvia the day after he committed his crimes. Latvia then issued a European arrest warrant for his extradition back to the UK.

On June 5 last year, I wrote the following words concerning the coverage being given by the UK's ITN news service to the Latvian extradition proceedings:

"The Award for Media Misrepresentation of the Week

goes to the UK's Independent Television News.

Reporting on the arrest (in Latvia) of Latvian...Viktors Dembovskis on suspicion of the rape and murder of London schoolgirl Jeshma Raithatha, ITN reported that,

"As Latvia joined the EU in May last year, extradition procedures are likely to be fast-tracked.": utterly failing to mention that Latvia's admission to the EU last year also gave Dembovskis an automatic right of residence in the UK. If Latvia had not joined the EU, then Dembovskis would have had no such right and probably wouldn't have been living here.

One hopes that Jeshma's family draws some succour from the fact his extradition is likely to be fast-tracked. "

It seems they did not. Jeshma's parents, Suresh and Manjula, were reported to have made the following statement today:

"The man who took Jeshma's life in this senseless manner has a violent past. He has spent time in his own country for the rape of two women. Yet he was easily allowed into this country. We have to ask how and why this came about. What checks were made about his backgrounds before he was allowed to set foot on British soil?"

Whilst offering my sincere condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Raithatha for the death in their daughter, perhaps they don't understand that the official policy of the government to which they pay taxes for their protection is to bring in more and more people; and our immigration policy's engineered laxity means that with them will come more rapists and murderers like Viktor Dembovskis.

Wee Jeshma, God rest her soul, was as much a martyr for the cause of globalisation as a murder victim. The opprobrium of the British people has been expressed by the imposition on her killer of a rare tariff, that of whole of life imprisonment.

But one feels very great unease at just how many parents up and down the land will some day have to stand outside a courtroom, asking the same questions as Suresh and Manjula Raithatha.

If they ever get an answer, they'll be told that there are always some bad apples; but it was all for your own good.

Viktor Dembovskis was enriching us by working as a carwash attendant.

Foreign Criminal Of The Day, Part II: The Arbitrage Of Murder, Part II - Hugo Quintas

After acting as judge and jury, Hugo Quintas (pictured), a Portugese, became the executioner of the death sentence he imposed on Hayley Richards, his 23 year old pregnant girlfriend.

Hayley's crime was to have slept with another man.

Six days after she evicted him from her home after he had attempted to strangle her, Quintas cut her throat.

Although a jury at Bristol Crown Court took a mere two hours to convict him of her murder, perhaps some might deem their verdict 'culturally inappropriate'; after all, she had insulted the honour of a Portugese.

Quintas had been helping us all get richer by working in a factory.

Foreign Criminals Of The Day, Part III: The Guardian Strides In Where The BBC Fears To Tread

In 'The Guardian', Ian Cobain has published a long investigation into the activities of the Baybasin family, a nest of Turkish savages who infested themselves in North London a decade ago, entitled 'Feared clan who made themselves at home in Britain'.

It tells a sorry tale of how the British establishment deliberately appeased foreign gangsters intent on flooding this country with heroin, one of the most evil substances known to Man.

Also adept in extortion, blackmail and kidnapping, two of these scum parasites on our culture, traditions and way of life are or soon will be serving long sentences; Huseyin Baybasin is currently serving life, whilst his brother Abdullah is due to be sentenced on Friday.

When Abdullah Baybasin was convicted last month, the BBC made no mention of his nationality, his status as a failed asylum-seeker who had entered the country on a false passport or even that he is wheelchair-bound.

It is with a touch of sadness that one notes the BBC's loss of interest in the plight of the disabled.

Foreign Criminal Of The Day, Part IV: The British Government Usurps The Rule Of Law

Sungaradazzo Mudgyiwa (pictured) is a Zimbabwean.

In 2004, she was convicted of a benefit fraud which netted more than £100,00 at Canterbury Crown Court, and was sentenced to 52 months imprisonment.

She served 12.

At sentencing, it was directed that she be deported. That deportation is part of her sentence; a punishment that a court of law has directed she suffer as punishment for her crime.

When sentence was pronounced, it therefore became the law of the land that Sungaradazzo Mudgyiwa be ejected from our midst.

However because Zimbabweans have turned the bread basket of southern Africa into Ruritania on the Zambesi, the policy of the Home Office is not to deport them; not even the criminal ones who cheat the public purse.

The Home Office has therefore put itself above the law.

I hope that both they and Mudgyiwa are very happy together; because they're two of a kind.

They're both outlaws.

Some Short Thoughts, Part I: There's No Business Like Blogbusiness

Opinion journalism is not 'journalism', in any meaningful sense of the word.

It is precisely what it says on the tin; the author's opinion. It is more accurate to describe it as 'entertainment'; showbusiness even; for it involves the application of a particular talent, the ability to string words together, in order to entertain and stimulate others and in return for the payment of money (hopefully).

For all practical purposes there is no difference between the public functions performed by Tommy Lee and Charles Krauthammer.

Political blogging, on the other hand, is literary karaoke. Much of it is bad, noisy, and formulaic; but when it's done well, it's every bit as good as professionally produced music.

As the professional opinion journalist has to filter their work through an editor just as the professional musician filters their sound through a producer, the blogger possesses the amateur's liberty to pick their style, their tone and their time.

And their song.

Some Short Thoughts, Part II: The Root Of All Ideology

is the desire to effect wealth transfers; or if they are not an ideology's founding motive, then wealth transfers will be the consequence of its application.

Not Long Enough

Lin Liang Ren, the Monster of Morecambe Bay, was yesterday sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for causing 21 deaths; a sentence which in no way reflects the appalling gravity and scale of his crimes.

Poles On The Dole

The hard realities of market economics might just have come home to roost at Wembleyski.

'Immigrants happy to work for lower wages in Ireland'

reports UK Immigration News.

"What was once true of the Irish when settling in the US, and working for reservation wages, seems to have done a full circle with Eastern Europeans doing the same now in Ireland.

Irish employers are making the most of gaining competitiveness, business development and employing for the future. A country that had in the past been ruthless to its customer base, is now giving consumers joy at the checkout.

One reason for the booming Irish economy is because of the immigrant workforce Ireland has developed over the past years.

Employers are happy, immigrant employees are happy, and the end result is that consumers are finally happy!

Irish employers can use this windfall to gain competitiveness in the market, expand their businesses and employ more people in the future. Consumers, who have always been treated badly in this country, can now benefit from lower prices.

The economic advantage of less expensive labour means the economic gain accrues only to Ireland, allows Irish companies to compete in the market and develop the economy on a more sustainable basis."

And not a word about remittances.

"However there seems to be a growing concern that these lower wages are costing the real wages of Irish workers wanting to gain employment.

Now that an economic boom has resulted from the cheaper immigrant labour force, nobody has forseen that the available supply of labour has put a downward pressure on wages.

In other words, some assume that the costs greatly outweigh the benefits. It is possible that they do, but it would be helpful to have some analysis of the issues involved."

My pleasure.

"The solution to the present problem may be to allow the adjustment to occur and to help retrain workers for better paid jobs higher up the value-added chain, said Michael Casey, a former member of the Central Bank.

It should also be noted that displacement could occur anyway, even if immigrants are paid the same as Irish workers. This is because many employers regard the former as very hard-working, flexible and keen to prove themselves, Casey went on to say.

In time, we might be grateful to the immigrants for the benefits they are offering, and for forcing us to confront this important issue which should have been analysed and debated years ago, said Casey."

So the Irish citizen may be displaced from their own country for no reason other than corporate prejudice.

A globalised economy, for sure.

But if one pities the displaced Irish, one must pity all displaced; which is why one hopes that Rep. Sensenbrenner will give short shrift to those impertinent members of the Dail Select Committee for Foreign Affairs now in Washington and lobbying for criminals.

Cal Thomas Discovers The Evils Of Mass Immigration

and being Cal Thomas, inevitably brings in religion.

Brother Thomas puts down his snakes for a moment to criticise Hillary Clinton's recent awkward analogy concerning the immigration reform movement's putative desire to criminalise The Good Samaritan:

" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, made a bid for the votes of illegals and their enablers last week. Clinton promised to fight a bill passed by the House in December and debated this week in the Senate. It would subject illegals, and those who knowingly employ them, to criminal penalties. Invoking biblical justification for her opposition to the House measure, Clinton said it "is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures, because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably Jesus himself."

Democrats have been trying to make inroads on religious language and religious symbolism from the near-monopoly held by Republicans. But, like Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, who once spoke of the Old Testament book of Job as his favorite New Testament book, Sen. Clinton misfired. In the parable told by Jesus, robbers set upon a man, beat him, and left him "half dead." A priest and a Levite passed by, refusing to help the victim. A Samaritan, despised by the Jews, stopped to help the man and also paid an innkeeper from his own pocket to care for him (Luke 10:30-37).

Notice that Jesus didn't call on a government program for help. As for how this relates to illegal immigration, Jesus never counseled breaking laws."

Well, quite. Render unto Caesar and all that. The civic role of the Christian is to abide by the rule of law.

And of course, Christianity might not have spread as quickly as it did without the efforts of St. Paul; a servant of the Lord whose career was greatly enhanced by his citizenship status.

They're In The Money!

Meet our new lords and masters!

One of the small delights of opposing globalisation is seeing how assiduously its advocates demand that the West just give more and more economic power to the Chinese, while never criticising their refusal to revalue their currency.

There will no doubt some would consider such thoughts the rantings of an 'idiot xenophobe and economic know-nothing'; but by keeping their currency deliberately weak they are engaged in a form of protectionism, deliberately distorting the workings of the market for their own financial advantage.

And if they're not to be criticised for doing so, why should anyone else be?

The Case For Corporal Punishment In The Administration Of Juvenile Criminal Justice

Oh, that would be Leanne Black.

Immigratopundits

Ralph R. Reiland manages to discuss Irish economics without once mentioning mass immigration.

The depressing news that 'the number of food service industry jobs is growing one and a half times as fast as the U.S. labor force' does not seem to concern Larry Kudlow, nor inspire any curiousity on his part as to why that might be the case and what other sectors might be sufferng as a result .

And Bronwen Maddox, whilst noting the burning Hispanic sense of entitlement, quotes one David Gonzalez as follows:

"When did you ever see a Mexican blow up the World Trade Centre?...Who do you think built the World Trade Centre?”

The answer to his question must be given in two parts.

The answer to the first part: Jose Padilla.

The answer to the second part: Americans.

Bush On Immigration

The BBC has reported recent comments made by George W. Bush as follows:

"US President George W Bush has called for the debate over a controversial new immigration bill to be conducted in a "civil and dignified way".

He told a naturalisation ceremony that immigrants "shaped America's identity" and were vital to the economy. "

To my shame I must confess that I do not possess copies of either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution; yet taking a wild stab in the dark, one would assume that the words immediately following 'We hold these truths to be self-evident' are not 'Si, senor'.

Just guessing, you understand.

'Ireland one of the most globalised economies'

This is something to celebrate?

'Unwitting Racism'

What is that?

Beats me.

You work it out. Answers on a postcard.

Islamic Integration

hits the Boy Scouts.

The formation of Wales' first Muslim scout troop is a genuinely wonderful idea - although one has to rue the self-imposed reality of Islamic segregation acknowledged by its leader, Salah Aboulgasem, who said that "If [the parents] know they are with other Muslims who can understand them and treat them better - and suit their needs - then they will be more than happy to bring them along".

Why do they automatically assume that a kufr woggle-basher would treat their charges poorly?

Kirk Elder On The Smoking Ban And Smoky Jack

"Am I a criminal? I may well be, though I confess that I am as confused as the next woman by the small print of the Scottish Executive's ban on smoking in public places. True, my living room is far from public. It does not welcome visitors. Indeed, the last stranger to step over the draught excluder was the Co-op engineer who had come to fix my television after I complained that it was receiving ITV: a service I had neither requested nor enjoyed. And yet, the ban includes the cabs of long-distance lorry drivers, who are now under a legal requirement to extinguish their gaspers as they cross the border travelling North, with the result - I predict - that Gretna Green will become more famous for its resemblance to an ashtray than for its matrimonial anvil. Still, it was exciting to see the Senior Retainer, Mr McConnell, on the national news, even if the lasting memory of his appearance will have been the suspicion that he is a fellow with a peculiarly square head, and the diction of a schoolboy using English as a foreign language."

You just can't beat that.

Recent Comments Elsewhere

include some thoughts on the public sector strike in The Devil's Kitchen, speaking one's mind to a Eurocrat via Tim Worstall and reminding James Hamilton of birthright citizenship.

My 'Washington Dispatch' Commentary Archives

are now online here and here, together with a note from the author.

It is not a complete archive by any manner of means. A number of pieces which have been superceded, or to which I have no particular attachment, have been omitted.

However, that has left 195 others. As I note, some are poor, some are bad, but some might be alright; and all errors and typos remain my responsibility.

The Big Immigration Round Up (But No, It's Not the Kind We Want)

John Mickelthwaite, the new editor of 'The Economist', was yesterday quoted as describing his magazine as 'the handbook of globalisation'.

The Rothschild, Cadbury and Schroder families are all major shareholders in 'The Economist'.

So we await 'The Economist's' report on the debates on the merits of mass migration which rage in the Craigneuk Miners' Welfare with interest...

Whilst Jack McConnell has achieved his dream of imposing a smoking ban on Scotland, he has also come under fire for vastly overplaying the country's so-called 'skills shortage'.

So his 'Fresh Talent' initiative is thus exposed for what it was all along; a plan to displace Scots by providing state support to Kazakh migrants like Irina Dyke.

But Mucky Jack, our famously metrosexual First Minister, might not have factored in that migrants could be amongst the group most severely affected by the smoking ban.

Sky News has projected that '100 pubs could shut down, with the loss of 2,500 jobs' on its account.

And what will happen then to the Polish waitresses beloved by Melanie Reid?

Or Anthony Miranda's Polish pasta chefs?

I'll be that The Grinch Who Stole Scotland never factored that outcome into his calculations...

In a move which gives the lie to Tony Blair's claim that his government are 'change makers', the Home Office has rejected the Association of Chief Police Officers' call for a unified frontier force; although it is admittedly unlikely that such a force would have been able to prevent the crimes of Omoniyi Ogunlade.

The Daily Telegraph reports 'Bush (is ) heading for showdown over immigration'.

He's the lucky one. People who pervert the course of justice usually head into custody.

Milwaukee's crimials have held a 'Day Without Latinos' protest, which should appeal to the sensibilities of The American Spectator; after all, while Jed Babbin has screwed up enough Dutch courage to discuss immigration reform, at the height of the Cold War his editor, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jnr., wrote a commentary entitled 'A World Without Russians' ('The American Spectator', Vol.10, No.8, May 1977).

And thanks are owed to Patrick Cleburne of the VDare blog, for pointing one towards the reported remarks of little Anna Benitez that 'without immigrants (the USA) wouldn't be anything'; wretched, ungrateful nonsense which echoes the rubbish spouted in Scotland last year by the 15 year old asylum seeker and professional ingrate Amal Azzudin.

Twilight Roots

In a BBC News Online report entitled 'Battling the people smugglers', Dominic Cascianiwrites that,

"Some European countries have tried amnesties for illegal workers in the hope of cracking the criminal gangs. But they also accept that individuals have put down roots and invested in the society, albeit in the twilight. "

Forget what the others 'accept'. Illegals are criminals, and as such cannot have any 'investment' in this society.

No amnesty.

Barbara and Boris

Andrew Sullivan has linked to a story concerning the request made by Barbara Bush that a donation she made to Houston's Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund be earmarked for Neil Bush's educational software company, Ignite Learning.

This would be just another story of patrician arrogance were it not for the fact that Neil Bush seems to have some strange associates at Ignite - such as Boris Berezovsky (pictured), the balding and slippery Armand Assante lookalike and Russian-oligarch-on-the-lam who possesses the dubious distinction of being the UK's wealthiest asylum-seeker.

Berezovsky toured Latvia with 43's answer to Donald Nixon in September of last year - before, that is, he called for the democratically elected government of a friendly foreign power to be overthrown.

The precise nature of Berezovsky's relationship with Bush and Ignite is unclear. The Baltic Times cast no light on its precise nature, while the 'Washington Post' described Berezovsky as Bush's 'business partner', and also quoted The Baldy Man attempting to depict himself as a humble 'business adviser', saying that Bush had asked him 'to think about possible projects in the regions that I know about'.

So, as 'Private Eye' might put it, it's vodka trebles and toasts to prosperity and international understanding all round then. Nastrovya!

Not quite. The bulk of Berezovsky's fortune came from the privatisation of Sibneft, with Roman Abramovich and himself gaining joint control of the company via a series of transactions which showed the unacceptable face of capitalism in the Russia of the 1990's.

There's also the small matter of Berezovsky's apparently cordial relations with Chechen rebels, the Islamists, you know, the ones who take over schools and murder children; and the question of whether he had any active involvement in their invasion of Dagestan in 1999 - a completely unexpected geopolitical development that proved profitably fortuitous - remains open.

However, that's not the worst of it.

The abuse of the Oil for Food Program was one of the worst aspects of the Saddam-era Iraq - and it is extremely jarring to see the brother of the president who overthrew Saddam associating with a man whose company benefited from Oil for Food corruption to the tune of 8.1 million barrels.

Berezovsky himself might have had no part in it; but it still leaves a very, very bad taste.

Houstonians who have lost loved ones fighting in Iraq, and who have given money to the city's Hurrican Katrina relief fund to assist fellow Americans in crisis, should be entitled to question whether Barbara Bush's gesture of support for Neil Bush might also be a gesture of support for his extremely shady associate; just as it's also a gesture of support for Ignite's investors in the United Arab Emirates.

Like the ones who provided Neil Bush with his start-up capital.

Happy Mother's Day

to Mum, with love.

Getting Back Up To Speed

My project is finished - huzzah!

As a result, I am in an unconscionably good mood this morning, which no doubt someone will try to puncture within the next five minutes.

No matter. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

There have been some very interesting and comment worthy bits and pieces floating about over the past few days, which the project pushed to one side.

It now seems that the maximum sentence in Scotland for abduction, robbery and male on male sexual assault is five years, with the pervert serving them, Cyrus Winton, taking home this week's Dorrian Award for Judicial Leniency in Scotland.

Godd wishes are in order to Dennis Mangan, who is currently in the process of incorporating Mangan Capital Management. My friend and team-mate, whose appearance of curmudgeonry masks a very warm, friendly nature and a great deal of courage, is one of the nicest guys on the web; may this venture, the realisation of a long-held ambition, be as successful as he wishes it to be.

And D should know he's welcome to post here whenever he wishes.

His irritation at Sonoma County's pandering to illegal aliens, presumably at the expense of Sonoma County residents, is perfectly understandable, given that the illegal situation in Maywood, California has become so bad that even the Daily Telegraph, not usually noted for the robustness of its support of the rule of law where immigration is concerned, has noticed.

Maywood is a 'sanctuary city'. I have a good idea for how to treat with politicians who declare their cities 'sanctuaries'; they deserve sanctuary themselves.

They can find it in any available penitentiary.

Maggie Gallagher recently asked for 'some truth on immigration'. The official abandonment of the rule of law would be a good place to start.

But the grizzled restrictionist is always hunting for examples of immigrationist cant; such as this classic from Cafe Hayek.

It's laugh a minute stuff.

However, it seems that after Lin Liang Ren killed 21 people, the Snakeheads decided to turn their attention to the sex trade instead.

The Immigrant Calling For Easier Immigration Award Of The Week award goes to Simon Wong, of the Hondo Supermarket in Liverpool -

"We are hard working people, but today we have too many bad things happening...

All this can be very damaging to our community, because people cannot find work - how are you expecting they find work through the legal channel?

"As employers, we would like to help them but we cannot employ those people. Restaurants badly need people but they can't get people to work.

It is bad for the business, bad for the country, it is no good for nobody, except it makes the illegal workers flourish".

Wong should perhaps take heart from the example given by Anthony Miranda of Frankie & Benny's in Glasgow - if you don't find local workers up to the standard you require, hire Poles instead.

And we await news of the bankruptcy of one, other or both of David Anthony Eden Snr. and David Anthony Eden Jnr. with interest, seeing as they have to pay their own legal costs for their involvement in this affair.

And Stephen Roach reports on the growing sense of frustration at the failure of Americans to kowtow being felt by the biggest Snakeheads of them all.

It seems that the Vice-President of the United States might have a hotel rider to shame a rock star - and a first ever tip of the hat to a blogger called Richard Melville Hall.

Justin Raimondo cites the importance of culture, while Pat Buchanan lets rip on the neos currently abandoning ship, whilst Tom Engelhardt conducts a fascinating inetrview with Chalmers Johnson.

With Bob Tyrrell going ga-ga for Tony Blair, it's perhaps not surprising that PCR should ask what's become of some Americans.

Rod Liddle very pertinently asks what the Home Office is for - a pressing issue, given that in a country whose borders are unprotected, whose probation service is in chaos and whose government is seeking to introduce biometric ID cards, the Home Secretary took a time out last week to express his opposition to the teaching of creationism.

B & Q seems to be doing its bit to fast-track the displacement of British decorators.

As an attack on Iran now seems unlikely, I had noted previously that the neos were lining up the Libyans as substitutes.

It seems they may also have others in their sights.

It's the Russians...gulp...

Somebody PLEASE give Kathryn Jean Lopez a break? OK, so NRO published a plagiarist - but presumably they did do in good faith. Mea culpa heard. Now gedovahit...

I mean, it's not as if they don't have other things to worry about. Vic Hanson's latest column is just so 2003, while Nina Shea warns of the danger of Sharia law in Afghanistan - a danger I noticed on; when was it again?

Oh, yes. It was January 7 2004...

Those all-singing, all-dancing peace funksters Kember and the Kumbayas have apparently refused to co-operate with the intelligence authorities who put themselves on the line to rescue their dilettante, intellectually decadent backsides.

Kember would sing like a canary if the government threatened to withhold his pension...

It seems that the stress of life as a Kurdish migrant in Scotland caused Azu Ali to bottle Andrew Mitchell.

This is Ali's second period of imprisonment for assault in Scotland. He is 24 years old.

Finally, I received some very kind words from Brian Barder yesterday. Brian is a gentleman of the old school, and I wish I had a fraction of his good grace.

Hasta manana.

Foreign Criminal Of The Day - The Monster Of Morecambe Bay

I've been waiting a long time for this day.

Today, a jury at Preston Crown Court found that this man, Lin Liang Rien, killed 21 people.

It is incorrect to describe what happened on Morecambe Bay on the evening of February 5 2004 as a 'tragedy' or 'disaster'; it was a massacre, perpetrated by Lin Liang Rien for no cause other than the 150% profit he stood to make on the cockles that he sent his fellow countrymen to pick from the sands that night, after dark, with the tide coming in.

There are others who are also guilty, who did not stand with him in the dock.

The government of the People's Republic of China, for refusing to issue the cocklers, all of them its citizens, with passports.

The Immigration and Nationality Directorate, for failing to detain or deport them; what some might deem inhumane outcomes, but which might at least have ensured their survival.

The Snakeheads, fiends to whom the cocklers may have been in debt they could not clear in 20 years of labour. May all their prosperity wither and all their works be cursed.

But it was Lin Liang Rien who stood to gain the most.

And next Tuesday, if justice prevails, hopefully Lin Liang Rien will be sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars; an exemplary sentence to punish one of the worst crimes committed solely for gain in English legal history.

Whilst The Release Of Norman Kember

from his captivity at the hands of Iraqi neck-smiters is certainly to be welcomed, one hopes he's flying home commercially.

He made his own way there, so he can make his own way back.

Preferably with a bill from the SAS in his pocket.

Carry On Jihad

The incompetence of the Sons Of Allah currently being tried at the Old Bailey seems like something out of a 'Carry On' movie.

I mean, after 9/11, a group of Pakistanis walk into an agricultural merchants in rural Sussex and ask for the biggest bag of explosive fertiliser available - and they thought nobody might be suspicious?

Replete with tales of attempts to buy dirty bombs from the Russian Mafia, this one's going to run and run...

Dennis on Animal Cruelty

Dennis wrote a very powerful post yesterday on his objecions to the Canadian seal cull.

Whilst a confirmed carnivore (unlike D), and always conscious of what should be Mankind's role as apex predator at the top of the food chain, the deaths of nine horses at last week's Cheltenham Festival is the best argument that could ever be made for banning horse racing; a form of cruelty which involves animals being castrated and whipped by 4' 9" male anorexics for no purposes other than so-called 'sport' and the making of a very great deal of money.

Yesterday's First

A small boy held a door open for me.

I'm 35 years old.

And I must look worse than I thought.

Girl cheated death to convict killers

Via Logical Meme comes the sickening and horrific story of a black-on-white "hate crime", as it's termed in the U.S. As The Meme rightly points out, instead of life sentences they ought to get the chair. The UK government bears some responsibility for this as well, with its immoral and stupid outlawing of guns for self-defense.

Foreign Criminal Of The Day - The Rapist Who Nobody Knows

Oule Doucourem, who may or may not be a native of either the Central African Republic or Mali, may be permitted to remain in the UK when his sentence for rape is completed - because nobody knows to where he should be deported.

HT - Adam Lawson.

The Project

Due to circumstances outwith my control, I have to start another electronic project, which is likely to take either days or weeks to complete. Personally, for a lot of reasons, I would prefer days.

While it is ongoing, blogging will be extremely light, probably limited to suitable 'Foreign Criminals Of The Day'.

Just as Tommy Lee Jones accepted an Oscar with the words, 'I am not bald', I am not quitting blogging - but this project has to be done, and the quicker the better.

So please, all three of you - stay tuned.

For I'll be back...

'Europeans should beware of wishing for US failure in Iraq'

says huck-historian. It might cack up the globabalisation process.

Wonder what the pundits who thought the problem with Iraq was that we didn't hit them hard enough think about that one.

But absolutely nothing can be allowed to stand in globalisation's way, so let's hear three cheers for foreigners - while Gordon Brown privatises the agency responsible for marketing Britain abroad.

But don't get sick in North Staffordshire anytime soon. The outsourcing of medical secretarial functions to India might have as much to do with the increase in patient numbers (mass migration, anyone?) as with the failure to recruit the necessary number of medical secretaries.

Brainwave!

Why not offer them more money? That might be an incentive!

Whilst The Church Of Wales Recalls A Cartoon Of Mohammed

'scholars' at Al-Azhar University question the award of an honour to the Prince of Wales.

Foreign Criminal Of The Day: A Kosovar Killer

The BBC does not narrate how Indrit Krasniqi came to be in the UK.

But his treatment of Mary-Ann Leneghan betrays his character.

Globalisation Is Under Threat - At Last

Why would Niall Ferguson be describing opponents of globalisation as 'Numskulls', George Trefgarne celebrating its 'rich pickings', Mark Steyn claiming that (the) 'Port decision won't put U.S. in a safe harbor' and the Globalisation Institute intemperately screaming that 'Setback for free trade risks instability and terrorism', if its advocates didn't feel the process was under threat?

The Borjas Quotient

Professor George Borjas has published a paper entitled 'Immigration in High-Skill Labor Markets: The Impact of Foreign Students on the Earnings of Doctorates' - hat tip to Steve Sailer.

Prof. Borjas records that,

"A 10 percent immigration-induced increase in the supply of doctorates lowers the wage of competing workers by about 3 to 4 percent".

What is fascinating about this finding is that the required increase in supply and the concomitant drop in wages both exactly match the increased supply and wages drop suffered by the unskilled through mass immigration which Prof. Borjas noted in 'The Labour Demand is Downward Sloping' (.pdf).

Can the finding that a drop of 3-4% in wages caused by a 10% increase in the labour pool through migration or immigration now be referred to as 'The Borjas Quotient'? Why not?

And what's the likelihoood of him bagging a Nobel Prize for his findings?

Next to zero, one might have thought.

Neutralising Paddick

Perhaps I am cynical; but one can't help but wonder at the coincidence of a newly-retired Metropolitan Police commander loudly supporting Sir Ian Blair's actions in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes following so closely on Brian Paddick's threat of legal action against the bold Sir Ian.

Funny.

Multiculturalism Rules OK!

No, actually, not if you're Shazia Kayam.

My Nightmare

I suffered a nightmare last night.

I was practicing law again.

That's the first time since July 10 1998, the day I quit, that that has happened.

Taking A Day Off

Back tomorrow.

Foreign Criminal Of The Day: Cruising

Some revealing light is cast on demi-monde of casual homosexual sex by the conviction of Mark Pacelli Papazian for the murder of Gerrard Hendra.

Russia Has A Middle Class

Nice to know.

What about the rest of us?

More Irish Notes

The disheartening news that President Bush respond to Bertie Ahern's cheek in saying he 'hoped a path may be found to allow undocumented Irish immigrants to regularise their status in the US' - in a speech at the White House - was more than made up for by seeing that Gerry Adams has been subjected to a little genteel rough-housing.

Some Thoughts On Noise

Dennis has a wonderful post up today on the loss of equanimity engendered by exposure to other peoples' noise.

That blasting meaningless series of sound waves from your iPod/aSod/qNod, or whatever the hell these contraptions are called, is an act of the most profound selfishness does not, of course, occur to those enraptured by the 'music' of Sharktone or Fishhead.

But exposing other people to your taste in noise, be it music ('are ye no' intae rock, man?'), viewing (if I want to watch 'Poltergeist', I can do so in my own home without having to listen to you doing so in yours) or drunken epithets of choice is not merely an inconvenience; it's a form of assault.

The first property I owned was a flat directly above one occupied by a profoundly deaf elderly lady; a devoted fan of Glasgow Rangers Football Club. While awaiting delivery of my bed, I slept on the floor.

On my first night in the house, I was violently awaken by a shout of 'AND MCCOIST HAS SCORED!!!!!!' coming from her television.

Other nights of sleep were disrupted by another neighbour, who liked to sing. They loved to sing, sing, sing all the time; and I can assure you, if I never hear 'I Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)' ever again, it will not be one moment too soon.

Other nights' sleep have been disrupted by, inter alia, the drunken assumption of soccer fans that one maintains the slightest interests in their team's most recent victory, news they usually elect to share from the street at 03.00 hours; drunken partying by student nurses; drunken Kosovar asylum-seekers rambling home, singing in what one could only assume was Serbo Croat; the Johnstone Sons of the Somme Orange flute band; and the blasting engines of unsilenced motor cars, blaring out bhangra music while belting up the street.

So please, please, please - keep it down...to a dull roar...

The Denunciation Of Paul Craig Roberts

Front Page Magazine has published a denunciation of PCR by Ben Johnson entitled 'Paul Craig Roberts and the Certifiable Right'.

On a minor point, Johnson also denounces Karen Kwiatkowski as an associate of Lyndon LaRouche, when Laurent Murawiec, one of the biggest neos of them all, was a LaRouchie for 10 years.

But I don't think Dr. Roberts', whose analyses of job creation data are always essential reading, has much to fear from an entity whose associated publications provide a forum for journalists who refuse to provide sources; which moderate off comments which don't comply with the party line; and which then repeat the same errors and lies time and time again.

To use a soccer analogy, Front Page is a firm believer in playing the man, not the ball.

And the whole website is a professional foul.

Paddick Wagon

And so the liberal establishment crumbles like The Tower of Barad Dur; and the ring burning in the fires of Mount Doom that causes it to fall is the pride of a liberal icon.

Commander Brian Paddick is threatening to sue Sir Ian Blair for comments made in the aftremath of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

That would be this Brian Paddick.

Europe's Weakest Link

In an otherwise pukeworthy commentary on the perils African migrants willing undergo in order to make money entitled 'Death stalks boat people of the Canaries', David Rennie of the Daily Telegraph writes the following:

"Under Spain's liberal immigration laws, migrants may be held for only 40 days. During that time, only if officials can determine a migrant's home country - and Spain has a repatriation agreement with that nation - can the migrant be sent back. Most of the boat people are flown to mainland Spain then simply released into a limbo of life without papers.

Miguel Becarra Domínguez, the chief spokesman for the Canary Islands government, described the situation more bluntly.

"If we cannot find out their nationality in 40 days, they are free to go to France, Germany, Holland or Britain - wherever," he said."

In the migration crisis, Spain finds no ally in geography.

Why it should abandon reason is another matter altogether.

From The Maibox: An Irishman Proves My Point

I received the following e-mail yesterday, in response to my article "Ireland: Though All The World (Specifically, The Irish PM) Betray Thee."

"Subject: We Irish

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:00:18 +0100
From: "Kenny Michael" Add to Address Book
To: martinkellyllbdiplp@yahoo.co.uk

"However, the screams of outrage that would rise from Dublin to Donegal if a British politician were to interfere in Irish affairs would have Ahern fighting the Easter Rising all over again."

What sort of screams of outrage should arise when a "Glasgow, Scotland-based blogger" interferes in Irish affairs on an American website, on St. Patrick's Day?"

Apart from proving my point about the the prickliness of some Irish in relation to their sovereignty, the mail raises two other, very much serious points.

Firstly, why is someone with an e-mail address from The Court of Justice of the European Communities writing private e-mails at 10.00 on a Friday morning, when they should theoretically be working? At my expense?

Secondly, doesn't the Court of Justice of the European Communities have an e-mail abuse policy? I can be fired for sending private e-mails during working hours. And does nobody ever look at the cookies on their computers to see what websites they're accessing?

Ireland: Though All The World (Specifically, The Irish PM) Betray Thee

is now up on VDare.

A Looming Asylum Amnesty

Further to yesterday's post, it seems that elements within the asylum industry have already called for an amnesty to be implemented.

Andrew Sullivan On Himself

"I was too confident before the war, trusted the Bush amdinistration far too much and was too scornful of the opposition's bias to hear some of their substantive arguments. But I was quickly adjusting to reality. The point is: if even I could see this, why couldn't Rumsfeld or Bush? Or Franks? "

By failing to appoint such a military visionary as C-in-C Middle East, Bush has unnecessarily prolonged the conflict.

Impeach Bush now.

Sister Ping's Golden Venture

has come to an ignominious end.

Lining Up The Substitutes

It seems that should Iran prove to be too big a pill for the neos to swallow, Libya might be being lined up as a subsitute.

First up is an article on NRO entitled 'The People vs. Qadhafi' by Mohamed Eljahmi, a Libyan-American with an axe to grind.

Secondly comes a commentary by Gerard Baker in 'The Times' entitled 'It's three years since the disarmament of Saddam and all that followed . . .', which contains the following gem:

"With its Libyan ally the Iranian Government accelerated its nuclear programme. "

Hopefully Mr. Baker is sure of his sources.

If they were to turn on the Libyans it would be the neos' most stunning reversal yet; and one for which history would be entitled to damn them as hypocrites.

'No special deal for Irish in US, says Ahern'

If he keeps interfering in American politics, An Bertie might be in for a wee bit of a shock over his cornflakes one of these days...

The Negative Effect of Mass Migration On Native Unemployment

From the Office of National Statistics:

"The trend in the employment rate is falling while the trend in the unemployment rate is increasing. The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance benefit has increased. The number of job vacancies has increased. Growth in average earnings excluding bonuses is up while growth in average earnings including bonuses is unchanged."

So the number of vacancies can grow whilst the unemployment rate increases; one consequence of having a large pool of migrant labour.

Or at least that's what John Philpott, the Chief Economist of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, thought last October.

But what does he know? Globalisation will help us all acquire new skills - and get rich!

Islam's War On Denmark

A history of how Abu Laban are other imams conspired to bring down the Danish state is provided by Paul Belien in The American Conservative.

Sobering stuff - but all our lives are of course immeasurably improved by immigration.

Is A UK Asylum Amnesty On The Cards?

Two days ago I noted that some government statements had given me the feeling that an asylum for all failed asylum seekers was in the offing.

This sense of foreboding has not been lightened by the otherwise eminently sensible Camilla Cavendish's column in 'The Times' today, entitled 'When lunacy runs the asylum'.

In a call for a profound and long overdue overhaul of the Immigration & Nationality Directorate, Miss Cavendish throws in a peachy little curveball, writing, 'We must give up on the backlog, except where the intelligence services, already grinding their teeth in frustration, have an interest.'

On the contrary, we should do nothing of the sort.

Even although those responsible for government might have forgotten what it means, the rule of law demands that law and not convenience is the basis of civil society.

Letting subsidised liars and fraudsters get a free pass to legal residence would be convenience politics at its very worst.

'Scotland considers immigration reforms'

according to UK Immigration News.

Knowing that so many people think that they have what it takes to live in our country gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling - no?

You And Your Spanish Lies Will Do For Me

Boy, is this a good one!

With Iran having been aggressively pushed into a corner over its development of a civilian nuclear energy capability (although they possess vast reserves of crude oil, apparently the Iranians are not subject to the same log term upward pressure on petroleum resources as the rest of us), Andrew Sullivan slavishly reports the attempts of Jose Maria Aznar, El Gonzo Primo, to stir up the hornet's nest with a little creative recollection of his own -

"...at the beginning of the meeting he explained to me why Iran must declare war on Israel and the United States until they are completely destroyed. I made only one request of him: that he tell me the time of the planned attack."

For the avoidance of doubt, Jose Maria Aznar is a liar - a fact you should repeat yourself again and again and again.

And The Dead Sea itself does not contain the amount of salt required to consume El Pasodoble's public utterances.

'Apparently I'm a Paleocon'

says Stephen M. Warshawsky in The American Spectator, in an article whose theme concurs with that of 'A Requiem for Gonzoconservatism'.

Stephen - who?

Pots and Kettles

Gerry Adams, the Beast of Ballymurphy, describes the Americans as 'biased'.

Al together now - ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.......

The Conservative Party And Free Speech

You can say anything you like in the New Model Tories - provided, of course you don't upset the gays.

Perhaps John Jenkins' problem was that he was the only Tory in the village.

The United Nations And Human Rights

Bolton gets spanked.

Industrious Immigrants

"Crustacean
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The crustaceans (Crustacea) are a large group of arthropods (55,000 species), usually treated as a subphylum. They include various familiar animals, such as lobsters, crabs, shrimp and barnacles. They are variously found in marine and freshwater, with a few terrestrial members (such as woodlice)."

Perhaps it was just a misprint.

Or perhaps it was a Freudian slip.

Life Style Extra's lead today is entitled 'London has 170 organised crime gangs, say Met', and reports that "Organised crime in London is a growth industry with at least 170 gangs from 24 nationalities carrying out murders, drug and people trafficking and kidnap."

It also reported that "British crustaceans feature heavily in the gang culture ranking alongside eastern Europeans, Africans and Asians".

An interesting image, certainly; if only because one had thought that the only invertebrates connected to the British immigration and asylum systems were those in positions of authority at the Home Office.

Tipping the hat to Tim Worstall, Richard Ford has written a piece in today's edition of 'The Times' entitled 'Oh the shame of it, workers from the East put Britons in the shade'.

It seems that the Home Office has issued an Aschersonian paean to the work ethic of foreigners entitled 'Employers’ Use of Migrant Labour', of the kind I dealt with in 'A Restrictionist's Reply to John Bercow'.

Ford reports that,

"Employers have heaped praise on their new workers and compare them favourably with British workers, according to the first study of attitudes to migrant workers since EU expansion. They had turned to migrant workers to fill job vacancies after first seeking to employ low-skilled Britons. "

How nice for everyone concerned; although perhaps British employers may be far more inclusive than a number of London's foreign crime gangs in their hiring methods.

However, where credit is due it must be evenly shared; and one would be failing in one's duty if one did not note record the work ethics of Howri Qarib, Bryan Manning, Syreeta Anderson and Anthony Assrwatham (with a hat tip to the Bournemouth Nationalist- one must give the devil his due).

Nor, indeed should the work ethics of Hassan Mahmoud, Lamin Sarr, Emanuel Nlend-Beck, Omaniyi Alabi and Tharmarajah Sriskandarajah, all of whose efforts were brought to my attention by Migration Watch, go uncelebrated.

And how could one possibly omit to mention how British society has been endowed by the efforts of Maria Ahmetaj, Pauline Vasile, Wenford Reid, Latif Zarif, Sahnoum Zoukar, Imran Bashir, Anthony Graves and Garth White, Genira Carios, Anastacio Da Cruz, Steadman Wallace, Glen O'Brien, Lincoln Stewart, Mohamal Saud, Alaba Young-Harry, Monica Beltran, Miguel McKenzie, Mohammed Javaherifard and Chanciz Hashemi?

Nor the contributions made to the education of lawyers' children by the residents of The Black Museum?

The work ethic of foreigners is sometimes a joy to behold.

You've got to love it.

If Hypocrisy Were A Crime, He'd Be In 'The Black Museum'

"Bill Buckley stood by his editor initially, but not for long. Within two years, O’Sullivan was eased out, replaced by the youthful Rich Lowry, who immediately upon assuming his new post fired Peter Brimelow."

Scott McConnell, 'Among the Neocons', 'The American Conservative', April 21 2003.

Bear those words in mind when you read the bold Rich's 'Jobs Americans Won’t Do?Think again.'

A Requiem for Gonzoconservatism

is now up on Antiwar.

Holding The Line

Oliver Kamm still believes in the invasion of Iraq.

He notes,

"We no longer have to bear one major risk: a psychopathic despot overcoming a porous sanctions regime, and using oil sales to pay for resumed WMD production".

True. Now, they have foreign jihadists crawling out of every orifice instead.

Softening Us Up For An Asylum Amnesty

I just can't help but think that's where this and this are leading us.

Profiteering From Immigration

does not ever happen - OK?

The Mobile Muezzin

You can now get Mohammed on your mobile.

Hopefully this does not provide any comment on the behaviour of Muslims vis-a-vis the amount of time they spend on their mobiles when they should be attending to their devotions.

Richard Morrison On The Gini Coefficient

Writing in 'The Times', Richard Morrison notes that the UK's 'Gini Coefficient', the standard measure of the gap between the rich and poor, stands at the same level as in 1997, 0.34, when the wealth of the world's billionaires has increased by 18% in the last 12 months.

He notes three possible explanations for this:

"Either that Blair and Co believe that Britain has the perfect balance between the haves and have-nots, so they don’t see any reason to alter the status quo. Or that they do want to iron out some manifestly unfair aspects of our “winner takes all” society, but have gone about the task so incompetently that little has changed. Or that they are so paranoid about keeping the middle classes happy that they are terrified of making radical changes to, say, income tax."

Another possible explanation is that while the wealth transfers effected in the executive compensation racket have increased, the coefficient has not increased because the expansion of the public sector, and the very much higher value of the public sector payroll, over the same period has cancelled out the effect of increased executive compensation and stagnating private sector wages.

Also, there has been the small matter of a boom in house prices, with more citizens enjoying substantial capital gains for little or no effort.

That there has been no improvement in the coefficient over this period should illustrate just how badly stuck those at the bottom of the heap are.

Just a thought.

Foreign Criminal Of The Day: Iasao Yasuhara

A Japanese sex offender has been sentenced to five years imprisonment in Newcastle.

Sayonara, Yasuhara san...

And a hat-tip to Adam Lawson.

Roach On Savings

A particularly gloomy Stephen Roach makes clear the necessity of encouraging domestic savings, in a Morgan Stanley forecast entitled 'Tripwires'.

A graph of how precipitously personal saving has dropped as a percentage of US GDP since 1965 can be found here.

Jean Charles De Menezes - Rapist?

Possibly.

We await to see whether the family will allow the extraction of DNA for evidential purposes with interest...

Losing New Orleans

Quin Hillyer, no faint hearted lib'rul, sticks both boots into George W. Bush.

What is startling about Hillyer's critique is that, without him being so explicit, it dovetails almost completely with Bruce Bartlett's analyses of Bush - that Bush is no kind of conservative at all, a point recently made by Lawrence Auster.

Thunder On the Right? Not looking good for November....

The Sage of Santa Rosa

provides the quote of the day -

"Obesity combined with legible fleecewear makes the average denizen around here look little better than Bozo the Clown".

Marvellous!