A strange sort of autumn

Today has been hot.  Uncomfortably hot.  Made all the more uncomfortable because the central heating has been on.

It is a strange sort of autumn we are having.  The trees are still green.  It is as if summer is still here, but without the sun.

Above:  the branches of the plum tree are pulled down by the ripe fruit.

Above:  the young rowan tree is covered in berries.

Above:  the apples trees are weighted down over the fence with their autumn bounty.

Above:  the horses look inquisitively as I walk along the lane.

The air is still but warm.

The sound of the summer songbirds has gone.

Nothing in all this peace and plenty indicates that winter is coming to meet us.

Perhaps I worry too much - the past week at work

Monday

A cup of coffee at my desk as I went over the Technology paper I am working on.  I have to admit that I am not very interested in science and technology and I find gadgets boring.  And yet "gadgets" are what young consumers apparently want - is it possible we can become a gadget-producing economy supplying China (where the market for gadgets is huge) with electronic distractions?

E-mail exchanges with friends, and far too much time spent idling on Amazon.  This sort of laziness was not possible when Vijay Singh was Director.  There simply wasn't the time.

Head Office contacted me asking if I wanted to go on a research "mission" but I turned it down as it would mean staying away over Sunday and Monday. 

Tuesday

I have been asked to write a section of a supplement, and have been struggling over it for a couple of weeks.  Today I tried writing the information as a fictional short story and it seemed to work.  I'm actually getting paid for this one, which is nice.  Over three thousand words.  I drank mineral water instead of coffee, skipped lunch and tried to ignore interruptions from 'phone calls and visitors.  Although I worked at great speed I was pleased with the final result.

Callum Smith, our Director, was in the office today but he just sat in the Director's suite without calling any meetings or issuing instructions.  Perhaps he is over-awed by his new role.  Tensions and bickering among some of the staff which he does nothing about.

I did some preparation for my visit to Head Office tomorrow, not wanting to be criticised for anything I have not thought through.  Perhaps I worry too much and brood over things that might go wrong.  Head Office is Darwinian in the way office politics is practised.

Wednesday

Usual difficulty over finding a parking place at the station car park.  I got on a slow train, and with delays it took nearly two hours to get to London.  I read briefing papers and then the Guardian.

At Head Office I met Kirsty W and Mary McF and we went over the PR for the conference event.  We were supposed to be just adding the finishing touches, but actually they have done hardly any work on the event.  I made careful notes as they are very adept at blaming others for things they have not done.

To Accounts on the third floor to collect papers to take back to the Institute.

Thursday

All the computers were down when I arrived at the office this morning, which meant that the whole morning was more or less wasted.

A new member of staff from Head Office was at the Institute as part of his induction.  He just talked and talked and talked, all endless self-important babble.  I found an excuse to go down to the Reading Room to get away from him.  
 
Friday

Hardly anyone in the office today, which made things very quiet.

Research on housing, which was boring.

An e-mail from Mary McF at Head Office full of weasel words about the conference event.  She is so lazy and ineffective.  And yet it is very difficult to catch her out.

Called into his office by Callum Smith for a confidential briefing ("Let me close the door before I tell you...").

Ed Miliband is racist

Is Labour student activist Tom King really saying that Ed Miliband is racist?

Or is this a textbook example of how the racist slur is used to close down debate?

On the eve of the Labour Party conference this sort of comment is unhelpful to the Labour leader.

Tom King is LGBTQ Officer at the School of Oriental and African Studies Student Union (University of London) and Wyre Forest Labour's Youth Officer.

https://twitter.com/tomilo

On the eve of the Labour Party conference this research was interesting:  http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2013/09/21/exclusive-uncut-poll-over-1-in-4-2010-lab-voters-have-been-lost-here%E2%80%99s-what-can-be-done-to-win-them-back/

"Out of Labour’s lost 2010 voters, almost 1 in 5 are now supporting the Conservatives (18%)."

On the eve of the Labour Party conference I switched on BBC News 24 at midday today.

Maxine Mawhinney told us we were going live to Brighton to see David Miliband's arrival - then hurriedly corrected herself and said Ed Miliband.

If one of the most experienced news readers in the world's most prestigious and well-informed news organisation is struggling over identifying the correct name of the Labour leader what hope is there for the ordinary electorate?

A village in Tibet

Corby council has adopted a village in Tibet and is encouraging other councils to do the same.

Does the BBC have a correspondent in Tibet?

We hardly see any reports from the area.

http://www.tibetsociety.com/content/view/422

If it is the case that Gordon Brown lied to the Leveson Inquiry when on oath he must be prosecuted for perjury.

There must be no fudging this issue.

Perjurers must go to gaol.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10322367/I-destroyed-careers-of-Blairs-ministers-admits-former-Brown-aide-Damian-McBride.html

The Damian McBride revelations

The Today programme discussed the Damian McBride revelations this morning.

The deliberate subverting of elected parliamentarians and members of the then government is so serious that I think we must insist that the Labour party acts to put its house in order.

Can we have an assurance from the Labour leadership that everyone actively involved in Mr McBride's shenanigans will have the Labour whip removed and be ejected from the Labour party?

This must apply to everyone involved, including former Prime Ministers.

This is not just an historical matter - it is of direct relevance to the functioning of democracy.

The rotten apples must be thrown out.

Fascinating preview of the Damian McBride book on Newsnight this evening.

Jon Snow approaches a child and asks...

I know Channel 4 News is supposed to be "daring" but I was shocked to see an item this evening filmed in a Stoke Newington school in which Jon Snow approaches a child and asks "Have you looked at porn on the internet?"

The child (Jamie), who only looked about twelve or thirteen, was so surprised to be asked such a thing that he could hardly speak and barely managed to stutter out a denial.

Is it acceptable for adults to ask young children about their sexual behaviour?  Is this not prurience bordering on corruption of a minor?  What if the child had blurted out "yes" - would he not be humiliated on national television before his fellow school-children, teachers and parents?

Am I alone in thinking adults have a duty to preserve the innocence of children?

Whatever we might think of Jon Snow, he is a person of some status.  Channel 4, for all its avant garde posing, is a national institution.  Will perverted adults use the excuse that because Jon Snow asked a young teenager about their sexual habits that they are entitled to do the same without falling foul of the law?

Jon Snow has form in this area.  On 11th December 2012 he asked two young girls about their sexual behaviour (http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/did-you-like-what-you-saw.html ).  One more incident like this and I think we will be justified in calling him a dirty old man.

http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

I am disgusted by the badger cull and I want it to stop.

http://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/ruralpolicing/Badgers/item32988.html

Perhaps "Bidisha" will forgive me if I slightly rewrite her sentence

"Bidisha" (real name Bidisha Shonar Koli Mamata) uses a discussion about the Booker prize to promulgate her own views on immigration, identity and diversity (while at the same time hypocritically saying the discussion is not about immigration, identity and diversity).

She writes, with self-confessed "venom":  "Critics and snipers have a choice: embrace change or fear it; go with the future world or whinge at home in crabby insularity; welcome others with grace or ostracise them with bitterness; step up your game or get off the pitch; get with the programme or get left behind."

This is of course only a partial version of the choices on offer.

Perhaps "Bidisha" will forgive me if I slightly rewrite her sentence:

Critics and snipers have a choice: embrace change or fear it or insist that democracy and the rights of the majority are recognised; go with the future world or whinge at home in crabby insularity or insist that democracy and the rights of the majority are recognised; welcome others with grace or ostracise them with bitterness or insist that democracy and the rights of the majority are recognised; step up your game or get off the pitch or insist that democracy and the rights of the majority are recognised; get with the programme or get left behind or insist that democracy and the rights of the majority are recognised.

Not everyone is a fan of vibrant diversity.  This is a massive social change that has been imposed against the wishes of the majority in the United Kingdom.  It is a sad day when an established institution such as the Booker Prize falls prey to the diversity re-engineering of society against the wishes of the majority.

I am someone who reads a lot of books (a LOT of books).

But I will not be reading anything that wins the Booker prize or appears on the Shortlist.

I hope others will join me in this boycott (in any case it is much better to go to a good bookshop and choose for yourself rather than rely on the Booker gatekeepers to filter things into an approved diversity canon).

http://bidisha-online.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-man-booker-raised-and-transformed.html?spref=tw

Why is Emily Maitlis interviewing Usain Bolt for Newsnight?

Is the programme changing from news and current affairs to more of a Hello magazine celebrity format?

Why do you think socialism means a return to the Victorian era...

"Why do you think socialism means a return to the Victorian era with ad hoc charity? Why such stupid, stupid comments?" asks Owen Jones on his Twitter page decorated with a sepia photograph of workers in flatcaps bearing placards from ninety years ago.

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84

Interesting and balanced article by Colin Kidd (discussing the work of Paul Collier) in the Guardian:  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/19/exodus-immigration-paul-collier-review?CMP=twt_gu

Seldom has immigration been discussed in the Guardian in such a sane and reasonable way.

I am not particularly bothered about the cultural wearing of the niqab but thinking aloud I have the following questions:

Do driving test centres allow women to take the driving test wearing the niqab and if so, how do they identify that the person is who they say they are?

Do universities allow women to sit examinations wearing the niqab and if so, how do they identify that the person is who they say they are?

Do employment agencies (who are supposed to check that applicants have the right to work in the United Kingdom, usually by looking at the applicant's passport) allow applications by women wearing the niqab, and if so how do they identify that the person is who they say they are?

"Promoting diversity" in an on-going campaign

Head of the Home Civil Service Bob Kerslake writes that the Civil Service is "promoting diversity" in an on-going campaign:  http://my.civilservice.gov.uk/blog/2013/09/opportunities-for-all/

Look carefully beneath the bland reassuring words.

What he is proposing is that civil servants, including those who hold great administrative power, are being chosen on criteria other than merit ("visibly champion the success of under-represented elements of our workforce").

We know (because commentators such as Mehdi Hasan, Sunny Hundal and Sunder Katwala whoop and cheer about it) that BME people in the United Kingdom are, by a large majority, likely to vote Labour and favour quasi-socialist policies.  Are we happy about the entrenchment in the supposedly impartial Civil Service of a pro-Labour lobby?  Does this not undermine the credibility of the Civil Service?

We need more Civil Service senior managers with real delivery and operational experience rather than appointments made on the spurious grounds of "vibrant diversity".

Migrants are less likely to feel happy or experience enjoyment

Predictably rose-tinted view of north-north migration by pro-migration lobbyist (masquerading as a "researcher") Alex Glennie:  http://britishinfluence.org/point-view-costs-reducing-eu-migration-uk-must-weighed-benefits/

The article is a heavily-disguised frightener - if we curtail EU migration we will face all sort of dire consequences including acute labour shortages, vastly more dependents to support and higher taxes all round.

She gets round the difficulty of supplying evidence for her assertions by calling the piece a "Point Of View".

If Ms Glennie can find time from her view-spouting she might care to read the World Migration Report 2013 – Migrant Well-being and Development just published by the International Organization for Migration.

She would then see that "Migrants are less likely to feel happy or experience enjoyment, compared to the native-born" and that the consumerist model of society is leading to alienation and unhappiness, even when migrants see an economic improvement in their material condition.

This is of course so obvious that many commentators miss it.

Initially people in less developed parts of the world want to migrate to the west thinking that the better economic conditions will improve their life and opportunities.  Compared to their country of origin this is right - an unskilled worker in London will earn more than a professional worker in Bulgaria (assuming that the professional can find work in Bulgaria in the first place).  However once the migrant is in the United Kingdom he/she will immediately be surrounded by consumerist ideology and will experience feelings of inadequacy that cannot be satisfied on the low incomes that are available to migrants (and even if they improve their incomes only a tiny few will ever achieve the nirvana of materialist consumerist satisfaction).

Migration is a rotten way to solve the world's problems.  It damages the societies in destination countries, it damages the societies in countries of origin, it damages the migrants themselves.  It is also an extremely expensive and wasteful way of improving human happiness compared to the alternatives.

http://www.iom.int/cms/wmr2013

I am watching the Scottish debate on Newsnight.

Canada and the First World War to be the theme for the 2014 Colonel Douglas H. Gunter History Awards:  http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2013/09/16/canada-and-the-first-world-war-to-be-the-theme-for-the-2014-colonel-douglas-h-gunter-history-awards/

What proportion of the current Canadian population is descended from a participant in the Great War?

I'm afraid all I know of Canada's participation in the conflict is Vimy Ridge and the Peace Tower in Ottawa (two members of my family died in the battle of Arras, and were younger than I am now).

It says a lot about the moribund state of the Labour Party that the most exciting event at their conference is likely to be the Fabian fringe meeting with Lord Ashcroft.

Society breakdown comes at a cost

One cannot help noticing that the three most horrific murders of small children by those supposed to be caring for them are from various "communities" within our (now officially defunct) multi-cultural society.

Victoria Climbie was from the African diaspora, Peter Connelly, judging by surname evidence, must be from the Irish diaspora and Daniel Pelka was from the recent Polish wave of migrants (lauded earlier today by Jonathan Portes as "helping to reduce deficits").

One hesitates to comment on such tragic cases.

But is it not obvious that the globalised movement of labour, in which individuals are treated as mere economic units of no intrinsic value, is going to result in casualties?

Society breakdown comes at a cost.

Four muslim-themed items was excessive

Yesterday's PM programme on BBC Radio 4 had no less than four muslim-themed stories yesterday - the muslim veil controversy, a sportswoman who performed a multi-sport wearing full muslim garb, the shooting of a muslim policewoman in Afghanistan, and a "postcard" from Syria.

Obviously some of these are genuine news stories, and the muslim veil controversy and perhaps one other muslim-themed story would have been legitimate.

But to have four muslim-themed items was excessive.  The muslim sports garb item went on for ages and was just drivel (the sportswoman was actually telling the interviewer "It's no big deal" and yet still it went on and on and on).  When the Syria "postcard" came on I was thinking:  enough of these muslim people, I don't want to hear any more about them, I'm sorry about the Syrians but my sympathy is all used up and now I just want them to go away.

I was driving home at the time and so I was effectively trapped in my car and there was no real alternative to Radio 4 unless I switched to a music channel.

Who was responsible for putting all these muslim-themed items on a state-financed radio station?

Are they working to some kind of agenda we are not aware of?

Ambushed on Channel 4 News

Naomi Campbell was ambushed on Channel 4 News.

In an interview that was ostensibly about diversity in the fashion industry the interviewer goaded her about her relationship with an African dictator, and even managed to insinuate the model was an angry black woman ("It's not about me being an angry black woman" she said indignantly).

Presumably Channel 4 wanted to provoke her into perhaps throwing her mobile phone at the interviewer and walking off.

The involvement of non-white "colonial" participants in the Great War is problematic

Operation Black Vote draws our attention to a new play at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham:  http://www.charlesthelastblacksoldier.djmrp.com/

Entitled The Last Black Soldier Of World War One!! the theme is the involvement of BME people in the Great War (a subject also referred to by the thinktank British Future in their paper on the commemoration of the Great War http://www.britishfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BRF_Declaration-of-war-report_P2_Web-1.pdf ).

However the involvement of non-white "colonial" participants in the Great War is problematic for BME communities in the United Kingdom (and also the successor states in former imperial and colonial territories).

Let us leave on one side the possible fate of colonial subjects had Germany won the war (although the Herero experience in German South West Africa might indicate the likely course of events).

Let us also leave on one side the issue that the non-white participants in the Great War may not match the non-white people who subsequently came to the United Kingdom post-1945.

The main problem for those arguing that participation by "colonials" in the Great War somehow contributes towards the validity of the United Kingdom's current "vibrantly diverse population"  is the motivation of the colonial soldiers themselves.

There were no conscripts among non-white colonials during the Great War, they were all volunteers.

Therefore we must ask why they volunteered.

This broadly divides into two main reasons:  they were either mercenaries who saw the British armed forces as a source of secure employment; or they were sincere imperialists who believed in British imperialism and wanted to defend it.

The vague idea that the non-white participants were somehow simply doing the rest of us a favour by joining in the war does not stand up to serious scrutiny.

Both the Mercenary Narrative and the Imperialist Narrative cause problems for the BME communities in the United Kingdom in terms of legacy claims.

If they were mercenaries, then their contribution is obviously devalued.  One appreciates (a century later) their efforts but they knew what they were getting into and they were paid for what they did.  End of story.

If they were sincere imperialists, sincerely fighting for the British Empire, then this obviously undermines the narrative that colonial populations were enslaved and oppressed and are owed reparations by the British state and that BME people in the United Kingdom today are still oppressed and require affirmative action.  And if they were sincere imperialists then their imperialist motivation needs to be recognised and (dare I say it) celebrated.  We need a memorial to the BME imperialists - I would subscribe financially to this.

As Gary Younge is fond of saying:  time to own your own history. 

Synopsis of a special issue of Identities. Global Studies in Power and Culture entitled 'Ethnography, diversity, and urban change' co-edited by Mette Louise Berg, Ben Gidley, and Nando Sigona: http://nandosigona.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/the-diversity-turn/

It looks interesting, but I wonder how valid the conclusions are.

For instance, Nando Sigona refers to "a new arena for diversity, namely the provincial English city of Peterborough" as if that urban area was a haunt of ancient peace like Winchester or Salisbury instead of being a planned New Town with complex social problems (indeed, social problems that result from the original New Town planning).

I wonder if the authors of this section (Ben Rogaly and Kaveri Qureshi) bothered to talk to Stewart Jackson MP?

In an article for the Independent Owen Jones is highly critical of Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umuna:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/labours-plan-to-eject-squatters-wont-fix-britains-broken-housing-system-8817978.html

"Labour now have more detailed policies on kicking people out of homes than putting people into them" Mr Jones writes.

One week before the Labour party conference this is not good for the left.

Apparently Vince Cable IS now attending the Economy debate at the Liberal Democrat conference at Glasgow (he had been indulging in an Achilles-like sulk after a row with the leadership).

On the Today programme his leader Nick Clegg had told us "I don't run a boot camp", referring to Mr Cable's planned non-appearance.

I suppose this demonstrates the power of the Today programme.

Ornamental ducks swam on the lakes

Sunday afternoon, and one of those days in the year when normally inaccessible places are open for a few hours.

I drove about thirty miles to a hilly part of the county, upwards on a narrow lane that went along a high ridge, although the thick trees either side masked the view.  Eventually I turned off into a private estate, over juddering cattle grids, ever upwards.  As I reached the summit the bucketing rain came to a stop although when I stepped out of my car the wind nearly blew me away.

Above:  The park is exquisite, although perhaps my photograph does not do it justice.  Eighteenth-century hall, ornamental lakes, fine trees.  It was made more romantic by the fierce, but mild, wind that was blowing.

Above:  Behind me was the Palladian church, obviously built in such an impractical position to enhance the view from the hall.

Above:  inside the interior is more or less untouched.  Early eighteenth-century woodwork including these communion rails.  The nave filled with box pews.

Above:  beautiful plasterwork on the ceiling.

Above:  the pulpit is this incredible towering construction.  Few seeing this could doubt the emphasis placed upon The Word.  Everything in the church was well kept.

Above:  hatchments were displayed on the gallery at the west end.  If you look closely at this coat of arms (you might need to click on the image to enlarge it) you can see that it includes heraldic ducks.  Ornamental ducks swam on the lakes below.

Above:  these cattle grazing peacefully belie the gale that was blowing - exhilarating but also alarming, and threatening at any moment to bring back the rain.

Above:  I stopped to have a closer look at the house.  Supposedly 1720s.  Doric entrance but otherwise rather plain.  Flemish bond brickwork.  The park taken right up to the house, with no suggestion of a garden.  Brick pediment with a little stone.

All the Conservatives need to do in 2015 is get twenty more seats.

That's all they have to do.

Ian Jack on the commemoration of the First World War

Article in Saturday's Guardian by Ian Jack on the commemoration of the First World War:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/13/century-first-world-war-narratives?CMP=twt_gu

In the article he writes "the wonder is that an official narrative still exists".

Anyone who is in any doubt about this narrative simply has to look at the words carved on the Cenotaph - The Glorious Dead - honoured by the nation each November (and broadcast live on national television).

No amount of mischief-making contrarian history by the late Alan Clark, or miserablist hand-wringing by lefties afraid of the power of national sacrifice, or simple ignorance by younger generations failed by a dumbed-down education system is going to alter that fact.

The British dead of the Great War are glorious (and that includes three members of my own family).

In a way, I think that was what Ian Jack was also trying to say in his article although he seemed to feel obligated to provide a counter-point of anecdotes about Clydeside socialists.

We could have lost that war, but we didn't.  We won it because of the glorious dead.  That is the narrative, and that is what we are commemorating.

Is it not amusing to see our enemies feting the Lord Ashcroft research in marginal seats.

Are they really so naive?

Perhaps they think Lord Ashcroft is doing them a favour, that it is all impartial, that they are being given the full story.

The muse came to me - the past week at work

Monday

The weather has become cold, and driving to work I noticed the pedestrians were all wearing coats.

Lots of people in the office today, so that there was a lot of noise.

All the day I worked on the Resource Pack which is to go out to supporters (we are giving it away free, although the unit cost is quite expensive). 

Gavin (assistant in the Reading Room) back from holiday, complaining about running out of money in the last couple of days and having to scrounge to get enough to eat (in Ibiza).

Tuesday

More work on the Resource Pack including briefing the designer (Joey). 

A request for marketing assistance from Peter Whitgift at our Birmingham office.  I found this interesting since rumours indicate that the Birmingham office is to be cut adrift from the Institute.  Or perhaps it is the Institute that is being cut adrift?

Wednesday

Everyone in the office seemed to be idle today.  Callum Smith (Director) is a poor leader.  Others seem to have noticed this, and there are hints that he may be replaced.

A meeting in the afternoon with Tim Watts (Innovation) to look at research on the impact of technology on society.

Then I had to write an article for a magazine very specialist and low circulation so that I had not given it priority until it was pointed out to me that Alec Nussbaum was on the Editorial Board.  The deadline was at 4pm and I began to think I had left things too late.  But as I worked the muse came to me and it was all done in time.

Thursday

All of the day spent on interviews.  It has been quite a while since I have done a full day of face to face research.  There is no substitute for this - it makes your arguments unassailable.

Friday

The morning spent dealing with amendments to the Resources Pack (it is a joint project with Head Office, so lots of people have to see the drafts and all of them want to put their mark on it).

Tensions between Finance and Admin that almost became an open row.

"Lost" clip from the horror film The Wicker Man:  http://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2013/sep/13/wicker-man-lost-clip-video

I think a lot of the creepiness of the film is due to the 1970s decor, clothes, hairstyles etc.

Whenever I see the '70s in film and photographs I shudder involuntarily.

I'm sorry to see that Melanie Phillips is leaving the Daily Mail.

An interesting and original writer capable of very profound analysis.

Even if you do not agree with her on a particular issue, she would always make you think.

The idea that MPs should use public money to employ their relatives absolutely stinks

The problem with MPs employing their relatives (as highlighted on the Today programme this morning) is that the recruitment process cannot be open and transparent.

As MPs are spending public money on these employees they must not employ their relatives.

Imagine an NHS surgeon who insisted on his/her operating team being relatives.  Who insisted that they were the best people for the job for no other reason than because he/she said so.  Imagine the anaesthetist on that team justifying her employment because she lives with the surgeon and so they they can adjust to the odd hours surgeons are required to work.

You would run a mile from such a surgeon!

Imagine a teacher who insisted that classroom assistants and relief staff were all relatives.  Imagine one of those classroom assistants telling us they didn't feel they had to justify their employment because they had been employed over thirty years ago and anyway they had to work somewhere.  Imagine the teacher justifying these employment relationships because they can talk about work in the evenings and on the commute to work.

Such a teacher would rightly get a boot up his/her backside.

The idea that MPs should use public money to employ their relatives absolutely stinks.

Where are the open and transparent recruitment processes?  Where are the annual appraisals?  Where are the regular audit surveys that assure us that public money is being expended in the best possible way?

The idea that MPs should use public money to employ their relatives absolutely stinks.

More job opportunities for women

The ending of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme is good news for feminism.

Of course the farmers and large-scale agri-business operations will complain.  Over the last decade they have had via agencies an endless supply of immigrant field workers who are compliant, undemanding and easily disposable.  From an employer's perspective what's not to like?

Now the farmers will have to recruit seasonal workers locally.  They will have to rebuild their networks, make sure the recruits are reasonably well cared for, even (shrieks from the farmers) pay them a bit more.  The result will be villages that are more socially cohesive, where more money is kept in the local economy, where there are more job opportunities for local people.

Not least more job opportunities for women, since seasonal agricultural work was traditionally taken up by women supplementing their household income with part-time and temporary seasonal jobs.  With the introduction of the agency system supplying cheapo immigrants these local jobs for women almost totally disappeared.  The impact on the rural economy has been devastating.

No doubt desk-bound townies will chunter on about these not being desirable jobs for women.  And as things stand they would be right - agency staff are treated appallingly.  But the work itself is quite pleasant - as a child in Norfolk I joined neighbours in picking carrots for two summers and completely enjoyed it (everyone was in the open air each day, everyone got to know everyone else, even ten-year-old children like myself could earn the going rate for each sack of carrots picked).

And the ending of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme will mean the relationship between employer and employee will have to change. 

At the moment, if a farmer does not like a bolshie immigrant field worker he/she can just say to the agency "I don't want that person back" and the worker simply disappears.  With local people that is less easy, even if they are recruited via the gang system.  If the farmer in Elm Tree Farm upsets one of the workers on his fields he will have to live with the consequences as that worker probably lives in the row of cottages in Elm Tree Lane and her husband drinks at The Elms pub and her kid sister works at the Elm Stores and Off-Licence. 

You can be a bad employer in the anonymity of the city.  You can be a bad employer when you are using cheapo throwaway immigrant labour.  You can't be a bad employer when everyone knows who you are and where you live, and your children go to the local school, and your wife uses the local hairdresser etc.

More:  http://news.migrationwatch.org.uk/

The far land is ethereal and translucent

Driving between appointments this afternoon I had to stop the car and look at the landscape.

It was an entrancing vision of subtle greys and browns.

The square shapes are straw stacks.

The far land is ethereal and translucent.

I have seldom seen the land look so beautiful.

Auto-renewal scam

Is it not the case that the "auto renewal" of car insurance is a mis-selling scandal?

Unsolicited insurance documents are sent to people with (often in small print) the message "you must tell us if you don't want this" and a ridiculously short window to respond.

The language used is bullying in tone, implying that you are somehow at fault of the law and will be reported to the police if you do not renew.

If by mischance you happen to go over the arbitrary deadline they have designated (in small print) for telling them you do not want the insurance you are charged a cancellation fee of up to £50.

It seems astonishing that the financial services industry (in this case the insurance companies) has not learned its lesson.

This auto-renewal scam needs to be stopped and the insurance companies ordered to pay compensation to those people it has duped into taking out expensive insurance that is not appropriate for their circumstances.

Perhaps Louise Ellman MP and the Transport Select Committee could look at this?

Raquel Rolnik

Deposit left by a passing horse.

This reminded me of the witterings of United Nations "Investigator" Raquel Rolnik.

The mistake Suzanne Moore makes in this article about class for the Guardian is in assuming that "working-class" equates a "collective" ideology (ie lefty to Labour supporting).

The working-class has always contained a very substantial number of Tory voters.

The trade unions have always contained a very substantial number of Tory voters.

Mrs Thatcher's vast majorities in the 1980s would not have been possible without working class support.

Indeed, Margaret Thatcher is an example of a party being swept to power by the working class, exactly in the way that Suzanne Moore yearns for.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/11/what-happened-to-class-action

When William Came by Saki (HH Munro)

I have just finished reading When William Came by Saki (HH Munro).

The novel was written in 1913 and predicts a war between the United Kingdom and Germany which the Germans win.  The prediction of a blitzkrieg subjugation of a great power in only a few weeks was astonishingly accurate, except that it happened to France in 1940 rather than to us in 1914.  The book deals with the aftermath of such an invasion and the choices faced by the population:  exile, resistance, or collaboration.

The book was written by Saki to warn of the military build-up in Germany and the necessity for the United Kingdom to prepare for it ("Beat your sword into a ploughshare if you like, but beat your enemy into smithereens first"). 

Sake is also concerned about the issues of degeneracy in the population ("the natural transition of the unathletic boy into the podgy unhealthy-looking man...") and effeminacy ("One gets tired of everything, said Plarsey with a fat little sigh of resignation, I can't tell you how tired I am of Rubenstein and one day I suppose I shall be tired of Mozart and violette de Parme and rosewood.  I never thought it possible that I could ever tire of jonquils, and now I simply won't have one in the house...")

The United Kingdom is jeered at as a nation of shopkeepers that is no longer a nation.

Foreigners are everywhere, and without a fight seem to have taken over the country.

A few pockets of resistance remain, and there is a vivid description of Torywood, a great country house where the old allegiances are still maintained.

HH Munro died fighting in the First World War, and it is interesting to speculate how he would have developed as a writer had he lived.  He believed in the cause he was fighting and he died for it.  We should respect his beliefs (and those of many thousands of other casualties who thought the same) and not trivialise their experience with rubbish interpretations of history such as Wipers Times and Chickens.

Rape

Commenting on this article in the Guardian Bidisha tells us:  "Nearly quarter of men in Asia-Pacific admit to committing rape".

What happens to these people if they migrate to the United Kingdom?

Do they remain rapists, or do they become infused with liberal sensitivity and reform their ways?

Given that the 2011 census tells us there are over four million south Asians in the United Kingdom, and given that this survey indicates a quarter of them will have committed rape, is it possible that we have imported a million rapists into the country?

Who is responsible for this? (I mean who exactly - names of politicians and civil servants and facilitators).

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/10/asia-pacific-rape-survey?CMP=twt_gu

What a disappointing TUC conference this is proving to be.

Ed Miliband's speech so discrete it qualifies for a boring-snoring award from Newsnight.

There's been no booing.

And ASLEF have withdrawn their motion to expel (and presumably disembowel) the thinktank Progress.

Is no-one going to be denounced?

Are there to be no show-trials?

Have all the ice picks been banned by Health & Safety regulations?

When I read that Bidesha had welcomed the Booker Short List as "stunning" and "diverse" I'm afraid the thought went through my mind:  what politically correct crap is being served up to us now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24029748

Cogent analysis of the US-UK-EU nexus by Ted Bromund:  http://www.cps.org.uk/blog/q/date/2013/09/10/where-the-syria-vote-and-obama-s-eu-advocacy-meet/

So much rain the bucket is overflowing.

The clinging moss is refreshed.

The dry earth is doused freely.

The left-wing hierarchy of ologies

The Voice has this article on the experiences of the LGBT community in Jamaica, which includes oppression, attacks and murder:  http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/protesters-call-jamaica-improve-record-gay-rights

British Caribbean-heritage LGBT campaigners are calling on Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller to take action.

Have Diane Abbott MP and Lady Doreen Lawrence, both members of the British legislature, added their voices to this campaign?

Perhaps Independent journalist and gay rights campaigner Owen Jones can intervene with these two leading Jamaican-heritage women and persuade them to do something? 

He must know Ms Abbott and Lady Lawrence quite well as all three of them went to Venezuela together as official elections observers. 

Or perhaps these two women are not interested in the rights of their fellow Jamaican LGBT people?

In the left-wing hierarchy of ologies does race "liberation" trump sexual orientation "liberation"?

To paraphrase Enoch Powell, does the black heterosexual man have the whip hand over the Jamaican-heritage LGBT community?

This article in the Express by Patrick O'Flynn is alarming:  http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/patrick-o-flynn/427562/The-floodgates-are-back-open

The renegotiations with the EU will have to include the ending of the automatic right of entry to the United Kingdom.

Otherwise we must leave the EU.

Dr. David Wilkinson FRAS, Principal of St. John's College, University of Durham

Dr David Wilkinson FRAS, Principal of St. John's College, University of Durham used Thought for the Day on the Today programme to talk about the Lindisfarne Gospels as a symbol of identity based on diversity (Celtic, Roman and Anglo-Saxon art intertwined).

Cultural synthesis is one way of defining a national identity.

However British identity has always been defined primarily as relating to a society based upon democracy.

Take away democracy and British national identity becomes just a sham and a mish mash of tropes.

Therefore the challenge faced by the advocates of "vibrant diversity" is how do you square the "vibrantly diverse" national identity you champion with the fundamental British national identity of a society committed to democracy?

Because majority opinion has always opposed immigration (and opposed it by a big margin).

You can either have diversity or you can have democracy, but you can't have both (not while public opinion continues to be opposed to immigration).

Unless Dr Wilkinson you intend to join the large number of public figures telling lies on this subject.

Sunflower harvest

The annual sunflower harvest is underway in the county.  I found these towering but spindly examples on the edge of a field.  I think they had been left because the flowers were too small.

Potted sunflowers decorating the church porch before morning service.  Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are an American plant, brought to England in the 16th century as part of the bounty (and booty) of the New World.  Basically they are giant daisies.

Did you know William Blake wrote a poem about the sunflower? 

Modernist sensibility

The influence of hedonistic post-Great War modernist sensibility can be seen in the new video for Reconnected's Time of Our Lives, to be released in October.

No idea who the director is, but it was filmed in Ibiza.

Presumably at the same sub-Bauhaus villa that Lady Gaga used for her equally hedonistic video for Poker Face.

Obviously Pugin would tell you (if he were able to) that gothic is the only moral form of architecture.

Marina Warner in this week's Times Literary Supplement

Review by Marina Warner in this week's Times Literary Supplement of Edith Hall's new book on the cultural history of Iphegenia in Tauris.

Like everything by Marina Warner, it is worth reading several times.

I know this is 2013.

Nevertheless I was surprised (I nearly said shocked, but that would not be the right word) to see the BBC presenter at the Last Night of the Proms in an evening dress with bare shoulders.

Lord Reith would have made her wear a stole.

Involving Head Office in an investigation - the past week at work

Monday

Since Callum Smith became Director there seems to be less and less for me to do.  And looking about the office others also appear to be scrabbling about to look busy.  But perhaps it is just the long summer that has created this lull in activity.

The server down again, so no e-mails came into my In-box today.

At last I got to grips with a powerpoint presentation, and although it took most of the day to do I was pleased with the result.

Publication proofs to check in the afternoon.

Marcia Walsh (Deputy Director) unexpectedly absent, so that everyone wondered where she was until late afternoon and she rang Katie in accounts and true to her reputation as the office gossip Katie blurted out to everyone what had happened:  "Marcia's daughter split up with her boyfriend in a big row in the street last night and the police were called and Marcia was arrested!"

Tuesday

For some reason I woke up at 4 am and could not get back to sleep properly, so by the time I get to the office I was already weary and wanting an easy day.

One of the aspects of not having any major campaigns at the moment is that many staff do not have enough to do, and so a low-level bickering emerges.

Encouraging signs of activity on the internet shop - sales of publications are up.

I took the afternoon as holiday and drove to see a client I do freelance work for occasionally.  

Wednesday

It was not terribly warm in the office when I arrived, and I wondered when the heating will be turned on.

Callum Smith was in today, so things seemed busier, but although I like him a lot I am forced to concede that he is not a leader.  Vijay Singh was impossible to work with, but at least he knew what he wanted to do.  Callum Smith just seems to wait for orders from Alec Nussbaum.

In the afternoon I sent out an e-mail campaign.  Normally we do these through Head Office, but this one was so sensitive that Callum Smith asked me to do it personally.  I used DotMailer, taking ages to work out how to use it.

Thursday

Beautiful fog, like rippling sheets of white silk hanging across the landscape, the sun behind the fog making it glisten.

Pleased that an article I have written has appeared in a magazine we have long wanted to get into.

A visit from security personnel which was unusual as the office address is supposed to be confidential.

Friday

An attack on the Institute's computers, not it seems a very sophisticated one.  Callum Smith just wanted everything put right, but Marcia Walsh insisted on involving Head Office in an investigation.  "It was launched on the 9th" she told us.

I borrowed a laptop and wrote letters (we can't send e-mails until the investigation has been completed).

Gary (Library Room assistant) on holiday and nobody had thought to buy the newspapers, so I walked across to the little parade and got them.  And the rest of the day consisted of reading newspapers.  When 5 o'clock arrived I was one of the first to leave.

Congratulations to Tony Abbott.

Your victory is our victory.

This is no longer an internal Labour party matter

Are we able to celebrate the Unite union's "vindication" in the Falkirk debacle?

I'm afraid not.

Not until the report has been published.

Otherwise we only have the Labour party's assurances that there was no jiggery pokery.

"We the Labour party have looked into the behaviour of the Labour party and have concluded that the Labour party is entirely innocent".

Doesn't quite ring true does it.

This is no longer an internal Labour party matter.  Not only have journalists been called fascists and prospective parliamentary candidates accused of sleeping their way to the top.  The police have been called in to investigate - and this expenditure of public money makes it a legitimate matter of concern to us all.

And also is it not a question of trust among those people who aspire to be our political masters?

For all it's comical ineptitude and bad-tempered name calling the Falkirk incident is, as it stands, a form of cover-up.

There is no whitewash at the Falkirk Constituency Labour Party, we are being told.

I am not a crook, Len McClusky seems to be telling us.

Fine.

Prove it.

Publish the report.

Otherwise you risk going into the 2015 election with the Richard Nixon Endorsement for open and transparent government.

http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2013/09/falkirk 

The US did not "join in" until December 1941

President Obama is wrong to say when London was being bombed in the war the US joined in even though it was unpopular with the US population.

When London was being bombed in the Second World War the American ambassador in London, Joseph Kennedy, was sending back messages saying England was finished.

The US did not "join in" until December 1941, well after the Blitz was over.

We should not forget these things.

Inspiring

As a mild isolationist I was very cheered by this article in the Daily Express quoting Economic Secretary Sajid Javid:  http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/427357/Leaving-the-EU-is-nothing-to-be-afraid-of-minister-says

Also I enjoyed the front cover of this week's New Statesman.

I suppose they mean it as a rebuke but I find the image quite inspiring. 

In the left-wing hierarchy of ologies does multi-culturalism trump feminism?

After seeing the devastating report on female genital mutilation on Newsnight yesterday and earlier in the week I feel bound to re-ask the question:  in the left-wing hierarchy of ologies does multi-culturalism trump feminism?

Rape of young women is a heinous crime, except apparently when carried out by gangs of "vibrantly diverse" men in which case it can go on for years without much notice being taken.

Abortion on the grounds of sex selection is illegal except that doctors aborting female embryos (for no other reason than they are female) are not prosecuted. 

Female genital mutilation (which is apparently carried out on tiny children without anesthetic) is in theory illegal in the United Kingdom but in practice it is widespread and no-one in the criminal justice system much cares.

Of course lefty feminists will tell you that both multi-culturalism and feminism are equally valid and complementary and we need both to be truly "liberated".  In reality this is a load of hogwash.  Through the ideology of vibrantly diverse multiculturalism the United Kingdom is importing new forms of female oppression - and in any dispute multiculturalism will always trump feminism.

Self-important twerp

I used to think David Aaronovitch was a self-important twerp (in a newspaper seemingly staffed by self-important twerps).

Then I read this harsh article in today's Times and realised he is much nastier.

As a Conservative obviously I like to see lefties fall out with each other, but I think we are all demeaned by this sort of character attack.

David Aaronovitch was interviewed on Channel 4 News about half an hour ago and his body language was terrible. 

He could not hold the interviewer's eye but kept looking down and sideways as if he was deeply ashamed of himself.

I am very concerned at what is happening in Sinai and the impact on St Catherine's monastery.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/st-catherine-shutdown-monastery-sinai-unrest.html

UK growth is on track to outstrip rest of Europe

The Guardian is no friend of the Coalition government, so when even they are saying the economy is recovering we should pay attention:  "Strong services data signals UK growth is on track to outstrip rest of Europe.  PMI survey's all-sector reading hits 15-year high, with order books growing at fastest pace since Tony Blair became PM."  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/04/strong-services-pmi-uk-growth-europe

Happy days are here again, as the song goes.

The skies above are clear again.

The Labour Party's sunk again.

Happy days are here again.

Do issues of race trump issues of feminism

The Today programme this morning discussed the gender abortion story:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23968107

Personally I think all abortion is wrong, and therefore the idea of killing embryos according to gender is no different to killing them according to race or disability or latent sexual orientation or eye-colour or whether the dna suggests they might have dimples or not.

It's all equally disgusting.

But let us for a moment try to enter the mind of pro-abortion lefties and try to understand what hierarchy they are putting on the legal murder of embryos.

Do issues of race trump issues of feminism (for instance is it OK to kill girl embryos even though this is clearly discriminatory against women)?

Do issues of feminism trump race (for instance is it OK to ban immigrant communities from practising their vibrant multi-culturalism if it means killing girl embryos)?

Does the current option of abortion according to lifestyle choice (killing embryos because they are inconvenient to the mother) lend itself to facilitate the killing of embryos according to gender (for instance, can a vibrantly diverse mother kill her all her girl embryos, one after the other, by simply asserting that continuing with the pregnancies would cause injury to her mental health)?

182,000 abortions were funded by the NHS in 2011 (latest figures I can find) therefore we have a right to know what on earth our money is being used for.

When is the government going to do something about "auto renewal" of car insurance polices?

Is this not inertia selling, which I understood to be illegal.

Zurich car insurance is a practitioner of this kind of sharp practice, and is ENTIRELY unhelpful when you try to discuss the issue.

Basically the insurance companies are saying "we will steal money from you unless you specifically tell us not to".

Luckily I managed to cancel the direct debit before any money left my account, but how many people have fallen victim to this scam?

Ref http://www.confused.com/car-insurance/articles/car-insurance-auto-renewals-your-rights

The immigrant experience by Mamata Nanda on the Huffington Post website

Rather self-satisfied account of the immigrant experience by Mamata Nanda on the Huffington Post website:  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mamata-nanda/british-jobs-for-british-_b_3777231.html

"In 1960s and 70s, many young highly qualified science and engineering graduates came from India in search of a job. They were welcome then" says Mamata Nanda.

Welcomed by whom may I ask?

Who exactly welcomed you to the United Kingdom and facilitated your employment here?

It certainly was not the general population who have always opposed, by a considerable majority, the arrival of the post-war immigrants.

Is it not a disgrace that democracy has been set aside to allow your sojourn here?

Are you not a tiny bit ashamed of yourself Mamata Nanda to push yourself into someone's home when you are clearly not wanted or welcome?

And would it be an unreasonable question to ask when you intend to leave?

The distillation of Thatcherism

Mitya Pearson does not seem to have done much research in this rather shallow article for Left Foot Forward:  http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/09/the-thatcherite-legacy-is-a-paradoxical-conservative-party/

The distillation of Thatcherism can be summed up in three words - free to choose.

Yes, we urge you to live within your means.  Yes we tell you moderate things are stable (mediocre firma should be written on John Major's gravestone).  Yes we want everyone to stand on their own two feet and support themselves (with a gentle shove for those a little slow in getting off their backside).

But at the end of the day you are free to choose.

You want to lie in bed until midday?  You are free to do this.  Just don't expect others to support you financially.

You want to max out your credit card and run up debts you don't intend to pay back?  You are free, within the law, to do this.  But don't be surprised if you lose your credit rating and institutions stop trusting you.

You want to vote in Labour councils and Labour governments that are totally incontinent when spending other people's money?  You are free to vote these people into office.  Just remember the gleeful note left by Liam Byrne telling us there was no more money left after thirteen years of Labour maladministration - these people will take all your hard-earned taxes, squander them on vanity projects and wasteful fol de rols and then laugh in your face.

There is no paradox in Thatcherism.

At the end of the day we value freedom above everything.

And if (as will happen from time to time) a Labour government comes along and blows out all the candles we will light them up again.


(candle quote from Betjeman).

Message to the GMB union

My message to the GMB union is COME AND JOIN US !

You can have an influence on government policy through the Conservatives just as much as through the Labour party (and let's be frank, they have been moving away from you for about twenty years now).

Conservatives At Work http://www.conservativesatwork.org.uk/

It would be an eye-catching initiative that would radically change the political landscape, rebalance the Conservative party (not that it really needs rebalancing) and bring trade union leaders back into Number 10 complete with beer and sandwiches.

So what if Labour has jilted you.

Affiliate to the Conservative Trade Unionists.

Think how satisfying it would be to slap down all those Blairites who have been tormenting you for years.

The Labour party is never going back to the way it was pre-Blair, so it's time to start thinking imaginatively.

Come and join us!

Owen Jones is not happy about the Lobbying Bill, telling us:  "Government may be forcing their Gagging Bill through, but it is an unacceptable attack on democracy that should be met with non-compliance".

Is "non-compliance" a mealy-mouthed way of encouraging people to break the law?

Is this incitement one wonders?

Perhaps Mr Jones should reword his tweet, or take it down altogether.

Much as I enjoy the theory that a negative vote in the British House of Commons influenced the American administration to "seek consultation" from Congress before a Syrian strike, is it not more likely that President Obama does not really want to get involved in Syria in the first place, and although for form's sake he needs to sound tough (Kerry saying this is a Munich moment) he would actually be quite grateful if the proposals get voted down and he is "forced" by "weak caviling cowards" to do nothing.

As Angela Brazil (that writer of pithy aphorisms disguised as schoolgirl wisdom) once said:  it is pleasant when duty and inclination coincide.

Home thoughts from abroad

Vinnie Jones demonstrates that sometimes you have to go abroad to see British society clearly:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/vinnie-jones-claims-immigration-has-made-england-unrecognisable-and-not-the-country-i-grew-up-in-8795617.html

Home thoughts from abroad, indeed.

Du lieber Gott ! as Rupert Brooke would say.

Update:  and immediately there is a clamour of commentators pointing out the "irony" of Vinnie Jones complaining about immigration into the United Kingdom while living as an immigrant in the United States.

Independent writer Owen Jones actually calls him "thick" for not seeing this supposed irony (perhaps Owen Jones should also call him a chav, since his reaction is obviously an unthinking dismissal of working class thickos like Vinnie Jones daring to have an opinion on issues of the day).

However is it not the case that Vinnie Jones is actually a cultural refugee rather than an immigrant?  He says clearly that he is unable to return to the United Kingdom because the society has changed out of all recognition for him.  His exile is easy of course, and buoyed up by ample money and numerous diversions, but the pain of exile will be just as keen.

And is it not also ironic for Mehdi Hasan and other commentators from immigrant communities to be giving us their lordly opinions on this subject.  Vinnie Jones may be an immigrant in the United States, but he is there with the approval of the majority of the population.  How many post-war immigrants into the United Kingdom can claim the same?

Article by John Stephenson on the Left Foot Forward website

Misinformed article by John Stephenson on the Left Foot Forward website about the Conservative party and "Europe" (by which he means the EU):  http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/09/opinion-the-conservatives-will-live-to-regret-the-eu-referendum/

The Conservative party will not tear itself apart over "Europe" because there is no significant pro-EU faction left in the Conservative party - they have all died, retired or defected to the Lib Dems.

As for David Cameron, he is a self-avowed Euro-sceptic, the only Prime Minister ever to have used the national veto at an EU summit, and has promised a referendum on whether the people wish the United Kingdom to remain part of this out-moded sclerotic elitist geopolitical bloc.

Does that sound like a pro-European to you?

I am confident that when the time comes David Cameron will claim his place in history by extricating the United Kingdom from the EEC-EC-EU gintrap.

Out and into the world.

Rather drab and uninteresting Newsnight yesterday, so that one wonders if the programme has passed it's prime.

Nothing new to say about Syria, and an interminable item on football that went on so long I kept thinking "when is this going to end".

Article by Lord Ashcroft on his recent polling on the subject of immigration

Interesting article by Lord Ashcroft on his recent polling on the subject of immigration:  http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2013/09/from-l.html

He says that "Only a minority of voters thought Britain would have a firmer policy on immigration under a Conservative government rather than a coalition".

However a firm but fair policy would be in the three-point plan to address the issue of immigration without consent:

1  Halt all future immigration unless it has specific consent from the electorate (any party wishing to bring more people into the country to publish the number in their manifesto and not subsequently go over this number without a renewed mandate).

2  Use the tax system to move on economic migrants who are not serious about joining British society - the tax codes to bring down the wages of migrants to the approximate level of the country they have come from.

3  Implement a national policy of assimilation to completely merge all communities within two generations, the assimilation criteria to be linguistic, cultural, economic etc.

As for the argument that it is "impossible" to stop immigration from the EU, note needs to be taken of the events at Westminster last Thursday when an opportunistic party leader was able to channel popular feeling to entirely trash an international relationship.

No British equivalent to Seamus Heaney

Sunder Katwala says that there is/was no British equivalent to Seamus Heaney (he talks of Larkin, so presumably must be including dead poets as well as living ones).

Has Sunder Katwala not heard of Tennyson? (or Geoffrey Hill for that matter).

And in any case this "our poets are better than your poets" bragging seems puerile.

And also I don't much care for Seamus Heaney.

No glass of mine was ever raised to toast an Irish nationalist poet.

Lobbying by charities

A rather disingenuous article by Owen Jones in the Independent claiming that restrictions on lobbying by charities is an attack upon democracy http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-jones-under-the-disguise-of-fixing-lobbying-this-bill-will-crush-democratic-protest-8793224.html

Were charities impartial non-political organisations dedicated solely to the interests of the causes for which they have been registered he might have a point.

However anyone who have had any close contact with charities (as I have had over the years) will realise that most of them are staffed by lefties pursuing politically correct political agendas and only indirectly bothering themselves with the people they are supposed to be helping.

One national charity I worked with engaged in a bitter internal struggle to remove the word "Royal" from their name, wasting weeks of time over the issue and ultimately requiring the junking of all their literature, redoing websites, changing signage etc to reflect the name change.

Recently Save the Children, run by ex-New Labour executives, claimed that the United Kingdom was on a level with the Third World in terms of child starvation.

It would be interesting to take the top 500 charities in the United Kingdom and check the political affiliations of the people who run them.

Dr King advised us

Hugh Muir writes in the Guardian about the 50th anniversary of the Martin Luther King speech saying that it has implications for the United Kingdom http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/sep/01/meaning-martin-luther-king-speech-then-now

Black people in the United Kingdom would dearly love to be American-style black people - with historic grievances, centuries of fighting oppression, a widely admired blues and jazz culture etc.

Gary Younge so desperately wants the validation of being an American-style black person that he has physically relocated himself to America.

However the reality of black people in the United Kingdom is more prosaic.  There is an inscription from the Roman period which might (or might not) indicate one of the Roman garrison was black; there are a few exotic dandies as extras in 18th century paintings; throughout history black sailors have got off ships and spent a few nights at quayside hostels in the dock areas.  But these people are so few they do not register statistically.

The black community in the United Kingdom arrived as economic migrants in the 1950s and 1960s.

Their arrival was against the wishes of the majority, and the on-going subsequent arrival of black and minority ethnic people has been against the wishes of the majority.

Was Dr King only interested in the rights of black people, or were the rights of all people of concern to him?

If the latter, Hugh Muir needs to speculate on what Dr King might say about the way in which the majority of people in the United Kingdom have had their rights taken away in the matter of deciding who they should share their country with.

This is of more than just historic interest.

Given the tendency of BME people to vote Labour, the majority of British people have also had their democratic right to decide their government taken away - they now have to endure an BME veto in many marginal constituencies on deciding who is sent to Westminster.

Dr King advised us that a society built on an injustice cannot endure.  That is the relevance of his legacy to the United Kingdom.  Eventually the BME communities in the United Kingdom will have to apologise for what they have done and make amends to the people they have wronged.

Today I did my bit for the economy by buying a new car.