Off topic, I sold my car to a Belgian bloke last week and now am lumbered with a couple of 500 Euro notes! Nowhere will change them up, the bank wont let me pay them in (A Spanish bank!)... any ideas?
There are plenty of certain type of people who will pay you more than EUR 500 for each EUR 500 note !
'Labour's issue is not the policy itself (necessarily) but its deception about what was going on and its failure to get public support for what it was doing and why'
As admitted by Mandelson.
'Labour sent out ‘search parties’ for immigrants to get them to come to the UK, Lord Mandelson has admitted.
In a stunning confirmation that the Blair and Brown governments deliberately engineered mass immigration, the former Cabinet Minister and spin doctor said New Labour sought out foreign workers.
He also conceded that the influx of arrivals meant the party’s traditional supporters are now unable to find work.
By contrast, Labour leader Ed Miliband has said his party got it wrong on immigration but has refused to admit it was too high under Labour.
The annual net figure quadrupled under Labour from 48,000 people in 1997 to 198,000 by 2009.
Lord Mandelson’s remarks come three years after Labour officials denied claims by former adviser Andrew Neather that they deliberately encouraged immigration in order to change the make-up of Britain.
Mr Neather said the policy was designed to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’.
He said there was ‘a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural’.
Off topic, I sold my car to a Belgian bloke last week and now am lumbered with a couple of 500 Euro notes! Nowhere will change them up, the bank wont let me pay them in (A Spanish bank!)... any ideas?
Have you tried taking the receipt of sale for the car and copies of any docs you have about the car to the bank to show them when you pay in? If you can give them a reason for having the money then they should be ok....
'tim still sticking a big fat worm on the end of his troll fishing hook with "immigration is great" tattoo-ed on it ?'
Still trying to convince himself,nobody in the real world is listening.
After 'no more boom or bust' went down the proverbial, flooding the country with 3-4 million immigrants without the housing or infrastructure to support them,is New Labour's 'greatest achievement'.
@tim The man who jumped off the 100 floor building no doubt felt fine as he whistled past the 67th floor.
The problem is simple and obvious: the earth has finite resources and we aren't going to be finding another one any time soon. Meanwhile our rate of consumption of those resources continues unabated.
If our population keeps growing the best that we can hope for is that we die before the resources crisis strikes. Whether that arrives in 50 years, 100 years or 500 years (and I'd bet on a shorter rather than a longer time period), it will arrive unless we start planning ahead, and an essential part of that plan has to be planning for an optimal population.
Whooping with glee because Britain's population is rising is as silly as celebrating the warmth from the bonfire made of your dining table and chairs.
JJ's story this morning about an American Jew denied entry at Heathrow because of alleged anti-semitism has grown legs (& arms) in the blogsphere over the day.....the comments make the Telegraph look like a retirement home for gentlefolks....
'Immigration was inevitable and desirable given the birth rates of the seventies and eighties.'
You may not be aware but prior to New Labour we had immigration with an annual net figure of 48,000 in 97,the main difference was that it was managed and not the mass free-for-all mess we had under New Labour.
Immigration was inevitable and desirable given the birth rates of the seventies and eighties. You should be thanking Mandelson and demanding an apology from previous Govts for allowing the situation to arise.
And when people look back in twenty years time they will see the immigration Mandelson is referring to as a milestone in the country's history. And only fools will see it as a bad thing, while the majority pity Russia,Japan etc
Tim: the article refers to a countrys growth rate being depending on how many working age people there are in the country and how productive they are . There are still too many working age people in Britain who are not working and/or not productive. Labour might have been better advised to deal with that first before relying on immigration, especially as they were always going on about the evil of unemployment under the Tories.
Labour will - rightly - be blamed for its failure to deal with this issue, a policy which has harmed its own natural constituency above all.
I think it will be very tight between the top 3 parties for pole at the Euros, but as the elections are the same day as the locals, if the Tories win the Euros that will lead the headlines whatever happens in the locals and give them a big boost in the last big set of elections before the general election, while putting Labour on the backfoot. It would also sap UKIP's momentum and offer Cameron the chance to win back defectors to the Tory fold!
JJ's story this morning about an American Jew denied entry at Heathrow because of alleged anti-semitism has grown legs (& arms) in the blogsphere over the day.....the comments make the Telegraph look like a retirement home for gentlefolks....
A customs woman in a burqa took a photo of him!! I bet. The comments are great.
Lets hope the Home Office have got their story straight - the Burqa may not be the last of the holes in his account...
My guess is that it is a very particular slant. This anti-semitic official Mr Shilling spoke to: how many people in the UK call themselves by their first name, middle name initial and surname? It's common practice in the US, of course.
At great personal cost, I am blowing the whistle on a story that will make Assange, Snowden, and nay, even the Heathrow Burqa stories seem like so much confetti.
At the link below, you will see the first attempt to attack the massive space gun that has been developed at a hitherto-secret base to launch politicians into the sun. Sadly, the attack was pre-empted and ended in disaster when the launch was attacked by some sort of giant Melanogrammus aeglefinus.
@tim On that logic every country should be looking to grow their population, thus making the problem worse.
No, depends on their demographic profile. But countries like Japan have chosen decline over immigration putting such a burden on their child bearing population that the birth rate staggers along weighed down by debt and looking after an ageing population.
No, on your logic, first world countries should be looking to grow their population and other countries should be looking to grow people as one of their main exports (the traditional Irish model). Thus making the problem worse.
Controlling population growth should be right at the top of the agenda.
Immigration was inevitable and desirable given the birth rates of the seventies and eighties. You should be thanking Mandelson and demanding an apology from previous Govts for allowing the situation to arise.
And when people look back in twenty years time they will see the immigration Mandelson is referring to as a milestone in the country's history. And only fools will see it as a bad thing, while the majority pity Russia,Japan etc
Tim: the article refers to a countrys growth rate being depending on how many working age people there are in the country and how productive they are . There are still too many working age people in Britain who are not working and/or not productive. Labour might have been better advised to deal with that first before relying on immigration, especially as they were always going on about the evil of unemployment under the Tories.
Labour will - rightly - be blamed for its failure to deal with this issue, a policy which has harmed its own natural constituency above all.
You're ignoring the fact that people who move countries tend to work harder, put more emphasis on education, claim fewer benefits, invent more things and start more businesses.
Immigration was inevitable and desirable given the birth rates of the seventies and eighties. You should be thanking Mandelson and demanding an apology from previous Govts for allowing the situation to arise.
And when people look back in twenty years time they will see the immigration Mandelson is referring to as a milestone in the country's history. And only fools will see it as a bad thing, while the majority pity Russia,Japan etc
Immigration drives wages down and house prices up. Are you a homeowner with a portfolio full of uk retailer shares?
In 20 years time Labour's immigrants will be seen as the straw that broke the NHS, unless there is a Machiavellan scheme for forcibly repatriating them when they get old.
Immigration was inevitable and desirable given the birth rates of the seventies and eighties. You should be thanking Mandelson and demanding an apology from previous Govts for allowing the situation to arise.
And when people look back in twenty years time they will see the immigration Mandelson is referring to as a milestone in the country's history. And only fools will see it as a bad thing, while the majority pity Russia,Japan etc
Tim: the article refers to a countrys growth rate being depending on how many working age people there are in the country and how productive they are . There are still too many working age people in Britain who are not working and/or not productive. Labour might have been better advised to deal with that first before relying on immigration, especially as they were always going on about the evil of unemployment under the Tories.
Labour will - rightly - be blamed for its failure to deal with this issue, a policy which has harmed its own natural constituency above all.
You're ignoring the fact that people who move countries tend to work harder, put more emphasis on education, claim fewer benefits, invent more things and start more businesses.
I'm not ignoring these undeniably good things. I'm saying that governments have a duty to those who are born here to ensure that they can make the most of the opportunities available. The duty to citizens of this country is more important than what might benefit those who are not yet citizens.
It is quite wrong - as you seem to do - to focus on the good things immigrants (some of them ) bring while ignoring the plight of those left behind. There are plenty of unemployed people who have been abandoned by governments. It is wrong on so many levels to bring immigrants in to do the jobs that the unemployed here could and should be doing while taking taxes from those immigrants to pay for the unemployed to have a wasted life on benefits.
Immigration: yes - but in a a managed way and not as a substiture for dealing with unemployment for those already living here.
I would imagine Japan would do the same as the Gulf states have done with contract workers, to fill gaps in the labour market,if it becomes a major issue.
Looking at this on a national basis is a fool's errand. We have to look at this globally. We only have one world and we can't afford to get this wrong.
Any population target is inevitably going to be arbitrary, because we can't be sure of the optimal number of people. But we can be quite sure there is an upper limit to what the world can sustain indefinitely. And all the while, we're using non-renewable resources at a rapid rate.
We may well be stealing our lifestyle from our grandchildren. It won't be us that suffers the pain of our overconsumption.
Tim is right in pointing out that immigration benefits the economy.
But economics is not the only issue. Why should many too many houses be built in our villages, towns and cities because of the excessive volume of immigration? Who asked us if that is what we wanted?
For many people, the economic benefits of immigration are swamped by other factors.
It is wholly disingenuous to claim that the high levels of immigration permitted over the last 15 years were 'for our economic welfare'. It occurred through a cynical combination of disinterest and incompetence.
Off topic, I sold my car to a Belgian bloke last week and now am lumbered with a couple of 500 Euro notes! Nowhere will change them up, the bank wont let me pay them in (A Spanish bank!)... any ideas?
Post Office always works for me. Though has to be a main city branch.
'Poor children in Londons schools are now doing much better than they used to, and better than wealthier children outside London because standards have been lifted for all by immigrants.'
What are the comparisons with Bradford,Birmingham & Peterborough?
Tim is right in pointing out that immigration benefits the economy.
But economics is not the only issue. Why should many too many houses be built in our villages, towns and cities because of the excessive volume of immigration? Who asked us if that is what we wanted?
For many people, the economic benefits of immigration are swamped by other factors.
It is wholly disingenuous to claim that the high levels of immigration permitted over the last 15 years were 'for our economic welfare'. It occurred through an unhealthy combination of cynanism and incompetence.
It occurred largely through a combination of 15 years economic growth and a low birth rate 20 years before.
As for "who asked you" well the British voted in Govts who signed up to free movement of labour in Europe for forty years
Immigration had precisely nothing to do with low birthrates before it ballooned out of control.
It is agreed that immigrants were attracted by the economic conditions in the UK. But that is why it would have been necessary for a competent and concientious govt to control it, to prevent the side effects from being too damaging.We were failed by the last govt not foreseeing something that was entirely predictable.
If the GDP of a country increases by 10% but the population rises by 20% then the population will have a lower standard of living . If the population of a country falls by 20% but the GDP falls by only 10% then the smaller number of people will have a higher standard of living .
I just noticed a photo of Karl Lagerfeld - got me wondering: Is there a more pretentious git in the world than Karl Lagerfeld? Is there another human being who suffers from a worse case of NBPE?
So she is putting up a challenge to Nick or whoever. I think she will be a formidable candidate. I did expect her to move over to Ken Clarke's seat. But maybe Ken will not take more time to watch Cricket.
@tim On that logic every country should be looking to grow their population, thus making the problem worse.
No, depends on their demographic profile. But countries like Japan have chosen decline over immigration putting such a burden on their child bearing population that the birth rate staggers along weighed down by debt and looking after an ageing population.
No, on your logic, first world countries should be looking to grow their population and other countries should be looking to grow people as one of their main exports (the traditional Irish model). Thus making the problem worse.
Controlling population growth should be right at the top of the agenda.
So you want people in countries with ageing populations to have fewer children? Well they are, Japan Russia, South Korea,Italy etc. Other countries have gone the opposite route, UK,USA etc.
Controlling population purely to hit an arbitrary total is a strange aim anyway, people said the same in 1950, why? Nobody seriously thinks famines are rising compared to 30-40 years ago do they?
Cath Smith (someone who works for Jeremy Corbyn and worked for Katy Clark and Bob Marshall Andrews. So she must a dangerous lefty. Stood in Wyre & Preston North in 2010) vs Gillian Troughton (a Cllr in Copeland)
MODERATED The Searchlight of Sleaze has picked out the figure of Tom Watson scuttling about in the shadows of Falkirk, and pb.com's Arch Whiner is making desperate attempts at diversion.
It's fun watching him get ever more crosser as the evening progresses. He'll be frothing at the mouth over pets shortly.
Immigration was inevitable and desirable given the birth rates of the seventies and eighties. You should be thanking Mandelson and demanding an apology from previous Govts for allowing the situation to arise.
And when people look back in twenty years time they will see the immigration Mandelson is referring to as a milestone in the country's history. And only fools will see it as a bad thing, while the majority pity Russia,Japan etc
Immigration drives wages down and house prices up. Are you a homeowner with a portfolio full of uk retailer shares?
In 20 years time Labour's immigrants will be seen as the straw that broke the NHS, unless there is a Machiavellan scheme for forcibly repatriating them when they get old.
Immigration Is not the only factor in wages, you think immigration drove down wages in the USA 1850-1950? As for housing well that depends on whether you build any or not.
You're on a loser arguing that an increased population has led to higher food prices and lower living standards.
If you have a virgin continent uninhabited except by people you deem untermenschen, the abolition of the slave trade and the industrial revolution in full swing, the supply of work is getting on for infinitely elastic. In modern Britain it isn't.
I've sometimes said Unions have been pretty useless in candidates selections before 2010. I see they remain pretty inept if they believe you could recruit 100 people in a CLP with barely 200 members, write it in a public document, boost it like a teenager saying "I've a bigger willie than you" and think you can get away without your enemies noticing and complaining about it!
The Falkirk thing could turn out very messy for Ed Miliband. Until now he's tried to build his reputation on ruthlessness and steel - humiliated his own brother, would sack Balls at any moment etc. If he appears impotent in the face of union stitch-ups and strong-arm tactics then that could be curtains. And his Blairite enemies think so too - hence the story gotten up today that Ed is the snivelling vassal of Owen Jones (whoever he is). A lot of people in Labour don't have Ed's best interest at heart. It's so wrong!
The Searchlight of Sleaze has picked out the figure of Tom Watson scuttling about in the shadows of Falkirk, and pb.com's Arch Whiner is making desperate attempts at diversion.
It's fun watching him get ever more crosser as the evening progresses. He'll be frothing at the mouth over pets shortly.
Apparently this spat is manna from heaven for rEd - it's all engineered to make him look tough. Maximum toughness will be proven at PMQs tomorrow I expect.
Some interesting stats from an article in The Banker on the fall of UK banks in the league table of global profits.
Since 2007, the share of global banking profits earned by UK banks has fallen by half from 10% to 5%. Over the same period China's banks have increased their profits share from 4% to 29%.
Much of this is due to losses suffered in the financial crisis and the consequent bailout and downsizing of the Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland groups. The extent of this downsizing is evidenced by the fact that, since 2007, the top four UK banking groups will have shed 189,000 jobs by the end of this year.
But the fall in profits and downsizing of operations and balance sheets has not been even across all groups.
HSBC Holdings Plc, for example, reported a $20.6 billion profit in 2012, showing both the strength of its management and its Asian roots and operations. Barclays by contrast made a meagre profit of £248 million and the two bad boys, Lloyds and RBoS lost £570 million and £5.17 billion respectively.
Given the retrenchment of the intervened UK banking groups and their reorientation towards domestic retail and corporate banking, it is difficult to see British banks even returning to the shares of global profits enjoyed pre-crisis.
We can argue whether this is a good or bad development, but, like North Sea Oil and Gas, it is another chunk of tax revenue and economic output that seems to have become lost to UK governments forever.
@starkdawning Whilst the Unions might have some questions to answer about how the election of Ed was achieved, the only person who was humiliated was David Miliband, who did not work hard enough to achieve his goal.
Neither is/was the answer to Labour's problems IMHO.
'Stunned PM David Cameron quizzed on Scottish independence.. by politics students in Kazakhstan
Cameron handled the exchange with ease but some of the UK Government entourage were mildly exasperated. One official said: “You go halfway around the world and what’s the first thing they want to know about – Alex Salmond.”'
Ed should stop funding these trade unions! The more he gives the more they take, and this Falkirk thing, with its secret reports and murky allegations, is creating around Labour the putrid waft of skulduggery and sleaze. Ed must be careful or the story could provide the drum beat to the next election. As for this Owen Jones character - it's clear he has some sort of hold over Ed, some dark and malevolent Rasputin-like influence. It can't be healthy. Ed should sack him from the Shadow Cabinet!
The Searchlight of Sleaze has picked out the figure of Tom Watson scuttling about in the shadows of Falkirk, and pb.com's Arch Whiner is making desperate attempts at diversion.
It's fun watching him get ever more crosser as the evening progresses. He'll be frothing at the mouth over pets shortly.
Apparently this spat is manna from heaven for rEd - it's all engineered to make him look tough. Maximum toughness will be proven at PMQs tomorrow I expect.
And as if by magic from the WhineMasterGeneral himself -
'I must learn my lesson, that a Labour leader being attacked by a left wing trade unionist is good for the Tories.'
The story of Louis "Chip" Cantor being denied entry to the UK, allegedly "because" he is Jewish, seems to have spread on the internet just today, and when I read the story I immediately thought it was full of holes.
I am sort-of assuming that investigative journalists and web-geeks will get to the truth of the story, and will find the other side of the story, find the immigration officers involved, and work out (approximately) what happened. For example, who was the official supposedly in a burqa who took his fingerprints?
Anyway, it reminds me of the picture of the red shirt man shown in the Independent nespaper a few days ago, who was mistaken for being Edward Snowden. Who was he? I had assumed that he would be found, and identified, and would become a media celebrity in the style of the Guy Goma / Guy Kewney story. Why hasn't he been found, identified, traced, and celbrityified?
Tim is right in pointing out that immigration benefits the economy.
But economics is not the only issue. Why should many too many houses be built in our villages, towns and cities because of the excessive volume of immigration? Who asked us if that is what we wanted?
For many people, the economic benefits of immigration are swamped by other factors.
It is wholly disingenuous to claim that the high levels of immigration permitted over the last 15 years were 'for our economic welfare'. It occurred through an unhealthy combination of cynanism and incompetence.
It occurred largely through a combination of 15 years economic growth and a low birth rate 20 years before.
As for "who asked you" well the British voted in Govts who signed up to free movement of labour in Europe for forty years
Immigration had precisely nothing to do with low birthrates before it ballooned out of control.
It is agreed that immigrants were attracted by the economic conditions in the UK. But that is why it would have been necessary for a competent and concientious govt to control it, to prevent the side effects from being too damaging.We were failed by the last govt not foreseeing something that was entirely predictable.
All parties in this country who get MPs elected have supported,and support, free movement of labour. There's no point complaining that Europe is such an unimportant issue to most people that they won't vote for a party that doesn't believe in free movement.
And as for not being listened to well NIMBY's never bloody stop being listened to and pandered to. It's the Englishmans right to buy a new house in a field and then whine about any new houses being built in the next field until the whining becomes so frigging loud that no houses get built and then NIMBY's can spend more of their time blaming immigrants for pushing house prices up.
You're being a tad disingenuous there Tim. There has been plenty of immigration from outside the EU which is in governments' control. People are entitled to expect a government to be honest with them about why - when there is significant unemployment in the country - even poorer people from outside the EU are needed and to get explicit for such a policy. They are also entitled to expect that government to make sure that such immigration is managed sensibly and that its effects - both good and bad - are thought about and handled well. None of that was really done with Labour and it is that dishonesty which is now causing them problems politically and pain and anger to many of their constituents.
There was quite an interesting article on precisely this issue by Janice Turner in Saturday's Times when she talked to people in Doncaster both about the effect of immigration and their sense of abandonment by Labour as old industries declined and such jobs as replaced them were taken by people that they felt had been invited in by those who did not have to suffer the consequences. That is a level of disconnect which is worrying and which political parties need to engage with properly not sneer at people because their children aren't as bright as some immigrant children.
Not all immigrants are budding geniuses and entrepreneurs. Some are downright undesirable. Labour failed until relatively late to distinguish between the two.
I see John Paul II is getting closer to sainthood. Is it just me or are they getting dangerously close at making it too easy to become a saint? I mean, he wasn't pope that long ago, hardly enough to stand the test of time, and already on his way. Now that Popes are retiring as well, how long before one decides to jump start the canonization process while his predecessor is still alive. Only a short step then from declaring themselves living saints.
Seems a bit Roman Emperory, but then I suppose the pope is technically the Pontifex Maximus.
President Morsi ha been told by the military's top man to go. Reportedly interior ministry forces such as the police etc have been offered up under control of the Army by the Interior Minister on the basis they wont obey the President.
If this is so (and you haven't seen Interior Ministry forces up to much so far) Morsi has few options there than hoping for a compromise with the opposition, who scent blood now, or his support and its associated militias going to war.
Comments
'Labour's issue is not the policy itself (necessarily) but its deception about what was going on and its failure to get public support for what it was doing and why'
As admitted by Mandelson.
'Labour sent out ‘search parties’ for immigrants to get them to come to the UK, Lord Mandelson has admitted.
In a stunning confirmation that the Blair and Brown governments deliberately engineered mass immigration, the former Cabinet Minister and spin doctor said New Labour sought out foreign workers.
He also conceded that the influx of arrivals meant the party’s traditional supporters are now unable to find work.
By contrast, Labour leader Ed Miliband has said his party got it wrong on immigration but has refused to admit it was too high under Labour.
The annual net figure quadrupled under Labour from 48,000 people in 1997 to 198,000 by 2009.
Lord Mandelson’s remarks come three years after Labour officials denied claims by former adviser Andrew Neather that they deliberately encouraged immigration in order to change the make-up of Britain.
Mr Neather said the policy was designed to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’.
He said there was ‘a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural’.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324112/Lord-Mandelson-Immigrants-We-sent-search-parties-hard-Britons-work.html#ixzz2XuQi46DC
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
@BBCNormanS: Union sources in Falkirk row point to Ed Miliband video endorsing right of Unions to "buy" party membership http://bit.ly/13jm79A
Full broadside from Unite against Labour over Falkirk tonight: accuses party of "extreme over-reaction" and "anti-union agenda".
A population growth of 5% over a decade where we have had no growth overall since 2006, means that we are on average poorer and more crowded.
A double Whammy.
Per Capita GDP growth, with a low Gini coefficient is what we need.
The problem is simple and obvious: the earth has finite resources and we aren't going to be finding another one any time soon. Meanwhile our rate of consumption of those resources continues unabated.
If our population keeps growing the best that we can hope for is that we die before the resources crisis strikes. Whether that arrives in 50 years, 100 years or 500 years (and I'd bet on a shorter rather than a longer time period), it will arrive unless we start planning ahead, and an essential part of that plan has to be planning for an optimal population.
Whooping with glee because Britain's population is rising is as silly as celebrating the warmth from the bonfire made of your dining table and chairs.
'Immigration was inevitable and desirable given the birth rates of the seventies and eighties.'
You may not be aware but prior to New Labour we had immigration with an annual net figure of 48,000 in 97,the main difference was that it was managed and not the mass free-for-all mess we had under New Labour.
Labour will - rightly - be blamed for its failure to deal with this issue, a policy which has harmed its own natural constituency above all.
At the link below, you will see the first attempt to attack the massive space gun that has been developed at a hitherto-secret base to launch politicians into the sun. Sadly, the attack was pre-empted and ended in disaster when the launch was attacked by some sort of giant Melanogrammus aeglefinus.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/02/russian_rocket_crash/
Spread this message down the tubes! The truth must out!
If this message gets deleted, they are on to me and I will not be able to ... MODERATED;)
Controlling population growth should be right at the top of the agenda.
Not all immigrants are of equal value to the economy.
I do not want to be looked after in my retirement by Kosovar gangsters, I would rather be looked after by delightful Philipino Nurses.
If we are worried about how we look after our elderly, then set the migration quotas accordingly, by skills, not let in all and sundry.
In 20 years time Labour's immigrants will be seen as the straw that broke the NHS, unless there is a Machiavellan scheme for forcibly repatriating them when they get old.
It is quite wrong - as you seem to do - to focus on the good things immigrants (some of them ) bring while ignoring the plight of those left behind. There are plenty of unemployed people who have been abandoned by governments. It is wrong on so many levels to bring immigrants in to do the jobs that the unemployed here could and should be doing while taking taxes from those immigrants to pay for the unemployed to have a wasted life on benefits.
Immigration: yes - but in a a managed way and not as a substiture for dealing with unemployment for those already living here.
'But countries like Japan have chosen decline'
I would imagine Japan would do the same as the Gulf states have done with contract workers, to fill gaps in the labour market,if it becomes a major issue.
Any population target is inevitably going to be arbitrary, because we can't be sure of the optimal number of people. But we can be quite sure there is an upper limit to what the world can sustain indefinitely. And all the while, we're using non-renewable resources at a rapid rate.
We may well be stealing our lifestyle from our grandchildren. It won't be us that suffers the pain of our overconsumption.
But economics is not the only issue. Why should many too many houses be built in our villages, towns and cities because of the excessive volume of immigration? Who asked us if that is what we wanted?
For many people, the economic benefits of immigration are swamped by other factors.
It is wholly disingenuous to claim that the high levels of immigration permitted over the last 15 years were 'for our economic welfare'. It occurred through a cynical combination of disinterest and incompetence.
'Poor children in Londons schools are now doing much better than they used to, and better than wealthier children outside London because standards have been lifted for all by immigrants.'
What are the comparisons with Bradford,Birmingham & Peterborough?
It is agreed that immigrants were attracted by the economic conditions in the UK. But that is why it would have been necessary for a competent and concientious govt to control it, to prevent the side effects from being too damaging.We were failed by the last govt not foreseeing something that was entirely predictable.
If the population of a country falls by 20% but the GDP falls by only 10% then the smaller number of people will have a higher standard of living .
@GaryGibbonBlog
Abu Qatada – your plane awaits http://bit.ly/19TSiiu
Cath Smith (someone who works for Jeremy Corbyn and worked for Katy Clark and Bob Marshall Andrews. So she must a dangerous lefty. Stood in Wyre & Preston North in 2010)
vs
Gillian Troughton (a Cllr in Copeland)
The Searchlight of Sleaze has picked out the figure of Tom Watson scuttling about in the shadows of Falkirk, and pb.com's Arch Whiner is making desperate attempts at diversion.
It's fun watching him get ever more crosser as the evening progresses. He'll be frothing at the mouth over pets shortly.
Via @MichaelLCrick & Channel 4 News: The Battle of Falkirk between Labour & their biggest donor Red Len's Unite... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrpHWthm-Mw
Are you trying to build houses in a field? Not sure what made me think of that, to be honest.
Indeed.
The Searchlight of Sleaze has picked out the figure of Tom Watson scuttling about in the shadows of Falkirk, and pb.com's Arch Whiner is making desperate attempts at diversion.
It's fun watching him get ever more crosser as the evening progresses. He'll be frothing at the mouth over pets shortly.
Apparently this spat is manna from heaven for rEd - it's all engineered to make him look tough. Maximum toughness will be proven at PMQs tomorrow I expect.
Since 2007, the share of global banking profits earned by UK banks has fallen by half from 10% to 5%. Over the same period China's banks have increased their profits share from 4% to 29%.
Much of this is due to losses suffered in the financial crisis and the consequent bailout and downsizing of the Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland groups. The extent of this downsizing is evidenced by the fact that, since 2007, the top four UK banking groups will have shed 189,000 jobs by the end of this year.
But the fall in profits and downsizing of operations and balance sheets has not been even across all groups.
HSBC Holdings Plc, for example, reported a $20.6 billion profit in 2012, showing both the strength of its management and its Asian roots and operations. Barclays by contrast made a meagre profit of £248 million and the two bad boys, Lloyds and RBoS lost £570 million and £5.17 billion respectively.
Given the retrenchment of the intervened UK banking groups and their reorientation towards domestic retail and corporate banking, it is difficult to see British banks even returning to the shares of global profits enjoyed pre-crisis.
We can argue whether this is a good or bad development, but, like North Sea Oil and Gas, it is another chunk of tax revenue and economic output that seems to have become lost to UK governments forever.
Whilst the Unions might have some questions to answer about how the election of Ed was achieved, the only person who was humiliated was David Miliband, who did not work hard enough to achieve his goal.
Neither is/was the answer to Labour's problems IMHO.
'Stunned PM David Cameron quizzed on Scottish independence.. by politics students in Kazakhstan
Cameron handled the exchange with ease but some of the UK Government entourage were mildly exasperated. One official said: “You go halfway around the world and what’s the first thing they want to know about – Alex Salmond.”'
http://tinyurl.com/qj8s98e
And as if by magic from the WhineMasterGeneral himself -
'I must learn my lesson, that a Labour leader being attacked by a left wing trade unionist is good for the Tories.'
Yes, tim, we believe you.
It's all been carefully planned and plotted.
or something.
Perhaps Sky and BBC should tune into the CCTV cams.
It would demonstrate that the fight for democracy is truly global.
I think rEd is asleep behind it.
There working day is a lot longer than one would have thought with a lot of meet and greet and driving VIPs around.
http://inrng.com/2013/07/tour-de-france-podium-hostess-interview/
I am sort-of assuming that investigative journalists and web-geeks will get to the truth of the story, and will find the other side of the story, find the immigration officers involved, and work out (approximately) what happened. For example, who was the official supposedly in a burqa who took his fingerprints?
Anyway, it reminds me of the picture of the red shirt man shown in the Independent nespaper a few days ago, who was mistaken for being Edward Snowden. Who was he? I had assumed that he would be found, and identified, and would become a media celebrity in the style of the Guy Goma / Guy Kewney story. Why hasn't he been found, identified, traced, and celbrityified?
There was quite an interesting article on precisely this issue by Janice Turner in Saturday's Times when she talked to people in Doncaster both about the effect of immigration and their sense of abandonment by Labour as old industries declined and such jobs as replaced them were taken by people that they felt had been invited in by those who did not have to suffer the consequences. That is a level of disconnect which is worrying and which political parties need to engage with properly not sneer at people because their children aren't as bright as some immigrant children.
Not all immigrants are budding geniuses and entrepreneurs. Some are downright undesirable. Labour failed until relatively late to distinguish between the two.
Seems a bit Roman Emperory, but then I suppose the pope is technically the Pontifex Maximus.
President Morsi ha been told by the military's top man to go. Reportedly interior ministry forces such as the police etc have been offered up under control of the Army by the Interior Minister on the basis they wont obey the President.
If this is so (and you haven't seen Interior Ministry forces up to much so far) Morsi has few options there than hoping for a compromise with the opposition, who scent blood now, or his support and its associated militias going to war.
Neither looks great...