The Aged P

439,478 British citizens recently signed a petition asking David Cameron and his government to “stop all immigration and close the UK borders until ISIS is defeated”

This was the government’s response….

The UK government will not close Britain’s borders. It will ensure access for legitimate travellers and trade whilst operating its borders securely to protect the public from the threat of terrorism.

The UK government has no intention of closing Britain’s borders, as this would create more problems than it would solve. The UK remains ‘open for business’ for legitimate travellers and trade. However, we continue to operate our borders securely and to enforce our immigration laws. This includes carrying out 100% checks on arriving passengers in order to identify any criminal, security and immigration concerns. Given recent events in Paris, Border Force has intensified checks on people, goods and vehicles entering the UK from the near continent and elsewhere, undertaking additional and targeted security checks against passengers and vehicles travelling to France via both maritime and rail ports and a number of airports across the country.

Phew…that’s a relief….makes it sound as if our borders are like this

But then you read this

 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimate that in 2014, 8.3 million people living in the UK were born abroad, around 13% of the total population of the UK. Of these, 3 million were from countries now in the European Union and 5.3 million were from non-EU countries.

…and you realise our borders are really like this…

We hear from James Kirkup, a resident hack at David Cameron’s fan club newsletter (aka the Telegraph) that the Tory Party machine is now big into “Data Electioneering”. Apparently this is the equivalent of the supermarket loyalty card where you use information gathered at the checkout to decide how you will stock your shelves

 It would amass information about voters and seats, information that could be used to ensure that the party knows where the electorate is, what it thinks, what it wants.The result is an extraordinarily extensive – and expensive – programme of opinion polls and focus groups generating huge volumes of data about voters’ views and preferences

 In other words the quaintly old fashioned idea of a political party being the coming together of a group of individuals with a common view of political principles and ideas which then seeks to persuade the voters to elect them into government is now so yesterday. Instead you fashion your policies around consumer research, social media reaction and, eventually, product testing. Presumably, after all that, you come up with a to do list which will aim to please mumsnet, greenpeace and the Daily Mail…

Good luck with that.

Of course, it’s all very expensive for the Tories – but when you have the bosses of the big global corporations who do well out of the EU trough and cheap labour via uncontrolled immigration in your pocket then why worry? OK your party membership at local level is collapsing but, like the banks, who needs branches when you can centralise?

Hence the reshuffle, aimed, we are told at

women, especially those with young families. Such women, alongside Ukip supporters who used to vote Tory, were a key audience for the reshuffle, both precisely identified by that polling operation for a data-driven reshuffle that is without precedent in British politics.

Odd, though, that “UKIP supporters” should be furrowing brows amidst all those data drivers at Tory HQ…..UKIP, a party led by political outsiders, permanently cash strapped with only the bare bones of a professional cadre and with no support from any national media outlet yet which consistently  polls well ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Enough, if it continues, to possibly win a seat or two, certainly enough to undermine the chances of the Tories getting a working majority in 2015.

There is little evidence yet of a fall in Ukip support now the European Parliament elections have passed, confounding the expectations of pundits who believed the European election victory was the “peak Ukip moment”. Our estimates have Farage’s party at 14.8 per cent, down just 0.1 per cent on last month. The Liberal Democrats, however, continue to slide to new record lows. This month they register just 8.8 per cent, down 0.5 per cent on last month, and an all-time low under our new methodology.

Much ink has been spilt, of course, over a lack of clarity over UKIP’s policies on tax, the NHS etc and, to be fair, some of this criticism has been justified. But then to what extent can people be clear about the policies of the three establishment parties on these issues. However most voters are aware that UKIP wants to withdraw from the EU (not negotiate) and impose stricter controls on immigration – and they say you cannot have one without the other. The three establishment parties claim to be concerned about uncontrolled immigration but don’t really want to leave the EU. They also have hang ups about upsetting the high priests of political correctness in the media. UKIP couldn’t care less about the media, focus groups or pontificating pundits – what you see is what you get and that message has resonated, pitching through all the spin and PR noise of modern politics.

One comment on the Kirkup piece (from Telegraf) encapsulated the vacuity and shallowness of the Tory data obsession “It’s good to know that politics is now simply a marketing campaign involving a brand on an empty box that once used to contain principles.”  But then what can you really expect from a party led by “a onetime PR man for ruthlessly profitable trash TV”

Good piece on the Tory/Lib Dem Nannygate fiasco and the backwash from Immigration Minister James Brokenshire’s recent speech

James Brokenshire, the new Conservative immigration minister, accused better-off families and big businesses of benefiting from the recent arrival of foreign workers in Britain. By contrast, “ordinary, hard-working people” have not felt the economic benefits of immigration, the minister said.

Much of the grumbling from the metropolitan elite and sharp elbowed business types about Brokenshire is evidence that the accusation hit home. But quote of the week must come from Tory Stewart Jackson, MP for Peterborough, a town straining to cope with an influx of 25,000 immigrants over the last ten years.

Mr Jackson backed the immigration minister. “James Brokenshire hit the nail on the head,” he said. “There’s a divide, with Tarquin and Jocasta on one side, in their 4×4, sipping lattes and enjoying having a cheap nanny and builder. On the other side are Mavis and Bert in Crewe, who see their children struggling to get a home and their grandchildren being crowded out of the local schools.”

Just think, without Farage and UKIP gaining traction over the last two years, this public conversation just would not be happening….

PS….notice how Labour is keeping very quiet….I wonder why?

Regular Daily Telegraph pundit Peter Oborne pens a worrrying piece about the impact on the social fabric of Britain after January 1^st when Romanians and Bulgarians, as citizens of the EU, will have unrestricted access to the UK.

The new migrants will be hungry for jobs, and are bound to price some British workers out of the market. They will have the right to use our schools and NHS, which are already creaking. They will need housing, and welfare benefits.

Business leaders will love that for lowering labour costs. The middle classes will also welcome the prospect of even cheaper servants

But there is a cost to the social fabric, and it is always the poor and powerless who pay the highest price.

Precisely

Oborne talks about how Cameron, Miliband and other leading politicians need to have the courage to stand up to the EU and develop a strategy to make access far more difficult.

The moral case for such drastic action is very strong. Despite tentative signs of recovery, Britain still faces an economic emergency. Nearly one million young people, almost 20 per cent of the labour force under 25, are out of work. Some of their jobs would surely go to the new Eastern European migrants. Mr Cameron should argue that this is a situation no civilised government can tolerate.

“What’s that noise?” I hear you say.

Don’t you know? It’s cultural icon Bonnie Greer crying “Xenophobia”. It’s Tory minister Anna Soubry yelling “scaremonger”

Only Greer called the X word out to Diane James. Soubry used the S word to Nigel Farage. Both did it on BBC Question Time. But not to a highly “respected” media pundit like Oborne but to James and  Farage because they belonged to UKIP.

Oddly enough Oborne doesn’t mention UKIP at all in his piece (quelle surprise) which is strange because there is nothing original in his article….UKIP has been saying exactly the same for several years.

So, Mr Oborne repeat after me……

UKIP HAS BEEN SAYING EXACTLY THE SAME FOR SEVERAL YEARS…..

Oh dear Peter….you’d rather choke than say that wouldn’t you!!!

Tim Wigmore is one of those bright young chaps at the Telegraph who have been tasked with bringing errant Tory voters back into the Cameron fold and away from UKIP. One prong of the strategy is the Vote UKIP get Miliband mantra being pimped by Toby Young’s Unite The Right crusade. The key message of UTR is for UKIP to stand down in key marginals and not rock the boat in safer Conservative constituencies. The result? Cameron stays at No !0 and can then renege on another “cast iron guarantee” after producing some sort of fudged, face saving “agreement “ full of vague rhetoric and short on hard detail.

But young Tim is pushing forward on the other flank by saying all the great unwashed outside the metro media/cultural bubble are just being fed a false narrative of scare stories about issues like Immigration and the EU and, because they are outside the bubble they really aren’t sophisticated enough to grasp the real “facts”

Take immigration…

As you may have read today, migrants are more likely to pay taxes and less likely to take benefits than Brits.

There you are, says Tim. These are “facts” fresh from the “experts” so quit all this nonsense about immigrants being a burden on the state – it’s the Brits who are sucking at the teat.

But hang on a minute Tim. From whence do those figures come? Could they be, as Douglas Carswell suggests, a tad questionable?

The “experts” who make such claims have failed to look at all the evidence. Those who insist that migrants are less likely to claim benefits tend to draw their data from the Labour Force Survey, which relies on respondents reporting claims to benefits, rather than actual data on claims made.

Working from other sources, however, such as HMRC and ONS, quite a different picture emerges

There are nearly half a million migrants claiming working tax credit in the UK.

 Migrants are at least 20% more likely to be claiming working tax credit than the rest of the population.

More migrants claim working tax credit than claim all of the main out-of-work benefits together.

 Migrants form a much higher proportion of those claiming working tax credits than of those claiming any out-of work benefit

So maybe those UKIP “scare stories” are not just stories, Tim….just saying..

In fact it’s Tim who spreads the scare story.

A ban on immigration would mean higher taxes, lower spending and a higher deficit.

Now that is over egging the pudding, Tim. UKIP has never said ban all immigration. We just believe in Controlled Immigration where the main drivers are the skills sets required by the economy and the ability of our social infrastructure – housing stock, schools, healthcare etc – to absorb those numbers efficiently and effectively.

Now, Tim, just scribble about something else until the DT gets the next missive from Tory HQ

Wow – that was unexpected..lol…

The country’s top GP yesterday rejected a Government crackdown on health tourism as ‘xenophobic’.

Dr Clare Gerada, of the Royal College of General Practitioners, insisted doctors would not act as ‘a new border agency’ by asking about the immigration status of patients.

And she cast doubt on the findings of a Government report warning of the huge cost of foreign visitors and short-term migrants.

Of course, I mean since they gave up after hours care our GPs have so little time in which they can spend their six figure taxpayer funded salary.

Once again the medical trade unions pose as monks and nuns, serving the people with no thought of enriching themselves – it really beggars belief that they still feel they can pretend they have no wish to be soiled by the mere mention of money.

Now it so happens that Cameron, May and company are trying to dodge a bullet by getting doctors, landlords and bosses the responsibility of operating border checks on behalf of those who are supposed to protect our borders. As UKIP has suggested we can cut out all this franchising out of border control by ensuring that entry to the UK via our seaports and airports is implemented in a robust and efficient way and “health tourism” costs could be reduced by making the possession of an adequate health insurance policy is a condition for the granting of any visa, or even, going further than UKIP, a condition of entry for any non UK passport holder who wants to come into Britain

However it must be made clear to Dr Gerada that it is not for her to refuse the instructions of an employer to administer/collect such charges. Fortunately it appears that she does not speak for a majority of her colleagues.

“Let’s have a debate about immigration” is politics speak for “I am about to fob you off with meaningless blather and pretend that something can be done.”

Always beware of politicians who call for a “debate” about an issue. What they really mean is a series of carefully orchestrated statements from key figures within the Westminster bubble. The one thing they do not want to hear about is anything from the great unwashed who live outside that bubble.

Which is why  Yvette Cooper deserves some praise for blurting out the truth…

 Labour’s Yvette Cooper surely had a point today when she said that politicians of all sorts should be more candid about how much – and how little – they can really do on immigration.

She said: “It’s also about being honest with people about what impact you can have and what practical measures there can be, rather than getting into a kind of arms race of rhetoric on immigration, which doesn’t help anybody because they just don’t believe it.”

• You see there is absolutely nothing that any British government can do about immigrants from within the EU because we have unilaterally surrendered control of our own borders to Brussels.
• There is also nothing we can do about immigrants who arrive here either legally or illegally from outside the EU because we have unilaterally acknowledged the European Court of Human Rights as superior to British courts of law.

So when messrs Cameron, Clegg and Miliband give us “straight talk” about immigration they are simply telling lies – unless they also advocate leaving the EU…

…..and they would never ever advocate that, would they?

Well, who would have thought it. A report finds that for decades the BBC  has been rather deaf to those who were worried about immigration into the UK

The report found that the BBC was too reliant on the views of politicians, who tended to steer clear of “taboo” subjects, such as immigration, and warned that “even today the debate on the BBC may not reflect the public mood”…………………….

 ……………………………….His report concluded: “The BBC was slow to reflect the weight of concern in the wider community about issues arising from immigration. “It remains the case that the agenda of debate is probably too driven by the views of politicians.

“Slow to reflect” is far too gentle a phrase. For nearly fifty years, from Enoch Powell onwards, the BBC has either demonised or ignored any individual or group raising concerns about the sheer scale of immigration into the UK – not just in the news or documentaries but in drama, “comedy” or soaps.

Well, guess what – another report  has” let the cat out of the bag” (as if most of us didn’t know already)…

The full impact of mass immigration on British life was laid bare last night by a Home Office report.

It said that half the population lives in a town or city which has experienced high levels of immigration over the past decade.

Ministers said this ‘uncontrolled’ flow had caused a number of problems for wider society, ranging from pressure on maternity services, high rates of infectious diseases and a squeeze on school places, to disproportionate levels of some types of crime, inflated rents and immigrants living in ‘beds in sheds’

Don’t expect any change from the BBC, however.  Oh they’ll prattle on about “lessons learned” and “balance” but the culture is too deeply embedded for any significant change in attitude, not just at the BBC but throughout our media and political elite where “diversity” is something to be celebrated – as long as it is far away from their own leafy streets and their children’s schools.

Yet another pratfall for former PR man David Cameron as the massively hyped roadblock to immigration turns out to be a two inch high barrier of tissue paper.

A major crackdown by David Cameron on immigration was unravelling rapidly today after it emerged that it would only affect a small minority of foreigners in Britain.

Is anyone surprised? Scared stiff by the spectre of the rising popularity of UKIP his team of whizz kid advisers take a break from their school homework and x boxing and tell him to go ukip lite. The UKIP supporters are as thick as planks, they tell him, so just mention a couple of keywords (immigration and, before that, referendum) and they’ll all come flocking back.

So he puts on his serious “watching like a hawk” face and expects us to buy into his rhetoric.

Hot air

“A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,signifying nothing”

He knows and we know that any serious attempt to block EU immigration would be broken immediately by our E£CHR loving judges in partnership with hand wringing sob stories from the BBC/Guardianistas spearheaded by St Joan Bakewell. Cameron and his inner clique are from the Notting Hill end of the media/political elite. They despise ordinary people as mindless drones swayed only by Paul Dacre and the Murdoch press. Keep them quiet with a few buzzwords then get them back to their TV screens..

It won’t work this time, Mr C. You use the EU and the Lib Dems and Hacked Off as fall guys for your own core belief and that’s the same driving force that got you your achievement-free stint as a second rate PR man for Carlton TV.

Your core belief is simply the advance of David Cameron – and nothing else.

Times are changing, Mr C. We’ve woken up to your con game.

We just don’t believe anything you say any more..

Chained......

I feel I am in chains – I want a government that breaks those chains by implementing policies that might be deemed unfashionable by the media and cultural elite…

The will of Parliament should be sovereign over the the opinions of judges and external officials and/or institutions

People who break the law should suffer considerable inconvenience and if they continue to break the law the consequences should not be pleasant

The so called “conservative” government of David Cameron and his metropolitan elite would sneer at me for being naive while emptying my pockets to fund their feelgood fantasies. Liberals and left wingers would call me a “fascist”.

Is there any political party rooted in the present and future rather than in an idealised past and untainted by racist intolerance that would find my list fit for purpose?

h/t for Prometheus