Only Six?

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David Cameron has announced that his party will cover six issues in the run-up to the General Election - the national debt, the economy, the family, the NHS, schools and changes in Westminster.

All well and good, but many of us would also like to hear about Europe, taxation, immigration, pensions, council taxes, fuel bills ...
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Vote Winners?

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The New Statesman carries a ComRes poll that shows that three quarters of Tory prospective parliamentary candidates want to renegotiate the UK’s relationship with Europe ‘as a matter of priority’ and that 91 per cent favour a cap on immigration.

Unless Gordon has something to say on these subjects, they seem to be vote winners to me!.
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Not So Quick Please

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At a time when officers from the UK Border Agency found cocaine worth £1.7 million inside an HGV trailer coming into Harwich from Holland, I’m not sure I’d be too quick to criticise those members of the UKBAs staff who received bonuses totalling £295,000 last year.

As well as finding illegal immigrants stowed away in lorries and trucks, the UKBA people that work our ports and airports do sterling work and we often hear of the huge drugs and other illegal hauls they detect.

Sure, the immigration side of the UKBA is in disarray but, as I understand it, their staff can be posted to ports and airports to detect illegal hauls as well as to desks to sort through immigration issues or check passports, etc.

I, for one, wouldn’t want to work for the UKBA. Not unless a bonus was guaranteed!
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Muddled Thinking

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In a referendum forced by Switzerland’s opposition party, and against the advice of the government, 57% of the voters have voted against the construction of any further minarets in the country.

Were it a question that minarets would spoil the characteristic skylines of this pretty country that would be one thing for there are four of them already. But, perhaps, voters were concerned more about rising immigration than the country’s building codes.

Either way, one can’t help but think that this is bad news for a country renowned both for its neutrality and for its freedom of religion.
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It’s A Start

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We have complained for years that the Blair and Brown governments have not been paying attention to public views. That was certainly the case with a referendum over the EU Treaty.

But there are signs that, doubtless due to a pending General Election, the government, or at least Gordon Brown, is paying attention.

Take immigration, for instance. Brown has announced that he is ‘tightening’ immigration rules by reducing the number of professions which can recruit from outside Europe. OK, that’s a start.

He has also announced that he will ‘examine’ the bonuses paid to civil servants in the Ministry of Defence after it was revealed that these amounted to £47 millions so far this year.

One can’t say that Brown has reacted much to public and press opinion so far, but it’s a start.
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Commonsense At Last?

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If Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, is to be believed, Britain will not be forced to take migrants from the ‘Jungle’ camp in Calais which French police have cleared.

Commonsense has also been sounded by Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of the Migrationwatch think-tank, who has said that Britain's immigration policy was part of the problem. ‘Britain is regarded as a soft touch,’ he has correctly said.

More commonsense has come from Richard Ashworth, Conservative MEP for South East England, who said that, ‘It is now incumbent on the French government to deal with illegal immigration at the point of entry into France, and not simply funnel them through creating this sorry bottleneck along the Pas de Calais and Normandy coasts’.

But will commonsense prevail? We will have to wait and see.
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