Wednesday 24 October 2007

Shocking

BBC Radio 4 News reported 23 October that the United Kingdom's population is predicted to increase by 5 million over the next 10 years, and this was described as "shocking" by the Conservatives.
It is the Conservatives who are "shocking". Because in 1979 (under Mrs. Thatcher) the Conservatives did not honour their election promise to end the concession whereby foreign men can live in the UK through marriage. The figure at the time was about 10,000 men a year taking advantage of this immigration loophole. If each of those 10,000 men/year has 2 children, then, if the Conservatives had honoured their pledge, that would mean that these days about 1 million people would now be living somewhere other than the UK.
It is problematic whether the UK exists in 10 years (bearing in mind the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn in 2014). England (the land of the English) will seem misnamed.