Glasshouses

The UK is signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights.
These are legal documents, but "refugee" and "human rights" are used as catchwords/phrases to promote highly subjective moral agendas.
Having two bites of the cherry is not right.
The definition of a refugee is someone who has a "well-found fear of persecution".
But very many people who aren't being persecuted but don't want to return to their own country are successful in claiming refugee status. They appeal to moral issues.
There should be no bigger "right" than to prevent other people from occupying one's territory. But Englishmen have no such "right". On 10 June 1977 I complained unsuccessfully to the European Commission of Human Rights about foreign and Commonwealth men being able to live and work in the UK through marriage.
Today's Daily Telegraph (page 18) has an article by Britain's Foreign Secretary, William Hague, headed "Human rights are key to our foreign policy".
Mr. Hague does not refer to any specific article in the European Convention on Human Rights. Mr. Hague is being vague.
He states: "We cannot have a foreign policy without a conscience.
"... We have campaigned against forced marriages and lobbied the Government of Iran over death penalty cases, women's rights and religious freedom."
The Rights of Man, advocated by Thomas Paine, has become "human rights" under the influence of Eleanor Roosevelt. "Human rights" have (supposedly) subsumed everyone's "rights". Therefore there is no such thing as "women's rights" any more than there are "men's rights".
Britain doesn't stone anyone to death, but people in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones.
If there is a problem with Iran it's her potential nuclear weapons capability. Britain's pretensions to moral superiority fool nobody - at least, not in Asia.

When in Trouble or in Doubt, Always give the Cook a Shout

Yesterday's news is said to be stale buns.
But there was much agonising about the Home Office's figures for 2009.
Net immigration to the UK was 196,000.
Up 35% over the previous year.
362,000 Student Visas were issued.
How many of those students will return to their own countries?
Nothing is done to prevent them staying on.
Instead, all the talk is about a cap for people applying for Working Visas....

"Daft"

Channel 4's "Dispatches" TV programme yesterday reported dreadful scenes of young people in England. They are the offspring of Pakistanis who have married their first cousins. We were told that more than three-quarters of British Pakistanis marry their first cousins. As a result of such practice over generations there is "a one in four chance" of their children being born with abnormalities.
Many of these first cousins are brought to Britain from Pakistan.
Clearly, male cousins would not be able to settle here if the Conservatives' 1979election promise to close that immigration loophole were in force.
Instead, the Conservatives are keeping their 2010 election promise to impose a "cap" on immigration.
This was described as "daft" by the Radio 4 "Today" programme interviewer on 18 August.
A journalist speaking on "Today" on 21 August said that Britain's strict privacy
laws were introduced through the judges (not Parliament).
Parliament cannot control immigration properly. Judges frequently prevent deportations.
Surely judges can introduce a control that is not "daft".