Theirs isn't the Glory ("Theirs is the Glory" is an old film about Arnhem)

"The Glorious First of June" was a sea battle between Britain and France in 1794.
There won't be a glorious 23 June 2016. Most people who will vote for Britain to leave the EU will do so because of immigration. Even if they win they will have nothing to celebrate. They will have rubbed our neighbours up the wrong way. Leaders of the Leave campaign say (BBC Radio 4 8 a.m) they will introduce an Australian-style points system. But Oz requires visas for everyone (Kiwis?). Co-operation with the French (and others) will not be improved by requiring them to have visas. Canada has a points system. I applied to live there in 1988. I was refused and told not to apply again. My brother is Canadian, but I didn't get any points for being a journalist, and I lost points for being over 44.

Bigger Battles

3 sea battles can claim to be the greatest ever. (1) Ecnomus in 256 BC, for the number of ships: Rome 1 - Carthage 0. (2) Leyte in 1944, for firepower and expanse of ocean: USA 1 - Japan 0. (3) Jutland on 31 May 1916, for number and size of battleships: Germany beat Britain on penalties but fled the field.
Libya's Col. Gaddafi had an arrangement with Italy to take back people who entered Italy illegally. Now Italy gives them permits and transports them North in the hope they will go to another country. The USA's strict immigration laws were relaxed in 1965. Britain, an island, used to return illegals to France but, since 1991, now doesn't.
Legal battles have replaced sea battles to determine who lives where.

23 May 1917

Patricia Hewitt, when General Secretary of the forerunner of "Liberty" and long before becoming Equality Minister, wrote in her book "The Abuse of Power" she was sure her campaign against the Tories' 1979 policy of stopping foreign men using marriage to live in the UK would succeed - just as women's struggle for the vote succeeded. She was right, and says it was her "most satisfying achievement".
The novelist Mary Ward (Australian, like Hewitt) thought the vote would bring women into competition with men and result in the collapse of the Empire. I would like to thank the women who have signed my petition "Stop foreign men using marriage to live in the UK" at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/129594
255 British servicemen died in the Falklands Conflict (and a similar number subsequently committed suicide). It is a scandal that while that was taking place, 12 May 1982, the European Commission of Human Rights determined in favour of 3 (foreign) women whose husbands were not allowed to live in the UK.
Wars within wars - the occupation/control of territory - is a feature of Britain's decline over the past 100 years.

New Petition needs Signatures!

My new petition "Stop foreign men using marriage to live in the UK" can be found at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/129594. I'd be very grateful to anyone (British or resident in the UK) who signs!
A recent petition about women having to wear high heels at work got 100,000 signatures in a few days, and will be debated in Parliament. That shows how bizarre British priorities are. I'm sure foreigners will agree that allowing thousands of men a year to live and work (by law on equal terms with the natives) in one's country is far more serious.  Yet this is my 5th epetition on this subject and the most signatures I have had so far is 280. (Thanks to all who have signed!)

No Laughing Matter

In 1959 I set out for Asia age 21. But there was nowhere I was allowed to live & work. I returned to the UK in 1962 just as the Commonwealth Immigration act was coming into force. There was a rush of young men to beat the Act. It was obvious that Commonwealth men would now find someone to marry to live in the UK. Conscription had just ended. That was good for young British men. It was also good for young foreign and Commonwealth men; they would come to the UK to avoid conscription in their own countries. I used to want children. But not since then. So it is easy to imagine my feelings when politicians say 3,000 children living in France should be allowed to live in the UK "to get the future they deserve". The UK gets the future it deserves! The people who have organised for these children to get to France must be laughing.....

"Since it must be so"

"Sayonara", a famous novel and film set in Japan during the Korean War, tells of 2 US airmen who fall in love with Japanese women. If the couples married they could not live in either Japan or the US. It ends with one couple committing suicide. I was surprised to read recently in the blurb of Bernard Cornwell's latest book "Warriors of the Storm" that he became a novelist because although his wife is American he cannot work in the US. His series of novels is set in 9th and 10th century England and last year was a TV series "The Last Kingdom".
The Council of Europe states in its literature: The international community has long-recognised the privileged positon of women in transnational marriages. This is because they can live in their husband's country (as well, of course, in their own).
In 1979 The Conservatives promised to stop foreign men from being able to live in the UK through marriage, but did not keep their promise.
In the 9th and 10th centuries England's problem was foreigners (Danes) wanting to occupy the place. Now that is what drives many Britons to want to leave the EU.
In 1991 I was sitting on a bench in crowded Sannomiya shopping mall in Kobe, Japan, when I heard an American (Canadian?) voice say "The English are so like the Japanese it's weird".
In Saxon England "weird" meant "fate". Hence the Weird Sisters in "Macbeth".
Voting to leave the EU because of immigration is odd because it won't work. Immigration may well increase as a result of the rush to get here to beat any restrictions.
In 1962 there was a rush of young men to come to the UK to beat the Commonwealth Immigration Act.
"Sayonara" = "Since it must be so"

It's a Fair Swop!

The Government is under pressure to allow 3,000 unaccompanied children in Europe to settle in the UK. (BBC Radio 4 "Today".) That's a "small but significant number", said Labour's Shadow Immigration Minister.  In 1979 I was told that 10,000 men a year using marriage to live in the UK was "not many". These men have children both to strengthen their claim to these islands and to strengthen their community. Mrs. Thatcher's Government did not keep its promise to close this loophole. So since 1979 probably a million people are living in these islands. Children have children. 3,000 fails to take into account chain migration. I would readily swop those 3,000 for the 10,000 men a year who use marriage to live here.