The Abuse of Power

Patricia Hewitt called her part in the campaign to stop Mrs Thatcher from implementing her 1979 election promise to stop foreign men from using marriage to live in the UK her "most satisfying achievement". Her 1982 book was called "The Abuse of Power". But she herself held power in Tony Blair's Government as Equality Minister. And allowing foreign men to live in the UK through marriage gives British (and British resident) women a great privilege, because they can live in their husband's country as well as the UK. Protecting and sustaining privilege is clearly an abuse of power. Now, in addition to "equality" laws that entitle foreigners to deprive Brits of work & promotion there is the "inequality" law known as "positive action" that puts native British men last when it comes to recruitment. The BBC has adopted this unjust policy. Which is ironic because George Orwell, who worked at the BBC, famously wrote "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Modern detective dramas invariably have women in dominant roles. So messing with the classics in this way is a tyranny and an abuse of power. The latest instance, in the news, is that a minor female character in H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" is now the main character in a new BBC version. For more on this theme please see this blog of 26 July 2018 and 10 March 2019. Thanks!

A Serious Cause for Impeachment

President Trump's impeachment should be dismissed as "frivolous". But there is a serious matter for which he should be impeached. The President allows foreigners permanent residence in the USA even though Americans can't have permanent residence in their countries. In Britain, legal aid is given for immigration. So in 1980, having been granted legal aid for my divorce, I then applied for legal aid to bring a case of Treason against Mrs Thatcher for allowing foreigners to live in the UK while I and other Brits can't live in their countries. But the Law Society rejected my request. … How unctuous and oft have we heard the mantra: No one is above the law. But access to the law is not available to all. Foreigners can and do go to law to enable them to live in a country. But the native inhabitants have no such access to prevent them. This is a systemic imbalance. Besides, people eligible for legal aid have a risk-free access to the law, while others don't. This gives them an unfair advantage and is another serious systemic imbalance.

Bad immigration makes for Fake "equality"

The Archbishop of York came to Britain because of Idi Amin. The Ugandan dictator is long gone, but the Archbishop is still here. This is a serious flaw in the asylum system. His successor next June has already said he will promote "diversity". Unequal immigration laws (biased against Brits) result in fake "equality". Everyone in the world in a war zone has the legal right to set up home anywhere in the UK. Take back control of our borders makes no sense unless and until we Leave the 1948 UN Convention on Refugees. So, come on, Boris Johnson, "Get it done!" Just sign a piece of paper. Baby Jesus was allowed into Egypt because the Egyptians and/or Romans had control of their borders, not because of a decades-old international agreement. And he soon returned to his own country.

The Struggle to Cast a Vote

In the 3 TV debates in the run-up to the 2010 General Election immigration was the most discussed topic next to the economy. The Conservatives' David Cameron said he wanted a "cap"; Labour's Gordon Brown said he wanted a "points system" - he was Prime Minister, so he could have had a points system, but didn't!;and LibDem's Nick Clegg said he wanted to legalise the status of illegal aliens (which he also said, 3 times, wasn't an amnesty). What must foreigners think of all this? I wondered. They must think we're all daft! I didn't want to waste my vote, so I voted UKIP. But I voted Remain in the 23 June 2016 EU Referendum. (My reasons are in this blog of 10 June 2016.) One-third of the electorate didn't vote in the election of 12 December 2019. #Me too. I didn't. The Conservatives won with a big majority, and a promise to Leave the European Union and to bring in an immigration points system. This latter promise is a smokescreen to disguise what could/should be done but won't be - e.g.ending the privilege of Muslims to bring in 4 "wives" and their children to live in the UK; reforming the chaotic asylum system; and stopping foreign men from using marriage to live in the UK....Not to mention deporting the over 1 million people who are living illegally in the UK, contrary to the much-vaunted Rule of Law championed by Western democracies.....

Border Control

Election Promises! We will control our borders! How can Conservative politicians get away with saying this when everyone can see that illegal aliens aren't deported? The UK Border Force (which, perversely, helps them get to England! contrary to its original purpose)is allowed to operate in France. This great concession may well be denied after the UK leaves the European Union. As it is, the UK is greatly privileged because, together with the Republic of Ireland, it's not signed up to the Shengen Agreement, and so is independent of much of the EU's immigration laws.

Points System = No Freedom of Movement

Britain's Brexit crisis is mainly caused by immigration. But there was no question about immigration at the last of the TV debates (held last night) before next Thursday's General Election. However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson did say a couple of times that, if the Conservatives are elected, there would be an Australian-style points system. Western Europe has had the benefit of freedom of movement since 1945. So my question is: Will there still be freedom of movement throughout Western Europe except for 4 countries in these fractured islands in its North-West corner? Because a points system is incompatible with freedom of movement. And it's not just England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have to be considered when it comes to immigration controls; there is the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.... Borders are porous if loopholes aren't catered for, and controls rendered pointless....

Language Traduces Thought, Part 2 (Part 1 was on 18 April 2017)

The Prime Minister's claim to be truthful caused derision among the studio audience at the first TV debate in the Run-up to the General Election of 12 December. Truth is said to be the first casualty of war, which is said to be politics by other means. And words themselves conceal the truth in war. Thucydides wrote in "The Peloponnesian War" in the 5th c. BC that cowardice is called tactical retreat, and so on. Thucydides also wrote that war in one place causes people to move somewhere else, which causes another war. Migrants are people who emigrate from one country to live in another. Only EU citizens are entitled to migrate to the UK without a visa. But because EU citizens come here probably not intending to cut connections with their own country it is wrong to call them migrants. The same is true, of course, of people who live in the UK on a Spouse Visa. They retain their own nationality, and can live in their own country if they feel so inclined, so they are foreigners not migrants. While calling people who enter the UK illegally "migrants" gives them a legitimacy they do not yet have. They, too, should more properly be called foreigners, or illegal aliens or possibly potential migrants since that is what they may hope to achieve - or, more likely, acquire the right to permanent residence (peculiarly called "Indefinite Leave to Remain") while keeping their original nationality so they can return "home" whenever they want.