Toothache

Britain is this week celebrating the Battle of Britain, which took place 70 years ago.
Professor A.J.P. Taylor, in his Origins of the Second World War, argues that Hitler had no territorial ambitions in Western Europe; he admired Britain; and he wanted to achieve his aims in the East with the threat of war and/or with mini wars.
Britain declared war on Germany (3 September 1939) because Germany attacked Poland. But it begs the question: Why didn't Britain then declare war on the Soviet Union when she also attacked Poland a few days later?
The "miracle of Dunkirk", when 300,000 British soldiers escaped across the Channel, was not due to a blunder by Hitler. He ordered his tank commanders to stop because he wanted to make peace with Britain and France.
Britain's Foreign Secretary, Halifax, wanted to make peace, and with Prime Minister Chamberlain's resignation in May 1940 the choice of Prime Minister lay between him and Churchill. Unfortunately, Halifax had toothache!
What were the Germans supposed to do, with a country that would not make peace? (They weren't requiring Britain's surrender.)
As for the "blitz", the Luftwaffe was destroying the Royal Air Force on the ground, so Churchill ordered some bombers to bomb Berlin. Hitler took the bait, and changed targets from airfields to cities. The Luftwaffe was not pleased.
In 1945 Goering, head of the Luftwaffe, told his British captors that Germany hadn't wanted war with Britain; that though the British thought they had won a great victory they would lose their Empire.
When Britain's colonies became independent they promptly imposed travel restrictions on the British; Britain did not bring in the Commonwealth Immigrants Act until the end of June 1962.
If there are no travel restrictions the question of Marriage and Migration does not arise.
Therefore, as far as Britain and the Commonwealth is concerned, people use marriage to occupy the UK - because of a toothache!

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".

Religious Extremist

BBC Radio 4 "Today":-
A vicar in St. Leonards has been found guilty of officiating in 383 marriages. They were to enable people to live in the UK. (A half such marriages - or even more, I believe - would be pointless if the Conservatives had kept their 1979 election promise to end marriage as a means of living in the UK for foreign men.) The vicar's crime? Not publishing the banns of marriage.
Imran Khan, Pakistan's former cricket captain and political leader, believes the threat to the West is not from Pakistan - which has suffered terribly from supporting the West - but from Muslim nationalists in Western countries.
He's not alone.....
By 2050 77 million people are anticipated to live in the UK. (Will such a political entity exist then?) When I was a boy (60 years ago) I asked my Mum why I didn't have any brothers or sisters; she replied that Britain was over-crowded (40 million).
BBC Radio 2 "Jeremy Vine Show":-
A woman justified providing papers for a Gambian through marriage by citing his many good qualities. If she wants to be married to him there's nothing to prevent her from living with him in The Gambia. If he does work that's important to the UK he could get a work visa. (Good qualities do not qualify for work visa status - if they did, why bother with marriage? I've been told I have good qualities - but no one has told me that entitles me to live in someone else's country.)
Jeremy Vine interviewed the Reverend Rose Hudson, Chaplain to the House of Commons.
She was chosen by the Speaker of the House of Commons because as well as being a woman she is also black. Where is the Judge to say the Speaker broke the law (made in the House of Commons)?

Flexible Cap

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, on a visit to India, was questioned on BBC Radio 4 "Today" about his immigration cap being "flexible" (and also subject to consultation with the Indian Government).
He soon resorted to expressing the need to clamp down on bogus students!
That is a clear admission that his cap is not the answer to the UK's immigration problems (or "issues", as they are called).
Having been issued visas and allowed entry, foreign and Commonwealth people like it so much here they don't want to return to their own countries......
What they do is find someone to marry......
In the run-up to the General Election in May 2010 there was a debate on Channel 4 between the 3 MPs primarily concerned with immigration, in which the then Immigration Minister Phil Woolas claimed that 60,000 people had been deported over the past year. The Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne (now Energy Minister) revealed this to be misleading - since 30,000 hadn't been deported; they had been denied entry.
Maybe most who had been denied entry would concede it was "a fair cop", but there were surely others (like my pen friend in 1965 and my girl friend in 1978) who felt (and maybe still feel) shocked and depressed by the miserable experience of making a long and expensive (return) journey all for nothing.
P.S. At about 1235 Emma rang in to BBC Radio 2's "Jeremy Vine Show" to say how hard it was to get a work visa for India. She works in Goa (which was a Portuguese colony until 1960). "They don't want us there," she said. "It's extremely hard to live there."

Exposing Rights

An international conference opens today in Kabul.
It provoked much discussion - including an interview with Britain's Foreign Secretary, William Hague - on BBC Radio 4's "Today".
But there was no mention of Al-Qaeda! Whose presence was the reason for NATO's intervention.
Britain wants to talk to the Taliban. But Hilary Clinton doesn't - because of "women's rights".
322 British troops have died in Afghanistan. (And many more wounded.)
"Everyone's right to life" is protected under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.