Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and to mark the occasion it is organising a race convention to debate race relations and the issues that affect them.
Britain
Mr Reid’s continental dog’s breakfast
When John Reid became Home Secretary, he promised to get a grip on
Britain’s shambolic immigration system. But less than six months later,
he is already making an even bigger mess of it.
Managed migration? A mess, more like
So this is what the British government calls "managed migration"? Its newly announced policy for Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants looks more like a mess.
Britain benefits from immigration
There are few people I respect more than Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator for the Financial Times and author of Why Globalization Works, a man with a towering intellect and impeccable liberal convictions. Yet I profoundly disagree with his increasingly anti-immigration stance.
Voters want a say
The British people want a say when the Labour Party changes its leader, and thus appoints the next prime minister. According to the Observer,
A new opinion poll reveals 56 per cent of the public want the chance to
have their say on the new leader of the Labour party, whoever it is,
within the first six months. Voters are not content to leave the
question of the next Prime Minister to the party and want him or her to
earn the right to govern. The GFK/NOP poll found huge support for a
genuine leadership battle rather than a coronation, with 81 per cent
supporting a contest.
The prince’s putsch
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Britain meant to be a democracy? And doesn’t that mean that it ought to be up to voters who runs the country, and that nobody has an inherent right to rule? Not according to Gordon Brown. The Chancellor, we are told, has been waiting to be prime minister all his life; he was promised the top job by Tony Blair back in 1994; and it is high time the prince received his inheritance.
Britain’s immigration muddle
In last year’s UK general election, Labour lambasted the Conservatives for plastering posters all over the country declaring that "It’s not racist to impose limits on immigration". But now John Reid, the home secretary, has started sounding a lot like Michael Howard.
He says he wants to end the "daft, so-called politically correct notion that anybody who talks about immigration is somehow a racist", and he plans to set up an independent advisory committee that would help "tell us the optimum level of immigration … beneficial in terms of enhancing the economy and commensurate with our social stability".
Keep out Gazprom II
My argument that Britain should prevent Gazprom, the Russian gas company that is in effect an arm of a potentially hostile Kremlin, from getting a hold on its gas market was widely criticised. But if you don’t believe me, listen to Andrei Illarionov, a former Kremlin adviser who fell out with President Putin’s team.
He says Europe must stand up to Russia’s new energy tsars by insisting on open and transparent business rules in Russia’s energy sector. Otherwise, he says, the Europeans will find themselves at the mercy of the Russian state, and so face "a cold, dark future".
Jenni Russell on immigration
Intelligent articles about immigration are few and far between. Jenni Russell’s article in today’s Guardian is an exception. I don’t agree with everything she writes, but it is still a breath of fresh air to read something positive and realistic about global migration.
Keep Gazprom’s grip off our gas
I don’t usually
have a problem with foreign companies taking over British ones, or with
sourcing supplies abroad. But the British government should block any move by
is the
biggest gas distributor.
Who needs “progressive nationalism”?
David Goodhart, the editor of Prospect magazine, has just written a pamphlet for Demos where he argues that
“A progressive, civic British nationalism – comfortable with
the country’s multi-racial character and its European commitments – is the best
hope for preserving the collective values embodied in the welfare state and a
thriving public realm. Progressives, especially in England, have
an anachronistic hostility to national feeling. It is no longer about
militarist jingoism, it is the last vehicle for meaningful collectivism.”
I disagree.