When in Rome?

Why should any immigrant expect that local laws and customs will not apply to them!?!

Number Crunching

3.2m People working more than 48 hours per week.

so that

8.0m Economically inactive people don't have to!?!

Dodgy Dossier Donation

Is there a greater penalty for breaking electoral law than merely repaying a dodgy donation!?!

Trevor Phillips

How can Trevor Phillips stand up and say that good schools "should consider limiting places for middle-class pupils to admit more children from poor homes" when his own children are being educated privately?

"The goal is to ensure that no school has more than a certain percentage on free school meals, or more than a quarter under-performing on regular tests."

Freedom of speech?

When will the Oxford Union invite Gillian Gibbons and the editor of Jyllands-Posten to talk about freedom of speech?

Where are the anti-fascist protestors!?!

2020 vision?

3m extra homes to be built by 2020.

80% of English teenagers will get five good GCSEs by 2020.

Equal pay for men and women by 2020.

Britons to "work longer" by 2020.

What's Gordon's 'vision', apart from keeping power!?!

Fuelling resentments?

Should we welcome news that fuel costs could rise by 10% in January if it reduces energy consumption, helps to save the planet whilst reducing the amount of money that can be spent on cigarettes and alcohol!?!

The Government clearly thinks it's good news as it's just promised an additional £700m in aid to Uganda to "fight poverty"!

PS How can the Government continue to offer aid to the Third World when it's seriously overdrawn!?!

Buy-to-lose mortgages?

When Northern Rock has received a £25bn loan from the British taxpayer to keep it running, why should shareholders expect any return on their investment or have a say in who should be allowed to buy it out!?!

Northern Rock should have been allowed to fail, shareholders should have lost their shirts!

Correct Grammar?

If Grammar schools are "ghettos for the advantaged" that are "potentially beneficial" for those attending from higher and lower income groups, when will the Conservative Party offer to create more of them?

Consulting the masses?

Has better pay for MPs translated into better legislation and a better quality of life for the UK's electorate!?!

"A Committee of Public Accounts report says consultant pay rose by 27% in two years to an average of £110,000, after a new contract was introduced in 2003. But working hours decreased, and figures suggest productivity fell by 0.5% in the first year of the contract."

MPs' £87.6m expenses claim bill

Ex-MPs 'struggle to find new job'

'MPs should cut summer holiday'

Every cloud...

After Northern Rock and the HMRC debacle, some good news for Gordon Brown...

England fail to quailfy for Euro 2008!

At least Gordon is no longer the least popular man in England!

Security Improvements

Would security improve at HMRC if more people were sick more of the time!?!

PS How many fraudsters will use news of this security breach to 'defraud' their own accounts and blame it on parties unknown!?!

PPS Are the chickens coming home to roost for Polish parents fraudulently claiming child benefit both in the UK and Poland!?!

Missed Opportunity?

Are the personal details of those Members of Parliament who have children, such as Diane Abbot, Ruth Kelly, David Cameron and Gordon Brown, included in the Inland Revenue files that have gone missing!?!

Darling Bets Of November!

Will the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, bet his taxpayer funded and index linked pension that Northern Rock repays £24bn of government backed loans plus interest!?!

What are the "quality assets" that Northern Rock mortgages are secured against if house prices are falling!?!

Bugger!

"All my savings were in Railtrack and Northern Rock"

Uncovered Mosque?

If Ofcom has rejected Police claims that Channel 4's Dispatches programme "Undercover Mosque" was distorted, will West Midlands Police now consider prosecuting people featured in the programme!?!

"On the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts), Ofcom found the broadcaster had accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context."

Number Crunching

20,000 - Peter Hain's target for reducting incapacity benefit claimants thanks to "tougher work tests".

2,400,000 - Incapacity benefit claimants in the UK.

Hollow Britain?

Why are record numbers of people leaving the UK?

Is it the threat of terrorism?

Is it the record number of immigrants?

Is it the quality of NHS care?

Is it the crime rate?

Is it the traffic congestion?

Is it the quality of schools?

Or the tax increases to pay for all of them!?!

"Labour's largesse on its priorities - health, education and overseas aid - has seen spending rise from 35% of gross domestic product to 42%."

Border Controls

What's the point of having tighter border controls if the UK's Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, wants residents from Russia, the Middle East and North African countries to join the European Union!?!

Deportation Rights and Wrongs

If complaints from immigrants being deported could mean delays in deportation to hear the case, how many will complain!?!

"HUNDREDS of failed asylum seekers have been allowed to stay in Britain because they were so rowdy that airlines refused to take them back to their own countries." - Scotland On Sunday.

Benefits of migration?

Are increased security costs at railway stations, airports and ports deducted from the economic benefits of immigration or an additional benefit as it creates new jobs!?!

"The security budget, currently £2.5bn this year, will rise to £3.5bn in 2011"

Protecting the Public?

"Tobin was sentenced to life for sexually assaulting [two fourteen year old] girls, but was released after ten years in 2004."

"Tobin was found guilty of murdering Angelika Kluk in September last year. He hid the bound and gagged body of the 23-year-old Polish student beneath the floor of the Glasgow church where he worked. He was jailed in May for a minimum of 21 years."

If only the people who released Tobin were directly impacted by his actions rather than an innocent woman...

What do Angelika's parents think about British justice and protecting the public?

Alcoholic benefits?

Should welfare benefits be cut by 10% to reduce alcohol consumption?

If a 10% increase in alcohol tax really "could cut all alcohol-related deaths by between 10% and 30%", why not raise it by 20% instead!?!

Aspiring

Should the 'Aspire' programme focus on why state education fails so many black (and white!) pupils rather than why so few apply to Oxford University?

"The biggest challenge has been the academic leap and I have felt short-changed by the state system, but there has been so much support from the college and when I have struggled and needed extra help, my tutors have been available." - Michael Isola

Laban Tall has the answer though, send them to Africa!

Sticks and stones?

"The air is thick with suspicion and unease. It is not good for the Muslim community, it is not good for society." - Muhammad Abdul Bari, Muslim Council of Britain.

Is that a threat?

Conviction Politics!

Will David Cameron call for rape suspects to remain anonymous until conviction and also call for increased sentences for women who cry rape or is he just trying to woo the female vote!?!

Going, going, gone for martyrdom?

How is the general public being protected when someone found guilty of terrorist activities with an ever-increasing desire "to go for martyrdom" is released on bail until December 6th!?!

If words never give an indication of intent, were Finnish authorities right when they didn't arrest Pekka-Eric Auvinen after he posted "death and killing is not a tragedy... Not all human lives are important or worth saving" but waited until he had murdered eight people a couple of weeks later?

Should we be more concerned that the "Lyrical Terrorist" worked at Heathrow Airport or that she was a woman!?!

Going down to University!

Will the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge continue to improve in a league table of the world's top universities if they are forced to admit more "disadvantaged" pupils!?!

Stannard and Deliver!

Will John Stannard, the new "Champion for gifted and talented children", condemn proposals to close the most successful school in Stoke-on-Trent that just happens to be a Grammar School!?!

Parental responsibility?

How many parents keep to the speed limit in the UK?

It's likely that many parents want speed limits cut, but only for other people.

Alan Balls!

"And the days where many people could leave school at 16 without qualifications and work their way up into a fulfilling and rewarding career are behind us." - Schools Secretary, Ed Balls.

"Alan [Johnson, Education Secretary] is a product of the Labour and trade union movement, born into a working class family, he left school at 15 with no qualifications. He became a postman at 18." - www.labour.org.uk.

The Conservatives haven't changed!

They still sack anyone who expresses the view of the general public!

In unrelated news..

'Thousands' pose UK terror threat.
"In Iraq, Algeria and parts of East Africa, especially Somalia, he said, the "al-Qaeda brand" had expanded and now posed a threat to the UK."

Number Crunching

5% - The most 'Gifted and talented pupils' to receive special help in England.

25% - The most gifted and talented pupils awarded 'A' grades at A-level in 2007.

Migration Row Tories?

"Many insist: 'Enoch Powell was right'. Enoch, once MP for Wolverhampton South-West, was sacked from the Conservative front bench and marginalised politically for his 1968 'rivers of blood' speech, warning that uncontrolled immigration would change our country irrevocably. [ ] He was right. It has changed dramatically." - Nigel Hastilow, Current (!) Conservative hopeful for Halesowen and Rowley Regis.

"[Trevor Phillips] said population changes and immigration were happening at unprecedented rate and there was "no going back".

Will Trevor Phillips be summoned to explain his views by the Conservative Party Chairman as well!?!

Byrning ears!

Will Liam Byrne MP be able to claim the £100 fine and £35 costs for using a mobile phone whilst driving as expenses if he was taking "an important call on a deportation matter"!?!

Trevor Phillips on sharing

How can Trevor Phillips know that people accept "shar[ing] services such as schools and hospitals with new arrivals" when his own children attend private schools so they only have to share facilities with the children of other fee-paying parents!?!

"Phillips flirted with standing for London Mayor until he decided the issue of private schooling for his children would put his family under unfair scrutiny."

Soft as a rock?

If house prices fall just 10% in the UK, what will be the taxpayers' exposure to bad debts at Northern Rock?

Union matters?

Are any public sector unions campaigning against more immigration as their members have to work harder!?!

"Some individual local authorities are experiencing more challenges than others" - Hazel Blears, Communities Secretary.