Woolas: the Minister for Invertebrates
Phil Woolas yesterday responded to the recent Daily Mail article in which the paper suggested that British-born descendants of relatively recent immigrants shouldn’t be classified as British, an article that Sunder delightfully skewered only a week or so ago.
Woolas’ full statement can be usefully summarised as ‘nothing to do with me, guv‘ followed by a stream of complaints which amount to the suggestion that the Office of National Statistics is actively politicking on the issue of migration, hence the claim that the statistical data is released on the 24 Feb, on which the Mail’s story appears to have been based, was accompanied by a nine page press release which ‘highlighted the 1 in 9 figure as the main finding’.
Woolas’ unusually strong assertions, set my ‘there’s-something-not-quite-right bump’ itching, for no better reason than the fact that I simply cannot recall a single instance in which the ONS have ever come within a country mile of behaving in the manner that Woolas claims – and when a politician starts claiming that an independent civil service agency is acting in manner that’s completely out of character then I, for one, start looking around for signs of small furry mammals of the genus ‘Rattus‘.
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Council staff vote to strike against Tories
I report here and here, and here, on the bitter fight that Hammersmith and Fulham residents and staff are having with the Hammersmith and Fulham Tory council over staff and service cuts.
Things seem finally to have reached boiling point: at a union AGM last week, Hammersmith and Fulham Unison members voted unanimously to ballot for strike action to support contact centre workers who are threatened with compulsory redundancy. I have a report on the contact centre story here.
A few thoughts:
Much has been made by Tory commentators of Hammersmith and Fulham’s genius for reducing council tax – but that’s only one half of the picture.
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The strange case of David Aaronovitch’s priorities
In the Times yesterday columnist David Aaronovitch went to work on the popular idea that we as citizens are caught on CCTV camera 300 times a day. He was tenacious, dogged and vociferous in his quest to debunk the misconception.
He should be congratulated on his little scoop. It’s worthy of a blogger, in fact. If only, however, he’d shown the same tenacity, doggedness, and vociferousness in chasing down the facts in 2003 when spurious statistics and misconceptions were left to fester in the public imagination without correction and ended up taking us to war.
If I remember rightly, Aaronovitch was quite happy then to take the peddlers of those spurious statistics and misconceptions at their word. Indeed, he crowed those false assertions from his column in a national newspaper. Afterwards, feeling a little sheepish, he said on the subject of Iraq’s WMDs:
If nothing is eventually found, I – as a supporter of the war – will never believe another thing that I am told by our government, or that of the US ever again.
Given his propensity to shovel down and regurgitate any amount of government say-so since he said that, we can only assume his promise of future disbelief was also a misconception of some kind. Would anyone care to chase it down with Aaronovitchesque tenacity?
I note the irony that Aaronovitch once won the Orwell Prize for journalism. Can anyone pinpoint the precise moment he went from speak to power to speaking for it?
(Cross posted at Chicken Yoghurt)
Top Stories – 4th March 2009
Nationwide
Currys firm plans more megastores
Tories hit out at political correctness
The Polish dream turns sour
Fresh scandal for university quiz
International
Attack on SL cricket team plunges game into chaos
Obama overturns Bush endangered species rule
Syria Talks Signal New Direction for U.S.
Cadbury adopts Fairtrade source
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / coming later
Which Taliban was responsible?
Once we’ve set aside the horror and revulsion one inevitably feels in the wake of these latest attacks in Pakistan, I’m more inclined than ever to think there’s some truth to the Terrorists-Are-Dumb theory of international politics. I mean, if your idea of jihad is striking a possibly fatal blow to your country’s favourite sport, I think it’s safe to say that you’re going to suffer a major recruitment problem.
Beyond that, I think it’s important to avoid either jumping to rash conclusions, or merging Pakistan’s many militant factions into one slimy gloop called ‘Taliban’, as a guest contributor to Harry’s Place seems to do here. Shiraz Maher links the tragedy in Lahore with the recently-brokered ceasefire between the national government and the thugs who control the North-Western Province (or Swat Valley).
I think this is a mistake.
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Event: ‘How liberal is Labour?’
Labour’s liberal credentials have been under threat for some time, with ID cards, 42 days detention and, above all, the Iraq war, attracting fierce criticism from liberal campaigners.
This is also key time politically: despite fluctuating polls, a hung parliament is still a potential outcome at the next general election. Is a new progressive consensus either possible or desirable, and could Labour and the Liberal Democrats work together in government?
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More good news from the USA
President Obama on Tuesday overturned a last-minute Bush administration regulation that many environmentalists claim weakened the Endangered Species Act. The regulation, issued a few weeks before George W. Bush left office, made it easier for federal agencies to skip consultations with government scientists before launching projects that could affect endangered wildlife.
By overturning the regulation, Obama said during an enthusiastic reception at the Interior Department, he had restored “the scientific process to its rightful place at the heart of the Endangered Species Act, a process undermined by past administrations.”
Whoop whoop!
By the way, I’m also in favour of the Afghan surge strategy, but haven’t had the time to write why.
Guantánamo: definitive prisoner list published
Andy Worthington, London-based journalist and author of “The Guantánamo Files” (Pluto Press), today releases the first definitive list of the 779 prisoners held in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
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Statement from Phil Woolas MP on who ‘is British’
I recently posted a letter to Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, in response to an article that suggested British-born descendants of immigrants shouldn’t classify themselves as ‘British’. I asked immigration minister Phil Woolas if he had any comment and received this:
Dear Sunder
Most people believe that it is the Government who have released these figures in this way. In fact, it was the ONS with no Ministerial involvement and indeed despite my objections. What’s worse is that the press release which ran to nine pages highlighted the 1 in 9 figure as the main finding. So, Government gets the blame by some for whipping up anti-foreign sentiment when it is the independent ONS who are playing politics. The justification from the ONS who had, out of schedule, highlighted the figure two weeks earlier because it was “topical” is, at best, naive or, at worst, sinister.
The fact that 1 in 9 people who are in Britain (for over a year) were born overseas is neither new nor informative. It includes around 370,000 undergraduates who will not stay in this country as well as those British nationals born overseas including around a quarter of a million born to our armed forces personnel serving overseas. The figure of twelve months is arbitrary. Surely the distinction between temporary residence and Indefinite Leave to Remain and full citizenship is more useful in framing a mature debate.
There are times in our history when the numbers of residents born overseas was higher than 1 in 9. Robert Winder’s brilliant history of migration estimates that at the time of the Huguenot migration the figure could have been as high as one in three.
The whole issue highlights the toxic nature of this debate.
Phil Woolas MP
Immigration Minister
The Daily Mail: Still Homophobic and stunningly dishonest
A few hours ago now Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail poured a Molotov Cocktail and sat back, ready to watch the PC brigade scream. Monday’s Daily Mail frontpage has one of those frontpage stories that’ll make you tut and say “typical Mail“. But it’s so typical in fact, that I think it’s worth digging a little deeper into it.
It screams “ANOTHER BLOW TO FATHERHOOD” in that way only the Mail can do. No – it’s not a sympathetic piece supporting say, Fathers 4 Justice and their campaign for father’s rights – the Mail branded those “morons” long ago. It’s in fact some thinly-veiled homophobia, of course. “Now IVF mothers can name ANYONE as ‘father’ on birth certificate – and it doesn’t even have to be a man”, the paper tells us.
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