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Thursday, 16 April, 2009

Sarah McDermott | 17:51 UK time, Thursday, 16 April 2009

Here's a look ahead to tonight's Newsnight:

Tonight we have an exclusive report from inside Zimbabwe, only two months after the MDC joined a coalition government with Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF. The film documents , and shows how the country is being turned into a land of orphans. This as we see shelves of branded food items filling a grocery shop - only for the fortunate who can pay in foreign currency. The Finance Minister tells us that Western donors must start to give aid again to Zimbabwe or "this experiment will collapse and without that we become a failed state." .

We will also be looking into the Damien Green affair and asking is national security being invoked too readily. Gordon Brown today finally said sorry for what happened over the email smears. That is the second apology of his premiership, the first being over the 10p tax. Why the apology now? And will this finally draw a line under the whole affair?

And we have the first British interview since the G20 with the IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Plus, here on our website don't miss the first in a new series, Village People, exploring strange goings-on at Westminster. David Grossman meets political blogger, Paul Staines aka "", the man who revealed the existence of those scandalous e-mails from Downing Street advisor Damian McBride, which contained untrue allegations about top Tories. and if there's something you'd like David to investigate at Westminster, or people you'd like him to interview for the series please leave your ideas below.

See you at 10.30pm.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    "Tonight we have an exclusive report from inside Zimbabwe, only two months after the MDC joined a coalition government with Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF. The film documents starving Zimbabweans who have been forced to poach wild animals, and shows how the country is being turned into a land of orphans. This as we see shelves of branded food items filling a grocery shop - only for the fortunate who can pay in foreign currency."

    Is this a celebration of 'job well done' by the EU and other Liberal-Democracies?

    Another statistist (here clearly Marxist) regime economically undermined in the interest of.....?

    If the West truly cared about Zimbabwean people, surely they would have offered to help to build their Democratic-Centralist system (as the PRC did) rather than impose sanctions?

    Given that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is not welcome in the country, our FCO and EU polices are hostile, just how balanced can we assume this piece to be?

  • Comment number 2.

    "and if there's something you'd like David to investigate at Westminster, or people you'd like him to interview for the series please leave your ideas below."

    Id like o hear views on the nurse struck off for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ filming of the disgraceful way patients are treated and very importantly what the hell is going to be done about it ? Ive been one of those patients so absolutely know terrifying it is to go under the knife.

  • Comment number 3.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 4.

    WATCHING BRIEF (#2)

    As recent spectator in a bizarre sequence of events in NHS, I too am, more than a little, interested in the nurse who has, seemingly, been struck off to discourage any others so moved.

  • Comment number 5.

    "And will this finally draw a line under the whole affair?"

    A question, a hope or an instruction? And from whom to who?

    I just ask because it seems familiar, and not in a good, unenhanced narrative, non-interpreted event kind of way.

  • Comment number 6.

    /blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2008/10/tuesday_12_october.html

    The seer from Blairgowrie as Neil Robertson would say.

  • Comment number 7.

    Zimbabwean Wildlife



    A Nobel Prize winner phoned me up when he read this just after I wrote it to say it was an outstanding analysis ahead of it's time.

    Now appears the time.

    Celtic lion

  • Comment number 8.

    KCL #6

    Its clear that anything alleged green which Brown puts his name to is simply a marketing scam, stock market up through the roof today.

  • Comment number 9.


    Rather than these pieces castigating Robert Mugabe - we know it's all gone wrong out there - but WHY did it all go so wrong. We could do with a programme, perhaps not on Newsnight, but an investigation into why what was an apparent story of success, has turned out so disasterously.

    Is the 'Champ to Chump' image portrayed by the media really the case? He was knighted by the Queen at one time - a man with a similar background to Mandela - who achieved six degrees along the way - a hero in Africa.

    To what extent were his plans undermined by Britain when Labour cut off the aid package (I think it was Claire Short). Was this the turning point? Or are there other factors? Has he just got too old? Or was he never as 'good' as he was portrayed?

  • Comment number 10.

    So Guido Fawkes, libertarian, believer in free speech, bowed to pressure to restrict comments about Jews and Jewish conspiracies?

    He dealt with his unsavoury commenters, would that you would do the same.

    Or maybe it's just that he doesn't understand, poor fool, about The Perfect Storm, and dysgenesis, and Cluster B Axis whatever, and someone should go and explain it to him?

    Guido 1 - Newsnight 0

  • Comment number 11.

    #8 Brossen99

    I seem to remember we had a discussion some months back about taking old cars off the road. Please remind me what car you had.

    We have a nightmare scenario about to happen. With plastic bags we were encouraged to recycle them and not throw them away.

    Now we as tax papers are going have to fund people to the tune of £2000 to throw perfectly good cars away.

    Most of the resource pollution resource costs in running a car are in its production. There is an environmental cost in paying people to throw good cars away.

    If we pay to throw good environmentally sound cars away to stimulate a foreign car industry. (We are a net importer of cars), the affects are going to be disasterous.

    If we take cars 9 years or older off the road. We close Halfords. We close all those little 1,2,3 and 4 man little garages. We close bodyshops. We close Partco. We close all these liittle small businesses.

    This Government wants us the taxpayers to fund the scaping of perfectly good cars. That will be a disaster for the environment, that will cause 10,000s of job losses in the UK. Only to support jobs in other countries.

    This is insane dangerous madness and the media are not challenging the insanity of this Government.

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 12.


    Ref # 11 King Celtic Lion

    I wholeheartedley agree. The world appears to have gone completely mad.

  • Comment number 13.

    Zimbabwean Wildlife

    A Nobel Prize winner phoned me up to say this was an outstanding analysis. Ahead of its time.

    I don't think I can put a link to what a Nobel Prize winner considered was so outstanding in relation to tonights
    Newsnights programme.

    The mods appear not to want that

    I imagine if you enter into Google

    Celtic Lion Africa

    You might find something far beyond what Newsnight will offer and written 14 months ago.

    Go on Google, Celtic Lion Africa and see what will happen. Prince Charles says we have 100 months. No we have 44 months or we all die.

    Unfortunately I am am only an engineer and ecologist not a politician or lawyer. So not media important.

    Celtic Lion-the seer from Blairgowrie

  • Comment number 14.

    Isn't wasting police time a criminal offence? Or doesn't that law apply to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ
    Office and ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Secretary?

  • Comment number 15.

    KCL #11

    Up until three years ago I was running a 15 year old Peugeot 205 naturally aspirated Diesel, but it was almost completely knackered so having the spare cash I went for a new car. I chose a 1000cc Kia Picanto, only five and a half grand, no air conditioning or anything fancy, performs as good as the Peugeot and similar Mpg except cheaper on petrol. Its built like a brick sh1thouse as I found when I looked under it properly the other day when it flew through the MOT. I hope to keep it as long as economic, but the EU sneaked though new rules that main dealers need not supply the required computer software to independent garages for servicing etc.

    Family electric cars have no real future unless you carry the main batteries in a trailer which can be quickly exchanged at a network of participating charging stations. No need for expensive nickel, lead acid is proven technology and easy to recycle. I bet that you could mass produce a practical family electric car for less than 10 grand, all this subsidy is going to achieve is to keep the price up.

  • Comment number 16.

    There has been much criticism of the regulators around the world. Indeed, there has been much to criticise, and in the UK the FSA was justified in admitting its own failings.

    Now the IMF, which has been in the lead of the critics of national agencies, is being set up by the G20 to regulate the regulators. If, as I fully expect, in tonight's interviewDominique Strauss-Kahn continues to preen himself - in the light of his new emminence - I would be interested in one answer: where was he, and the IMF, when the global financial system fell apart.

    As set up at Bretton Woods, major remit of the IMF was to regulate the global financial systems so that the 1930s never happened again. So where was everyone when precisely this did happen?

  • Comment number 17.

    #13 Richard-SM

    Thanks, at least if some of us are sane enough to realise the world has gone completely mad we have a chance.

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 18.

    KCL #11 try again for some unknown reason

    Up until three years ago I was running a 15 year old Peugeot 205 naturally aspirated Diesel, but it was almost completely knackered so having the spare cash I went for a new car. I chose a 1000cc Kia Picanto, only five and a half grand, no air conditioning or anything fancy, performs as good as the Peugeot and similar Mpg except cheaper on petrol. Its built very well, proper decent size heavy duty components ( weighs over a ton ) as I found when I first looked under it properly the other day when it flew through the MOT. I hope to keep it as long as economic, but the EU sneaked though new rules that main dealers need not supply the required computer software to independent garages for servicing etc.

    Family electric cars have no real future unless you carry the main batteries in a trailer which can be quickly exchanged at a network of participating charging stations. No need for expensive nickel, lead acid is proven technology and easy to recycle. I bet that you could mass produce a practical family electric car for less than 10 grand, all this subsidy is going to achieve is to keep the price up.

  • Comment number 19.

    re 17

    Sorry I refer to your #12 post.

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 20.

    Short of money? struggling to pay the mortgage? get yourself to the nearest protest and wind up the biggest plod you can find ...and if your lucks in, you'll get a clout and a baton sting to the back of the legs, get it filmed and give Max Clifford a call. And there's me thinking all protester- types are principled.

    A new Adam Curtis documentary (Approx 5mins) As shown on Newswipe recently...1.45mins in.



    You'll have to cut and paste that.

  • Comment number 21.

    Village People Smears (for full effect, say it with a New York Jewish accident, like you're about to eat a tasty bagel licked with cream cheese). Talking of Jewish accents what has happened to Jon Mendelsohn these days? During the weird episode of David Abrahams and the undisclosed Labour party donations, Mendelsohn somewhat miraculously avoid resignation (although not without the odd media reference to the close friendship between his wife and Sarah Brown) and then he promptly disappeared, along with the prospect of a speedy election... Of course he had already been caught out looking rather disreputable (. And wasn't Draper involved then? And what with Draper and McBrien proclaimed dishonourable, does Mendelsohn remain a lone outstanding smear-in-waiting, dangerously remote as the original New Labour brat pack dwindles...? Ah, but then the New Labour old boys have been reforming haven't they (Mandelson, Campbell)? So, what of them too? Are they also in jeopardy as their old powers of media persuasion and hard-nosed savvy are found lapsed and failing and their old (well youngish) cronies bite the dust? Will Brown in his desperation be reaching for new brooms. Or is he too entrenched to know how or where or what to do with new brooms?

  • Comment number 22.

    12. At 9:58pm on 16 Apr 2009, Richard_SM The world appears to have gone completely mad.

    Today I nominate Navestock - Essex branch

    'Leaving potholes results in natural traffic calming. They are a good thing'


    What would we do without ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Breakfast News

  • Comment number 23.

    TRANSPARENCY VS. OPACITY (SUBTERFUGE)

    RadiantPoachedEgg (#10) A conspiracy requires more than one person to plot and illegal act.

    To describe exposure of the promotion of political group self-interest as airing a 'conspiracy theory' is usually just a subterfuge designed to divert attention away from something worthy of closer scrutiny in a democracy, where the media is supposed to do exactly that.

    It is just basic science to assume the Null Hypothesis (random chance). If one collects data and finds that observed frequencies depart markedly from expected frequencies, rationality demands that one looks for an explanation. To refuse to see differences where they exist is an act of denial and sometimes even stupidity.

    I am quite happy to discuss this rationally with you if you wish. Should you wish to do so, I request that you first look closely at the statistics provided here at #5, and bear in mind the events of 9/11 and Wall Street.

    Then look at and think of the Cash for Honours debacle. Then look at the big names in property and the retain sector. Take a look at the make up of the Newsnight Political Panel (and their affiliations) bearing in mind the UK population base rate (0.5%). Finally, consider this: There is another group which comprises almost exactly the same population base-rate, these are the British Chinese. This group comes top in our Maintained Schools, even in English, are they as salient? Why not?

    In the natural (political) competition between groups/extended families (which practice endogamy) in pursuit of resources (e.g. power and wealth) it serves hegemonic interest to disguise what is done in case one is accused by larger out-groups of nepotism, especially in a democracy, when equality of opportunity and anti-racism is heavily promoted by activists, and disproportionately so by a minority group, don't you think?

  • Comment number 24.

    Favourites of the night - Jeremy with Damien Green (absolutely brilliant) and also with Penny Toynbee & Co on the state of Brown.

  • Comment number 25.

    i wonder about the uk obsession with zimbabwe and not any other african country. Is it related to the interests of uk based landowners?

    still nothing on the uk energy scandal?

    we need an election now. not 12 months of drift and dither.

  • Comment number 26.

    #10 RadiantPoachedEgg

    I do see where you are coming from.

    When Jaded_Jean says "... divert attention away from something worthy of closer scrutiny in a democracy" it is worth noting that democracy has always been a dirty word for the race "realists", as is freedom, and that the kind of Hitler style planned economies and race "realism" don't appear consistent with comment likely to encourage all sectors of society.

  • Comment number 27.


    MI5 are looking for a chief scientific officer and I am guessing the Eugenics Education Trust won't be the source of one of their candidates.

  • Comment number 28.

    A good piece on Zimbabwe last night.

    I think on the Brown apology maybe he needed to draw a line because once people start asking McBride and Draper in an environment where the dread duo may get heavy flak and Labour will almost certainly lose the next election maybe they would indicate that it was not a moment of madness.

  • Comment number 29.

    #23 Jaded_jean

    Big breath .... whole complete sentences.

    You wobble on about eugenics and race "realism" all the time.

    Your views are in your world (only) backed up by hard statistics and science.

    So why do you always use such vague phrases as "anti-racism is heavily promoted by activists, and disproportionately so by a minority group"?

    Is there a particular minority group in mind and if it is the Jews could you elaborate on what Stalin ejecting anarchists and Trotskyites, some of whom were Jews, in the 1930's shows - as you have previously indicated that is "significant"?

    Your previous explanation that "it wasn't because they were going to the synagogue" hardly matches your alleged scientific discipline and frankly says nothing.

    Neither do your comments on 9/11 and Wall St.

    "To refuse to see differences where they exist is an act of denial and sometimes even stupidity" - so why not simply identify them rather than vaguely refer to them?

    You have said you would like more coverage for the BNP previously. You would also like a Hitler style planned economy.

    Is there a relationship between the Eugenics Education Trust and the BNP?

    Genetic variation is greater within a race than between races. There is no basis for your race "realism" and your views are to do with your emotional and psychological disposition and not scientific rationale.

    Previously you have come clean and said mainstream scientists are "all Jews".

    That says it all.

    If people on this page are too "stupid" to "understand" you why not try the BNP site or the Eugenics Education Trust. I am sure all of the top scientific minds must visit those every day in their search for wisdom and truth!

  • Comment number 30.

    #1 Jaded_Jean

    "just how balanced can we assume this piece to be" (on Zimbabwe).

    How balanced is a comment from a race "realist" who has previously cited "statistics" that show Zimbabweans are below average IQ and the UK will end up like this "statist" country if we don't change our immigration policy?

    Other statistics from you included those Jewish survival rates from the 1930's as you felt there may not have been a Holocaust.

    You don't like democracy or freedom - they do and they want it and I am all for that.

  • Comment number 31.

    Newsnight Jaded_Jean has mentioned the Eugenics Education Trust.

    I am taking it for granted that if it is not a registered charity?

  • Comment number 32.

    thegangofone (#29) "Previously you have come clean and said mainstream scientists are "all Jews".

    I have asked you before to provide the link to the post where that has been written. You have not done so. Why not?

  • Comment number 33.

    #32 Jaded_Jean

    Because I can't remember. I have decided to cut and paste the slip ups in future!

    But you said it after a comment where I had said that your race "realist" views are rejected by mainstream scientists.

    You are saying you did NOT say that, as this sounds like a non-denial denial?

    You have also referred to Stalin kicking out anarchists and Trotskyites who were Jews " and it wasn't because they were going to the synagogue"?

    You have also said that "we all came out of Africa but lets say some got left behind".

    As above you have said you neither affirm nor deny the Holocaust but you have cited statistics, that you believe are credible, about Jewish survival rates from the 1930's.

    Hitler did "good and bad things" - remember!


  • Comment number 34.

    #32 Jaded_Jean

    In case the larger point is missed you asserted yesterday I believe that your views and eugenics are at the centre of science.

    My understanding is that genetic variation is greater within a race than between races and that there is therefore no basis for your race "realism".

    If that is not the case then which bodies back your views? For instance the Chief Science Officer is a race "realist"? The Commission For Racial Equality recognize the validity of your views and what the Eugenics Education Trust promotes? The BMA?

    You have not stated that. Why not?


  • Comment number 35.

    thegangofone (#33) "Because I can't remember."

    So what makes you think that your other recollections/readings/comprehensions are any more reliable?

    Note, this is general point about the unreliability of the psychological verbs (intensional idioms) of propositional attitude.

    It appears to me that you frequently confuse/confabulate your own misunderstandings of what you read (and your false-memories) with what others have actually written.

  • Comment number 36.

    Go1 (generally)

    I've not read this blog for a while but now, coming back I see you are still talking the same old rubbish. You make absurd statements that have no basis in fact ie. "The UK is happy as a multicultural society and 99.9% of the public and scientists reject what you say." When you have been given a link (from ecolizzy) to a recent poll in which 43% of people stated they were NOT happy with the present level of immigration.

    You should examine a few facts (how about genetic variation between races?) and stop making such a fool of yourself.

    And now as icing on the cake your excuse for not providing proof for another of your erroneous statements is "Because I can't remember." So much for your scientific training.

    Consider again "We all came out of Africa but some got left behind". If none had stayed behind there would be no native Africans would there? The truth there I suspect is that you take umbrage at the phrase "left behind". Try it instead with "stayed put" then, instead of continuing your abuse of others you might just see what is meant.

    Stop making things up just because that is how you would like it to be. Take a look at some of the things you have previously posted over and over again, they are simply not true and your constant repetition can never make them so.

  • Comment number 37.

    thegangofone (#34) "My understanding is that genetic variation is greater within a race than between races and that there is therefore no basis for your race "realism"."

    I have responded to this many times. Please read and the Edwards paper available off it. I suggest you also look into the Forensic DNA technology which I have referenced many times. Aside from that, the medical profession now takes it for granted that there are marked differences in prevalence/risk factors for all sorts of disorders between races. Take breast cancer and Ashkenazi Jewish females vs other Whites, or prostate cancer in Black Amercians. Races assortively mate, and this serves as a gene barrier.

  • Comment number 38.

    in pictures.

  • Comment number 39.

    thegangofone (#31) I don't think you are quite grasping he magnitude of your .

    See the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Page of the Galton Institute above, it's earlier incarnation, and then read (and look up the author with respect to the Galton Institute).

    All of these links (and more) have been provided for you several times. You seem to ignore them. Why?

  • Comment number 40.

    #36 Newfazer

    Did the poll say they were unhappy with immigration or that they wanted to give up on democracy in favour of Hitler style planned economies and race "realism"?

  • Comment number 41.

    #39 Jaded_Jean

    You are as obtuse as ever.

    Name the bodies and scientists that actually agree with you?

    As I suggested the Chief Science Officer to the UK? The Commission For Racial Equality? The BMA?

    As for your "the medical profession now takes it for granted that there are marked differences in prevalence/risk factors for all sorts of disorders between races." that says ONLY that there are specific conditions and orders that relate to genes and race.

    You argue that there is a general basis for race "realism" and I have never heard a doctor say that .

    As for your ridiculous attempt to backtrack via "If none had stayed behind there would be no native Africans would there?" that is truly pathetic.

    You decided to point out suddenly that there are Africans? Please.

    The actual phrase you used was "some got left behind" as I had previously pointed out that some scientists speculate that we all came out of Africa and that is why in fact there are very few genetic differences between races.

    Talking of propaganda - you have yet to expand on your previous statement (or will you backtrack on that as well) regarding Stalin ejecting Jews in the 1930's and "it was not because they went to the synagogue"?

    With regard to "making things up" I probably did not need to learn the lesson that it is best to take your memorable quotes and cut and paste them. But bear in mind that Newsnight probably store all the comments on a database that can be trawled.

    Do you dispute saying "Hitler did good and bad things" or that you neither affirm nor deny the Holocaust - but did produce statistics on Jewish 1930's survival rates? Do you think readers don't make the leap about your views? Do you want a Hitler style planned economy? Is that made up? Am I an "anarchist and a Trotskyite" as I "paint Hitler as darkly as possible for party political reasons"?

    There is no chance of my being intimidated by your alleged profound grasp of science or the use of puppet logins or the attempt to create a sense of authority around a lunatic ideology that you never name.

    Are you going to take your statistics on Jewish survival rates from the 1930's that you thought pertinent to your position on the Holocaust to the Djemjanjuk trial? No.

    Why does the Eugenics Education Trust and the race "realists" need to concentrate on a Newsnight web page when you have thousands of scientists queuing up to support you and they "can understand you".

    Do you vote for the BNP - you have previously said you are not a Nazi or the BNP, but you would like to see them covered. Correct?

    Good luck in la-la land!



  • Comment number 42.

    Go1 #39

    The poll stated (as you would have seen had you been bothered to follow the link) that, of the sample polled, 43% started they were unhappy with the level of immigration. There was no question concerning democracy.

    You should try the idea that the opposite of the free-for-all economy that we have now and are suffering from now need not be some bogeyman, oppressive regime. I am sure you are pleased to make as much use of the NHS as i do, now that is the result of a planned, socialist economy where the people were put first and cared for by the state. I prefer that model to your 'freedom' to be ripped off at every turn by big business running amok while 'government' looks the other way. The poor and the unwary suffering the most.

  • Comment number 43.

    Go1 #41

    Your are confused. It was I who put the point about native Africans. And I who pointed out that you invent things to suit yourself.

    You are becoming distressed. Perhaps you should seek some professional help.

  • Comment number 44.

    FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

    ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News last year - see . It was a big issue covered by Newsnight in 2007 too.

    As an adjuct (see also the Edwards paper), a Principal Components Analysis of Europeans showing . The HAPMAP and Human Genome Diversity Project is worth a look too. This is all pretty standard stuff these days, and so many scientists don't really know what to make of representatives of highly vocifrous, highly emotional, members of uninformable groups which keep asserting "it isn't true", especially after they've been shown what can be, and is being done.

    Some folk are incorrigible. But then all teachers know this. I guess it's a Gaussian, genetic, thing?

  • Comment number 45.

    GO1

    I'm one of those accused by you of race "realism", whatever that implies.
    As the head of a mixed race family, I am less concerned with racial issues, than with the government's multi-cultural experiment that has brought a flood of alien cultures into our society.

    I have posted recently about the huge waste of resources, cost (e.g. legal aid) and rich pickings for the (overwhelmingly non-indigenous) legal staffs who benefit from our over-tolerant immigration rules and procedures, that favour the illegal, uninvited, unsponsored (and often dangerous) immigrant, and discriminate against the genuine sponsor - such as me

    With regard to your frequent comments on eugenics, I'm less interested in your comments than on finding out why this government appears to be 'engineering' immigration, perhaps as an alternative to eugenics?

    Why, for instance, on the latest published figures from Border Control Agency do we find the refusal rate for Student Visas to be 11-15% for Thais, Malays, Indonesians, Vietnamese, Turks, Russian Federation and Gulf citizens - yet 59% for Filipinos, whose main language is English ?

    This gov't, that has been happy enough to almost empty Philippine hospitals by recruiting appreciable numbers of their trained doctors and nurses, now deprives their students of obtaining UK training in Health Care by refusing student visas.

    We haven't yet got the facts following the investigation into alleged terrorist plotting by Pakistani immigrants, here on student visas - only one of whom had actually attended any school in UK. And Jeremy failed to get any real answers on a recent Newsnight interview with Pakistan's High Commissioner and Labour's
    'Community Affairs' official, about how many such 'students' were interviewed and/or refused visas.

    The most recent published figures from the Border Agency (2006-7) shows 28,235 applicants for student visas from Pakistan, 11,500 visas issued and 19,965 refused, so I should be relieved to see that a rejection rate of 63% is higher than that of the 59% of Philippines students rejected. However, given the history of terrorist activity in UK, I cannot (with or without my race realism hat) see why my niece, sponsored by me (an indigenous citizen) should be refused a student visa that has now taken a year to overturn through a Full Tribunal Hearing.

    I'm still keen to know how many of the
    11, 500 Pakistani 'students' granted visas were sponsored, and whether the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Office is at all interested in the sponsors, who should be responsible for the conduct of the sponsored person, including their attending school rather than plotting mayhem. However, I have previously been informed by ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Office that they are not interested in the sponsors. Perhaps they should start doing so, and stop discriminating against genuine students - particularly those vouched for by indigenous citizens.

  • Comment number 46.

    KCL (various)

    Good to see you back and talking your good sense.

    Quite refreshing for round here! ;-)

  • Comment number 47.

    hillsideboy (#45) I speculate here, but I suspect the differential discrimination between the different groups may be a function of risk factors of abusing 'student visas' as a subterfuge for staying and marrying? When we sent 5% to university it was more selective, with 50% now going and Bangladesh, Pakistan having populations of 150m each (and growing through high TFRs) this country, especilaly the SE and NW) would be swamped very quickly and replicate the social/political/economic conditions that these migrants have come from. In Tower Hamlets/East London only about 23% of school children at 7yrs of age are White Britons. The White Britons' birth-rate (like all other Europeans') is way below replacement level, but the S Asian TFR is much higher than replacement. This differential is replicated across London, especially East, and is why 99.9% of London's population growth in the next 30 years will be in BME groups. As I see it, what matters all comes down to 'skills', educability and numbers. The recent trends are economically, and services (medical, education etc) unsustainable.

    'Race realism' as a term really just comes down to acknowledging that the basis upon which ethnicity (16+1 HMG system) is classified has a sound underlying biological/genetic basis too - which is hardly surprising. It doesn't mean that one group is superior or inferior to another (although it is a martter of fact that some groups (as groups) have higher average IQs than others), any more than we say that Labradors are inferior or superior to Dalmations etc. If one group breeds faster than another and has other characteristics (behavioural/medical - cf. Bull Terriers), that has to be taken into account by a government when deciding if resources are available to cope with these differences. This has been explained to GO1 many times, but he seems prone to magical (or unwittingly seditious?) thinking in terms of where the money and human resources will come from. I keep pointing to the fact that if there are large numbers of people coming here from Pakistan and Bangladesh (and I note you mention others but am less familiar with those) and hardly any going from Europe to their countries - in time, it is inevitable that Europe will become more like Pakistan and Bangladesh if people and their behaviour is largely the expression of their genes (and this seems to be so, as genes make proteins, which in turn make us and our behaviour).

  • Comment number 48.

    I am absolutely fed up with politicians and political parties.
    All the MPs closed ranks very quickly when one of their number, Damien Green, was arrested and questioined by police.
    There was a tremendous broohaha about the police being allowed into Parliament. Why? I thought it was the duty of every right-minded citizen to co-operate with the police. MPs should be leading by example and Damien Green should have readily acceded to the police request instead of being obstructive.
    Now we have the whitewash saying that there has been no crime. So, it is not a crime to suborn a member of the Civil Service? I was a civil servant for over thirty years and would never have given confidential information to anyone not in my Department, and even then, only to those entitled to it. I remember in the past two Civil Servants being prosecuted for divulging information. They were genuine "whistle blowers" and should not have been prosecuted. This case, despite Mr.Green's protestations, is entirely different. He was regularly being fed information by someone who, so I have heard, wished advancement in the Conservative Party. Both Green and the Civil Servant should be prosecuted. To me there is no difference between them and Civil Servants who sell information to debt collecting agencies. The Civil Servant in both instances is doing it for profit, as is the person receiving the information.
    Both Green and the Civil Servant should be prosecuted but, as I said above, the MPs have closed ranks and whitewashed the case.

  • Comment number 49.

    bettomtom (#48) Have a look at this and take it for granted that the data shows the same has been happening here. Our Civil Service is no longer what it once was, that's for sure, and those who engineered that were those who foisted Thatcher upon us.

  • Comment number 50.

    #11 KCL
    If we take cars 9 years or older off the road. We close Halfords. We close all those little 1,2,3 and 4 man little garages. We close bodyshops. We close Partco. We close all these liittle small businesses.

    You are exactly right there Lion, I know that from experience.

    I think the government are looking for a home for all those stacked up new cars hanging around!

    And I've also known for years that building a new car is the most polluting part, why don't governments know this, when I as a pleb know this fact! They wouldn't be just exploiting us a bit more would they?! ; )

  • Comment number 51.

    ROYAL PALACE SYNDROME (#48)

    As I understand it, Westminster is a royal palace. I would guess that the precise extent of ramification is not recorded, but you can be sure all the rules are bent and diffuse.

  • Comment number 52.

    RadiantPoachedEgg (#10) "So Guido Fawkes, libertarian, believer in free speech, bowed to pressure to restrict comments about Jews and Jewish conspiracies?

    He dealt with his unsavoury commenters, would that you would do the same.

    Or maybe it's just that he doesn't understand, poor fool, about The Perfect Storm, and dysgenesis, and Cluster B Axis whatever, and someone should go and explain it to him?

    Guido 1 - Newsnight 0"


    Eggshine, I refer you to my comment(s) earlier ;-).


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