Cllr. Gavin Ayling

Okay, I lied, one more post….

I have just (yesterday) read a post about Fitt’s Law on the Office 12 development blog. The blog is always fascinating reading, but this post especially so: Fitt’s Law and Office 12’s new design.

I am not going to be contactable over the next couple of weeks… I haven’t asked anyone to post on the blog while I’m away but any of the registered users may if they wish.

See you on my return.

A British political party has, at last, called for the abolition of anti-English tuition fees.

Now ask yourself, which party could that be? Conservatives? LibDems? Certainly not Labour…

No, it’s the Scottish National Party (SNP). Jolly good then.

The reason I’m not as surprised as I expect at least some of you to be, is that the SNP are not anti-English, they — like I am — are anti-British!

As J0nz pointed out, Hezbollah and Israel are thought of very differently by Britons than by the BBC… Have Your Say.

ITV4 managed to lose the signal while Arsenal scored their first goal and, because I taped it, that meant I missed the goal completely…

First:

If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind.

John Stuart Mill

Second:

I’m laughing… but it’s a laugh of impatience.

Homer Simpson

The first is serious and, I would suggest, unreasonable to disagree with. The second, lightens the mood somewhat.

This blog post was created using Windows Live Writer which I discovered just now and have installed.

So far it seems to provide a simple way of creating blog posts which are automatically uploaded from the computer on which the software has been installed. Apparently it is compatible with WordPress, Blogger and many others but obviously I am only going to test it with WordPress (which is what this blog is designed on).

It will be interesting (for me) to see whether this post appears any different to normal on the actual website. For anyone interested in this software, there is a blog entry on the subject here: Windows Live Writer.

According to the figures available, those who immigrated to the UK since 2004 make up nearly 1 in 60 of the population.

The imminent EU accession of Romania and Bulgaria represents a new source of immigrants to the UK. There are voices, not least Frank Field, who are calling foul, but there’s really no justification for restricting immigration from these new members.

The EU is about free movement of people and free trade. Now anyone with even a small idea of the EU’s working will know that we are not getting anything similar to free trade in many, many areas. So the only tenet of the EU that Britons signed up for under Heath and that is actually functioning is free movement of people.

If we turn around now and say “Sorry Romanians, sorry Bulgarians, you cannot come to the UK because, though we want access to your markets, we don’t want your people.” then we are removing that final part of the EU that we all agreed to.

I agree that the UK is suffering a change in culture… A sort of negative zionism by multiple cultures. And I agree that the time has come for a serious look at our immigration policy… But I don’t think that should mean double-standards on the EU. Let’s leave the EU and say what we really think! Let’s join schengen, let’s sign a free trade agreement with the EU and remain a country in our own right.

At the same time, let’s let English culture redefine itself to include our newest members. Let’s prepare our schools to cope with the children of our mostly young immigrants when they are born. And let’s not confuse immigrants (those who come here) with the legislators that we think are getting the policies wrong.

According to the BBC’s The World programme on BBC Four this evening, Italy, Spain and Malta are struggling with the number of illegal immigrants coming from Africa to work here (where “here” is the EU). As Leanne said earlier on this blog, the people who manage to leave Africa are probably the very people who could reverse the problems Africa so evidently has.

Let’s work harder and more seriously at improving the economies of Africa so that there’s no reason to jump on that ship in the first place. The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy’s abolition would be a good starting place.

Conservative Home has been performing an interesting experiment in policy making. See 100policies.com for the policies and the introductory article.

The impractical but vocal old-European nations were among the first to shout foul about Israel’s recent attempts to defend itself but it is Italy, not France or Germany, that is providing the majority of troops to the Lebanon.

France, according to the last figures I saw, are contributing 200 troops, Bangladesh (commendably) 1,000 and Italy 3,000. For obvious reasons Britain and the US are unable to commit troops.

But surely, as the second most powerful miltary power in Europe, France should be contributing at least as many troops as the coalition-of-the-willing-Italy. Israel, I am sure, would have happily allowed Hezbollah to be disarmed by third parties with no direct benefit. Israel, by implication then, would have been happy for the UN to stop terrorists attacking it and kidnapping its soldiers.

But the UN, despite all the obvious need, is again shown to be toothless. Were I a terrorist in the Middle East watching on at this, I would be more concerned about the serious efforts of Israel, Britain, Italy and the US than I would be of the rest of the world combined. The UN, if it did its job, could stop Britain, Israel and the US from appearing to be bullies in a world full of real bullies (Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda).

So, France, put your money where your mouth is and help Israel and the Lebanon avoid further anti-state terrorist activity.