Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity", according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett.

He said Labour's relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to "open up the UK to mass migration" but that ministers were nervous and reluctant to discuss such a move publicly for fear it would alienate its "core working class vote".

As a result, the public argument for immigration concentrated instead on the economic benefits and need for more migrants.

Critics said the revelations showed a "conspiracy" within Government to impose mass immigration for "cynical" political reasons.

Mr Neather was a speech writer who worked in Downing Street for Tony Blair and in the Home Office for Jack Straw and David Blunkett, in the early 2000s.

Writing in the Evening Standard, he revealed the "major shift" in immigration policy came after the publication of a policy paper from the Performance and Innovation Unit, a Downing Street think tank based in the Cabinet Office, in 2001.

He wrote a major speech for Barbara Roche, the then immigration minister, in 2000, which was largely based on drafts of the report.

He said the final published version of the report promoted the labour market case for immigration but unpublished versions contained additional reasons, he said.

He wrote: "Earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural.

"I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended – even if this wasn't its main purpose – to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date."

The "deliberate policy", from late 2000 until "at least February last year", when the new points based system was introduced, was to open up the UK to mass migration, he said.

Some 2.3 million migrants have been added to the population since then, according to Whitehall estimates quietly slipped out last month.

On Question Time on Thursday, Mr Straw was repeatedly quizzed about whether Labour's immigration policies had left the door open for the BNP.

In his column, Mr Neather said that as well as bringing in hundreds of thousands more migrants to plug labour market gaps, there was also a "driving political purpose" behind immigration policy.

He defended the policy, saying mass immigration has "enriched" Britain, and made London a more attractive and cosmopolitan place.

But he acknowledged that "nervous" ministers made no mention of the policy at the time for fear of alienating Labour voters.

"Part by accident, part by design, the Government had created its longed-for immigration boom.

"But ministers wouldn't talk about it. In part they probably realised the conservatism of their core voters: while ministers might have been passionately in favour of a more diverse society, it wasn't necessarily a debate they wanted to have in working men's clubs in Sheffield or Sunderland."

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the Migrationwatch think tank, said: "Now at least the truth is out, and it's dynamite.

"Many have long suspected that mass immigration under Labour was not just a cock up but also a conspiracy. They were right.

"This Government has admitted three million immigrants for cynical political reasons concealed by dodgy economic camouflage."

The chairmen of the cross-party Group for Balanced Migration, MPs Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, said: "We welcome this statement by an ex-adviser, which the whole country knows to be true.

"It is the first beam of truth that has officially been shone on the immigration issue in Britain."

Dreams.

Prefer to stay here and try to educate Manuel as he had such an inferior institutional education which must have affected his subsequent development.

Also, I enjoy tweaking the small remnant of consciences of some of the younger and older reactionaries.

---------------

Mind Romania is supposed to be a beautiful country and I recall somewhere I read of Prince Charles had bought some property as a bolt hole.

I hope he had a visa.

--------

Hays,

I have always thought you believed in fairy stories.

Turning immigration into a tool of social engineering

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/8335#.UsSGJLinyu8

http://news.sky.com/story/1154577/labour-got-it-wrong-on-immigration

So you might see a few plates like this about, not to mention the 'RR' lol

Chart documenting demographic genocide under New Labour. Estimates retrieved from National Statistics Online, for the years 1991-2008. Red is under Labour, blue under the Tories and purple was an election year with a switch in May.

This one is very interesting

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/11/uk_immigration_economics_or_ideology.html

Good article Haystack, many thanks.

Hays as you can see we have no more than most countries but what we can see is the propaganda spread by Tory backbenches as made the UK population THINK we have more immigrants than we really have.......

electionista ‏@electionista 16h
TNS: % immigrant pop., actual/estimated by voters:

PT 8%/35%
UK 12%/31%
IT 9%/25%
FR 12%/25%
ES 15%/24%
NL 11%/23%
DE 13%/20%
SE 15%/18%

A true gentleman, watched him live in the states a few years back.


Fresh Prince actor James Avery dies

James Avery, the bulky character actor who laid down the law at home and on the job as the Honourable Philip Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has died at the age of 68.

Good idea?



$400 an ounce, but no need to worry about the cops: So what's it like to legally buy marijuana in Denver?







As recreational cannabis was legalised in Colorado on New Year's Day, thousands turned out for their first taste of the new industry. Tim Walker joined the back of the queue


Tim Walker


Denver


Thursday 02 January 2014


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/400-an-ounce-but-no-need-to-worry-about-the-cops-so-whats-it-like-to-legally-buy-marijuana-in-denver-9033288.html

sticky - from where did you get your statistics re immigrants, and more importantly how did that survey decide who was or was not an immigrant?

btw, it would not be in the interest of the tories to o'state the number of immigrants (however that term is determined), and indeed, very much the opposite ..... ukip however, would play a different tune

Hi Cyners, it was on the electionista web site on twitter and Ive copied it just as it appeared.

Must admit youd have thought their would be a bit more detail.

who runs/owns electionista and/or where do their politics stand?
it's not that important, but it's always useful to know these things

Sites here Cyners, Scroll down.

https://twitter.com/electionista

did do .... i don't know what you think, but it looks as though anyone can post whatever numbers they like on there - a bit like twitter
am i wrong?

No they are taking polls from the various polling organisations worldwide. You or I couldnt post on their.

Well you might be able to if you pay them to subscribe £150 grand per year. But it would still have to go through their management/admin team.

Can you see the poll I posted?, about 6th one down.

This is where I get my polls to tease Hays about labour being in the lead.

Cyners about time you joined twitter anyway. You could copy my 812 followers and have an instant stock market community. I dont sign anyone up unless they are interested in the stockmarket. Far quicker to the news than any other source on stock market and company related news.

I have another account for sociable tweeters like fit bits of tash and porn stars (strictly females)and football and sports.