Comments on: PM’s Speech

By: Patrick Haseldine

Patrick Haseldine — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 22:33:32 +0000

Reverting to the PM’s speech on immigration: this must surely be the start of the next General Election campaign?

When will that election take place?

I predict (and you read it here first) that the General Election, the European Election and the Mayor of London Election will be held on the same day: Thursday, 10 June 2004.

Over to you, Tony!

By: David Boothroyd

David Boothroyd — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 21:33:37 +0000

Cherie’s maiden name was Booth, not Boothroyd. Her father is very well known to be Tony Booth the actor (Til Death etc).

As regards Michael Meacher’s integrity you have obviously overlooked the accusations over his ownership of many flats in London from which he had a substantial rental income, and the time he sued a journalist who had ridiculed his claim to humble origins (Meacher said his father was a poor farm labourer; it turned out he had been a stockbroker advised to retire to the country for the sake of his health, who occasionally helped out on a farm).

Having said that one of my friends is just about to start working for Meacher.

By: Uncarved Block

Uncarved Block — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 20:06:00 +0000

There are admittedly many different definitions of an ethnic minority but I think the one they are referring to here is whether people class themselves as ‘white’ - 92.1%. An alternative measure discussed is place of birth where the percentage born outside of the UK is 8.3%. (figures from 2001 census http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/uk.asp )

Whatever way you cut it the point is still valid that the public perception is wrong and there aren’t as many immigrants in this country as they think there are

By: Stuart Brown

Stuart Brown — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 19:42:53 +0000

Just on a facetious note, I’m surprised Blair is bothering to address the question of ID cards at all. Why it was just a few days ago he was telling us opoosition to ID cards was based on technological issues, not concerns over privacy!

"a recent MORI poll which found that people here estimated the proportion of ethnic minorities in Britain as 23%, when the real figure was just 8%" This is as much meaningless chaff unless the definition of "ethnic minority" is also published. Ethnic minority is such a wooly all encompassing term that you could easily prove 8%, 80% or 180% of the country was "ethnic minority". Blair is not helping.

Re: politician rant. I can think of only one minister who briefly showed some real integrity and that was Michael Meacher. Seems to be awfully quiet nowadays.

Wasn’t Boothroyd Cherie’s surname before marriage to Tony? Any relation, David?

I’m afraid I don’t agree with your opinion on GM crops, Mr Block. I’ve looked into it quite closely. I think current GM crop research is being rushed ahead without enough thought. Slow and steady wins the race, and no matter what hoops you have to jump through, it is important to understand the probability of gene transfer to other weeds/crops before large scale trials. Prediction: Genetic pollution will be the buzzword of the next 50 years. It’s more than a simple issue of subsidy or new technology, there are some real dangers that should be measured carefully.

By: Gregory Block

Gregory Block — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:51:23 +0000

"Entirely safe" is entirely beside the point. Let’s face it: It’s not a huge money savings, it’s not a huge environment savings. It’s a nice to have that comes at a price - instead of taking your seed from your own fields, you have to pay for it from Monsanto, because the plants you just grew can’t breed.

I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of the GM debate; but I’m not going to lose sleep over whether or not UK farmers get permission to make Monsanto rich. If you *honestly* think it matters that much, you need to step back and take a bit of perspective: the farmers are already up to their necks in subsidies, and all GM does is funnel that cash into a multinational biotech company instead of a local grain supplier.

The world has bigger problems than whether or not your corn is a mutant; one of those bigger problems is "should we be growing it at all", when the only way the industry survives is through handouts, at the cost of cutting out developing markets.

The GM issue is one of those great button-pushing debates: in the end, it’s all a lot of hot air on both sides, and isn’t going to do anything useful for us today. Maybe someday, someday, it’ll live up to its promises - but that’s no reason to throw money at it now.

By: PapaLazzzaru

PapaLazzzaru — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:30:16 +0000

See, once again David, you talk like a politician. How do YOU know that opposition to GM was purely ignorant opposition? How do YOU know that the GM varieties in question were entirely safe? The answer is, you don’t. And I certainly DON’T accept that TB is a courageous leader; if you want some adjectives to describe him, I’d go for egocentric, self-righteous, mendacious, donwright dishonest, etc etc. Courageous? Not a chance! If he was as courageous as you suggest, he’d be telling George Bush to back off or risk losing the support of the UK government. He’d also be telling Rupert Murdoch to wind his neck in…

By: David Boothroyd

David Boothroyd — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:25:03 +0000

I’m glad you accept that Tony Blair is a courageous politician who acts as a leader of public opinion rather than a follower, and one who is not prepared to let ignorant opposition to entirely safe GM varieties dictate his policy.

By: Roger Huffadine

Roger Huffadine — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:22:41 +0000

I enjoyed the ‘rant’ it said most of what I was thinking.
There are other ways to influence government policy, but they are mostly long term.
Become a Civil Servant Policy maker
Become a Politician - that means being really nasty until you reach a position of influence, the problem being that by the time you reach that position you have forgotten how to be sensible.
Become a lobbyist
Become a freedom fighter - to ‘off’ a selection of nasty politicians - before spending 7 years in prison (allowing for time off for good conduct)
Become an American President
Give the Labour party loadsa dosh

enough…

By: PapaLazzzaru

PapaLazzzaru — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:03:58 +0000

You’re right once again, David; one does not always get what one hopes for. I had hoped that the UK would not get involved in Iraq without a second resolution. I had also hoped that the government wouldn’t ignore public opinion and say yes to GM crops. I’ve lost count of amount of times I’ve HOPED the government would follow the path of common sense and logic, only to have almost every single one dashed. So, although reading back I don’t agree it was a "rant", if it was then it was fully justified! I rather suspect, however, given your known support of all things Labour, that it was my description of Tony Blair as a murderer which really got under your skin. And incidentally, I also don’t agree with your view that "the only way to stop a politician from doing something is to convince them it will not win votes" - Tony Blair has had it explained to him countless times that his direction on a number of issues is not a popular one; when has this ever caused him to change his mind?

By: Uncarved Block

Uncarved Block — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:44:13 +0000

Labour are relying on an old political mistress Tina - ‘There Is No Alternative’.

They can continue slavishly following George Bush, sucking up to big business and ruling by sound bite rather than reasoned argument because they know (and the electorate know) that the Tories would do exactly the same thing only more so. The LibDems and other smaller parties are ignored because the media don’t take them seriously and so neither will voters. So if you don’t agree with Government policy what do you do about it?

Anyone for revolution?