Jack Straw

I thought he did well, except on the question about the failures in the migration system. I think I would have said "when we inherited the system, failed asylum seekers were being returned at a rate of X, now it's a rate of Y" (and this has definitely gone up, there are PAC reports and stats for that) "despite two wars".

Then "we should have done more to raise social housing stocks, and we will, and it is unfortunate that we are in a global recession and that there have been political scandals". take some on the chin, smash the tories a bit.

I'm outtie

Further BNP funnies

"BNP spokesman Simon Darby, said today that at first glance the list includes some people who are no longer members and some who have moved abroad" (h/t)

They're not proper BNP members if they'll move abroad are they? In direct contravention of the party's stated goals?

BNP membership in Charnwood

What I don't understand is, why is the membership of the BNP so high in Charnwood? Are the lower middle class people of rural Leicestershire so threatened by and fearful of the majority residents of the county town? I cannot understand it. The Asian community is one of the reasons why Leicester is so brilliant.

Of course, this isn't reflected in the set up of the Leicester Tigers playing staff (I miss Aadel Kardooni, and according to Wikipedia he was Iranian, so not exactly representative of the Asian populous in Leicester). But I digress.

And North West Leicestershire can go bollocks too.

The funny thing is, as a long time resident of the county, these are the areas which middle class Asians are now moving to. 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants, who run their own businesses or are professionals, often mildly conservative socially, would seem to me to be an ideal fit with mid sized rural communities. But of course, they are brown, and therefore for some reason which has always eluded me, not welcome.