Results tagged “immigration” from Birmingham Post - News Blog

Common sense takes a while before it surfaces in this world of political correctness.

I'm referring, of course, to the news that Britons who invite foreign nationals here will be held responsible if their visitors break our country's immigration rules.

Apparently, according to the news this morning, they could be fined up to £5000 and even imprisoned.

And about time too!

There's no doubt that immigration's going to remain a hot contested issue at the next general election if the BBC poll this morning is anything to go by.

Apparently almost two-thirds of people in Britain fear that race relations are so poor tensions are likely to spill over into violence. And three out four people think there is more racial tension today than ever before.

Moreover, what might surprise some critics is that 60% of the 1000 people interviewed said there were too many immigrants, and yet the number of people who described themselves as 'racially prejudiced' was down from 24% in 2005 to 20%.

This doesn't surprise me. Of course this is alarming but...

Wonderful stuff.

Today, I read that a new organisation called UK Statistics Authority has been set up. The unique thing about it is that it's totally independent of our government whose figures, let's face it, no one believes. And they've only just put up the website this morning.

And, coincidentally, whilst I was digesting this piece of news, I also heard on the radio that an economic and welfare select committee from the House of Lords has produced a damning report about our government's policy and figures on immigration.

Hello everybody, and welcome to my blog!

Firstly, introductions: I'm Roshan Doug - a columnist on The Birmingham Post. For a number of years, as a freelancer, I've been writing feature articles - mainly on arts and politics - for this and a few other publications both here and abroad. Recently - and sporadically - I have also written and presented a handful of documentary features for BBC Radio 4.

I am delighted to announce that as from today, I'm going to be writing my posts regularly - once a day at least - on various topical issues. I hope that the style and perspective of these will entice you to take part in some of the discussions on this platform. In regard to topics, well, they'll be determined by whatever happens to be in the news - regionally, nationally and internationally.

As for my point of view, generally speaking - I'm not partisan to party politics. I'm very much apolitical. But, of course, that's not to say I'm not political. I am - deeply. It's just that my own politics is made up - not by any specific ideological leaning - but by a concern to keep things within reason.

So let's see how we get on...

Now I don't know about you but I was interested to learn last week that the government's proposing to tighten up immigration laws relating to citizenship, visas and, the introduction of English language testing. It reminded me of an experience a close friend of mine had a couple of years ago.