Day 2498: Tricky Times for Foreign Relations

Saturday:


President Pervez Must-be-having-a-laugh of Pakistan has declared a STATE OF EMERGENCY.

People trying to explode Ms Benazir Bhutto on her return from exile and people trying to explode President Must-be-having-a-laugh have given him the excuse he needs to suspend the Constitution and move against the JUDGES.

Even with the news that the elections set for January are STILL ON, this is very bad news.

Former Liberal Democrat leader, King Paddy of Bosnia, has always said that the most important first step to Liberty is always the RULE of LAW, whether in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia or Afghanistan and Iraq.

Without LAWS that people can rely on to protect them, their work and their property, guaranteed by impartial and independent judges, then you cannot develop a functioning society. Democracy alone won't work when it is NOT SAFE to express differing opinions and you can't vote in elections without FEAR of intimidation or corruption.

Or, to put it crudely, as Captain Paddy says:

"…we lovingly forget that item number one is always the rule of law. It is not elections, I’m afraid. If you have elections before you establish the rule of law then all you do is elect the criminals who ran the war."

The "emergency" in Pakistan has been widely seen as a move to hold onto power for longer. Although he had reached a deal with the opposition – that included granting Ms Bhutto the pardon that allowed her to return home – so that President and also GENERAL Must-be-having-a-laugh could stay on as head of state if he gave up some of his powers as head of the army, the judges were taking their time about deciding whether or not they would admit him as ELIGIBLE when the Parliament recently selected him to stay in the top job. Their intransigence – and perhaps a bit of taking fright at the sight of just how popular Ms Bhutto turned out to be – seems to have lead to this crisis.

Ms Bhutto herself has said that she DOES accept that militant and pro-Taliban factions were getting WORSE, but she thinks that the answer is MORE democracy, not less.

"I believe dictatorship has fuelled extremism. The extremists need dictatorship to flourish, and dictatorship needs the extremists as a pre-text to continue in place."

Liberal Democrat Leadership prospect, Mr Huhney-Monster has pressed Mr Millipede to side with the forces of democracy.

"When the regime does change – as it is bound to do in the case of General Must-be-having-a-laugh because this is the last throw of the dice for him – we are likely to find ourselves very isolated," he said.

With the huge international outcry and even both Great Britain and America considering their position on the huge aid packages that we give to General Must-be-having-a-laugh's government, we have to remain hopeful that he will remain open to persuasion, and that the Pakistani people will be quickly returned to a just and democratic state.

PS:

On a more TRIVIAL note: what a shame for Mr Balloon. The very week that he is praised for trying to play the IMMIGRATION card WITHOUT playing the RACE card (even if Mr Trevor also said he had a way to go yet), he only goes and gets TRUMPED by one of his own Conservatory Candidates playing the "Enoch was right" card!

As Liberal Democrat Mr Ed put it:

"This episode must raise serious questions, both about the Conservative Party's selection procedures and the views of at least some of their grass roots members".

The first of which is the one that Mr Paul asks:

Why has Mr Balloon gone so QUIET on the issue he was talking about so much last week?

Immigration is POSITIVE process, but one that we need to manage carefully, to ensure that we have the infrastructure and resources in place to meet the needs of the TOTAL population, new and old. Just saying: "Stop! We're full!" is a crude and nasty approach that does not address the needs of migrants OR Great Britain.


Many British immigrants and their families have ties to Pakistan, and they must be worried about their friends and relatives at this difficult time. They are all a part of our BRITISH family now and our fluffy thoughts should be with them.

Day 2497: Boring Statistical Point

Friday:


I am getting a bit BORED of the commentary (copyright all newspapers) that "half of all the new jobs created since 1997 have been taken by foreign workers".

It is JUST AS LIKELY that two million new jobs have been created and ENTIRELY taken by British workers… leaving one million LOWER-PAID jobs vacant, which have drawn in workers from Europe to do the jobs that British workers are no longer willing to do.

I am not saying that that HAS happened – it's just no more unlikely than the other EXTREME, the one that everyone is quoting as gospel.

Of course, the Labour didn't create ALL these jobs, either. They just created the public-sector ones by spending money like it was going out of fashion. And this week's latest banking crisis suggests they may have been RIGHT! The Conservatories are just miffed that the Labour is better than they were at creating the CONDITIONS in which other people can create jobs too.


It is the MIX of jobs that is important. If MOST people have moved UP into a better job – British people into better British jobs; European workers move into better-paid jobs in Britain – then surely that is an all round WIN. WE are better off; THEY are better off; the GOVERNMENT gets more tax; the vital jobs still get done… where is the DOWNSIDE?

(Oh yes, it's the new DOG-WHISTLE that the Right have discovered: pressure on housing. Of course, it would also help if they were calling on all those big building corporations that fund the Conservatories so well to build more affordable houses even though that would mean lower profits.)

Day 1961: What EXACTLY is the problem?

Wednesday:


Another EDIFYING day of squabbles about how many immigrants - legal, illegal or eddy the eagle - there are in the country, is capped by Newsnight with some woman from Wehateforeignerswatch saying "there could be almost ANY number of illegal immigrants!!!!"

Well, call me a silly fluffy thing but I do not think it could be ANY number. I think it is a bit UNLIKELY that there are, say, six BILLION illegal immigrants here – you know, I think we'd notice if the rest of the world was EMPTY!

But really, I do wonder why this is such a PROBLEM. If the country was going BANKRUPT with welfare payments then you might understand, but it is NOT.

(If anything is going to bankrupt the country it is Mr Frown's payments to "management consultants" but that is an entirely other diary.)

We are happy and wealthy and safe and healthy and unemployment is low and employment is high and apparently there are lots of hotel rooms available for the World Cup in Germany. So if there IS all this illegal immigration, it hardly seems to be undermining the FABRIC of our NATION or leading to starvation on our streets.

The age-old cry of "they're coming over here and taking our jobs" needs the answer of "No! They're doing the jobs that WE WON'T!"


For that matter, why are we not selling visas? People are going to pay ten thousand pounds to EVIL people traffickers just to get stuck in an airtight container lorry or selotaped to the underside of a Eurostar. Wouldn't we be better to let them pay that to HM Treasury for a three-year or five-year or ten-year visa and then we will KNOW when they are coming and they will be able to WORK for their upkeep – like they pretty much all want to – and we might put a crimp in the profits of those EVIL people traffickers. And after three or five or ten years if they ARE working and contributing then we can give them citizenship then. So it's an INCENTIVE.


There IS a separate problem about HOUSING, particularly in the South-East, and the British Nasty Party has taken advantage of this issue. And there is a BIT of a problem about there being more people than water in the South-East too.

But if we make it a bit more easy for LEGAL immigration then it might be a bit easier POLITELY to ask people moving to the country to consider living in the North where there are houses and also RAIN.

If people want to come and live here then GOOD. If they want to come here and build a PIPE for water from the North to the South then TERRIFIC!

We should stop waffling about "incompetence at the Home Office" – yes, the safety elephant was an incompetent buffoon but he's GONE now, and the next incompetent buffoon hasn't had time to get a grip yet, so leave it.

The Labour and the Conservatories are competing to be as NASTY as possible. Well BLEURGH to them.

We should have a BETTER ANSWER.