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View Poll Results: Is Tone Blown? Feelings are mixed - as a distanced observor, what's your view?
Tony's our man - no one could replace him 0 0%
Tony's made some mistakes - a change might be a good idea 1 20.00%
Tony's now become a liability - let the MPs decide his fate 2 40.00%
Tony shouldn't waste time - he should publish a timetable to step down 0 0%
Tony's well past his sell-by date - he should resign now - period 2 40.00%
Voters: 5. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 05-18-2006, 05:19 AM   #31
Cyclefrance
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I'm forgetting Prescott already, myself. Mainly because of one Tony McNulty - a person it is easy to get to dislike instantly - who acts as a sort-of informed source for the activities of the immigration department (although his information is most times questionnable, and he's a great procrastinator as well).

Anyway last night on TV, McNulty stepped into the limelight to clarify the situation, which event probably caused instant groans in several quarters.

So what did he have to say?

Well the number of illegal immigrants in the country was about between the figures 310,000 to 570,000 (that's a relief!), and it would take about ten years to deport them all, with the amazing proviso that this was of course 'assuming that we can find them, and assuming that people aren't going away of their own accord'

Why ten years? Answer: 'Ten years, if you are saying 25,000 per year.' - hang on 25,000 x 10 = 250,0000 - didn't he just say the number was between 310,000 and 570,000? Doesn't 570,000 divided by 25,000 = almost 23 years?

Oh and of course: 'Remember too the illegal population as it is is multi-layered and segmented it's not just.. those climbing over fences.'

Well that clears that up then - I feel much better now....
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Old 05-19-2006, 01:01 AM   #32
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Some hot news last night - Five illegral immigrants were apprehended last night. They were cleaning the Home Office!

Sadly, it's true...

Edit: Even worse than we thought - the office they were cleaning was the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in London - the department that's tasked with dealing with illegal immigration. Well, every cloud, as they say - at least they've found 5!
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Old 05-19-2006, 12:15 PM   #33
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Gov't ==

Me ==
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Old 05-20-2006, 05:09 AM   #34
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Yes, it's not been a happy week for our Government - some of the things I haven't mentioned:

- Plans to replace 25,000 fully qualified police officers by cheaper less skilled and less-authorised local officers - police chiefs heavily critical of the plans

- Legal aid for prisoners facing parole boards has soared ten-fold since Human Rights Act introduced

- Plan (in last stages of implemetation) to merge 25 of the 43 police forces in UK, which has also been heavily criticised by police chiefs as it is counter-productive to improving local police relations, may now be scrapped because of its £600 million cost.

- Immigration officers, bent on achieving PM's targets for deporting failed asylum seekers are ignoring other issues, most damaging being the failure to work with police who detain illegal immigrant suspects - they just aren't responding, to the point that it has become so bad that police are now not bothering to contact them. All down to limited resources and the usual problem I have mentioned earlier - how the government continues to task its departments with ever-increasing objectives but fails to make appropriate resources available.

Trouble is no one expects the situation to cahnge for the better - rather the opposite...
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Old 05-20-2006, 10:19 AM   #35
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Everything that I find wrong with british government is redeemed by one thing, to me...

They let people get married there.
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Old 05-20-2006, 10:51 AM   #36
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I only just now saw this thread, CycleFrance. I must say it is very enlightening. Let me see if I can get this straight: 1,000 prisoners were accidently let loose on the people of the UK, and nobody knows who these prisoners are until someone chances to meet one in a dark alley some night. The unfortunate who survives such an encounter will be rushed by ambulance to an unstaffed ER because all the doctors and nurses have been let go in a cost saving measure. If the UK citizen is disabled by his encounter with said criminal, his pension fund will only keep a dog alive (just barely) while members of Parliment cavort in their offices with their secretaries and fly to exotic places to prove they're "against" global warming. Meanwhile the list of those who may have been responsible for 7/7 has grown to 800 (one wonders if they were members of the original group of 1,000 that hadn't gotten picked up yet). But not to worry because the UK is cutting its police force to better protect the people of Britain.

Errr... When do you expect the rioting in the streets to begin? Or are you Brits too well-mannered for that?

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Old 05-20-2006, 10:59 AM   #37
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They don't riot, they just congregate on the sidewalks and grumble a bit to themselves looking mean... until tea. Tea trumps grumbling.
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Old 05-20-2006, 11:27 AM   #38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ibram
They don't riot, they just congregate on the sidewalks and grumble a bit to themselves looking mean... until tea. Tea trumps grumbling.
I'll have to think about that....
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Old 05-20-2006, 11:31 AM   #39
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marichiko
I only just now saw this thread, CycleFrance. I must say it is very enlightening. Let me see if I can get this straight: 1,000 prisoners were accidently let loose on the people of the UK, and nobody knows who these prisoners are until someone chances to meet one in a dark alley some night. The unfortunate who survives such an encounter will be rushed by ambulance to an unstaffed ER because all the doctors and nurses have been let go in a cost saving measure. If the UK citizen is disabled by his encounter with said criminal, his pension fund will only keep a dog alive (just barely) while members of Parliment cavort in their offices with their secretaries and fly to exotic places to prove they're "against" global warming. Meanwhile the list of those who may have been responsible for 7/7 has grown to 800 (one wonders if they were members of the original group of 1,000 that hadn't gotten picked up yet). But not to worry because the UK is cutting its police force to better protect the people of Britain.

Errr... When do you expect the rioting in the streets to begin? Or are you Brits too well-mannered for that?
Yes, I think you've got that about right - except the rioting - that takes too much time out of the day - we prefer to have a good old moan and then carry on with our lives as if nothing happened - we even re-elected the guy who caused the problems in the first place - God!, imagine if YOU did that..!!
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Old 05-21-2006, 07:17 AM   #40
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This must be beginning to sound as though I'm making it all up, especially after this next development. Hard to believe I am not, but believe you must, because it's all true...!

So what today?

Well, remember I mentioned about the 1,000 or so criminals let loose (you should do as Mari's just mentioned it again above)? In a rather surreal way the Home Office has managed to balance the books, so to speak.

How has it done this? It's managed to proclaim around 1,500 individuals as having a criminal record, when they haven't had one at all! All thanks to a cock-up by the Criminal Records Bureau, who, apparently mismatched innocents details with those of convicted persons when cross-referencing their details with information held on the Police National Computer.

An easy mistake to make and no one's fault really (at least that's what the CRB said, refusing to make an apology) - I mean, it could happen to anyone, couldn't it....!?
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Old 05-21-2006, 12:09 PM   #41
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Well, at least the 1500 innocents don't need to worry about false arrests what with the police being cut back, right? To every cloud, there's a civil lining.
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Old 05-21-2006, 05:17 PM   #42
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Originally Posted by marichiko
Well, at least the 1500 innocents don't need to worry about false arrests what with the police being cut back, right? To every cloud, there's a civil lining.
Well, if they can cut back on police and identify 1500 more criminals when doing so, looks like they could try to create some more to justify further cutbacks (BTW, the number just jumped this afternoon from 1500 to 3000!)
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Old 05-22-2006, 01:46 PM   #43
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Tony 'I can speak for ages and tell you sweet FA' Mc Nulty (see entry a few places above) has resigned from the Immigration and Nationalities Directorate today - well, it's a bit of a job swap really. He changes places with Blair protege Liam Byrne who has been looking after the Police (been in that job for two weeks!).

So that should be interesting - someone with no track record grappling with the problems in Immigration and another with a track record we'd rather forget moving over to handle the Police.

Help!
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Old 05-22-2006, 02:01 PM   #44
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Blair is desperate to find a legacy to leave behind when he eventually quits the PM job. It's proving difficult though - everything he has touched so far has backfired on him big time.

Latest contender: The City Academy Schools - a series of ultimately up to 200 elitist schools that are funded outside of the normal educational budget and have attracted sponsorship from big businesses.

Not looking too good at the moment however. The architect Lord Foster has been contracted to design nine of the schools which are costing an average of £32million each ( compared to a normal comprehensive which costs £17 million). And the teaching results aren't proving to be that fantastic either.

Time yet to see the situation change but it might take a bit longer than what he has left... especially when one teachers' union rep states about an academy in his location: 'We have known since the first academy was opened that they are extremely expensive. They are draining money away from the education service and undermining the provision of education throughout the area'
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Old 05-23-2006, 05:27 AM   #45
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'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' goes the government mantra.

Shame therefore about the following crackdown on the horrendous crime of bio-degradable litter offences, as reported today:

A student is facing court prosecution after he discarded the banana skin that some youths had thrown on to his car windscreen by pulling it off and dropping it in the road. The incident was spotted by the local litter warden and the student subsequently received a fixed penalty fine through the post for £30 for dropping litter. The youths were not apprehended. He claims he tried to contact the council to try to talk some sense into what seemed a ludicrous fine, but could not get through. He was then surprised to receive amonth later the summons to appear in court. He says he has better things to do than use up valuable time to appear in court about something so ridiculous. Meanwhile the court has adjourned the case in order to gather more facts.

His offence follows two other convictions widely reported this year - the first against a woman who dropped a crisp/potato chip from her car window - fined £75, and the second on a boy who dropped an apple core which he had been carrying in his coat pocket.

Good to see how wisely the councils can spend the local taxes they collect and how diligently they track down and prosecute such hardened criminals.

And the governemnt wonders why the electorate find it so difficult to take them seriously...
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