What are the chances of Castro joining them before 2006 is up?
Via Michelle Malkin’s blog, a picture of a lonely John Kerry sitting by himself after being snubbed by American troops on a visit to Iraq.
Well, what did he expect?
Nice to see that plans to indoctrinate the nation continue apace:
Businesses have been warned by a Government watchdog they must individually quiz every member of staff on gay rights - or risk being sued for discrimination.
Industrial relations quango Acas has spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money drawing up a detailed 18-question test to establish whether workers are being unfair to any homosexual colleagues. Employers are advised to use the so-called ‘audit tool’ on all staff, then check their answers against a special score sheet to ensure staff do not have a bad attitude. …
Questions range from knowing how many gays live in the UK, to whether the business displays a ‘rainbow flag’ - a symbol of homosexual rights - on the premises.’
Thus far, it is not yet compulsory for employers to administer the questionnaire, but I wouldn’t bet on it staying that way. Nothing like a little bit of ‘political education’ to have us all thinking as our masters would like. How long before a Government minister endorses the Acas approach?
And what happens if some hapless employee fails the test? ‘Diversity awareness training’, no doubt. Acas are laying on free ‘consultancy’ services for any employer who feels they are falling down in this area. For ‘free’ substitute ‘taxpayer funded’, and the picture becomes clearer.
Not quite Siberia, but we’re getting there.
Some more holiday levity. A little feel-good quiz I found over at James Higham’s refreshing blog:
| The Keys to Your Heart |
 In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you’re told that you’re loved. You’d like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy. You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future… one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something precious. You’ll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You’ll do anything for love, but you won’t fall for it easily. |
Interesting, that. What I want to know is how ‘they’ arrived at that conclusion from asking me a load of questions about animals.
Click on the question to take the quiz.
According to Government figures, one immigrant a minute enters the UK.
This relates only to legal immigration in 2005.
One wonders what the figures are for illegal immigration. Because of the nature of illegal immigration, it is impossible to know this figure. One suspects it could well be higher than the figures for legal immigration, especially if one factors in people who overstay.
MigrationWatch does not believe the Government figures for legal immigration. They think they are an underestimate, because, for example, of all the Eastern Europeans who arrived in the UK in 2005, only 65,000 are recorded as immigrants.
Here is a little holiday game to keep you occupied. I’m nice like that.
1) Let us, for the sake of argument, set the proportion of illegal immigration far lower. Rather than one a minute, as in the case of legal immigration (ie almost 1500 a day), let us posit that only 100 illegal immigrants enter the UK every day. (This is a very conservative estimate.)
2) We were told recently that based on the estimated number of illegal immigrants already in the country, it would take 10 years to deport them, assuming a deportation rate of 25,000 a year.
Now here is our game:
- Question 1:
- If 100 illegal immigrants come into the UK every day, and 25,000 are deported every year, how long will it take to deport everybody who shouldn’t be here?
Exactly.
OK, let’s try a simpler question:
- Question 2
- If 100 illegal immigrants come into the UK every day, and 25,000 are deported every year, how many will have been deported in twenty years?
Time for the calculator, methinks.
… and about time, too.
Islamists in Somalia have for some time been plotting to wipe out Ethiopia, inviting fellow jihadists to Somalia to help wage war against Ethiopia. All because of the support Ethiopia has been giving to the interim government of Somalia, much to the displeasure of the islamist forces.
Apart from anything else, there is a personal angle for me. In my youth, I spent many a happy moment in Ethiopia. After all the dear people of that precious land have been through in the past 20 years, I would hate to see them destabilised in this way.
Ethiopia had no option but to attack the islamist targets. Their sovereignty is at stake, and they must do what they can to defend it. The islamist militants are no match for Ethiopia, and President Zenawi has reportedly declared that he could wipe them out in ‘one or two weeks’.
I wish the army and people of Ethiopia the best of luck as they fight the islamist threat. If they manage to succeed in this, they would have accomplished for themselves the very thing that Western powers have signally failed to do in their own backyards.
This blog congratulates Monica Lewinsky on her graduation from the London School of Economics.
Not everyone is happy for the notorious ex-intern, though. This from Libby Copeland in the Washington Post:
Lewinsky, 33, is known more for her audacious coquetry than for her intellectual heft, and the notion of her earning a master of science degree in social psychology at the prestigious London university is jarring, akin to finding a rip in the time-space continuum, or discovering that Kim Jong Il is a natural blond.
Now now, Libby, where’s yer Christmas spirit?
(For the next few days, this blog will wander around the place, highlighting stories that are not usually within its remit.
Normal service will resume after the holidays.)
I wish you all a merry Christmas.
I was tagged by James Higham of Nourishing Obscurity.
What are the seven best things I did this year?
1) Stayed up late after midnight
2) Went with the flow
3) Wrote a book
4) Joined the blogging community
5) Improved my Ancient Greek
6) Learnt Movable Type (believe me, this is worthy of inclusion)
7) Indulged my love of yellow socks, art and Rilke.
I am tagging: Andrew Allison, Colin Campbell, Ian, English Republican, Morag, President Ahmadinejad of Iran (great idea, Martine), and The Waendel Journal. Sorry, guys. Have fun.
