Locked out and lurching to the right

This blogsite has locked me out for the last two weeks, but thanks to the sterling attention of my son Matt it’s up (and of course running) again. So what’s worthy of attention now? 

Well, one that makes my head swim is Labour’s proposal to extend the time to twenty yearsbefore some asylum seekers can be allowed permanent settlement. It used to be five years, but PM Starmer is fearful of the right-wing Reform Party of Nigel Farage, and so he hopes to swing his party to the right as well.   Not a good idea, Starmer old sausage. If you’re leading the Labour party, you’re supposed to be looking out for working-class people, not the toffs the Tories. Or as that awful man Jeremy Corbyn suggested, focus on the many, not the few.   

An alarming footnote is that Justice Minister in the South Jim O’Callaghan (yes, Virginia, brother of the more famous Miriam) has declared that the South will need to change its laws, given this right-wing stagger by Starmer.  Jimbo old chum, I have a better idea. I know you’re gearing up to replace Micheál Martin but be very careful about catering to the wing-nuts running around with tricolours and claiming ‘Ireland is Full’.  Instead, show us the figures in clear, unambiguous form: what immigrants must possess before they are accepted into Irish society, how many there currently are, where it makes sense they should be located , and what skills are valuable to Irish society right now, and what aren’t.  It’s not rocket science, honest, Jim. Just give us accurate figures that can be easily understood about these Others that want to set up their lives in the South.

Only then will you have found an effective counter-blast to murderous yobs such as those who attacked and killed an innocent immigrant man last week and who were rightly convicted yesterday and given life sentences.   Oh – and I nearly forgot: tell us how many  various crimes per capita are carried out in Ireland by immigrants,  and compare those with figures for the native population.

I’ve a £10 note says those will be interesting for most of us and will knock the wind out of the sails of the troglodytes roaring about Ireland being full.