In my not wholly affectionate paean of two days ago to the people’s Prime Minister, Anthony Lynton Blair, I called attention to his government’s not wholly noble or far-sighted educational policies.

They are, you see, a bit strong on the old social engineering, especially if you happen to be middle-class and would prefer little Twystrum and Tabitha to be schooled with other English children like themselves.  It’s so much easier if their new little friends haven’t got to flop down in the direction of Folkestone five times a day or haven’t started thinking about sex yet.  But that doesn’t mean that all those other funny little fellas aren’t jolly nice little chaps, too.  Oh no, no, no.

And, certainly, it doesn’t mean that the Prime Minister’s courageous policies aren’t slap bang out of the centre of British politics.  As we all know,  he really, really is a moderate, centre-of-the-road sort of guy.  After all, he gets criticised – actually criticised – for gluing himself to the latest focus group findings.  I mean , how consensualist is that?

Or this?

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The old left of the Labour Party has bitched that “Blair is a Tory”  since 1983, when he entered parliament at the age of 30.  Certainly, since the affair of the infamous “evil eyes” poster the real Tories have hardly quibbled with this analysis, and regularly complain that New Labour steals their clothes.  For his part, Blair the consummate professional certainly affects to command the political stage from the centre, though if pressed he will qualify it as the centre-left.  Whenever the opportunity arises he chides the Tories for being “right-wing” and, of course, nasty - that’s guaranteed to put them in a hell of a bind.

But there is a problem with this notion that Blair and his Party occupy the centre ground of British politics.  It is the appalling, long-term consequence to the English, in particular, of eight years of Labour rule.  If opening the borders and letting in an uncontrolled flow of Third Worlders is the politics of the centre I’m Adolf’s uncle.

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Each time I journey through my capital city I find myself shocked by the quantity of aliens I see.  There is no doubt in my mind that this has been an extraordinarily sudden and recent development.  Before 1997 there were, of course, far too many immigrants around.  But nothing like what I see today.

I have it on unimpeachable authority that, until this year, the government had no idea how many of our, of course, always vibrant new countrymen were here illegally.  Too many of the leading demographers couldn’t be trusted by the Home Office because they were associated with the stirling MigrationWatch.  When, finally, ministers could commission one who wasn’t, they found themselves staring at a June 2005 report giving a:-

... best estimate of 430,000 but the number could be between 310,000 and 570,000.

The Tories claim the estimate shows an immigration shambles and say it should have been released during the election.

... The Home Office estimate does not include asylum seekers whose claims are being processed, or who are appealing against a refusal.

It was produced by taking the numbers of foreign-born people living in the UK recorded in the 2001 Census and subtracting the estimated number of legal immigrants.

Home Office officials say they have sought to take into account the fact that some illegal immigrants may not have filled in their census forms.

Immigration Minister Tony McNulty said the figures were a “best guess”.

“By its very nature, it is impossible to quantify accurately, and that remains the case,” he said.

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David Cameron, the young lion of the left of the Conservative Party … and the centre … and everywhere, really, where desperate men dream, has spoken.  And he has written.  So there is no longer any cause for doubt about what this blank-faced, almost smart, tolerably personable font of ambition stands for.  Besides himself, of course.  We have been told.

We have, in fact, been told this:-

Our task now is to move the argument forward: to show how a changed Conservative Party will offer an attractive alternative programme at the next election.

To be attractive, our programme must be balanced, compassionate and modern: balanced in the sense of improving the quality of life as well as creating prosperity; compassionate in the sense of helping people in Britain and the world who are least able to help themselves; modern in the sense of recognising the challenges of today’s Britain and offering effective solutions. And our programme must be based on optimism: trusting people and giving them the responsibility and the power to do the right thing for their families and their communities.

Oh dear.  Changed.  Attractive.  The man has been thinking about change and attraction.  As if the electoral angst of politicians hadn’t done enough to change Conservatism and repel people already.

What, young lion, is the history of post-Reform Conservatism but the failed effort to adapt to the sinking game of One-Man-One-Vote democracy and a liberal polity?

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A month or two ago, I warned of plans to merge Australia, New Zealand, PNG and a dozen smaller island nations into a Pacific Union. These plans have now been taken significantly further. The Australian Labor Party, one of the two major political parties here, has

released a policy paper

setting out the design of what they call a Pacific Community.

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Yesterday, MR reader Ed Derbyshire sent me a Toronto Star article about a truly surreal response from leading black activists in Toronto to the wave of gun crime in the city.

“We know what we need. We live it. We attend the funerals. We deal with the drop-outs and the children expelled from school.  As it stands now, our communities are, in many ways, being destroyed.”

Gun deaths have ravaged Toronto’s black community more than ever this summer.  Out of more than 60 homicides this year, a record 41 have involved a firearm.  Black community leaders say “90 per cent” have involved blacks.

Wow, you’re thinking.  They’ve understood.  Finally.  What a tragedy it’s taken so many lost and broken lives to drive the point home.

And

, stone me, they’re even talking about segregation!

But no.  Not really.  Reading on we discover that:-

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I have always found John Lennon’s Imagine, his ode to peace and love ... well, odious.

“Imagine there’s no countries” the song implores us, and then “Imagine no possessions, / I wonder if you can, / No need for greed or hunger, / a brotherhood of man, / Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world ... “

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Yesterday Reuters and AP broke the story of two Singaporean Chinese bloggers jailed for posting racist remarks about minority Malays.

Benjamin Koh, 27, was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment while Nicholas Lim, 25, was fined and jailed for a day, both for posting comments on their personal websites, or blogs, attacking the city-state’s mostly-Muslim ethnic Malay community.

The two faced up to three years jail or fines of up to S$5,000 for violating laws under Singapore’s Sedition Act by promoting ill-will and hostility between the city-state’s ethnic communities with their June Internet posts.

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