From the Daily Mail:-

Migrants arriving from overseas will be brought ‘under control’ hints new Immigration Minister

Within hours of his appointment, the new Immigration Minister indicated that the influx of arrivals from overseas will finally be brought ‘under control’.

Phil Woolas dropped broad hints that he supports a policy of ‘balanced migration’, and an upper limit on migrant numbers.

The outspoken MP added: ’ Community cohesion is crucial. After the economy, this is probably the biggest concern facing the population.’

Campaigners gave Mr Woolas’s remarks a cautious welcome as a sign that Labour is at last preparing to abandon its controversial ‘open door’ policy.

They have also been heartened by his strong track record as a politician willing to confront uncomfortable subjects.

In the past, he has warned that first-cousin marriages in the Pakistani community are increasing the risk of birth defects, and that Muslim women wearing the veil could spark ‘fear and resentment’ among non-Muslims.

The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, who has faced down BNP activists in his own constituency, told the Sunday Times on Sunday that it was vital to ‘provide confidence to the indigenous population that migration is under control’.

The clue is in the last line.  The election could be up to 600 days away but the electoral strategies are already deployed.  Woolas’ appointment is intended to forestall both the Tories and the BNP from making capital out of the former “open-door” policy.  It might well prove a clever play in a time of recession when migrants are not much needed industrially anyway, and the level of bad feeling among the populace inevitably rises.

The game has changed a little.  The BNP will need to adjust its rhetoric accordingly.

By David Hamilton

The rulers try to build a multi-racial society from mixed motives: some have high-minded ideals, others are out to exploit cheap imported labour. They invite immigrants and legislate us into sharing everything we have with them, while the global elites living here and multi-national corporations who are present too pay derisory taxes. Our shameless politicians are no better, claiming vast and deceitful expenses. If they want immigrants they should put them up at their houses - they can certainly afford to. But it is not as if the imports are all needy or in danger, though we pretend they are because, in our folly, it makes us feel wanted and righteous for offering aid.

The message conveyed to them is that we are weak and scared and this makes them despise us for not standing up for ourselves. When immigrants arrive they are welcomed by hordes of do-gooders - they can tell any lie and it is accepted. The elites hope there is no threat from them, and pretend they are essentially good.  They appeal to their good-will by being fawningly nice to them, hoping they will reciprocate by being nice back. This mentality was expressed neatly by Jens Orback, Sweden’s one-time Minister of Democracy, “We must be open and tolerant towards Islam and Muslims because when we become a minority, they will be so towards us.”

The Government is cunning and manipulative, and allows things to happen through a negligence that is quite intentional.  It does not want to be in control in certain key management areas. The inadequacy of its positions is the best and, importantly, least blameworthy way to bring about its objectives.

In a normal time in a normal country these objectives would automatically focus upon strengthening our peoples, and that would include strengthening our national character.  But our rulers strive to achieve the opposite, constantly blaming us and using us as scapegoats (racists) if anything goes wrong in the utopian plan. It affects our everyday lives because social relations now have to be regulated and, post 7/7, restrictive anti-terrorist laws are imposed on everyone, not just the likely suspects.

We used to be homogenous and trusted one another. In general it was peaceful. We queued. We relaxed with each other, and sought to get along by using good manners and showing consideration. Is the breaking up of that life through uncontrolled mass immigration an accident? No, the importation of cheap labour and new voting constituencies is wholly intentional.

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This morning the Telegraph ran a short news feature titled, “People who believe in God are more helpful.

Scientists say that those who frequently pray and attend religious services report more charitable donations and volunteer work

However the review, published in the journal Science, does suggest that believers acting for the greater good may be doing so to enhance their own reputation among friends and acquaintances.

In one experiment, volunteers who had been told that a dead student’s ghost had been seen in the experiment room cheated less on a test than those who had not.

In another, children who were told that a fictional character called Princess Alice was watching them were less likely to disobey their instructions.

In Science, the authors wrote: “These findings are consistent with the idea that outward evidence of religious devotion may engender more trust.”

The evidence also suggests that trust in other members of a religious group is higher when those groups involve a greater degree of commitment, for example in stricter forms of religious belief, such as Mormonism.

The authors say that the research supports the idea that in early societies religion helped to foster social cohesion by encouraging cooperation.

The original paper is titled The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality and is by Norenzayan and Shariff, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.  The abstract reads:-

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Given the Republican Party’s desperate situation in the upcoming election midst a financial crisis founded on bad consumer credit, there is an enormous opportunity to seize control of the US government and utterly destroy the Democratic Party:

Call up Charles Murray over at the highly influential American Enterpise Institute and draft a policy for the implementation of “The Plan” outlined in his book “In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State” whereby every citizen age 21 or above who isn’t incarcerated receives $10K/year in monthly payments—thereby replacing all transfer/“entitlement” programs.

If the Republicans could uniformly get behind this conservative think-tank plan, they’d sweep the election and dismantle the core of public sector rent-seeking that provides Democrats with their political base.

Peter Mandelson, already a resignation veteran, the architect of New Labour and of spin in British politics, and possibly the most despised politician of recent times, is returning to the cabinet.

Normally, I would attempt to formulate some sort of response of my own, beyond the obvious single word offering of “Gobsmacked”.  But the Guardian’s on-line Labour-lovers are coming up with much more jaw-dropped, wide-eyed bemusement that I ever could, all in answer to a Mandelson eulogy by another despised spin-person, Derek Draper (yes, the guy who once boasted “There are 17 people who count in this government, and to say I am intimate with every one of them is the understatement of the century”).

Enjoy the thread here.

One slightly wierd side-note ... a commenter named Pinktaco sensibly asked how Mandelson, who is not a member of either house, could serve in a cabinet post.  The comment was removed by the moderator.

From the Telegraph news that:-

German-born Australian national Dr Gerald Fredrick Toben, 64, was detained by the Metropolitan Police extradition unit using an EU arrest warrant issued by the German authorities.

The founder of the Adelaide Institute, a web and print publication that questions the Holocaust, he is accused of publishing material on the internet “of an anti-Semitic and/or revisionist nature” that “denies, approves of or plays down the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis”.

The arrest warrant alleges that Dr Toben committed the offence in Australia, Germany and other countries.

In a disclaimer on his website, Dr Toben writes of his work: “If you wish to begin to doubt the Holocaust-Shoah narrative, you must be prepared for personal sacrifice, must be prepared for marriage and family break-up, loss of career, and go to prison.

“This is because Revisionists are, among other things, dismantling a massive multi-billion dollar industry that the Holocaust-Shoah enforcers are defending, as well as the survival of Zionist-racist Israel.”

In the past he has denied that he said that the Holocaust was a “lie”. He has previously been convicted in Germany of inciting racial hatred.

In 2006, he was among a group of Holocaust academics who attended two-day “Review of the Holocaust: global vision” conference organised by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who caused international outrage by describing the Holocaust as a “myth”.

He is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London.

Here’s the full front-of-house diclaimer referred to in the above report:-

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Today the quality British papers have carried articles uniformly decrying the Austrian election result.  As one would expect, it’s all “far right” this and “extremist” that.  But I’ve been struck by how many readers commenting on the threads take issue with these sentiments.  Ten or fifteen years ago, any sympathy for Germanic nationalism would have been completely beyond the pale.  Eight years ago, when Haider’s Freedom Party entered government with Wolfgang Schüssel’s People’s Party, the mandarins of the EU felt bold enough to issue sanctions against Austria for voting “wrongly”.  Today that is beyond the pail.

Now, I’m no Inevitablist, and should a wave of mass revulsion of the MultiCult actually sweep Europe’s nationalists into office over the next decade, my immediate concern would be that their intellectual roots are too shallow to give the required coup de grace to liberalism and all its works (and its workers).  But it is impossible to explain to a man who has been confined for so very long that the first openings of the door aren’t the beginnings of his freedom.  He is going to will it to be anyway.

Here are some thread comments to illustrate the point that there is a crack in the door.  They are taken from the thread to a confused and rambling but PeeCee piece in the Telegraph titled “Far-Right’s showing in Austria’s election is worrying”.

To wring hands about this is just so hypocritical and, frankly, missed-the-boat journalism.

For years, the so-called Political ‘Elite(what a misnomer!)AND the MSM have combined in a cosy and sinister cartel to keep the issues of Immigration and Integration of Europe OFF the discussion list of voters ; anyone with half a brain(many of the electorate, sad to say)could see that in the event of an economic downturn, this would come back viciously to rebound, especially on the corrupt and smug political parties who can hardly be separated by a cigarette paper in their policies on BOTH of these subjects.

The vote in Austria may be tut-tutted by both media and Politicians of the centre left, but it won’t go away - neither will the increasing anger in other parts of Europe about these issues. The day of the Soft-left is coming to an end, caused in no small way by their stupid and unsustainable policies of Lending to those who cannot afford to repay loans but who can be relied on to vote for them ; Clinton began this policy by repealing the Glass-Steaghal Act in 99, and the financial melt-down currently rocking the world is a direct result of this - Doubtless, Democrat-leaning media in both the USA & UK will try to whitewash this, but the fact remains.

As times become harder and jobs scarcer, the simmering resentment over unchecked Immigration will turn and devour the Left ; the future looks increasingly frightening and it is ALL the fault of Liberal woolly thinking.

Posted by King Canute on September 30, 2008 3:25 AM

Why should it be sinister that people want an end to uncontrolled economic migration to their corner of the globe?

It seems to be a point that eludes the vast majority of politicians and the MSM.
Posted by Jabba the Cat on September 30, 2008 7:25 AM

Nationalism is a perfectly logical reaction to counter the EU liberal Lib/Lab/Con communism.

It’s coming to a place near you, but you still don’t get it!
Posted by Rocket Scientist on September 30, 2008 7:29 AM

austrians will always tell you -hitler -was a german and beethoven an austrian, from what i hear from friends in austria the would welcome the nazi party under a different name. this is because of immigration but like the elephant in the room as in u.k. no one dare mention it,i was told by friends the fear is losing their national character as a people and high taxes to pay for benefits for the immigrants.sounds familiar?.
Posted by londoner432 on September 30, 2008 8:20 AM

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The first national elections since the bank collapse really went critical have taken place in Austria today.  The news is: significant gains for the two nationalist parties.  Heinz-Christian Strache’s Freedom Party (FPOe) and Jorg Haider’s Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZOe), have taken 29% of the vote between them.  Of that, the Freedom Party took 18 per cent of the vote - up from 11% in 2006 despite suffering accusations of xenophobia during the election campaign.  The Alliance for the Future of Austria won 11 per cent of the vote - up from 4%.  So it’s an even split of 7 percentage points gained apiece.

The official result will only be announced on October 6th.

It is possible but, of course, unlikely that nationalist parties will be invited into government, as they were in 2000.  On the other hand, the Austrian public will not smile upon a repeat of the centrist double act of the People’s Party and the Social Democrats.  Most likely to emerge from the inevitable period of political horse-trading is a “grand coalition” of the Social Democrats, who won the largest share of the votes with 28%, the Greens and one of small parties.

Following on the Northern League’s coup of joining the governing coalition in Italy last April, achieved with only an 8% vote share, this is a heartening result.  One should always remember, though, that it has come about for negative reasons: electoral disenchantment with the governing duo and with aspects of Austria’s membership of the EU, and discontent with immigration.  This negativity is a weakness of European nationalism.  Of course, nationalists have to believe in the “certainty” that voter dissatisfaction with the Establishment parties will escalate and keep on escalating, delivering power to them as an inevitable product of the postmodern hell.  Thusfar, however, it has proved impossible for nationalists to sustain the gains they have made, and all too easy for the default mainstream to adapt à la Sarkozy.

The lesson would appear to be that a positive, communicable vision has to run alongside the standard mix of critical rhetoric and vote-buying managerial politics.