EU renegotiation

I am in favour of continued membership of the EU. I believe that our membership benefits our economy and our place in the world. While not a perfect organisation, it is frequently maligned unfairly.

Cameron's renegotiation is at heart a selfish move to protect our country at the expense of millions of poorer people in Europe. People come here because this is a good country to live in and they can earn far more than in their own country. We should be working together to improve the lives of all Europeans, not engaging in discriminatory moves. Also, a benefits ban can have its own problems. What if someone comes here to work and then gets into a serious accident making them need disability benefit?

I'd like that to be clearer and have exceptions... but the way this government has been treating people on benefits doesn't fill me with confidence.

Nor am I confident that REMAIN will win the referendum, sadly.

A year of the Coalition

Today marks the first anniversary of the creation of the Coalition and David Cameron becoming Prime Minister.

I wonder how many people are celebrating today. I won't be.

Foreign-born workers

David Cameron, in what looks to me to be an attempt to divert attention from the lack of support for NHS reforms, is today making a speech about immigration.

One common statistic is that 75% of jobs created in the last ten years have gone to foreign-born workers. Of course, the term "foreign-born" is one that could be highly misleading.

Let me give some examples where this could get ridiculous from here and abroad:

• Sir Trevor McDonald, the famed newsreader, was born in Trinidad. Does that count as being foreign-born? Trinidad & Tobago is now an independent state, but it was part of the British Empire in 1939.
• One could equally apply this query to most of the members of the "Windrush Generation".
• Amanda Tapping, the Canadian actor best known for her role as Samantha Carter in Stargate SG-1, was actually born in Rochford, Essex, moving to Canada at the age of 3. She could count as a foreign-born worker.
• Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter's Laboratory, was born in the Soviet Union, going to the USA at the age of 7. He counts as foreign-born despite the fact he would likely remember very little of his time in the USSR.

Here's a suggestion to some of my fellow left-wingers. Next time someone complains about immigration, ask them if they watch/watched Hustle, NCIS, Waking The Dead or House...

Update:

There's a great article from the Office of National Statistics on this. I would particularly advise people to look at Tables 7 and 8.

The Strategic Defence and Security Review

As a card-carrying member of the opposition party, I'm naturally bound to say that I don't like this review. It's cutting too much at a time when we're at war. Especially Ark Royal.

However, there is one good thing. We may have to wait a decade for it, but come 2020, we're back in the CATOBAR business.

Now, if you excuse me, I've got an RP to create... :)

Change of Government

Well, 13 years of Labour rule are over. It's made a big impact on British politics, much of it good, some of it bad.

We're back in opposition now and it's probably a good thing. We ran out of steam in the last two years and the recession really finished us off.

Congratulations to Mr. Cameron.