Tag Archives: immigration

Official rebukes Iain Duncan Smith over immigration figures (mis)use

By Mark Pack | Published 25th January 2012 - 7:04 pm

The UK’s statistics watchdog has rebuked a minister over his handling of controversial figures on benefits claimed by immigrants.

Sir Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority, has written to Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, questioning the way he released the figures almost week ago.

He highlighted that the figures were presented to the public as if they were official figures but in fact had not been through the rigorous and impartial process for publishing such numbers:

Posted in News | Also tagged iain duncan smith, michael scholar | 4 Comments

Liberal Democrat members support proposed changes to planning rules, just

By Mark Pack | Published 7th October 2011 - 7:25 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

Our latest survey of party members finds a small majority backing the government’s controversial plans for the planning system in England. By a margin of 48% – 39% Liberal Democrat members in the survey supported the scheme to cut central control over planning but also introduce a presumption in favour of development if plans are sustainable and in line with local policies.

However, …

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged high-speed rail, human rights act, marriage, railways, tax, transport, trident | 5 Comments

Opinion: Mike Hancock has grave concerns for a gay constituent facing deportation to Uganda

By Richard Flowers | Published 9th August 2011 - 6:55 pm

Robert Segwanyi is a gay man from Uganda. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, and Robert was imprisoned and, he says, tortured because he is gay.

In June last year, he escaped and fled to Britain.

Now the UK Border Agency want to send him back.

UKBA does not accept he is gay and a judge rejected his appeal claiming that there is no risk to gay people in Uganda.

This is what Amnesty International said about Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Laws:

Both the current law and the proposed new law violate a number of human rights including the rights to equality and non-discrimination, privacy, liberty and

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged gay rights, mike hancock, Robert Segwanyi, stonewall | 6 Comments

What Lib Dem members think about immigration (Part II)

By Stephen Tall | Published 3rd May 2011 - 7:55 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 530 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

(Part I of ‘What Lib Dem members think about immigration’ is available to read here.)

LDV asked: Generally speaking, do you think that the issue of immigration has been discussed in Britain too much, too little or about the right amount over the last few years?

…

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged david cameron, vince cable | 11 Comments

The Independent View: Rifts on immigration demonstrate real challenges for the Government

By Sarah Mulley | Published 15th April 2011 - 5:42 pm

David Cameron’s speech on immigration has unleashed a wave of criticism and debate, both inside and outside the coalition government. Although some of the fallout tells us more about the political dilemmas facing coalition partners who must now fight an election campaign against each other than it does about immigration, today’s discussions have neatly illustrated some of the challenges facing the Government on this issue.

The first is how to best engage in the public debate. David Cameron is right to say that “the role of politicians is to cut through the extremes of this debate & approach the subject sensibly …

Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged david cameron | 3 Comments

Two wins for the Lib Dems in government: human trafficking and visas

By Mark Pack | Published 22nd March 2011 - 9:43 pm

Two pieces of good news today where a combination of Liberal Democrat and some Conservatives in government have won out over the right of the Conservative Party.

First up, human trafficking – where the opposition of Conservative Euro-sceptics to Britain opting in to the new EU directive has been overcome. Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equality, Tom Brake said:

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg, tom brake, vince cable | 5 Comments

Opinion: what the Guardian isn’t telling you

By Peter Welch | Published 20th December 2010 - 1:20 pm

Mehdi Hasan has a provocative article in the Guardian So what, Nick Clegg, made you forget liberty? It is standard Guardian fare these days: you can’t trust the Lib Dems.

The “delay” in completing the abolition child detention in deportation cases is the focus of his attack.

To be fair, he acknowledges that Labour hardly look good on the issue:

child detention in this country is one of the most obscene and unforgivable legacies of the ultra-authoritarian New Labour years. In 2001 the Blair government made the populist decision to detain children and families who were subject to immigration

…

Posted in News | Also tagged barnardo's, child detention, martin narey, mehdi hasan | 40 Comments

Immigration: a different kind of challenge?

By Mark Pack | Published 22nd November 2010 - 8:56 am

Understandably recent debates about immigration, both under Labour and now with the lively debates within the Coalition over an immigration cap (or colander, as the case may be) has focused in on the short-term perspective of what policy is appropriate for the next few years for the UK. The wider context however is very striking:

Close to half of the world’s population now lives in countries with fertility rates below the replacement level, which, as a rough rule of thumb, is 2.1 births per woman. In these states – absent steady compensatory immigration – current childbearing patterns will lead to an

…

Posted in News | 10 Comments

Not so much an immigration cap as an immigration colander

By Mark Pack | Published 4th November 2010 - 12:55 pm

Immigration was one of the issues on which Nick Clegg and David Cameron repeatedly clashed during the general election, so it is no surprise that it has continued to be a source of tension in the coalition. More surprisingly, the fault line in the coalition has not been a simple Lib Dem versus Conservative because many Conservatives are persuaded by the pleas from universities (that they need high fee paying foreign students else the funding higher education would be an even bigger political problem) and from business (that many firms in the UK cannot get the right skilled staff except through immigration).

Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron, nick clegg | 12 Comments

What is happening with ending child detention in immigration cases?

By Mark Pack | Published 12th October 2010 - 5:25 pm

The subject of child detention for immigration purposes was raised by Liberal Democrat peer Roger Roberts in Parliament yesterday. I’ve expressed my frustration often enough at how journalists sometimes get in the way of the news with their insistence on introducing, talking over and then summarising what other people are saying, rather than letting us hear the actually words for ourselves. So taking a leaf out of my own book here is full transcript of the question and follow-ups from Hansard:

Asked By Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will end child detention in …

Posted in News | Also tagged pauline neville-jones, roger roberts | 7 Comments

Lib Dems on child detention: read our lips, it will be ended

By Stephen Tall | Published 9th September 2010 - 11:58 am

The Guardian today carries a story, Government climbdown on detention of children in immigration centres, which — if it were accurate — would have Lib Dems hopping mad. Thankfully, it’s not accurate.

It was six weeks ago, at his first acting stint at Prime Minister’s Questions, that Nick Clegg formally announced that (as per the Lib Dem manifesto and Coalition agreement) the practise of child detention would end:

It was simply a moral outrage that last year the Labour government imprisoned, behind bars, 1,000 children who were innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever. This coalition government will once again restore a

…

Posted in News | Also tagged caron lindsay, child detention, nick clegg, the guardian | 10 Comments

Daily Mail takes a tip from the BNP

By Iain Roberts | Published 9th August 2010 - 3:55 pm

A story in today’s Daily Mail looks like the sort of thing you’d expect to find in a BNP leaflet.

The headline says it all

Revealed: The UK maternity units in which only 1 in 10 mothers is of white British origin

Of course there’s variation around the country – always has been, always will be.

Nationally the figures (which appear later on in the Mail article) are:
62% white British
7% other white
5% black
4% pakistani
3% indian
8% other
11% unknown

Concern about immigration is legitimate, but why is the Mail so worried about the mothers’ skin colour?

Posted in News | Also tagged daily mail | 11 Comments

Kennedy urges coalition to mitigate impact of immigration cap on universities

By The Voice | Published 10th July 2010 - 1:35 pm

The Press Association reports:

Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has urged the Government to look at ways of “mitigating” the impact of an immigration cap on universities. Mr Kennedy, rector of Glasgow University, challenged universities minister David Willetts over the policy at question time.

“Given the Government’s policy on a cap on immigration, you will be aware Universities UK and many others right across the sector are worried about the impact this will have,” he said. “Ten per cent of university staff across the UK are non-EU nationals – 2,500 staff at the Scottish universities alone.

“What can you do with

…

Posted in News | Also tagged charles kennedy, david willetts, universities | 6 Comments

Opinion: Our approach to immigration must be grounded in fairness

By Edwin Loo | Published 1st June 2010 - 10:20 am

Many months ago, I wrote a piece on immigration policy for Lib Dem Voice in light of the calls for a variety of illiberal measures from caps to quotas. It is with some regret that I return to this issue now to view what you could call a radically changed landscape. We are now in coalition with the Conservatives, in agreement with the need for a ‘cap’ on ‘non-EU migrants’ and in favour of harder, tougher and nastier barriers against ‘foreigners’. This rhetoric is both disappointing and damaging, not only for myself but also for the thousands of other …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged merlene emerson | 4 Comments

The coalition agreement: government transparency and immigration

By Mark Pack | Published 31st May 2010 - 10:20 am

Welcome to the eleventh in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here.

Unlike the nearly all of the rest of the document, both of these sections lift very heavily from Conservative Party policy, with little of the Liberal Democrat manifesto featuring. However, whilst in the immigration section that means policies which will leave many Liberal Democrats uncomfortable, in the government transparency section this is good news – for truth be told, the Conservative manifesto was rather better than the Liberal Democrat manifesto in this regard.

Our manifesto …

Posted in News | Also tagged coalition agreement | 2 Comments

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