The M4 Motorway And Immigration?

 

It's a fair point to make the case that the significant influx of immigrants in the last 10 years has in a number of cases put intolerable pressure on public services in various parts of the country. Thus we see that Farage attempts to make this point as a reason for being late on Friday at a venue in South Wales:

Nigel Farage today blamed immigrants for clogging up Britain's roads after traffic jams meant he missed an event charging Ukip supporters to meet him.

The Ukip leader said he arrived too late for a £25-a-head drinks reception in Port Talbot because the UK's 'open door immigration' policy meant that the M4 'is not as navigable as it used to be'.

However while we're not sure where exactly Farage was held up on the M4, we would query his assertion 'that open door immigration has meant that the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be'.

Like most motorways, the M4 suffers from congestion at busy periods in various locations along its route and has done so for a long time. Particular problem locations are between Reading and Slough and then around Bristol - with junctions connecting with the M32 and the M5.

More notoriously though the bottlenecks intensify as the M4 travels through South Wales as any regular commuter knows. Not long after crossing the (second) Severn bridge, the M4 becomes two lanes around Newport and Cardiff traveling through the Brynglas Tunnels.

To give an indication of how long this section has been an issue an M4 relief road to bypass the tunnels was proposed back in 1991, way before "open door immigration policy".

Then as we move further on towards Port Talbot, the motorway again reduces down two lanes and junctions 40 and 41 have been temporarily closed as an attempt to improve traffic flow - to local residents dismay.

As the National Transport Plan for Wales noted in 2010:

South-east Wales is densely populated, with significant conurbations at Cardiff and Newport and smaller urban areas nearby. Local and long-distance traffic converge in this region, particularly around the M4 motorway

In addition:

...the motorway around Newport does not conform to today’s motorway standards. It lacks continuous hard shoulders, has closely spaced junctions with sub-standard slip road visibility and narrows to a restricted two lane section through the Brynglas Tunnels. Heavy congestion occurs along this stretch and either side of it at peak hours.

Thus when we factor in that Farage was traveling early on a Friday evening is it any wonder he experienced significant delays. There was of course the train - Brunel built it for a reason.

Yet it's a worrying trend and reflection of UKIP's desire to be a single issue party on immigration that, rather than policy and detail, problems are increasingly being put down to immigration alone. Not only does it lend the party to ridicule but it is toxifying the eurosceptic debate.

That said in the short term UKIP have more pressing matters to attend to.

A Day In The Life...

Three police officers whose "honesty and integrity" have been questioned by the police watchdog will not face disciplinary action over allegations that they lied to try and discredit Andrew Mitchell at the height of the plebgate affair.

So reports the Guardian. It was pretty clear at the time that the policeman's account was somewhat inconsistent, not that means anyone will be disciplined. Interestingly though the former Tory whip states:

"It is a decision which will undermine confidence in the ability of the police to investigate misconduct when the reputation of the police service as a whole is at stake.

Well yes but it's hardly anything new, but the only reason it makes the news in this instance is precisely for the reason he is a former Tory whip. Mitchell continues:

"My family and I have waited nearly a year for these police officers to be held to account and for an apology from the police forces involved. It seems we have waited in vain."

At this point one might consider that those of Liverpool have waited nearly 25 years for police officers to be held to account in one of the biggest police corruption scandals in UK history. A cover up that went right to the top of the political tree and remained so for years. Mr Mitchell's concerns are not police corruption per se but those that affect him directly

As someone who has been stopped and searched under a Section 60 (a policy introduced incidentally by the Tories) more than once and had £20 notes ‘confiscated’ from my wallet because “they could potentially be used as weapons” the disclosure that policemen have; “honesty and integrity” issues comes as no surprise whatsoever.

Corruption...

As Richard North quite rightly points out with regard to the Andrew Mitchel case:

However, the establishment – and certainly the media – is less comfortable with the idea that one or more police officers may have fabricated evidence, and/or exaggerated events, except that those of us in the real world know this to be a common enough occurrence. When push comes to shove, our boys in blue (and increasingly fluorescent yellow) are no more (or less) reliable than politicians.

Yet it stinks right across the board

Exhibit A:

David Cameron has been mocked for meeting Rebekah Brooks for the first time since the former News of the World editor was charged with offences related to phone-hacking.

The Prime Minister reportedly had a lengthy conversation with Mrs Brooks during a private gathering held by Tom Astor, who is the great-grandson of the Nancy Astor, the US heiress.

Downing Street sources confirmed the encounter took place at a party in Mr Cameron's Witney constituency, but the content of their conversation is unknown.

It comes as David Cameron wrestles with the issue of press regulation after the Leveson Inquiry recommended tighter controls in the wake of phone-hacking at the News of the World.

Exhibit B:

A former chief constable is to lead a new criminal inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster as police officers, the Football Association and a council all face potential prosecution over the 96 deaths. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said the move, which came as the High Court quashed the original accidental death inquest verdicts, would ensure nobody responsible for the tragedy 23 years ago escapes scrutiny in the families’ search for justice.

 Exhibit C:

The Prime Minister promised police will get to "the truth of the matter", after fresh evidence suggesting an officer may have pretended to be a member of the public and fabricated an account of the incident.

From the same newspaper in just one day, what a fantastically honest establishment we have...it's rotten to the core.

Update - Exhibit D (I'm losing track):

Hillsborough

The Hillsborough disaster was a watershed moment in British sporting history. Not only and obviously for the poor 96 souls who lost their lives, and their families, but also the impact it had subsequently on sporting grounds. It instigated a revolution in stadium safety both here and in world football.

It was, however, a disaster that wasn't a one off, it was a long time coming and inevitable. When the initial reports came in on that fateful Saturday most fans knew immediately which end of the ground it was in - crushing in antiquated terraces was the norm. I'm sure I wasn't the only to view the images on television and think to oneself: "there but for the grace of God go I..."

At the time Britain's grounds could claim the worst safety record of any other developed nation, despite no fewer than eight official reports into crowd safety between 1924-85. Hillsborough was no freak, and we all knew it, it was the culmination of complacency, neglect, low investment, bad management and prejudice. It's no coincidence that in the 20 or so years since the famous Taylor Report, who recommended significant changes to stadia safety, that no major incident has occurred, yet in the 20 years prior to 1989, we had involving British fans; Ibrox 1971, Bradford fire, Heysel, and of course Hillsborough.

We also knew from the outset, that Hillsborough was a cover-up, particularly by South Yorkshire Police. Whatever ones thoughts on the game of football, or the futility of sport in general, a parent with a child in a so-called civilised society should be able to attend a sporting game on a Saturday afternoon and return home safely after. And when that doesn't happen there should be a proper inquiry into all institutions involved. With Hillsborough, though, it was clear from the start that a major cover-up ensured: UEFA, FIFA, the Thatcher Government, MPs (even recently), the media, the coroners, and most notably South Yorkshire Police all closed ranks (for many years Sheffield Wednesday refused to have a memorial at their ground, like it was an embarrassment). The blame was pinned quite decidedly by Lord Justice Taylor on South Yorkshire Police.

Yet today I'm surprised with the contents of the publication of an independent report into the disaster. I must confess that I was cynical from the outset: the files would be delayed 'till the 30 year rule comes in 2019, they would be redacted and they would be incomplete. But I was wrong, and even for a hardened cynic like myself, when it comes to the behaviour of police at football I'm rather taken aback by some of the revelations:

• Some 164 police statements were amended, he says. Many removed comments attacking the police.
• Officers carried out police national computer checks on the dead to impugn their reputation.
• Blood tests were also taken from the dead to see if they had been drinking, including from children.
• At the time of the Taylor Report [Margaret Thatcher] was briefed by her private secretary that the defensive and – I quote - “close to deceitful” behaviour of senior South Yorkshire officers was “depressingly familiar.”
  And it is clear that the then government thought it right that the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire should resign.
• Evidence that a number of the dead survived "for a significant period" beyond the 3.15pm cut-off point imposed at the original inquest
• ...a box of files containing police statements littered with hand-written notes saying ‘remove the last page’, ‘exclude the last paragraph’ and ‘rewritten as requested’.

This is wholesale corruption and cover-up by the authorities, one that hasn't come to light in detail for over 23 years.

The absence of a coroner’s report applying a verdict compatible with this assertion, or the experiences of all those who witnessed and survived Leppings Lane, is as incomprehensible and reprehensible as the actions on that initial April day.

When the coroner, Stefan Popper, decided the deaths were accidental 90 days after April 15 - on the grounds of what we can now see was tainted and doctored evidence - his judgement became emblematic of the most insidious representation of the second, institutional disaster; of the deceptions, the cover-ups, the lies and the closeted public 'servants' who idly kept their distance and shuffled off to their comfortable retirement as peers of the realm when they knew justice had not been done.

I haven't had time yet to read through the entire report but tribute must be made to the 'justice for the 96' campaign who never gave up.

Boundaries

And priorities:

“We’re getting close to a full-blown banking crisis in Europe,”

And:

"September is likely to be a defining month for the euro area’s destiny," wrote Julian Callow, chief European economist at Barclays Capital.

Strategists at JP Morgan, for their part, have pointed to ‘a growing sense that the crisis is reaching a climax’, saying that the ‘endgame on EMU [European Monetary Union] is approaching fast.'

But no fear our MP's are on the case:

Another, or possibly the same, unnamed 'senior Tory' source said (£):

“It has been really difficult to get MPs to focus on the big issues when all they want to know about is whether they’ll still have a seat. Some of the usual rebels could suddenly find themselves in trouble when they are looking to the party for a new seat or a place in the Lords.”

And that's it in a nutshell: no real concern about representation of the people or the disregard of natural geographical County boundaries, just a concern for their own skins.

On The Rack

Says it all really: the lying PM, the lying Media, the corrupt MP, the incompetent Policeman

Pot, Kettle and Black

According to kathimerini:

Authorities in Kosovo must crack down on government corruption, including pushing “tainted” officials from positions of power, in order to progress toward EU integration and lure investment, the bloc’s top envoy said.

Pieter Feith, EU special representative to Kosovo and top international envoy overseeing its independence, said yesterday that Pristina could not progress toward the European Union without closer relations with its neighbors or a robust fight against crime.

“There is another misconception... that you can come closer to the European Union without combating and eradicating the evil of organized crime and corruption,” he told Reuters. “When I am talking about combating corruption and organized crime, in my concept this means very serious incisive steps, and includes also that personalities who are tainted, who are being investigated, should not be part of the inner circle of power.”

This will be the same EU whose accounts have not been signed off for 15 years in a row? Kosovo should fit right in.