Just to flesh it out for our overseas members.

Margeret Hodge.

Established British families should be given social housing even if they need it less than new immigrants, a government minister said yesterday.

Margaret Hodge said that indigenous families’ “legitimate sense of entitlement” should be taken into account in deciding who was housed.

Ms Hodge, an Industry Minister, has called before for the Government to do more to counter the resentments created by immigration.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
Established British families should be given social housing even if they need it less than new immigrants, a government minister said yesterday.

Margaret Hodge said that indigenous families’ “legitimate sense of entitlement” should be taken into account in deciding who was housed.

Ms Hodge, an Industry Minister, has called before for the Government to do more to counter the resentments created by immigration.

Yesterday she suggested that national insurance contributions could be used as part of a points system of housing allocation.

She said the Government currently “prioritised the needs of an individual migrant family over the entitlement that others feel they have to resources in the community”.

She added: “So a recently arrived family with four or five children living in a damp and overcrowded privately-rented flat with the children suffering from asthma will usually get priority over a family with less housing need who have lived in the area for three generations and are stuck at home with the grandparents.”

Hazel Blears, Labour’s chair-woman and a candidate for deputy leader, agreed that ministers had to do more to convince people that the system was equitable. “I think that people in this country have a real sense of fairness. They are prepared to do their bit but they want to know the system actually works for them. So I do think we need to tackle these tough issues.”

However, Nancy Kelly, of the Refugee Council, a campaigning group, said that Ms Hodge was aping the BNP. “The way to counter some of the views that are put forward by the far-right parties is not by trying to follow their lead.”

Ms Kelly said that asylum-seekers were not entitled to council housing and arrivals from new EU states had restricted access to benefits. “People who are recognised as refugees are entitled to council housing but on exactly the same basis a UK national, on the basis of need,” she said.

Ms Hodge, an immigrant herself – she was born in Egypt to Jewish refugee parents – said that she had seen many voters in her Barking constituency turn to the BNP because of concerns over housing allocations.

She said a transparent points system, giving more weight to length of residence, citizenship and national insurance contributions, could be a better way of allocating housing.

Writing in The Observer, she said that there was widespread concern about the changing face of Britain, and people needed to be reassured. “We should look at policies where the legitimate sense of entitlement felt by the indigenous family overrides the legitimate need demonstrated by the new migrants. We must address these difficult questions.”

Damian Green, the Conservative immigration spokesman, said that Ms Hodge’s comments acknowledged the Government’s “long-term failure” to control immigration.

Andrew Stunell, the Liberal Democrat local government spokesman, said that the Government was continuing to sell council houses although there were 1½ million families on the council housing waiting list.


Ruth Kelly.

Councils should encourage immigrants to learn English instead of routinely translating documents into foreign languages, Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, said yesterday. Ms Kelly said that translation had been used too frequently and could become a “crutch” that discouraged integration. The practice enabled new immigrants to avoid learning English when they first arrived, meaning that they never did, she said.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
Councils should encourage immigrants to learn English instead of routinely translating documents into foreign languages, Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, said yesterday. Ms Kelly said that translation had been used too frequently and could become a “crutch” that discouraged integration. The practice enabled new immigrants to avoid learning English when they first arrived, meaning that they never did, she said.

Ms Kelly said that there were cases – such as in a casualty ward – in which translation was necessary, but that learning and using the English language was key to helping migrants to integrate.

The minister will receive a report this week from the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, which was set up by her department. The commission focused on concerns that segregated communities have acted as a spawning ground for extremism.

Ms Kelly told the BBC that the commission would issue guidance to local authorities, leading them away from “routine” translation. It would then be used only in appropriate situations, such as emergency services. She said: “I think speaking the language is absolutely key. Something the commission looked at specifically is whether we should be translating from English into different languages as a matter of routine. They are going to put out guidance . . . where local authorities can ask really hard questions about whether or not we are providing a crutch and supporting people in their difference, or whether translation is being used in the appropriate circumstances.”

She added: “I do think translation has been used too frequently and sometimes without thought to the consequences. So, for example, it’s quite possible for someone to come here from Pakistan or elsewhere in the world and find that materials are routinely translated into their mother tongue, and therefore not have the incentive to learn the language.”

Other ideas discussed by the commission include some compulsory national or community service. Ms Kelly praised voluntary community services but said that there were “real practical issues” with making it compulsory.

Ms Kelly spoke as Hazel Blears, the Labour party chairman, was accused of stereotyping immigrants after suggesting that the public associated them with antisocial behaviour. Ms Blears, a candidate for the deputy leadership of the party, expressed concern that people in her Salford constituency were “worried” about changes in the community.

“We have got areas in Salford where private landlords are letting properties with 10 and 12 people in there,” she said. “Now, the community doesn’t object to the people – they object to the exploitation and the fact that that leads to people being on the street drinking, antisocial behaviour.

“They object if they are undercutting wages and not getting the national minimum wage and they are not abiding by health and safety, so you have got to enforce the law.”

Her comments, in an interview with The Independent on Sunday, prompted David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, to blame her for public concerns. “It is wholly irresponsible for Ministers of the Crown to stereotype any group,” he said. “If anybody is responsible for the concerns about immigration – on housing, education or indeed community relations – it is a Government that, while Hazel Blears was a Home Office Minister, allowed 600,000 immigrants to enter the country in one year.”


Hazel Blears.

Hazel Blears, the Labour party chairman, was accused of stereotyping immigrants after suggesting that the public associated them with antisocial behaviour. Ms Blears, a candidate for the deputy leadership of the party, expressed concern that people in her Salford constituency were “worried” about changes in the community
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
Hazel Blears, the Labour party chairman, was accused of stereotyping immigrants after suggesting that the public associated them with antisocial behaviour. Ms Blears, a candidate for the deputy leadership of the party, expressed concern that people in her Salford constituency were “worried” about changes in the community.

“We have got areas in Salford where private landlords are letting properties with 10 and 12 people in there,” she said. “Now, the community doesn’t object to the people – they object to the exploitation and the fact that that leads to people being on the street drinking, antisocial behaviour.

“They object if they are undercutting wages and not getting the national minimum wage and they are not abiding by health and safety, so you have got to enforce the law.”

Her comments, in an interview with The Independent on Sunday, prompted David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, to blame her for public concerns. “It is wholly irresponsible for Ministers of the Crown to stereotype any group,” he said. “If anybody is responsible for the concerns about immigration – on housing, education or indeed community relations – it is a Government that, while Hazel Blears was a Home Office Minister, allowed 600,000 immigrants to enter the country in one year.”


Bit of a lurch to the right isn't it. If they carry on like this, not only will they be right of the Tories but up there with the fascists.

To think I was hoping that there might be a smidgin of common sense after the criminal Blair had gone.