140 UK Labour's open-door policy; Australia to join Asia-Pacific community by 2020

UK Labour's open-door policy; Australia to join Asia-Pacific community by 2020

(1) 'Dishonest' Blair and Straw accused over secret plan for multicultural UK
(2) Barbara Roche pioneered Labour's open-door policy -  educated at the Jews Free School
(3) Civil Servant Jonathan Portes, who wrote the Immigration report, is Jewish too
(4) But Michael Howard (former Tory Leader, also Jewish) proposed curbs on Immigration
(5) "Green Left" Trots say it's racist not to accept Tamil asylum-seeker boat
(6) Asylum-seekers arrive by plane, not boat
(7) Japan and Australia propose "competing visions" of an Asian Community
(8) Asian leaders to pledge EU-style bloc
(9) KEVIN Rudd's concept of an Asia-Pacific community by 2020

(1) 'Dishonest' Blair and Straw accused over secret plan for multicultural UK

By SIMON WALTERS, MAIL ON SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR

Last updated at 2:26 AM on 25th October 2009

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1222769/Dishonest-Blair-Straw-accused-secret-plan-multicultural-UK.html

Jack Straw and Tony Blair 'dishonestly' concealed a plan to allow in more immigrants and make Britain more multi-cultural because they feared a public backlash if it was made public, it has been claimed.

The allegation was made after a former Labour adviser said the Government opened up UK borders partly to humiliate Right-wing opponents of immigration.

Andrew Neather, who worked for Mr Straw when he was Home Secretary, and as a speech writer for Mr Blair, claimed a secret Government report in 2000 called for mass immigration to change Britain's cultural make-up forever.

It also emerged that:

 Home Office Minister Barbara Roche, who pioneered the open-door policy, wanted to restore her Labour reputation after being attacked by Left-wingers for condemning begging by immigrants as 'vile'.

 Civil servant Jonathan Portes, who wrote the immigration report, was a speechwriter for Gordon Brown and is now a senior aide to Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell.

 Labour chiefs decided to brand Tory leaders William Hague and Michael Howard as racists to deter them from criticising the covert initiative.

Mr Neather said there was a 'driving political purpose' behind Labour's decision to allow in hundreds of thousands of migrants to plug gaps in the labour market.

He said the stance was foreshadowed by a report by Mr Blair's Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) think-tank, which said the nation would benefit from more migrants.

Mr Neather claimed that earlier, unpublished versions of the report made clear that one aim was to make Britain more multi-cultural for political reasons.

'I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended - even if this wasn't its main purpose - to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date,' he said.

The report, entitled Research, Development And Statistics Occasional Paper No67 - Migration: An Economic And Social Analysis, was published in January 2001 by the Home Office, then run by Mr Straw.

Most of its key statistics came from a PIU team led by Mr Portes. The report paints a rosy picture of mass immigration, stating: 'There is little evidence that native workers are harmed by migration. The broader fiscal impact is likely to be positive because a greater proportion of migrants are of working age and migrants have higher average wages than natives.'

It goes on: 'Most British regard immigration as having a positive effect on British culture.'

Mr Portes remains an enthusiastic advocate of the benefits of immigration. He wrote a report for the Department of Work and Pensions last year rejecting claims that Eastern European workers had stolen the jobs of British counterparts, arguing Britons lacked the skills and motivation.

A former Government adviser told The Mail on Sunday: 'If the Government had been prepared to have an open debate about immigration, we would not have had the problems we have seen with the BNP. But it did not want immigration policy discussed.

'It is not a very honest Government. They knew immigration was a hot issue and they did not want to get into a fight on it.'

The source said Labour deliberately targeted William Hague and Michael Howard when they called for tougher immigration controls.

Mr Hague was accused of 'playing the race card' in 2001 when he said Mr Blair was turning Britain into a 'foreign land'. Michael Howard was called a 'racist' in 2004 after he went to BNP stronghold Burnley, in Lancashire, to denounce Labour's stance on asylum seekers.

A Labour insider suggested Mrs Roche relaxed immigration controls partly in response to the outcry she faced after criticising begging Romanian mothers.

'She was called a scumbag,' said the source. 'She wanted to show she was a genuine liberal.'

(2) Barbara Roche pioneered Labour's open-door policy -  educated at the Jews Free School

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Roche

Barbara Roche

Barbara Maureen Roche (née Margolis, born 13 April 1954) is a British Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green from 1992 until 2005, when she lost the seat, despite having a majority of over 10,500. During her time in Government, she held several ministerial offices; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry, 1997-1998; Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1999; Minister of State, Home Office, 1999-2001; Cabinet Office, 2001-2002; Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2002-2003.

She was educated at the Jews Free School, Camden Town and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she achieved a Bachelor of Arts. She trained to be a barrister and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple, 1977.

... This page was last modified on 24 October 2009 at 22:22.

(3) Civil Servant Jonathan Portes, who wrote the Immigration report, is Jewish too

http://jewishvoices.squarespace.com/signatories/

Independent Jewish Voices

The IJV statement is open for signature to all Jewish residents of the UK who subscribe to its principles. This is an individual decision and not a matter for the steering group to determine

... Current Signatories (637):

... Jonathan Portes ==

http://www.insidegovernment.co.uk/other/migration/speakers.php

Jonathan Portes
Senior Adviser, Economic Policy Issues, London Summit Team (EGIS)
Cabinet Office

Jonathan Portes is Senior Adviser, Economic Policy Issues, at the Cabinet Office. He advises the Cabinet Secretary, Gus O’Donnell, and Jon Cunliffe, the UK G20 Sherpa, on international aspects of the Government’s response to the global financial crisis. Previously, Jonathan was Chief Economist (Work) and Director, Children, Poverty, and Analysis at the Department for Work and Pensions. He started his career in HM Treasury in 1987, becoming Speechwriter and Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1991. In 1995 he led the Treasury’s Review of Government Debt Management. Mr. Portes moved to the U.S. in 1995 where he worked in a private sector economic consultancy and subsequently led an external evaluation for the IMF. He returned to the UK in 1999 where he led an influential project on migration for the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. Portes has a BA degree in Mathematics from the University of Oxford and a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

(4) But Michael Howard (former Tory Leader, also Jewish) proposed curbs on Immigration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Howard

Michael Howard

... During the 2005 campaign, Howard was criticised by some commentators for conducting a campaign which addressed the issues of immigration, asylum seekers and travellers, when he himself was the descendant of immigrants. Others pointed out that the continued media coverage of such issues created most of the controversy and that Howard merely defended his views when questioned at unrelated policy launches. ...

This page was last modified on 23 October 2009 at 07:28. ==

http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/?content_id=1746

Howard Goes From Tory To Torah

by Justin Cohen - Friday 14th October 2005

He may have won a standing ovation for his final speech as Tory leader last week, but members of Blackpools Jewish community will best remember Michael Howards trip to the city for an entirely different conference performance.

Hours before stepping down from the partys top job, Michael Howard was called up to the Torah at Blackpool Reform Jewish Congregation during a first day Rosh Hashanah service.

And the 50-strong congregation were thrilled with the presence of their guest, whose appearance had not previously been announced.

Shul president Estelle Ballan said the former home secretary had been due to attend for just an hour but enjoyed it so much that he stayed until the end, enabling him to loudly join in with a recital of adom olam. ...

(5) "Green Left" Trots say it's racist not to accept Tamil asylum-seeker boat

From: Tony Ryan <tonyryan43@gmail.com> Date: 25.10.2009 11:53 AM

The Trots have got the equation right, but the solution is wrong. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/814/41882 19 October.

While it is true that unemployment and the collapse of work conditions and pay are due to traitorous Union leadership complicity in both ALP and Coaltion dismantleing of protective tariffs, and not to refugee intake as ALP politicians claim; AND that the entire refugee situation is due to government's support of the wars that created the refugee crisis in the first place; it is absolutely not true that Australians have a democratic obligation to accept refugees.

If there had been democratic electoral consensus, which identified absolute majority support for our involvement in these wars, then yes, we would have such an obligation. Even an easily manipulated referendum 'yes', would create such an obligation.

But the reality is, the Australian people were never consulted about our involvement in either Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Sri Lanka. The obligation belongs to those who made such unilateral ventures... the politicians; but more particularly, the global bankers, corporations, and media magnates who dictate 'our' politicians every move.

In other words, the politicians are not our representatives but those of the lobbyists who, as we also know, prosecute the very wars in question.

What the Trots will never admit, being globalists themselves, is that the only means by which Australians can resume ownership of this spurious government is to administer a national Declaration of No Confidence, followed by installation of a Caretaker Government made up of serving and retired still-loyal public servants.

I am wondering why it is taking so long for the obvious to become apparent.

(6) Asylum-seekers arrive by plane, not boat

By Claire Harvey

The Sunday Telegraph

October 25, 2009 08:15am

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26256902-421,00.html

EVERY day, at least 13 asylum-seekers enter Australia through airports, representing 30 times the number of boat people that are supposedly "flooding" across our maritime borders.

A total of 4768 "plane people" - more than 96 per cent of applicants for refugee status - arrived by aircraft in 2008 on legitimate tourist, business and other visas compared with 161 who arrived by boat during the same period, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

And plane people are much less likely than boat people to be genuine refugees, with only about 40-60 per cent granted protection visas, compared with 85-90 per cent of boat people who are found to be genuine refugees.

In 2007-08, 3987 claims were received and 1930 of these were approved.

But whereas boat people are detained on Christmas Island while their claims are processed, plane people live in the community and they are allowed to work under policy changes introduced by the Rudd government.

Experts say few Australians understand that the boat people represent just a small fraction of our refugee intake - and these asylum-seekers are unfairly vilified by "expedient" politicians.

Exact plane-people figures for 2009 are not yet available, but an Immigration Department spokesman said the figure was likely to have increased at a similar rate to that of boat arrivals, which grew from 161 to 1799 since last year, in response to increased pressures within the region, including the end of civil war in Sri Lanka, which has seen many ethnic Tamils fleeing persecution.

An analysis by The Sunday Telegraph of immigration records shows that Sri Lankans represented more than 28 per cent of "plane people" who successfully applied for protection visas in 2007-08, followed by Chinese (26 per cent), Iraqis (14 per cent) and Pakistanis (7.6 per cent). Of the plane people found to be non-genuine refugees, many are Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian and Chinese.

Chinese represent 30 per cent of plane people who apply for refuge, followed by Sri Lankans (8 per cent), Malaysians, Indonesians, Iraqis and then Indians.

Australia will take 13,750 refugees through its humanitarian program in 2009-10, an increase of 250 on last year.

It is expected that Sri Lankans will represent an increased proportion of that intake, which in previous years has been dominated by Burmese, Iraqis, Afghans, Sudanese, Liberians, Congolese and Burundians.

Politicians' "expedient obsession" with boat people is clouding the truth about Australia's refugee flows, according to migration law expert Professor Mary Crock, of Sydney University Law School.

"It's a great mystery why people get upset about boats -- and it's disappointing that our Prime Minister is playing to the old politics," Professor Crock said.

"We have a small number of arrivals and the ones who arrive by boat are nearly always genuine refugees."

(7) Japan and Australia propose "competing visions" of an Asian Community

Japan, Australia ‘Test’ Asean With Competing Economic Visions

By Daniel Ten Kate and Shamim Adam

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aBwX7p1R496Q

Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Japan and Australia are set to elaborate on competing visions for building an East Asian bloc that may involve trade ties and a common currency during a summit of 16 Asian nations in Thailand.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is scheduled to sell his plan in meetings today with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Japan, South Korea, India and New Zealand. His idea for an “Asia-Pacific Community” would include the United States and India.

Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took power last month, will put forth his “long-term vision” of an “East Asian Community,” foreign ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama told reporters yesterday. Japan will “closely discuss and coordinate” with the U.S. on the group’s formation, Kodama said. Southeast Asian countries would play a “pivotal role” in the plan, Kodama said.

The countries that are eventually included in the group will benefit from trade in a region approaching half of the world’s population and a quarter of global gross domestic product. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said today the Australian and Japanese plans amounted to a “test” for Asean, which is trying to raise its stature and attract global investment.

The U.S. signed a friendship pact with Asean in July to bolster ties with an area that contains sea lanes vital to world trade, as well as coal, oil and other commodities. China is “positive and open” to the establishment of an “East Asian community,” Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue said on Oct. 21.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Cha-am, Thailand at sadam2@bloomberg.net; Daniel Ten Kate in Cha-am, Thailand at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

(8) Asian leaders to pledge EU-style bloc

DANNY KEMP
October 25, 2009 - 1:44PM

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ieYONJgSvJz2xywSozCLEVxoFCYQ

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/asian-leaders-to-pledge-eustyle-bloc-20091025-hegp.html

HUA HIN, Thailand — Asian leaders will pledge to overcome their differences and push towards the formation of an EU-style community as they wrap up an annual summit in Thailand on Sunday.

Human rights issues, border disputes and signs of apathy over a meeting that was twice delayed by protests have at times marred the gathering of leaders from a region that contains more than half the world's population.

But plans to increase the region's global clout by building closer ties eventually dominated the three-day meeting of Southeast Asian nations along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Heads of state at the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin will sign a raft of agreements Sunday on boosting economic and political integration and cooperating on subjects including climate change and disaster management.

Japan's proposal for a so-called East Asian community will be up for further discussion, after Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said the region should "have the aspiration that East Asia is going to lead the world."

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is also set to restate its commitment to create its own political and economic community by 2015.

Asia has made a more rapid recovery from the global economic crisis than the United States and other western countries and sees itself in a position to boost its international influence.

But renewed criticism over the region's stance on human rights has taken the shine off the summit.

Activists have slammed the leaders in Hua Hin for barely mentioning the continued detention by Myanmar's military junta of pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

ASEAN called for free and fair elections in Myanmar in 2010 but failed to call for the release of the 64-year-old Suu Kyi.

Myanmar's Prime Minister Thein Sein told his counterparts that the regime could relax the conditions of her house arrest, which was extended by 18 months in August.

The launch of what ASEAN said was a "historic" rights commission on Friday was meanwhile overshadowed by the barring of several leading campaigners from a meeting with the region's leaders to discuss the new body.

Divisions between key regional countries also undermined the supposed theme of unity.

Beijing has voiced its opposition to a recent visit by Singh to Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian border state at the core of the dispute, and to a planned visit there next month by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

India and China clashed in 1962 in the area.

Host nation Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia remained at loggerheads over the fate of fugitive former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, after Cambodian premier Hun Sen offered him a job as his economic adviser.

Around 18,000 troops and dozens of armoured vehicles have been deployed in Hua Hin after the Asian summit was twice postponed by anti-government protests led by supporters of the exiled Thaksin.

They stormed the previous venue of the summit in the coastal town of Pattaya in April, forcing some leaders to flee by helicopter or boat and prompting demands by Asian leaders for a major security review.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

(9) KEVIN Rudd's concept of an Asia-Pacific community by 2020

Kevin Rudd's vision for Asia-Pacific community evolves

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26259137-16953,00.html

Patrick Walters, National security editor | October 26, 2009

KEVIN Rudd's concept of an Asia-Pacific community by 2020 has been canvassed at the weekend's East Asia summit in Thailand together with a rival vision from new Japanese leader Yukio Hatoyama.

East Asian leaders meeting in Hua Hin yesterday discussed the broad regional architecture, with the Prime Minister promoting his plan both at the formal leaders' meeting and in a series on bilateral discussions.

"What I detect across the region is an openness to a discussion about how we evolve our regional architecture into the future," Mr Rudd said yesterday.

"It's important that we are in a conscious discussion and a conscious process to evolve options for regional institutions in the future rather than just sitting back and waiting for big problems to emerge."

Mr Hatoyama's plan is for the creation of an East Asian Community based firmly on the existing ASEAN regional institutions, which could exclude the US.

"You might ask Mr Rudd if his idea is more of an institutional approach than a functional approach," Japanese government spokesman Kazuo Kodama told journalists at the summit.

Mr Rudd also took the opportunity to lobby regional leaders on his plan in a series of bilateral talks with heads of government from South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and The Philippines.

Mr Rudd also announced Australia would provide $50 million to help deploy civilian experts into disaster and conflict zones in the Asian region.

"The government will create a register of up to 500 Australian specialists who will be able to be deployed overseas at rapid notice.

"They will be drawn from both the public and private sectors," he said.

Mr Rudd also confirmed the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement, signed this year, will formally come into force on January 1.

The agreement between the 10 ASEAN economies and Australia and New Zealand brings closer together 12 regional economies, with more than 600 million people and a combined GDP of $3.1 trillion.

Mr Rudd said the agreement would cover 20 per cent of Australia's two-way trade, worth $112 billion, and eliminate tariffs on 96 per cent of our exports to ASEAN nations by 2020.

The FTA covers tradable goods as well as services, investment, intellectual property and e-commerce.

The nations covered by the AANZFTA are the 10 ASEAN member states: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Burma, The Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

On Saturday, Mr Rudd met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to discuss the proposed Asia-Pacific community as well as the upcoming Copenhagen climate summit and bilateral issues, including the case of Stern Hu, the senior Rio Tinto executive held in detention by Chinese authorities since early July.

Mr Rudd said the Hu case was the subject of "intense and continuing discussion between the foreign ministries of China and Australia".

"My purpose in raising these matters today was simply to highlight the fact that this was a continuing matter of concern to Australia, and I will continue to do so in the future," he said.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday that bilateral relations with Beijing were getting back to "business as usual" in the wake of the Hu case.

"Whilst we've had some significant tensions in the relationship, we believe very much in the last month or so things are getting back to business as usual, and that's a very good thing with a very important relationship," Mr Smith said.

"We continue to urge the Chinese authorities to bring this matter to a conclusion as quickly as possible, to expedite it."