Deceit By The ONS
The Office of National Statistics, paid for by us as you no doubt recall, has pulled a blinder to gloss over the third most popular boys’ name in Britain this year.
The original post was spotted over at A Tangled Web, but it reminded TheEye of an amusing anecdote from Charles Saatchi. From ATW: “This week, the Office of National Statistics published a list of the most popular boys’ names in Britain: Jack, Oliver, Thomas, Harry, Joshua, Alfie, Charlie, Daniel. They reflect a cultural tradition as old as the nation’s history, and would provoke approving nods from Jack the Ripper, Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Becket and Harry Hotspur. There is just one small problem: the list is deceitful. In reality, the third most popular choice for boy children born last year in England and Wales was not Thomas, but Mohammed.”
It’s a sneaky distortion to downplay the influence of immigration and the changing demographic profile of the country but it’s great to know that some people can blissfully rise above the whole thing. As Saatchi recalls:
“…One of our children’s first schools was so posh, that when a teacher asked the class ‘who is Mohammed?’ a small boy stuck up his hand and quietly answered: “Our chauffeur.”…”
Read the whole Mohammed article by Max Hastings in the Mail. It’s a well written and powerful piece.
UPDATE : 13th Spitfire has written an insightful post on this subject.
That article you linked was very interesting but I fear it is very incorrect. Basically (and this is my theory) immigration is the most important issue for voters when there is not a world recession. Currently there is one so that is fine. When it is over in say 2-3 years time immigration will be back on the plate. However, when we in 5 years time have a general election people will not turn to Labour nor the Tories – both are equally inept at creating a country Britons want to live in. Sadly, and I do mean sadly, people will turn to the fringes for that is the only alternative and with the fringes comes and end to immigration but also to a lot of other things which we take for granted.
I always ignore simplistic polls which ask you to list issues in order of concern, or what politicians say what “they hear on the doorstep” becaue it’s not possible to pigeon-hole issues. Immigration, for example, is inextricably linked with economic performance (both in providing an incentive to come here and in the effects casused by that action) which then in turn impacts on our wallets etc etc.
Whether or not an issue is the topic-du-jour is affected by who is currently making the political running but we can’t argue with what Douglas Adams called the ‘fundamental interconnectedness of all things’. Its that which stops the British electorate going for single-issue parties – that and the fact that FPTP makes votes for fringe parties a waste (which of course makes a so-called wasted protest vote a self-fulfilling prophecy). Fringe parties only do well when PR is involved, but that is the subject of another post another day.
Basically, there are two parties to choose the next government from and neither of them is allowed under EU diktat to mess with immigration rules.
I really hope you are right. But immigration has been a concern of the electorate (now I am not sure how to refer to their intrinsic worry since pigenon-holing will invariably be a tactic used to find this result) since the time of Enoch Powell. What stopped it from becoming a full blown issue is that the parties adopted a sensible approach to immigration which is to say zero net immigration. Which does suit us quite well being the most densely populated country in Europe.
Are we to look at the incentive issue then also look at the House of Lords report that showed that there are basically no economic benefits of mass immigration. Fair point but something else has happened, a fascist party has never taken proper political root until now, when they got almost a 1,000,000 votes out of a voting population of roughly 15,000,000 – that alone would suggest something is a foot. Not even Moseley managed that feat at the height of national socialism in Europe. I agree with your view that fringe parties do well when PR but this is something else entirely.
“Basically, there are two parties to choose the next government from and neither of them is allowed under EU diktat to mess with immigration rules.”
Agreed, and that is the problem right there in that paragraph ‘neither of them is allowed under EU diktat to mess with immigration rules’ – most people know that now and, I believe, are sick to the bone of it. Being unable to influence the big three they must turn elsewhere. I have nothing else to go by but polls so you will excuse my utilization of them, but if they are true then the ‘other’ parties now make up 15% of the parliament were there an election tomorrow. Yes, the BNP is only represented by, what, 1-2% ? But that is still 1-2 MPs and that is an outrage in itself – not because they were elected but that fascism has made it way to the Palace and we just sat by and did nothing.