Chocolate Tart And Cool Stuff From The Times

[poliphilo]

I don't often crave chocolate, but yesterday I did, so I baked a chocolate tart with a whole bar of dark Belgian chocolate in the mix. Serendipitously, Odi, Peter and Azi showed up on the doorstep just as it was coming out of the oven.

Two newspaper articles caught my eye this morning- both in The Times. The first- by Hugo Rifkind- is about the drug laws- and how everyone knows that moderate drug use is harmless but no-one is prepared to say so in public. The second- by David Aaronovitch is about immigration - and how our fear of it is simply fear of change.

Comments

[tf-1.livejournal.com]

It's not fear of change itself, that would imply that we don't have an idea what the changes will be. It's seeing the specific effects and fearing them. After all, immigration is not something that has happened over night.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think immigration has made Britain a more tolerant, more culturally diverse and more interesting place.

[tf-1.livejournal.com]

It has, I would agree. But the issue of limited resource starts to come into play, and also the danger that we currently face of racial tensions from such huge changes boiling over into violence

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Enoch Powell prophesied that the Tiber would foam "with much blood". That was nearly half a century ago and it hasn't happened yet.

[tf-1.livejournal.com]

there's plenty of violence, like 30th August in Luton. Don't expect the bbc to pay much heed though. http://www.lutontoday.co.uk/lut-news/Police-attacked-by-Bury-Park.5602171.jp

You ignored the point on resource

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Young men love a scrap. If they weren't fighting over race they'd be fighting over football or something equally fatuous.

I ignored the point about resources because I'm not sure of the facts. Aaronovitch, in the Times article, says resources aren't a problem- and I see no particular reason to disbelieve him.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure that generalisation covers all of the points in the discussion.

For me it's more about resources. I don't care whether what race is immigrating, even if it's English ex-pats returning. In our town they have imposed upon us the construction of 19,000 new homes, in a town of population 80,000. That's without any extra funds for schools, roads, water etc. That means worse education, more traffic and more holes in the road, more hosepipe bans etc.

My point is the country is multicultural now, and I'm fine with that, but the more we let the place get overcrowded the more of a dump it will become. That's before we consider that 15 million people are already out of work and the majority of immigrants are dirt poor and expecting plenty of benefits. How can you say resource is no issue when benefits exceed income tax receipts?

[tf-1.livejournal.com]

Here's a contrasting point of view
http://leg-iron.livejournal.com/248653.html

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it is necessarily fear of unknown change, either. It can be that people understand that there will be less to go round if there are more people in the country. And there are possibly/arguably less units of housing than can house everyone who needs housing. Overcrowding generally and competition for fewer unskilled jobs can also create fear.
Therefore the fear is based on quite concrete worries.
Jenny

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The fears are real, but, if Aaronovitch is to be believed, they're largely baseless.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Re drugs, thought of you when I saw Professor David Nutt on Sky News tonight after he was fired for saying cannabis should be declassified and alcohol is more dangerous than E or acid.

Prof Nutt is my new hero.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Mine too!