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| Nasa picks three in space contest Nasa has chosen three front runners among proposals for the next space mission in its New Frontiers programme. news.bbc.co.uk |
Let's take immigration seriously | Tim Finch The 'declaration on population', backed by Lord Carey, is the wrong way to tackle the complexities of migration managementA "declaration on population" has been issued today, signed by a 20 parliamentarians, including Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury and Lady Boothroyd, the former Commons speaker. Its headline is "70 million is too many" – a reference to an Office of National Statistics projectionthat predicted the UK population would reach that level by 2029 if recent trends continue.But whatever the headline, the aim of the declaration is really to call for stringent limits on immigration. It is high immigration which the signatories say will have "a significant impact on our public services, our quality of life and on the nature of our society". While much of the projected population growth is a result, directly or indirectly, of immigration, you have to wonder if the signatories of the declaration are really concerned about population projections as such. If the population was growing fast because many more British-born couples were choosing to have large families, would they have made their intervention?Lord Carey was today advocating a values-based immigration policy that might produce a higher proportion of Christian immigrants. It is not just numbers of immigrants that are of concern, it seems, it is also types.That aside, the main thrust of the declaration is to call on party leaders to commit in their manifestos to reduce net annual immigration to below 40,000, returning to levels last seen in the early 1990s.At present, because Britain is in recession, net immigration is flattening out anyway. If the economic recovery is slow, this trend could continue. But setting an arbitrary limit on numbers is, as the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Chris Huhne said at a recent Institute for Public Policy Research debate, akin to "Stalinist state planning". How do we know how many immigrants the UK economy might need in any one year? A cap could be very damaging for businesses needing skilled personnel to compete in the global economy. So going back to the immigration levels of the 1990s might help slow population growth, but at the price of pushing the economy backwards too.Moreover, it is not clear how any future government could keep net immigration below 40,000 a year. The UK now has quite a tight system for the management of immigration, but there are constraints on our ability to control inflows when we are part of an interconnected global economy in which capital, goods and people can move fast. If the Balanced Migration group is serious in its call, it needs to be able to answer some difficult questions.We have free movement of people within the EU: do the signatories want to stop that? We are signatories to the UN convention on refugees: do they want the UK to withdraw from it? A lot of people arrive as a result of family reunion: do we want to stop settled immigrants being able to bring in their families? Foreign students studying at UK universities account for a substantial proportion of immigrant numbers – but surely this is good for the higher education sector and national prestige?The institute's debate saw the home secretary and his two shadows discussing the sensitive subject of immigration in an open and constructive manner – with the focus on realistic solutions. This is the way to address the sophisticated and complex business of managing migration in the 21st century, not ill thought-through, backward-looking declarations such as this one, which risk stoking up anti-immigrant sentiment.Immigration and asylumPopulationTim Finchguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
U.S. Files More Charges in Piracy Case Federal prosecutors brought new allegations against a Somali teenager facing U.S. charges of piracy, alleging he was involved in hijacking two other ships. online.wsj.com |
Man who shot pope gets out of prison Mehmet Ali Agca, who tried to assassinate pontiff in 1981, goes free after serving sentence for killing journalistMehmet Ali Agca, who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II, was released from a Turkish prison today, tantalising the world's media with a promise to reveal the full storybehind the attack, almost 30 years ago.Agca waved to a throng of journalists as he was driven to a military hospital to be assessed for compulsory military service, although a 2006 military hospital report declared him unfit for military service because of a "severe anti-social personality disorder".In a statement distributed by his lawyer outside the prison in Sincan, on the outskirts of Ankara, the Turkish capital, Agca declared: "I proclaim the end of the world. All the world will be destroyed in this century. Every human being will die in this century ... I am the Christ eternal."The 52-year-old has frequently claimed to be the messiah, raising questions about the his state of mind."I don't think he will serve in the military," a lawyer, Melahat Uzunoglu, said, adding that the medical exam could take several hours.Agca served 19 years in an Italian prison for the attack before being pardoned at the pope's behest in 2000. He was extradited to serve a sentence in Turkey for other crimes, including the 1979 murder of a newspaper editor.After his extradition in 2000, Agca was separately sentenced to seven years and four months for two robberies in Turkey in 1979. The authorities deducted his prison sentence in Italy, and several amnesties and amendments of the penal code reduced his term further.The complex situation led to his wrongful release from prison in 2006, and his reiincarceration eight days later.Agca shot John Paul II on 13 May 1981, as the pope rode in an open car in St Peter's Square. The pontiff was hit in the abdomen, left hand and right arm, but the bullets missed vital organs. John Paul met Agca in Italy's Rebibbia prison in 1983 and forgave him for the shooting.Agca was released today after completing his sentence for killing a prominent leftwing journalist, Abdi Ipekci, in 1979. He had initially received a life sentence, but escaped from a Turkish prison less than six months into his term and went on to shoot the pope in Rome two years later.Many investigators believe Agca was hired by an east European communist intelligence service to assassinate the pope because of John Paul's opposition to communism. But no connection has been proved, and the late pontiff himself apparently discounted claims that the Soviet KGB and its Bulgarian counterpart plotted to kill him. A trial in 1986 of several of Agca's alleged accomplices failed to prove a link to Bulgaria's secret service.During his years in jail, Agca became a cult figure for some rightwing Turkish groups. Agca has said that he would answer questions on the Pope's attack in the next few weeks, including whether the Soviet and Bulgarian governments were involved. Agca has has also said he is beginning to consider book, film and television documentary offers.TurkeyPope John Paul IIItalyReligionMark Tranguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
US clears Noriega extradition The US Supreme Court refuses to hear an appeal from Panama's ex-leader Manuel Noriega against his extradition to France. news.bbc.co.uk |