Tuesday, August 10, 2010


The UK maternity units in which only 1 in 10 mothers is of white British origin

Is England's future English? Perhaps not

Just one in ten babies is born to a white British mother in some parts of the country, figures reveal.

The statistics - based on NHS monitoring of the ethnicity and nationality of patients - show a sharp contrast in the backgrounds of new mothers in urban and rural areas.

While white British mothers accounted for just 9.4 per cent of all births in one London health trust, the figure was 97.4 per cent of all births in Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust.

The birth statistics reflect how mothers described themselves, not the ethnicity of the fathers or the babies.

Across all of England's 150 NHS Trusts there were 652,638 deliveries last year, around six out of ten of them to women who called themselves white British.

But in some trusts serving rural areas more than 95 per cent of mothers fell into that category. These included Northern Devon with 97.4 per cent, Co Durham and Darlington with 97.1, and Northumbria with 96 per cent.

At the other end of the spectrum, in North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, which covers Harrow, just 9.4 per cent of mothers were white British. Another inner city trust - Sandwell and West Birmingham - had 16.5 per cent. And a little over one in four new mothers were white Britons at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital in central London.

The proportion of mothers of white British origin at Bradford Teaching Hospitals trust was 34 per cent. Even some NHS trusts in the home counties reported fewer than six in ten deliveries were to white British mothers. In West Hertfordshire NHS Trust, which covers St Albans, just 57 per cent of women giving birth were white British.

Across England 62 per cent of all births last year involved a white British mother.

The largest other single ethnic groups were 'other white' - including Eastern Europeans - which made up 7 per cent of births, black (5 per cent), Pakistani (4 per cent) and Indian (3 per cent).

Of the rest of the mothers 8 per cent described their ethnicity as 'other' (including mixed-race women) and the remainder were listed as 'not known'.

Backbench Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: 'I think we have to face reality and that is if you continue to have mass immigration it's going to have a very significant impact on the demography of our country - and it's going to have a significant impact perhaps on the sort of country that we are.'

Last month it emerged that Britain's population growth is outpacing every other country in Europe. Immigration and rising birth rates driven in part by the children of new arrivals - the so- called 'immigrant baby boom' - meant the UK gained more people than anywhere else in the continent.

Ministers have proposed forcing non EU migrants to buy their own private health care for non-emergency treatment on the NHS.

David Cameron has pledged to reduce the level of net migration - the number of people arriving minus the number leaving - from the hundreds to the tens of thousands. The Prime Minister has proposed putting a limit on the number of immigrants from outside the EU given work permits for the UK.

SOURCE






British welfare lunacy: 100,000 households on benefits higher than the average wage

Britain's benefits bonanza has been laid bare as it emerged 100,000 households rake in more than the average wage in welfare every year. They collect £30,899 before tax, while many workers can only aspire to an average wage of £23,422. Meanwhile 50,000 of those households are entitled to more than £500 a week - which adds up to more than £26,000 a year.

Inmates are also using legal aid to fight disciplinary cases after they flout the rules in jail - by fighting other inmates, disobeying instructions or being caught with drugs or mobile phones.

While the cost of legal aid has been spiralling, the number of extra days added to a convict's sentence has been falling - suggesting they are mounting a better defence.

In 2007, the number of punishments where additional days were added to a sentence was 13,460. By 2009 it was down to 11,550.

This compares with a legal aid bill of £12.49million in 2007, rising to £21.61million last year - or almost £2,500 every hour, according to figures slipped out before MPs left for the summer recess.

Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions highlighted the figures after the coalition pledged an overhaul of the welfare system to make work pay.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said: 'Yet again we see more evidence for why reform is so desperately needed.

'When thousands of people are earning more on benefits than hard working families struggling to get by there must be something wrong and I'm shocked that this was allowed to happen.'

He insisted the Government's paper published last week - 21st Century Welfare - would start changing the current system, which 'punishes those who do the right thing by going out to work'.

Mr Grayling added: 'We will make work pay so that the system is fair - fair for those who need a hand up and fair for the taxpayer who pays for it.'

The shocking scale of welfare dependency built up under Labour has seen almost 700,000 families pocketing more than £15,000 a year in benefits and nearly two million children living in households where not a single person works, the highest level in Europe.

At least 12million working-age households receive benefits each week, including tax credits and Child Benefit, at a cost of around £85billion per year.

Punitive marginal tax rates often mean people are better off staying on welfare than finding part-time work, as they can lose up to 96p in the pound for any additional income.

The Government has promised to reverse this, although the last Budget showed there would be an increase in the number caught out by the marginal tax rate.

David Cameron has said it is not sustainable to keep spending 14 per cent of national income on funding benefits.

Matthew Sinclair, research director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Hardworking taxpayers will be shocked to learn that tens of thousands of claimants are getting more than the average annual wage in benefits.

'This is yet more confirmation that our disastrous welfare system is leaving too many people in a situation where there isn't any real financial incentive to work.

'We need to make drastic changes to save taxpayers' money and ensure that it is worthwhile for people to take the opportunities that will be created as the economy recovers from the recession.

'Most taxpayers are sick of seeing tens of billions of pounds of their money wasted every year on a welfare system that is trapping people in dependency.'

Housing benefit has also soared by 40 per cent to more than £14billion in the last decade.

To combat this Mr Cameron has pledged to clamp down on funding luxury houses in exclusive areas for families on welfare, with a cap of £400 a week for a four-bedroom house.

Critics argue this will force families on welfare out of their homes. But ministers claim those on benefits should not get special rights to live in expensive areas which many working households could not afford.

SOURCE





Revealed: The quarter of a million British homes where no one's ever had a job

There are more than a quarter of a million homes in Britain where no one has ever had a job, according to shocking new Government figures.

They were unearthed as part of David Cameron’s campaign to find new ways of preventing the workshy living off benefits indefinitely, in some cases with a higher income than people with jobs.

The Prime Minister has ordered an investigation into the numbers of long-term out-of-work and claims that the benefits system makes it more profitable for some people to stay unemployed.

Experts say that children brought up in homes where neither the father nor the mother has had a job are far more likely to go straight from school to the dole queue and stay there.

Of the 264,000 homes where no one has ever had a job, most are made up of lone parents and single people, though a substantial number include two adults.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said: ‘We have to tackle this problem now and make sure no one is ever left behind again.

These households make up some of the five million people who have just been cast aside on benefits with no meaningful attempt made to help them.

‘The Work Programme we are bringing forward will give all those who are out of work and need a job the right support at the right time to make sure they can access vacancies.’

There are about five million people on key out-of-work benefits, almost four times as many as those claiming the main dole – jobseeker’s allowance.

Ministers claim the root of the problem has more to do with the flawed welfare state than a lack of jobs. There were an estimated 486,000 unfilled posts in June, 10,000 up on March.

A Government source said: ‘Ministers are working on a new programme which will provide a single, unified approach to getting people back into work.’

In addition to the 1.4 million who claim the jobseeker’s allowance, 2.6 million get incapacity benefit or other employment benefits, 675,000 lone parents get income support and 600,000 claim other out-of-work benefits.

In total, 100,000 homes get more than the average wage in welfare.

SOURCE







Australia: A Christian candidate with old-fashioned values

Much too old-fashioned for some -- but she has a chance of getting the last Queensland Senate seat to be allocated. Such seats in the Australian system often go to minor parties

She believes a prime minister in a de facto relationship isn't role-model material, says the burqa stops women from showing who they really are and has likened gay marriage to child abuse and she's running for the Australian Senate.

At 49, Mitchelton grandmother Wendy Francis is in the race of her life. The top Senate candidate for Family First in Queensland found her views in the eye of a social media storm yesterday after she was forced to delete a Twitter post quickly dubbed offensive.

It read: "Children in homosexual relationships are subject to emotional abuse. Legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse".

In an interview with The Courier-Mail yesterday, Ms Francis said she hadn't meant offence and was just desperate to preserve both "Australian values" and the Australian "way of life".

The former administration manager said a vote for the Greens was a vote for a "dangerous" and "radical" party and that political correctness was out of control.

Ms Francis moved quickly to deny she was homophobic, instead arguing she was looking out for children. "If we're doing this social experiment, can we really expect there won't be emotional suffering?" she asked.

Ms Francis also said the leaders of major political parties were "too scared" of offending Muslims. She said she believed there was a minority influence that "would want to make Australia a Muslim country". "I have Muslim friends ... but we're not a Muslim country and we don't want to become a Muslim country, so let's talk about it so we're aware of any potential and what we can do about it," she said.

Ms Francis said she wasn't against people "working within their own traditions", but noted that the burqa stopped women from showing who they were. "This is not an Australian value," she said.

The Senate candidate also took aim at Prime Minister Julia Gillard, questioning whether she was the best role model for the nation. "Everyone is entitled to be in a de facto relationship ... but people are also entitled to do other things that I don't think are a good role model," she said.

"It is perfectly OK to get drunk, but I don't think the Prime Minister would because it wouldn't be a good example."

Ms Francis believed it was a tight race between herself and the Greens candidate for the Senate, Larissa Waters. Family First is running a candidate in every seat and three candidates for the Senate in Queensland.

SOURCE

*************************

Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine). My Home Pages are here or here or here or Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.

***************************

No comments: