It would seem the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act is having quite an effect. Last year, before the act came into force, under 15 businesses were caught for employing illegal employers, however in the four months after the Act came into force in February an astonishing 352 businesses have been caught.
Does that mean businesses suddenly started employing more people illegally after the Act came into force? Obviously not. But it does perhaps serve as a cautionary tale about the power of the definitions that lie behind statistics.
Labour have taken 300,000 children out of poverty? Depends how you look at it.
Speculation in recent days however would have it however that David Miliband is positioning himself for the leadership. I would argue though that such speculation, whilst playing directly into Miliband’s hands, does not reflect the reality of what is going on. Instead I would suggest that Miliband is laying is creating the environment for a leadership bid; one he won’t take part in.
With a general election at most two years away Miliband is smart enough to see the writing on the wall (writing that’s all the clearer if you consider the fact a new leader would provoke an earlier election), and understands politics is a long-term game.
Miliband can afford to bide his time for a few years, before ultimately standing as the candidate to vanquish the Conservative Party.
I’ve I’ve started back to blogging it seemed like an appropriate time to have a bit of a re-design. Now you may say to yourself "hmm, isn’t it a bit, you know… well… New Labour?" Well you might think that, but… ok, I don’t have a but. I like red.
Anyway, I like to think I’m being ironic.
Thanks as ever to Mike Rouse for doing the redesign for me.
One of the challenges for campaigns in US presidential races is to make their candidate look presidential, to get the electorate imagining the candidate standing behind the Great Seal of the United States. Of course, for some candidates that’s easier than others, and it’s fair to say Obama falls into that category. That said, it’s probably fair to say Team Obama have taken things a little too far with their latest branding exercise:
Oh, in case you’re wondering the the Latin Vero Possumusroughly translates as… wait to it… Yes We Can. Seriously, you couldn’t make it up.
It might just be me, but Harriet Harman’s latest offering on the state of Labour is a little bit reminicent of that other great champion of truth Comical Ali:
"Our estimates are that none of them will come out alive unless they surrender to us quickly. They are completely surrounded now."
Yup, there’s a time when spin works and a time when it doesn’t work. For the record, now is a time to fess up.
In my latest post on The Telegaph’s Brassneck blog I take a look at the stunning move by Cameron to bring the UUP into the Tory fold. Here’s an extract:
"Perhaps ironically for parties such as the DUP the sense of optimism in the province goes hand-in-hand with a desire to participate actively in the politics of the union rather than the politics of unionism. And if Cameron can successfully get the UUP onboard the Tory Party stands to harness the raw power of that optimism, and in doing so will both bring Northern Ireland in from the cold and make all the more certain a Conservative victory at the next election."
If you’d like to read the whole thing it can be found here.
It would seem the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act is having quite an effect. Last year, before the act came into force, under 15 businesses were caught for employing illegal employers, however in the four months after the Act came into force in February an astonishing 352 businesses have been caught. 
