This is not the ‘firm and fair control over immigration’ that Mr Blair

This is not the ‘firm and fair control over immigration’ that Mr Blair promised back in 1997. After eight years in office, the number of people living here illegally is still growing. He said: “We recognise this is a tough target and more still needs to be done, but we will continue to work towards this goal and expect to meet it in February 2006.” David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: “Despite the Government’s repeated promises that they would sort out the asylum shambles, these figures show they are not delivering. Admitting that Mr Blair’s December 2005 target would not be achieved, Tony McNulty, a Home Office minister, said the Government remained committed to closing the gap between the arrival and removal figures. The Home Office said seasonal factors accounted for the increase and stressed that applications had almost halved in the past two years. Over the same period, 3,935 failed asylum-seekers and their dependants were removed from the country, a 12 per cent increase on the previous quarter. But as figures yesterday showed a new increase in asylum applications, the Government asked for more time to hit the target.
Just over 7,700 asylum-seekers and their dependants claimed refuge in Britain in the third quarter of this year, a rise of 7 per cent on the previous three months.

The Prime Minister promised last year that the number of rejected asylum-seekers would exceed the total of unfounded new claims by the end of 2005. But the think-tank also proposes a second tier pension based on compulsory savings in a private fund, and a third tier, based on voluntary contributions.. The Home Office has admitted that it will miss a target set by Tony Blair for the deportation of failed asylum-seekers. “Life expectancy of the least affluent workers is much lower on average, so raising the entitlement age for the state pension will mean many older workers may never receive the increased package the Lib Dems are demanding,” he said.The Social Market Foundation is publishing a report today that will also call for a citizen’s pension paid to all UK residents. Now, as the Lib Dem pensions spokesman, he is proposing a system linked to earnings.”Paul Cann, policy director of Help the Aged, attacked the Liberal Democrat proposal to raise the retirement age, but welcomed the principle of the new pension.

Under Mr Laws’ plan, pensions would rise every year in line with earnings.Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “When he was the Lib Dem director of policy, Mr Laws said linking pensions to earnings ‘would put us on an escalator to economic absurdity’. Women, in particular, suffer real discrimination,” Mr Kennedy said.MPs have one of the best pensions deals in the country, and the Liberal Democrats say they should lead by example by bringing their pension arrangements into line with other public sector employees. They say some women receive a poor deal from the present system, which is based on national insurance contributions. “We have one of the lowest state pensions in the developed world, and one of the most complex systems. The Pensions Commission, chaired by the former Confederation of British Industry director general Adair Turner, is due to report next week.The Government has brought in pension credit to ensure that no single pensioner lives off less than £109, or pensioner couples on less than £165.The Liberal Democrats say the credit should be scrapped, along with the second state pension, to help pay for a better universal pension. The Citizen’s Pension would be funded by making those who are now under 40 work until the age of 67.

It would also be simpler and cheaper to administer than the current mix of pensions and state benefits, Mr Kennedy said.
The Liberal Democrat plan – the brainchild of the party’s work and pensions spokesman, David Laws – received a mixed response, with the Tories calling it a policy U-turn, and charities claiming that a higher pension age would discriminate against the poor.All sides agree, however, that Britain is facing a pensions crisis, with the pensioner population projected to increase from 11 million to 16 million over the next 30 years. The Iraq war does not excuse the Islamic extremism that led to the London bombings in July, Tony Blair told MPs. The Prime Minister rejected the embarrassing finding of senior Muslim advisers appointed by the Home Office, who reported two weeks ago that Britain’s foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, was a “key contributory factor” in motivating criminal radical extremists.. Anyone who has lived in the United Kingdom for 20 years or longer would receive a state pension equivalent to £109.45 a week under a new plan unveiled by the Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy. The Treasury regularly looks at economic indicators to see if they need updating.. Officials said they wanted to see if the official retail sales figures produced by the Office for National Statistics fully “captured” the volume of trade done online.
The move forms part of the preparations for Chancellor Gordon Brown’s Pre-Budget Report on 5 December. A Treasury spokesman said: “Clearly, internet retailing has been increasing in recent months.

“As part of the Treasury’s preparations for the Pre-Budget Report we are, of course, looking at this increase as well as other aspects of consumption.” Officials stressed that they were not questioning the accuracy of the ONS’s retail sales figures published each month. Treasury officials are to look into the growing impact of internet sales on the economy, it was disclosed today. For the past 14 years, Markham has been the professor of creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University. I hope that his students know how lucky they are to have him.William Palmer’s novel ‘The India House’ is published by Jonathan Cape. Two unreliable narrators – postmodernism gone mad? But it is all so deftly handled that when Pewter books a ticket to Mozambique to track down a man who turns out to be a fictional character, we can only wish him a good journey and a friendly meeting.This is a very funny and sometimes moving book, its deadpan wit embedded in almost every line. Its purpose is to promote the game of cricket to the Chinese.In “A Pigeon in the Fishpond”, Pewter and his old friend and rival Michael Carrington jostle for position in telling a story, writing each other in and out.