Well ,,,,

There will soon be an election and the two main parties are quite beyond the pale. I would have great emotional pain to vote for New Labour, simply to keep the Conservatives out. But I am in difficulty finding an acceptable alternative.

Incidentally, it would be interesting if we did have some hard statistics on immigrants, and types of immigrants - and indeed sections of the population. Are those with identifiable characteristics disproportionately represented in particular sectors?

What do we actually know? It is easy to assume that you have seen what you think you have seen, but in Gravesend, my home town (I live a bit outside actually), we have seen the newapaper reports of the deadly knife fights on the trains - apparently between Kosovan gangs. A friend of mine's daughter has twice been threatened with assault. Both times by persons whose English indicated they were not native English speakers. So I am told. Conversely the only person recently to have threatened me with a knife was plainly a native English speaker, and he did so because I was (rashly) objecting in a pub to a BNP diatribe. Do we actually know whether immigrants, or any particular identifiable group, are more likely to use edged weapons?

What about the drugs trade? In Gravesend there was a well known local family that was an important factor in the local drugs trade. Their name might have made it sound as if they were from one particular ethnic group, but in fact they were from another.

Whatever happened to Eysenck's research on IQ related to nature/nurture? Was it rigorous? I always assumed it was self-selective, but if it really did stand up, should something similar be repeated, or do we have to take it on faith that all men are equal, and if we do, does that apply to women too? Is it sexist, for example, to say that men are by nature more attracated to visual pornography, or to violence, than women are?

Indeed, if we go to "class" as well, why should not those who advocate social mobility not adopt the civilities of the classes into which they seek to be mobile?

I think I'll stop now and toss this over for discussion.