Money spent on "illegal immigrants go home" poster vans could have been better spent

I wasn't too fussed about the vans with the "illegal immigrants go home" posters at first. Then I read India Knight's column (pay wall) in the Sunday Times where she compared them to racist graffiti. This changed my mind.

Apparently, the Home Office has spent £10,000 pounds on this campaign. That sounds a lot of money for two poster vans and a few leaflets!

In the meantime a parliamentary committee has confirmed what I have thought for a long time - the figures for immigration are a "best guess". They are based on interviewing a few thousand people travelling in and out of the country. We can be sure that anyone who is intending to work illegally, or over-stay their visa, is not going to tell the truth! I strongly suspect that there are far more over-stayers than other kinds of illegal immigrants.

A previous government stopped the recording the details of people leaving the country, presumably to save money. This means that we have no idea who, or how many people, over-stay their permission to enter the country. 

Rather then spend £10,000 on this gimmick, it would be a much better idea to get the "E-Borders" project under way so that the borders agency will know exactly who has entered and who has left the country.

That money would also have been better spent on helping the borders agency process its incredible backlog of illegal  immigration cases.

Proposal to allow 15 minute parking on double yellow lines a bad idea

Conservative Communities Secretary Eric Pickles wants to allow vehicles to be able to park on double yellow lines for up to 15 minutes. 

This is a bad idea for the following reasons:

• Double yellow lines are often provided to prevent parking in dangerous places, such as at road junctions
• Double yellow lines are also used to reduce congestion
• Limited waiting restrictions can already be used to control parking in locations where it is safe to park but it needs to be controlled (as in my local Theale High Street)
• It would make enforcement almost impossible as Civil Enforcement Officers (traffic wardens) would either have to wait to see when drivers returned or make copious notes of time when vehicles parked.

Under their code of conduct, enforcement officers already have to wait five minutes, to allow drivers to return, before issuing a ticket.

This proposal seems like typical Tory pandering to the attitudes of papers like the Daily Mail or the Sun where any attempt to enforce road laws is made out to be a "war on the motorist".

How would a school packed lunch ban work?

It's all very well suggesting that packed lunches should be banned in schools, but how would it be enforced?

Would schoolchildren be frisked at the school gate for sandwiches and crisps?