Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill - second reading

Blunkett's bill goes through unopposed as did his racist slur against refugee children.

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill, received its Second Reading in the House of Commons yesterday (24/4/02) and was passed without a vote. It now goes to the committee stage and should be concluded by 16th May with a possible Third Reading by the end of May, before going to the House of Lords.
The debate itself was mostly supportive of the government's proposals from all sides of the House, with no outright condemnation of the bill coming from anyone. Mostly pleas not to be so harsh and speed up the system.

David Blunkett's racist remark, "not swamping the local school", was raised in the debate, but only for speakers to say that he didn't mean it. Mr Blunkett is adamant that he did mean it.

In 1978, when Margaret Thatcher coined the word swamping, she was accused of having her eye on the elections. So, one must ask, when David Blunkett used the word swamping, did he have his eye on next month's local elections?

Though the government's rotten decision to segregate refugee children from other children did not receive any strong criticism in the debate it is provoking opposition.
67 MPs led by Karen Buck, the chair of the London group of Labour MPs, have tabled a Parliamentary motion (EDM 1187 Education Of Children Seeking Asylum) opposing Clause 30 of the Immigration Bill and calling for all children to have the same access to mainstream school places.

A copy of the Second Reading debate can be obtained from NCADC. Return a blank message and in the subject line put: Subscribe, 2nd reading.doc

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Home Secretary, David Blunkett, speaking on Radio 4, 24/4/02
"Accommodation centres are commonplace in many parts of the world and will enable people to receive education and health care on the premises," he said on Radio 4's Today programme. "While they're going through the process, the children will be educated on the site, which will be open. People will be able to come and go, but importantly not swamping the local school."

The Guardian( 25/4/02) reports:
"Mr Blunkett rejected suggestions that his use of the word 'swamping' had been a slip of the tongue and insisted that he had chosen it deliberately, even though he could have picked another expression.
"Yes, I did mean to say it. I could have used 'overwhelmed' or 'overburdened' because the dictionary definition is exactly the same," he said.