Monday Morning News Roundup

Three US soldiers and at least sixteen Iraqi civilians died in the Green Zone in Baghdad on Sunday when a rocket and mortar attack slammed the area. Remember, the Green Zone is supposed to be the safest part of Iraq for Westerners outside of the Kurdish-controlled areas in the northwest.

Conservative Israeli politicians like Benjamin Netanyahu are constantly railing about the need to boycott Iran. However, the rhetoric is belied by new evidence that Israel has been buying oil from Iran for years — yes, even during the time Netayahu ran the government. Of course, the Iranians also officially boycott Israel, in the same wink-wink, nudge-nudge way.

The Guardian’s Philippe Legrain deals with the “crowded house” fallacy pitched by the UK’s own bigots masquerading as immigration reform advocates:

For a start, there are more Britons living abroad than foreigners living in Britain, so the UK population is now lower, not higher, because of net migration. The strains on public infrastructure have more to do with decades of under-investment than excess population. The Netherlands is more densely populated than the UK, yet its trains are not overcrowded; Paris is more densely populated than London yet its Metro is less cramped than our Tube.

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… The increase in the population in recent years is largely due to the one-off opening of our borders to Poland and the other new EU member states – and it appears to be mostly temporary. Many Poles are, in effect, international commuters who split their lives between Britain and Poland – and with the Polish economy looking perkier while Britain’s slows and the falling pound devalues wages here, many Poles are returning home.

Seemingly inexorable trends often reverse unpredictably. Lest we forget, as recently as the 1990s, many were worried about the prospect of a falling population….

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… Moreover, there is no reason why a rising population cannot go hand-in-hand with more eco-friendly living. For instance, while London’s population has risen considerably in recent years, traffic congestion has fallen thanks to the congestion charge.

It is a myth that Britain is full up. The Daily Mail used to argue likewise in the 1930s as a pretext for keeping out German Jews, yet somehow Britain has accommodated over 10 million extra people since. While parts of the country are more densely populated than others, there is still plenty of space: nearly three-quarters of Britain is agricultural land.

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While some people are no doubt genuinely worried about the prospect of a rising population – and I am not imputing their motives for doing so – others are using it as a convenient cover for their dislike of allowing in foreigners. After all, we don’t hear the Conservatives proposing a one-child policy to keep the population down, do we?

No, we don’t. Because, of course, the worry among the Cons in the UK and their fellow travelers in the US and Europe isn’t that Britain’s running out of room, it’s that white people are allegedly dying out. But most of them are smart enough not to actually come right out and say that in front of the general public.