Teatro da curva, a Brazilian theatre group, deported from UK, although they had been invited to participate in the Camden Fringe Festival.

For those of you who read Portuguese, the original text can be found on the Blog post from August 18, 2010.

For the rest, here is my translation of their account:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11094468

Today, the latest figures were released on net migration to the UK. As the article shows, a lot lays in the interpretation and disaggregation of the data, but these figures will undoubtedly be used in the media and the governmental communication without a hint towards this in order to justify the plans they have already drafted for the permanent cap. An upwards battle, as during a consultation on the cap, we were boldly told the cap was going to be set at 100'000, and probably extend to tier 4 as well.

While campaigning in Brighton, I met a lady who wants to volunteer for Worthing Homeless. She's currently unable to volunteer because she is waiting for her third CRB check to come through. All this in order to be able to put items in a plastic bag in the Worthing charity shop. She says that the bureaucratic hassle had nearly put her off volunteering:

For some years I have been concerned with the rise of anti-immigrant, anti-muslim, anti-'any other which isn't quite like us' (whatever like us means) feelings across the European continent. Far right political movement in several countries have secured political recognition and influence for some time now (Austria, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium) and officially center right ones have reccurently lapsed into bouts of extremism (Switzerland, Poland, Spain).

An article in the Independent warned that the Home Office's interim cap, and the final cap could have detrimental consequences on public services, and namely one of its most decried, vulnerable and crucial department, social services.

Two photographers have produced school photos with a difference - the children are lined up as normal, only facing away from the camera. The idea for the piece came when they tried to take photographs in a school - but were told they could only take one child, and only the back of their head.

A Lancashire health board has tried to make staff pay for their own CRB checks, which have to be renewed every three years. The staff, understandably, are rebelling and refusing to pay.

Whoever has to pay, the NHS and healthcare as a whole will lose. The cost of repeatedly CRB checking NHS staff at a time of cuts becomes ever more absurd. We need to turn this union-management dispute into a questioning of the policy of repeated CRB checks within the NHS as a whole.

A teacher just sent me an email detailing the effects of child protection regulations in their school. What is clear is that these rules really affect the daily life of schools, the ways in which parents are able to play a part in school life and attend events, or collaborations between pupils and groups in the local area:

'(i) When the parents’ choir rehearses school pupils are not allowed in the music department (because the parents are un-vetted)
(ii) When the annual tea-party for older people takes place the outdoor school loos are closed to children (unvetted adults on the premises again – who knows what Mildred might do with that zimmerframe...?)

Following fears within his cabinet over the cap, and complaints by Indian partners that the immigration cap could damage relations between the countries, as well as deter aspiring highly-skilled migrants, David Cameron has declared today that he would offer the Indian government a direct say into British immigration policy. He recognised that times had changed from an era when Great Britannia and Europe could set the pace of the world, to one where the BRIC countries have to be given increasing consideration and power.

In an audio documentary produced by the BBC last month investigating the abuse of domestic workers in the UK, it was shown that a large number of cases happen within the homes of diplomats, most foreign and therefore granted diplomatic immunity. This makes prosecution extremely difficult, as any legal procedure must first get the assent of the FCO, which in turn must contact the authorities of the country in question. Police are therefore reluctant to even investigate claims of individuals, even though they are perfectly allowed to do so even without permission by the FCO.