Another fine mess for poor Charles Clarke

THE Home Office is responsible for asylum, nationality and immigration matters for the whole UK. It's boss is Charles Clarke, the man who's taking the rap for a policy breakdown nightmare which has seen overseas murderers, drug dealers, rapists and paedophile being released into British society rather than being deported.

So it should come as no surprise to find that Life in the United Kingdom, a history of Britain written for immigrants so they can pass a test to gain British citizenship, has been condemned by the Historical Association as "shoddy" and "howler ridden."

Apparently the section on Margaret Thatcher in the £9.99 book neglects the Falklands War, the miners' strike, and the poll tax. Guy Fawkes "allegedly" attempted to blow up Parliament and the 1707 Act of union between England and Scotland created the United Kingdom when the nation was actually formed by the 1800 Act of Union.

I haven't read the book, I'm just relying on a story circulated to all news organisations by the Press Association and I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the story.

But if civil servants and ministers in the Home Office don't know this country, how how overseas people meant to? It's just another example of standards going down the tubes.[:$]