Achievement, What Achievement?

It has recently been reported that the UK has seen a 9% drop in asylum applications. The Labour minister for immigration has called this "a substantial achievement", giddy like a xenophobic old Tory being told that all the French, Germans, Spaniards, Italians, Arabs, Poles, Russians, Jews and Gypsies have died of leprosy. I, however, fail to see the achievement in a drop in asylum applications. That's probably because I was under the impression that asylum was a basically good thing, not a pimple-esque nuisance. I thought that it was a good thing that people who had no where else to go could find a place where they could finally live in peace, but then I guess I'm just a hippy. I guess you'd have to be a hippy to believe that every person is equal, and that no person can be illegal. I guess government policy, which is supposed to be governed by what is right - not what is right, is now governed by the reactionary tabloids. Hell, why don't we just cut out the middle-man and appoint Kelvin Mackenzie prime minister. I guess why I'm so pissed off about is that it's Labour that is now celebrating this, that they are so governed by News of the World opinion polls that they are celebrating a drop in asylum cases. Maybe John Reid genuinely believed that immigrants and asylum seekers are a disgusting curse that needs to be gotten rid of. Maybe all the anti-immigrant sentiment coming out of this country has made those escaping persecution realise that maybe torture, repression, civil war and genocide leaves them in a better position than they would be in the UK. Maybe indeed.