Unbelievable - again.

Impossible not to feel enormous sympathy for Paul Houston, whose 12-year-old daughter was killed by a hit-and-run driver.  The driver is an Iraqi Kurd, and was seeking asylum in this country.  Mr Houston, not unnaturally, wanted him deported, but he has now been granted the permanent right to live here, on the ground that he now has a family here.  But there's more to this than Mr Houston's tragedy - this man has a string of convictions both before and after the hit-and-run, and seems as undesirable a character as you could imagine, so have we reached a stage where the fathering of a child in this country now overrides all other considerations, and gives you an absolute right not to be deported, however despicable you may be?  And if we have, how on earth did this come about?  Compare this with the story I reported about a month ago of the woman who was threatened with deportation because she was born in Canada and had never become a British citizen, despite living here since she was six months old - and she had a family here as well.  Something's wrong somewhere!