Philippe Legrain

The Times, 26 October 2006. The policy restricting Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants is confused and unworkable

So this is what the British government calls "managed migration"? Its newly announced policy for Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants looks more like a mess.

Corporate social responsibility – it seems impossible to be against it: who wants companies to be irresponsible towards society? But words are deceptive. The premise behind CSR – that the profit motive is tainted, global capitalism is leading the world to rack and ruin, and business has a duty to give something back to society [...]

It might seem odd that the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to a banker, but Muhammad Yunus, who set up the Grameen Bank, is no ordinary financier. 

The International Organisation for Migration estimates that 2,000-3,000 would-be migrants from West Africa have died trying to reach the Canary Islands this year. Others reckon the true death toll is over three times higher. Meanwhile, Spain says 26,000 migrants have actually landed on the islands this year. How many more people need to die before [...]

Online gambling is immoral and illegal – except when it takes place within US states, of course; oh, and interstate betting on horse races is also OK. That is the essence of the US’s new Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act, as clear-cut a case of protectionism as there is.

Immigrants beware: George Bush this week gave the go-ahead for a high-tech wall along 700 miles of the US border with Mexico, at a cost of $1.2 billion. Worse, he has for now dropped the sensible part of his immigration plan – a temporary-worker programme that would provide a legal pathway for foreigners to come [...]

"Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet" – the words are St Augustine’s, but they could just as well have been uttered by Peter Mandelson.