Two years ago, Mr Reid promised that, within a year, all infertile couples in which the woman is under 40 would be offered one cycle of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. As we report today, that promise has, a year late, still not been kept.. During my first stint in the US in the mid-1990s, Lou Dobbs was a rather pompous business journalist on CNN, much given to interjections like “If you will”, as he conducted none too aggressive interviews with the corporate mighty of the day. So who is this snarling new Lou, still pompous but with a veritable furnace in his belly, as he inveighs against foreign countries, foreign companies, and illegal foreign workers?
This re-invention is not unconnected with America’s cable TV wars. Worthy but a bit bland, CNN is getting slaughtered by the “fair and balanced” Fox News of Rupert Murdoch, whose conservative anchors sweep the board in the ratings.
CNN’s bosses have decided that opinion is what the punters want – and opinion Lou is now licensed to give them.
In the process, he has become the television face of the immigration debate consuming America – or at least one side of it. Take this sample, culled from his musings last Thursday, as the Senate groped for a compromise that would allow some, at least, of the illegal workers here to become legal residents and, one day, US citizens Lou’s view was unequivocal. The proposals, he declared, “continue the assault on the middle class They won’t be fooled by this nonsense … Millions and millions are suffering because of illegal aliens.”Now Dobbs is undoubtedly sincere in his Poujadiste conversion. But, unlike the 1950s champion of France’s shopkeepers, one senses he’s not going to carry all before him.
The House of Representatives has voted to throw the illegals out and turn the southern US border into a new Iron Curtain, but common sense may yet prevail in the Senate when it returns from the Easter recess. Helping it on its way, it must be said, has been President Bush, who has long realised the inequities and absurdity of the present system.Yes, America has a problem with its illegal immigrants. Mostly from Mexico and central America, they are believed to number between 12 million and 20 million They consume precious social services Their vulnerability encourages abuse by employers. Criminal organisations feed off their determination to achieve a better life.