Oxford City Council passes motion backing SiC

on 20 April, in fact; but we've only just received the wording of the motion -- which shows ordinary punters (pictured) back the idea.

That this Council recognises the Government's commitment to tighten UK borders and introduce new monitoring and assessment systems into the immigration process. We note the Home Office assessment that at least 500,000 irregular migrants currently live and work in Britain.

We acknowledge the contribution of irregular migrants to Oxford's economy and to our diverse local community. We regret that irregular migrants are not accounted for in the allocation of funding to Local Authorities and believe that Oxford is disadvantaged by this situation.

We endorse the London Citizen's 'Strangers into Citizens' campaign for the one-off regularisation of long term irregular migrants and believe that such a measure would be in keeping with Oxford's tradition of being a welcoming and tolerant city to whom immigrant communities have contributed so much both now and in the past.

This Council supports the regularisation of irregular migrants; encourages other local authorities to do likewise and urges the Government to adopt a proposal for regularisation after consultation with migrants organisations.