Police Raid Coronation Street Underworld (Romanians and Bulgarians in London's Hyde Park)

Sign on building in Sofia where I worked over several years.

View from my office in the Telco building.

Hotel where I stayed when working in Sofia (Sheraton Balkan)

Coronation Street's Underworld Factory has been raided for illegal immigrants. Super mouth Janice grassed-up the wrong one this time.

Sometimes IT actually works (rarely I know but.....) we know exactly where any untaxed car is located among the millions of cars in Britain but we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and Terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the DVLA in charge of immigration?

Unemployed immigrants from eastern Europe are sleeping in tents in the middle of Hyde Park. Groups of Romanians and Bulgarians seeking work in London are taking these desperate measures because they are homeless and penniless.

The immigrants refuse to return home, even though Westminster council has offered to pay for their travel. The men and women, who have no money to pay for accommodation, are typically choosing secluded wooded spots in the park and setting up camp once it gets dark. Many will pitch their tents in one spot for a few nights, then pack up and move to another. They say they are able to get away with camping in the park, which is illegal, because there are no wardens and they rarely see any police. The immigrants refuse to return home, even though Westminster council has offered to pay for their travel, because they are convinced they will be able to find work.

Piles of packed down cardboard boxes, empty food packets, drinks cartons and discarded plastic bags litter the area that the immigrants have vacated. The camp has sprung up despite regulations limiting the number of low-skilled workers from the two countries being employed in Britain.

Assuming that they are all low-skilled is a cop-out. Some of them may be but not all of them sleeping rough are bound to be. Many of the people I have met from both of these countries are more highly skilled than some of the Brits who were supposedly 'teaching' them how to do things.

If you happen to find yourself in Sofia you should have a great night visiting the VIP Arms and Shooting Complex. Your hotel will arrange a booking and transport. There is a great restaurant in the club and the drinks are reasonably priced. You can shoot loads of pistols, rifles and shotguns in an air conditioned range. Pictures of some of the weapons are below.

Late news today.

Bulgaria intends to purchase from Russia the license for production of the Kalashnikov machine gun. The license will be valid for five years Russian information agency ITAR-TASS reported.

Documents regulating the long-term co-operation of the two countries in the field of military equipment will be ready by the beginning of May 2007. Military and political officials from Russia have often accused Bulgaria and other East European countries of intellectual piracy. Countries in the region, (which were once allies of the Soviet Union in the Warsaw Pact) continue to produce cloned / copied Soviet military equipment without licenses.