Guido has a grimly amusing summary of Labour’s immigration plans, which are aimed squarely at winning the votes of racist scumbags. The Tory plans are even worse. The Lib Dem ones aren’t, which is another reason to vote for them.
Many people – most recently Julie Burchill, who is mad, but also some who aren’t – have been claiming that just because a certain unpleasant subset of white working class people want foreigners to fuck off back to their own countries and stop coming here, doesn’t mean we should condemn them. After all, non-racists are all middle class poseurs who live in Islington (where there are no immigrants), sip lattes, and don’t understand what it’s like to be poor.
This sounds remarkably like the alleged Guardian logic about crime, which nobody actually believes but which authoritarians like to use to stereotype liberal views: "it’s not the criminal’s fault; they had a hard time of it and we shouldn’t blame them". It’s bollocks when applied to crime, and it’s bollocks when applied to immigration too.
I have a preferred solution to offset any concerns about overcrowding: for each immigrant we take in, we kick out a native Brit who’s worse than them. With net migration running at 150,000ish per year, this shouldn’t be a major problem: the 186,701 people in Portsmouth alone would keep us going for a good 14 months [*].
[*] This is a joke. I’m sure there are at least a hundred people in Portsmouth who deserve to stay in the country.
John did you see the Mirror poll about immigration? [This link works but being the Mirror it might not for long] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=15387931&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=labour-surge-5–ahead-of-the-tories-name_page.html
To quote:
* When asked how many of the world’s 20million asylum seekers wanted to come to Britain, the avera__ estimate was six million-plus. The true figure is about 100,000.
* Only six per cent realised that benefits paid to asylum seekers were much less generous than those given to UK citizens.
* Many East Europeans have come here since their countries joined the EU – 133,000 officially. On average, 57,000 are thought to claim benefits. In fact, the total is just 23.
* Finally, thirty per cent thought fewer than 100,000 immigrants were among the NHS’s 1.2million workforce. The correct number is 400,000.
Also I saw somewhere that people thought 25% of our population was non-white, compared to the less than 10% it is.
This is from a national poll too, not just one of the inhabitants of that fair Southern maritime city.
There is no point putting facts up in the way of Julie Burchill; she goes her own way regardless and I rather like it.
The Labour Party, on the other hand, having given up "picking winners" in the corporate sector with Rover, appears to think that it might have better luck picking winners among potential immigrants:
only allowing the skilled workers we need to settle long term in the UK, with English tests for everyone who wants to stay permanently
Q: What’s the biggest success story of immigration into the UK, regularly cited as such by ministers?
A: The Indian restaurant trade and its "chicken tikka masala".
Q: Would you like to bet on whether those restaurants are for the most part staffed by skilled workers with really good English language skills?
A: I’ll keep my money in my pocket, thanks.
Hmmm, I think I’ll write something similar on CT.
"I have a preferred solution to offset any concerns about overcrowding: for each immigrant we take in, we kick out a native Brit who’s worse than them."
Where to? Why does John Band hate foreigners?
> I’m sure there are at least a hundred people in Portsmouth who deserve to stay in the country.
Portsmouth must be much nicer than the rest of Britain, then.
John, I should never follow your links. I nearly choked reading La Burchill’s first sentence. "I wouldn’t be without my Sky Plus, but I do occasionally come over all nostalgic when I think about old-time television." Oh, lookee she’s writing in the Times (prop. R Murcdoch) and promoting Sky (prop R. Murdoch). I can’t wait for David Aaronovitch. "Dear Deirdre was really fascinating this week …" "As I read Russell Grant’s predictions for the day, my mind turned to…" "Did you see that film on Sky Movies the other night?" "I always say, if you want good coverage of politics on TV, Fox News is your man …"