Question from Angela Simmonds
Migration Watch has just reported that the vast bulk of net immigration into this country has come from outside the EU, so why the huge emphasis on leaving the EU as a cure for the immigration problem in UKIP’s latest video on the subject?
Prof says . . .
I feel it is doubly unfortunate that the voice-over in UKIP’s latest video on immigration was scripted to say in the closing remarks that the first thing to do is to leave the EU. Nobody in the country believes this is an imminent possibility and so the DVD is only helping to spread a mood of helpless resignation to the swamping of the British people by foreigners.
As it is, the coalition is claiming the credit for restricting the flow of some classes of non-EU immigrant, which will help a little, but won’t touch the flow from Africa and the Indian subcontinent (containing together about 2.5 billion people) due to marriages, other “family reasons”, and the continued flow of asylum cases let in by the judges.
UKIP has a policy on which many of us fought the last General Election and this is for a complete halt to all immigration for settlement for 5 years while the country has the chance to formulate a population policy and deal with the huge backlog of illegals. We aways made it clear that pending our leaving the EU, this halt would apply where we could apply it, i.e. to non EU immigrants, which are now revealed to be 80% of all immigrants to the UK.
It is key to UKIP getting acceptance as a major force in British politics that it pushes in the direction of policies it believes in, even if, because of EU membership, it can’t get the whole loaf.
Another current example is this:
Removing the UK from the European Convention is entirely do-able without leaving the EU, despite the myth being propagated in some legal circles that the Lisbon Treaty forbids it. (In fact the Treaty does not touch any aspects of the UK’s administration of justice under the protocol 30 opt-outs.) UKIP should put its weight behind leaving the ECHR, which would be hugely popular in the country. Even if in the short term Cameron bodges some fudge to keep us in, UKIP will get the credit and exposure for advocating the move, and create a reputation for standing up for the British people, which will help even in council elections.
Comment
From Effiong on 27th October 2015 at 10.42 pm
Effiong says:
When I was 17, and first passed my driving test, I delivered pizza around Martlesham, Kesgrave and the surrounding rural area. I support the freedom of movement of people, but don’t think for one second that this doesn’t have an effect. How many 17 year-olds are there out there who now cannot work because someone else is prepared to do it more flexibly and often cheaper – minimum wage prosecutions have gone down under this Government, but breaches haven’t…