Smoke and Mirrors

Voters are worried about illegal immigrants who are "undermining" the jobs market and health and safety measures, John Reid has said.

I don't normally believe that profanity adds anything to political debate, but in this case the only reasonably response would seem to be: No shit, Sherlock!

Reid said:

"Most people aren't opposed to foreigners; they're opposed to unfairness.

"So what they worry about is people coming here illegally, people working here illegally, undermining the minimum wage, undermining the terms and conditions, safety and all of the good terms that protect workers and consumers.

"If that is being done people can see the benefits of immigration.

"If it isn't being done, people worry about it and we have to address that worry by making sure that immigration is effectively controlled and fair to people in this country as well as those who come here."

Of course his comments would be rather more meaningful if he wasn't part of a government that has been in power for ten years, and which has presided over an unprecedented level of mass immigration during that time. This government has had ten years to do something about the problem. Only now, when the public really seem to have had enough, do they pretend that they give a damn. Of course, Reid's fine words are merely a sop to public feeling, and will never in a million years be matched by his deeds.

Incidentally, I've said it before, and shall no doubt have to say it again, the concerns that people feel about immigration are not purely economic. Immigration is bringing massive - and overwhelmingly unwelcome - cultural changes to this country, and the majority of people just don't like this. They don't like creeping Islamification being allowed in under the guise of 'multicultural tolerance'. They don't like the fact that we are now expected to embrace and celebrate every single culture on Earth, but despise our own. They don't like the removal of great British cultural figures from the school curriculum, solely on the grounds that they're white. They don't like the constant vilification of the native population as a bunch of racists, whose culture is so vile as to be unworthy of preservation. This is why immigration is opposed, and until politicians - be they Labour or Tory (and it's usually impossible to distinguish one from the other these days) - actually realise this, then the public will continue to simply give up on the main parties, and quite possibly on democracy altogether.