Lord Carey talks sense

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has called for tighter controls on immigration. In so doing, Lord Carey, who has previously talked good common sense on the subject of Islam, once again sets himself apart from the far-left line taken by his successor, Rowan Williams, who considers "causing anxiety" over immigration to be racist. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Murphy O'Connor, has also adopted the views of the far-left, calling for a complete amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Interestingly, Lord Carey emphasised the importance of Britain's Christian heritage and culture. As I have pointed out many times before, if you flood Britain with every type of person under the sun, and particularly with Islamic immigrants, then you will inevitably undermine that heritage and culture, ultimately to the point where it could be supplanted by Islam. Lord Carey clearly recognises this; it would appear that Williams, Murphy O'Connor, and John Sentamu do not.

Lord Carey did call for more "clemency in the case of some people who need refugee status", a position I could quite agree with, if we had any genuine refugees coming into Britain. However, as I and others have repeatedly pointed out, we don't. Genuine refugees flee the country where they are suffering persecution, and go to the first safe country they can reach. If they then pass through a dozen or more other safe countries, aiming always for Britain, then they cease to be refugees, and become plain and simple illegal immigrants, who should be deported at the earliest opportunity.

Notwithstanding this last point, however, Lord Carey's remarks are still to be welcomed. It's just a shame he doesn't occupy the Chair of St Augustine anymore, but has been replaced by a burbling fool.

Postscript: The response of Tim Finch, the spokesman of the Refugee Council, to Lord Carey's remarks, was particularly interesting to observe. Mr Finch averred that "controls on immigration were so strong already" that he could see no reason for Lord Carey to speak out on the issue. Now, given that we have around half a million immigrants entering the UK each year, given that 200,000 illegal immigrants have been granted a de facto amnesty because the government can't find them, and given that even the most fervent advocates of mass immigration acknowledge (and, indeed, celebrate) the fact that the Blair years have seen a paradigm shift in government policy in favour of mass immigration, one can only conclude that Mr Finch is one of two things: an unutterable idiot or an unconscionable liar. Which do you think, dear readers?

Personally, I'm going with both.