More Common Sense on Immigration

Responding to Lord Carey's recent comments, Sir Max Hastings, who I would generally consider something of a wet Cameronite, writes more common sense on immigration, in the Daily Mail:

By the Government's own projections, immigrants will account for 83 per cent of our future population growth, and will require us to build more than 200 houses a day for the next 20 years to provide them with roofs.

Most native Britons fiercely resist and resent the influx, and feel betrayed by the entire political class which is allowing it to happen.

The Government professes to believe in restricting entry, but refuses to enforce effective controls. It is unnecessary to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that many Labour ministers and MPs simply do not mind.

They told us in 1997 that they intended to bring about "an irreversible change in the nature of British society". Wholesale immigration contributes mightily to this process, as few newcomers vote Tory.

The use of immigrants - who are more likely to support leftist parties - to effect social change is far from being an exclusively British phenomenon. In Belgium, for example, socialist parties have rushed to give voting rights to immigrants, in order to halt the rise of the right-wing Vlaams Belang.

To return to Sir Max's article, he continues:

While almost all emigrants are, of course, professed Christians, a huge number of those who come in are Muslims.

And there's the rub. Since so many have no desire to adopt the values and customs of our society, their presence has drastically altered the appearance and character of Britain's inner cities.

Lord Carey said on Sunday that he hopes Gordon Brown "will not forget the importance of Christian identity at the heart of being a part of the United Kingdom". It seems fanciful to suppose that his wish will be fulfilled.

The point which so much of the political elite seem unable to grasp is just this: that the main problem with immigration is the unwanted social change it is bringing to this country. They believe that people are only concerned about pressures on housing, or on the job market, and so, on the rare occasions when they deign to address this vital issue at all, they only talk about those things. And of course, jobs and housing are important concerns. But the most obvious, and simultaneously the least talked about, aspect of immigration for most people is that large parts of Britain are beginning to seem like a foreign country to the native population.

Actually, when I say "the least talked about", I am perhaps wrong. After all, the political elite are quite happy to praise "multiculturalism" when it suits them, or to tell us how "wonderful" it is that the country is being transformed. What they won't acknowledge is that most people, without being fascists or racists, object to multiculturalism, and that they rather like their own way of life, and don't want to see Britain transformed. Perhaps the politicians should consider this point, and respond accordingly, by stopping the immigration that is wreaking this destructive transformation. Forgive me, though, if I don't hold my breath.