Lib Dems flaunt their stupidity

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants should be granted an "amnesty" to stay in Britain, the Liberal Democrats said last night.

Nick Clegg said foreigners who had dodged the authorities to live here for "many years" without permission should be allowed to remain.

Outlining proposals for "managed" migration, the party's home affairs spokesman said those who had never committed a crime and were devoted to Britain had "earned" their right to stay.

Quite how we can know whether these people are "devoted to Britain" is unclear. I'm not quite sure what light the Lib Dems, who evidence their own devotion to Britain by seeking to flood us with immigrants, close prisons, and hand over our national sovereignty to the EU, can shed on this. Personally, I'd far rather have anyone's hatred, than the Lib Dems' devotion.

Leaving that aside, however, I am happy to agree with Nick Clegg on one point: only those illegal immigrants who have never committed a crime should be allowed to stay in Britain. By which I mean, none of them, since they're all criminals. The clue is in the name, Nick: 'illegal immigrants'. These people came into this country in breach of the law; their very presence here is a crime. As I've said time and again, the notion that because criminals manage to evade justice for a lengthy period of time they should be rewarded for their crime is simply abhorrent.

I've previously written about the demands for an amnesty for illegal immigrants made by the Archbishop of Westminster, and the Institute for Public Policy Research. More reasons for objecting to such an amnesty can be found at those posts. Suffice to say, that I think that it's a thoroughly bad idea, which will not only reward criminals for their crime, but will encourage more people to commit the same crime, in the hope of obtaining the same reward. No surprise, then, to find the Lib Dems giving it their enthusiastic backing.