No, it ISN'T racist to talk about immigration
For more than a decade, the Labour government has been gutless over immigration. This week, it proved it is also clueless. Ministers were finally forced to admit that their original estimate of 800,000 foreign workers in Britain was out by 300,000. It was 1.1 million, they said. No, whoops!, let's make that 1.5 million.
Whatever the true figure, if the Government doesn't know how many there are, no wonder Britain's public services are groaning under the strain.
Gordon Brown has now had to announce a second emergency fund to ease the acute financial burden put on local councils by this massive influx of workers and their extended families.
He has belatedly recognised that instead of creating a multi-cultural Utopia, as Labour fondly imagined, unfettered immigration has served only to foster resentment between communities, by forcing them to compete for homes, school places and healthcare.
Yet for a decade, anyone who dared to point out these dangers was branded a racist and a xenophobe.
Well, this week David Cameron finally shook free of the modernising minions holding him back from entering the immigration debate, and called for a reduction in the numbers of immigrants, as well as an Australianstyle points system for those heading here from outside the EU.
Like comedy, politics is all about timing, and Cameron could not have picked a more perfect moment to step into the fray.
But the real surprise? He's been praised by the Left for his mature approach. Perhaps because he has spent so long hugging hoodies, the
Yet welcome as that is, it serves only to expose both the catastrophic failure of the Government's original immigration policy, and the iniquity of the smear tactics they used to silence those who dared challenge it before now.
For years, every Tory who had the courage to warn of the impending immigration disaster has been vilified. When Margaret Thatcher warned that the country was being "swamped" by immigrants, she was accused of xenophobia.
When William Hague said a loss of sovereignty to Europe would make Britain feel like a "foreign land", he was cast as a racist.
When Michael Howard asked "are you thinking what we're thinking" about immigration, he was accused of pandering to the BNP.
Each of these leaders should have been praised for their foresight. Yet instead they have been demonised.
If the Government is at last prepared to tackle immigration, as it claims, isn't it time for a little truth and reconciliation first?
• Labour's pet think-tank calls for "the downgrading of Christmas to help race relations". They say we must give all religions equal prominence or risk alienating newcomers.
So despite the fact this is overwhelmingly a Christian country, our most celebrated religious festival must be diluted to make foreigners feel at home - in our home.
Can you imagine the outrage if Christians in Muslim countries called for the downgrading of Eid, or for the Bible to have equal prominence to the Koran?
Whatever the true figure, if the Government doesn't know how many there are, no wonder Britain's public services are groaning under the strain.
Gordon Brown has now had to announce a second emergency fund to ease the acute financial burden put on local councils by this massive influx of workers and their extended families.
He has belatedly recognised that instead of creating a multi-cultural Utopia, as Labour fondly imagined, unfettered immigration has served only to foster resentment between communities, by forcing them to compete for homes, school places and healthcare.
Yet for a decade, anyone who dared to point out these dangers was branded a racist and a xenophobe.
Well, this week David Cameron finally shook free of the modernising minions holding him back from entering the immigration debate, and called for a reduction in the numbers of immigrants, as well as an Australianstyle points system for those heading here from outside the EU.
Like comedy, politics is all about timing, and Cameron could not have picked a more perfect moment to step into the fray.
But the real surprise? He's been praised by the Left for his mature approach. Perhaps because he has spent so long hugging hoodies, the
Yet welcome as that is, it serves only to expose both the catastrophic failure of the Government's original immigration policy, and the iniquity of the smear tactics they used to silence those who dared challenge it before now.
For years, every Tory who had the courage to warn of the impending immigration disaster has been vilified. When Margaret Thatcher warned that the country was being "swamped" by immigrants, she was accused of xenophobia.
When William Hague said a loss of sovereignty to Europe would make Britain feel like a "foreign land", he was cast as a racist.
When Michael Howard asked "are you thinking what we're thinking" about immigration, he was accused of pandering to the BNP.
Each of these leaders should have been praised for their foresight. Yet instead they have been demonised.
If the Government is at last prepared to tackle immigration, as it claims, isn't it time for a little truth and reconciliation first?
• Labour's pet think-tank calls for "the downgrading of Christmas to help race relations". They say we must give all religions equal prominence or risk alienating newcomers.
So despite the fact this is overwhelmingly a Christian country, our most celebrated religious festival must be diluted to make foreigners feel at home - in our home.
Can you imagine the outrage if Christians in Muslim countries called for the downgrading of Eid, or for the Bible to have equal prominence to the Koran?
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