A Letter from Sir Andrew Green, The Times, London
Sir, The pace of immigration is 25 times that of the only two numerically significant immigrations in the past 1,000 years of English history – the Huguenots in the late 17th century and the Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is clear that we cannot cope with immigration on this scale.
Trevor Phillips, the former Commission for Racial Equality chairman, has spoken of sleepwalking into segregation, and a recent Panorama programme on the separation of the communities in Blackburn drove the point home. If we are to sustain the tolerant atmosphere which is essential for community cohesion, we simply cannot allow immigration policy to be driven only by employers. Control must be re-established. It will not require Stalinist measures to achieve this – simply a political will that is not blinded by arrogance towards those who are most directly affected.