Only a reduction will sort immigration
Illegal Immigration Bill through Commons but still a long way to go. What about jaw-dropping legal migration?
The Illegal Immigration Bill has completed its Commons stages and will now move to the Lords, where the government’s task of getting the Bill through intact will be much tougher. The House of Lords is replete with peers for whom firm immigration control is anathema. They will move heaven and earth to emasculate the Bill. However, given the government’s majority in the elected House, its will should prevail if they are determined enough and don’t try to appease the open borders brigade and the Conservative Party’s own naysayers.
Suella Braverman has proved to be commendably courageous in the face of venomous hostility towards her personally as well as the Bill. All credit to her. The power to ignore ECHR rulings is to be welcomed. While such legal power is already available, underlining it in the way it has been, will send a clear message to the judiciary should there be any doubt about the intentions and will of Parliament. The only caveat to enter here is that the said authority to ignore the ECHR is not in itself the silver bullet it has been made out to be. But it will help.
The immigration minister Robert Jenrick and foreign secretary James Cleverly, as well as Ms Braverman, have over the past week variously referred to the abuse of the UK’s generosity by illegal immigrants, many of whom show a marked reluctance to accept British values or make any effort to buy into Britain. Well, yes but this is hardly new, it has been going on for years. Indeed, we have been pointing to it for years. The fact remains that illegal migration on the Channel is out of control, with Indians seemingly now supplanting Albanians in the dinghies coming illegally.
Meanwhile, legal immigration continues at a jaw-dropping scale. We are confident, if seriously concerned, that the next set of official figures (towards the end of May) will show net migration for the whole of 2022 to have been significantly higher than the colossal half a million in the year to the end of June 2022. Immigration on such a scale cannot and must not continue.
Blog of the week
How Mass, Uncontrolled Immigration Threatens Your Quality Of Life
Very high net migration matters. Apart from being the root cause of unmanageable population growth (immigrants and their children added seven million people to the UK’s population over the past 20 years) it impacts directly on the daily lives of ordinary British people. Here (link below) is a MW blog from last year on mass immigration and its damaging effects on our quality of life. It leads to pressure on housing by increasing demand, it places huge additional pressure on services and costs the tax payer billions of pounds. Study after study in the past 25 years has consistently shown that overall immigration has been a net cost to the exchequer – ie, us the taxpayer. With the cost-of-living crisis eating away at our standard of living, it is incredible that the government seem hell-bent on importing ever more people to provide cheaper labour for big business and to prop up struggling (often poor) universities. Read our blog here.
Migration Watch in the news
‘It seems Albanian chancers may have got the message — if you come illegally you won’t be able to stay.
‘Let’s now get it through to the others, of whom the highest number in one day this year arrived over the weekend.’
‘It makes little sense if the Home Secretary wants to reduce the spiralling cost of the asylum system and stem the flow of illegal boat crossings… She should think again.’
Express: Channel migrants ‘will get legal aid to fight deportation’
Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch UK, which wants tougher controls at the border, was quoted as saying that the legal aid measure made “little sense if the Home Secretary wants to reduce the spiralling cost of the asylum system and stem the flow of illegal boat crossings.” He urged her to “think again.”
GB News: Indian nationals crossing the Channel are ‘economic migrants, not genuine refugees’
‘It is very clear to me that these are economic migrants, not genuine refugees.’
Make your voice heard
The government’s determination to get the Illegal Immigration Bill through the Commons is a welcome sign that they are taking heed. But, we should also bear in mind that there is an election looming. The job of tackling out-of-control immigration will not be done by simply acting tough with the ECHR. The even more pressing task is to commit to effecting significant reductions in overall immigration. Let’s hold their feet to the fire. If you haven’t done so don’t forget to write to your MP today and let them know your views.