Immigration

Successive Governments have effectively lost control of our borders.  Many people appear to be able to enter (and leave) Britain without being subjected to proper scrutiny.  Whatever your view of future immigration policy, this is clearly unacceptable.

My own view is that the very high levels of immigration we have seen in recent years is harmful and cannot be sustained without doing serious damage to community cohesion and the social fabric of this country.  The new government needs to bring the situation firmly under control, remove those with no legal right to be here and then decide on a long term policy that is fair to everyone.

The trouble is that until very recently, if anyone questioned the number of people entering Britain, they were invariably accused of opposing immigration altogether, or worse, of being racist. The reality is that there are many people who can see the benefits of diversity, who believe a complete freeze on immigration would make this country a less interesting, less vibrant place to live, but who believe the sheer number of immigrants is greatly excessive.

Newcomers are now arriving at the rate of about half a million a year - or nearly one a minute, and that is undoubtedly stretching our public services. Most people don’t want a ban on immigration. They want a properly controlled and balanced approach.


But instead of addressing peoples’ concerns, the previous Government simply denied the problem. As a strategy for helping the BNP in its recruitment drive, there can be no better formula. And the sad irony is that if the backlash we are seeing against mass immigration grows stronger, it will be felt not by sheltered politicians, but by immigrants themselves.

• All images and text Copyright © 2013 Zac Goldsmith
  Promoted by David Newman on behalf of Zac Goldsmith, both of 372 Upper Richmond Road West, London SW14 7JU
  Site by: NM Consulting :: W3C Valid Markup :: W3C Valid CSS
• Privacy
• Goto Top