Immigration
Ministers hope to reassure backbenchers with Immigration Bill
One of the key bills to be announced in today’s Queen’s Speech is an immigration bill. This serves two key purposes: the first is to bring into legislation all those… Continue reading
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Ken Clarke: decent chap, but wrong about everything
Kenneth Clarke has always seemed, to me, a decent sort. By far the most likeable and least lordly and arrogant of those Euro-wanking wets who plagued Thatcher and, later, Major.… Continue reading
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MPs to push government on plans for new migrants
MPs will debate the government’s preparations for more Bulgarian and Romanian migrants in Westminster Hall today, as another survey suggests that there’s no need to get unduly worried about the… Continue reading
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Margaret Thatcher: An Accidental Libertarian Heroine
It is 34 years since Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister. Coincidentally, she entered Downing Street 34 years after Clement Attlee won the 1945 general election. The whole history of post-war… Continue reading
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The British Prime Minister’s insignificance
Here is David Cameron’s problem in a nutshell. During his immigration speech on Monday he said: ‘Put simply when it comes to illegal migrants, we’re rolling up that red carpet… Continue reading
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Theresa May’s abolition of UKBA shows how the immigration consensus favours the Tories, and her
Theresa May has announced that the UK Border Agency is to be abolished. In an unscheduled statement to the House of Commons, she described UKBA as ‘a troubled organisation’ with… Continue reading
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Tories who say that Cameron is making ‘no difference’ underline the coalition’s communications failure
You should take note when Benedict Brogan, an influential and widely sourced journalist who has been very close to the Cameron and Osborne operation over the years, writes of the fire-sale… Continue reading
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David Cameron’s immigration speech fails to capture the imagination
This morning’s papers have followed the lead of yesterday’s TV news bulletins: the prime minister’s immigration speech was not the success it might have been. The Times is lukewarm (£).… Continue reading
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Despite the fanfare, David Cameron still isn’t doing anything on immigration
Well, it was right not to expect much. The full text of David Cameron’s speech on immigration is here but it can be summarised in one sentence: ‘mass migration has… Continue reading
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What Tory backbenchers want on immigration, and what the PM can give them
David Cameron knows that immigration is an issue that bothers voters, and that the mainstream parties have snubbed it in recent years to their detriment. So his speech today is… Continue reading
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Europe should shut the door on immigration
The Prime Minister is giving a speech about immigration on Monday. I am sure we can all guess the content. If anybody is interested in a break from this —… Continue reading
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Migrants debate looms as PM prepares immigration speech
It’s not just Nick Clegg who is having a good long think about immigration at the moment: David Cameron is as well. He’s got a big immigration speech on Monday,… Continue reading
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Clegg aims for ‘sensible’ 2015 manifesto with immigration speech
Nick Clegg gave his ‘sensible’ immigration speech this morning. He started off by agreeing with Labour’s Yvette Cooper that politicians shouldn’t enter an ‘arms race of rhetoric’, and then spent… Continue reading
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Labour will have to get used to about-turns on policies it opposed
Yesterday Ed Miliband reiterated his party’s existing policies on immigration for voters, today Yvette Cooper went into further detail about how Labour would address the policy area in government. Like… Continue reading
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Germany realises the limits of the EU project
Britain isn’t the only country whose politicians are getting just a little bit jittery about an increase in Bulgarian and Romanian migrants. In this week’s Spectator, Rod Liddle examines the… Continue reading
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Ed Miliband tries to reassure voters on Labour’s immigration policy, without mentioning the EU
Today is, according to the party’s own institutional memory, the first time Labour has talked about immigration in a party political broadcast. As I blogged yesterday, the party struggles to… Continue reading
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‘Tell the European Commission to sod off!’: MPs press government on migrants
‘Oooh, your statement was so much more partisan than mine!’ Iain Duncan Smith almost said to Stephen Timms this afternoon as the pair sparred over Bulgarian and Romanian migrants. The… Continue reading
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How much will Britain change in the next 10 years?
In the latest issue of Standpoint magazine I have a longish piece on the census for England and Wales. The story made the news for a couple of days at… Continue reading
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Falling net migration: a clear policy success?
The fall of one third in the net immigration statistics announced today is the most significant development since that number rose by 50 per cent in 2004 (unremarked, incidentally, by the BBC… Continue reading
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Falling net migration: A trap for future governments?
Today’s migration statistics show a marked decline in net migration to the UK (down 34 per cent to 163,000 in the year to June 2012). Although this still leaves the… Continue reading
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