Immigration
The coalition will not be able to reduce net migration
The FT’s Alex Barker has made an important discovery in the OBR’s report. The coalition’s immigration cap will make no impact on net migration. ‘The interim OBR’s June Budget estimates… Continue reading
26 CommentsANTI politics
Tim Montgomerie has a thoughtful essay in the Daily Mail about the ANTIs, those who feel so let down by the political status quo that they have given up voting… Continue reading
61 CommentsAnother coalition compromise, this time on immigration
Agreement has been reached on the troublesome immigration cap. The BBC reports that skilled non-EU migration will be limited to 43,000. This is just a 13 percent reduction from this… Continue reading
38 CommentsBreaking dependency
IDS has played the party politics of welfare reform adeptly. He has built a coalition beyond the government, convinced of the need for urgency and dynamic reform. Even Labour is… Continue reading
18 CommentsThe importance of teaching British values in schools
One of the websites that the young Muslim woman, Roshonara Choudhry who stabbed Stephen Timms MP mentioned in her police interview was RevolutionMuslim, which now appears to have been taken… Continue reading
34 CommentsToughening up on Home Affairs
An intriguing argument from the Economist’s Bagehot this week: the government’s liberal prisons policy will force Coalition 2.0 to tack to the right on Home Affairs. ‘If the Lib Dems’… Continue reading
5 CommentsMiliband’s colossal misjudgement
The question at the bottom of this shoddy leaflet must surely join John Rentoul’s famous list. Who on earth will stand by the egregious Phil Woolas now? As with the… Continue reading
67 CommentsThe immigration game
The Fake Sheikh, Mazher Mahmood, has a good wee scoop in the News of the World today. The papers’ reporters posed as would-be immigrants, and heard immigration advisers tell them… Continue reading
38 CommentsThe scale of IDS’ and Gove’s challenge
Yesterday was a day of weighty reports. At 700 pages, the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s ‘How Fair is Britain?’ won the thoroughness stakes. Aside from the usual findings that… Continue reading
37 CommentsRochdale, revisited
Putting Ed Balls into Home Affairs is like trapping a bee in a jar: he’ll come out furious, and anxious to sting. In his new brief, he has immigration. And… Continue reading
27 CommentsTheresa May the target
I wonder if Theresa May felt faintly apprehensive this morning. It must bad enough to awake and remember that you’re the Home Secretary, held responsible for every immigrant, every strike… Continue reading
28 CommentsA solution to the immigration cap puzzle
The coalition’s immigration cap is, as several Conservative Cabinet ministers have pointed out privately, flawed. It threatens to cap the kind of immigration that bothers almost nobody, high skilled foreign… Continue reading
19 CommentsBoles’ immigration revolution
Nick Boles’ Which Way’s Up? is gaining a quiet cult following in Westminster, and John Redwood has unearthed Boles’ radical approach to immigration. Boles dissents from the view that happiness… Continue reading
36 CommentsCable: interim immigration cap is "very damaging to the UK economy"
After stumbling in his crusade for a graduate contribution, Vince Cable seemed to go a bit quiet. But this morning he’s roared back into the newspapers with another attack on… Continue reading
44 CommentsWhat it is to be British
What is it about the British and flag waving? I ask after watching last night’s superlative BBC Proms, a brilliant end to the best season for years. On HD and… Continue reading
99 CommentsThe government’s transparent approach to worklessness
Sometimes hope lies in the details. Take this morning’s press release from the DWP, for instance. On the surface, it is a response to today’s encouraging employment figures. But what… Continue reading
11 CommentsCable, Cameron and speaking out in public
For the foreseeable, Vince Cable is going to be a political barometer figure: journalists and other innocent bystanders will sift through everything he says to check the temperature of the… Continue reading
6 CommentsThe immigration battle
Why is Vince Cable kicking off about immigration? Sure, to cause trouble – this is what he sees as his role. His ego can’t quite fit in that department. But… Continue reading
33 CommentsDave’s pageant is all very well, but India wants to talk immigration
In 1690, Thomas ‘Diamond’ Pitt led an opulent delegation of the East India Company’s Madras factors, bearing their wares, to the Nawab of the Carnatic, the richest man in southern India, with the… Continue reading
42 CommentsToo late to save Britain – it’s time to emigrate
David Selbourne is a political philosopher and theorist. This article appeared in the magazine last week; it is an edited version of his speech for a Spectator debate on the… Continue reading
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