Taking us for fools?

Taking us for fools?

No one will even begin to pretend they know exactly what the current situation is with immigration. That is part of the scandal, where successive governments have not only lost control of our borders, but the current government has no idea how many immigrants have entered, how many intend permanently to settle and how many will be leaving.

If that is the background to any debate on immigration, then it ill-behoves the leader of the opposition, the revered David Cameron, in making his first speech on immigration since becoming leader, to rely on "the statistical picture of what is actually happening". These statistics we know full well to be flawed, more so when Cameron cites the 2005 figures rather than more recent estimates.

Nevertheless, we are told that in 2005, 145,000 migrants to Britain were from the European Union, mostly from the new accession countries in the east, and accounting for around thirty per cent of the total. 91,000 were British citizens returning to live here. Another 189,000 came from the Commonwealth. And 140,000 from elsewhere in the world.

So, who are you trying to convince? Or are you – as you accuse Mr Brown – also taking us for fools?

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