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Isn't it interesting that after a decade of nobody wanting to even discuss immigration, we get all three main political parties lining up to talk about it at once?!
A couple of weeks ago a Labour political broadcast was essentially just four minutes of Ed Miliband talking about how new migrants should learn English and integrate, this in addition to his recent half-admission the Labour Government may have got immigration policy wrong. Maybe. Kind of.
Nick Clegg has brazenly binned the Liberal Democrat policy of offering an amnesty to all illegal immigrants who've been in the country for more than 10 years - which has to make you ask how illegals manage to remain here for more than 10 years, but no matter. Clegg has now said such a move would 'undermine public confidence.'
Finally we come to Dave and his 'tough talk' earlier this week. You may have seen him making tough claims about how new migrants will only receive unemployment benefit for six months, will be kept off social housing lists for up to five years and will be charged for NHS treatment.
Cameron is playing a clever game by focussing on the smallest part of the issue. 'Benefit tourism' is actually a very tiny problem, there's not many EU nationals claiming unemployment benefit here. The bigger issue is just the sheer numbers of people coming into this country which puts pressure on jobs, inferstructure and housing.
Cameron's words frankly mean nothing anyway because he supports EU membership and the EU rules clearly state we cannot discriminate between British and EU citizens in terms of access to social provision. What's happening here is the main parties - despite their claims to the contrary - are terrified of UKIP and are trying to shoot their main issues in the face without actually doing anything.
Cheap trick. Been tried before and it won't work. Or am I being unfairly cynical?
Edited by Avant on 30/03/2013 at 17:36
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