We're All Swamped, Captain Cameron!

I follow John Redwood's Blog and noted that he encouraged feedback.  Since I had recently written about immigration, "We Need to Talk About Immigration,"  I thought I would share my piece with him. You will remember, the thrust of my argument was that Conservatives appeared to have abandoned their target of reducing net migration to the "tens of thousands" and that no coherent policy seemed to have replaced it.  I appealed, from a practical point of view, " what do Conservatives say about immigration?"

I received the following reply for my trouble:

"The Conservative party has not abandoned its target, but now has pointed out we need to negotiate greater control over our borders with the rest of the EU to deliver it."

You may agree that this is somewhat less than comforting?  "Control of our borders" is meaningless out of context. Apart from the tacit admission that we have no control over our destiny, we appear to be pinning our hopes on the success of some, undefined, negotiating process with our "friends" in Europe.  Reflecting upon the significant track record of negotiation on the Common Agricultural Policy, Fisheries Policy, and, more recently, City Regulation, we need not hold our breath!  Presumably we may look forward to "swamping" joining "wine lakes," cod quotas," and "Tobin Taxes" as just another thing we have to put up with as the price of EU membership?

Let us be clear, this pathetic response does absolutely nothing to reassuring voters that our immigration policy:

• Recognises the economic limits of policy - how many people can we support
• Accepts that the wholesale dilution of traditional values, either locally or nationally,  is not acceptable
• Highlights that, if Europe is the problem, we need to do something about Europe
• Provides for immigrants with unique skills and attributes
• Gives hope that practical local issues will not be swept under the carpet of political idealism.

We're all swamped, Captain Cameron!