The Migration Observatory reports this week that the official figures for migrants coming to the UK need to be amended, as it seems many more migrants came from the EU over the last decade and fewer from the rest of the world. The suggested changes to the figures show a 76% increase in EU numbers from 2012 to March 2020 and a 31% decrease in rest of the world numbers. Instead of the EU being a minority they accounted for 64%. The overall total also rises. The ONS is having to change its way of estimating the numbers. It has in the past used passenger surveys, but now recognises these were not accurately capturing what was going on. It appears net migration has been running at around one third of a million a year. It is clearly difficult to pin people down about their plans in a system of free movement when interviewing them on arrival.
It is most important that we have more reliable data. as many policy decisions flow from how many people are coming to stay in our country. We need better figures to work out how much health and education capacity we need, how much more transport capacity, and above all how many additional homes. We want all who are coming to have access to good services and the opportunity to rent or buy a suitable home. Assuming more than 3 million additional people have come over the last decade, as seems likely, that means we needed another 1.25m homes assuming the same average household size of 2.4 people per home as the current population. For some purposes we also need to look at gross migration, as the newcomers may want different housing in different places to those leaving the country. Some leaving the country still keep a residence in the UK and might return years later as their life draws to a close.
An answer to the Green wish to reduce the claim on resources, to cut pollution and reduce the production of CO2 would be to cut the rate of growth of the population. The UK needs to expand its output of CO2, make more claims on minerals and food and take more land for houses because the population has been growing rapidly over the last decade.
I want to live in a free society so I have no wish for government to stop couples having babies as they choose. Nor in a decent society should we say No to asylum seekers seeking a haven from violence and oppression. The UK has gone well beyond these central rights and decencies, welcoming in millions of people to take on low paid jobs. The UK state has also recruited many to come here with great skills and qualifications from lower paid countries. There a is a strong case for a new model. We need to grow more of our own skills base by excellence in education and support for those who will make the commitment to gain the qualifications. Is it really sensible to bid away more great people from a poor country than would come naturally, only to have to do more by way of overseas aid to support that country that is missing some of its natural leaders and qualified people? We also need to move to a higher pay higher productivity model of working. More of the low paid jobs should be backed with better machinery and automation to enrich the job in many ways. We want more interesting and better paid jobs which more automation and digitalisation can generate.
In order to have a good migration policy there needs to be accurate data. In order to plan service and other provision there needs to be good data. No wonder we have seemed short of homes, short of transport capacity, short of NHS capacity, if we have been catering for more people than the official figures say are here. Migration Observatory also thinks there has been a further net increase in EU migrants since the Brexit vote up to March 2020, despite claims that the opposite would happen. They also think that far fewer people left the UK last year than some have suggested despite the collapse in many lower paid jobs owing to the closures of many businesses in response to the pandemic.
These large errors in the official figures had consequences. It meant the government was constantly blamed for failing to control migrant numbers from the rest of the world, when it turns out they had done much more than recognised. It also meant pro EU commentators and politicians could claim EU migration was not large or important , when the numbers were understated by 76%.
April 18, 2021
I am of the opinion that the Migration Observatory being being somewhat disingenuous suggesting that ‘changes to the figures show a 76% increase in EU numbers from 2012 to March 2020 and a 31% decrease in rest of the world numbers.’
Every person that has turned up on our shores via dinghy are not natives of France.
April 18, 2021
Focussing on the dinghies lets our government off the hook. There are arrivals on ferries, planes, cars and trains. And most have the right to arrive.
April 19, 2021
JR, knows his party and govt has been dishonest over the issue for ten years. Osborne admitted no one serious in private about it. Electioneering lies, sham policy changes that have no impact from Tories, no more.
A clue, one year over 800,000 new NI numbers for EU citizens!! Any fake Tory MP question why when the promise was to be under 100,000 for three elections!
April 19, 2021
Fake Tories not interested in keeping us safe. Manchester bombing should have made them wake up, bomber allowed to come and go from country, but no change.
April 18, 2021
I donāt believe any government numbers regarding migration
I donāt think they have a migration policy. It is more a question of making statements from time to time to mollify critics and opponents.
Cheap labour, which undercuts UK norms, suits employers. Diversity suits Labourās electoral ambitions.
I have no interest in asylum seekers. Let them move to the nearest safe country. Asylum seeking is also one of the biggest scams used by economic migrants.
Multiculturalism is clearly a failure.
April 18, 2021
Labour’s electoral ambitions? You can’t stir for the demand for and the praise for diversity from all the Tories, the MSM academia etc., etc. What it means is that we, the ‘originals’ if you like, are to be demeaned, ignored and criminalised. Find me a Tory who opposes it.
April 18, 2021
Stated rather than tweeted on this occasion.
April 18, 2021
100% spot on and do not forget the real conspiracy theorists believe that their government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the pharmaceutical industry that makes billions from sickness wants to cure them.
April 18, 2021
Vote Leave!!!
Oh, er, um, er, ooh er…
April 19, 2021
Pete, +1. They are not asylum seekers, economic migrants. They pass through several safe countries so cannot be asylum seekers. If in genuine fear would seek asylum immediately.
April 22, 2021
The solution is not to process asylum seekers in the UK but at British Embassies overseas. Anyone arriving in the UK illegally would be put on a couple of ships and returned to where they came from or say they come from.
It might sound harsh but people are going through the correct channels while others just turn up. It’s not good enough
April 18, 2021
I think the number was very large like a million. Conspiracy or cock up. On the basis that border control was one of the main reasons people voted to leave and that knowing the number was so much higher would have encouraged more leavers, my vote is on conspiracy.
Charles Moore in the DT yesterday made it very clear that it is the top of the civil service that runs this country telling ministers what they can and canāt do with total impunity, zero responsibility, zero performance management. Patel just about survived but her Permanent Secretary responsible for a continuously failing department was given an eye wateringly large payout. Sums it up.
April 18, 2021
+1
April 18, 2021
Conspiracy for sure.
April 18, 2021
I thought you lot always claimed that people voted to leave because of some spurious concept of sovereignty or because of red tape or because of money.
And yet we now have a more expensive and bureaucratic system over which we have less control.
And now you are telling us about immigration after all. When we drill down further we find that most of you are concerned about only certain aspects of what you all call āimmigration.ā
Dinghy people. You are mostly irrationally concerned with them. They have nothing to do with free movement. Illegal immigration. You are mostly irrationally concerned with that. Illegal immigrants are hear illegally. Nothing to do with free movement. Many of you are concerned about āMuslimsā who mostly do not come from Europe.
Free movement has never been about swarms of people going somewhere else to claim benefits. That isnāt what free movement is. Yet that is how it is characterised by the Faragists.
No wonder Brexit is such a disappointment to you all.
April 18, 2021
No, they are funnier.
April 18, 2021
Brexit is certainly not a disappointment to us, Andy !
We are very pleased with progress so far, which has been far less troublesome than you and your Remainer friends predicted.
As for Immigration : we have been complaining that from whatever source, the numbers, approaching 300,000 net new inhabitants a year for the last decade or more, are far too high. I have written here and elsewhere repeatedly that the numbers have been unsustainable if we wish to adequately house everyone entitled to be here. Now that we have left the EU, we thought that the number can be reduced by at least 100,000 a year. That alone will save us building around 35,000 housing units a year.
If the numbers really are greatly understated, we can cut the number of immigrants by maybe 150,000 and save building more than 55,000 extra homes.
Then we have the climate change targets. Liberal Lefties have a dilemma here : they seem happy with vast numbers of new people coming to the UK but still want our emissions to be reduced. Extra people moving to this country has mades that objective far more difficult and much more expensive to achieve. But why do they not regard net immigration as a serious problem ? It can only be that they have always wanted to see our society fundamentally changed.
The future shape and form of our society should be a decision for the indigenous population, not a small left wing / liberal elite.
April 19, 2021
I think that brexit was believed to be an enabler, for some people’s ambitions to “do things” about immigrants that they couldn’t do whilst compelled to be ECHR signatory by membership of a civilised, enlightened European Union, Andy.
They are, as ever, disappointed and angry on so many levels, and will continue to be so no doubt.
April 18, 2021
Nig 1
Bang on the money.
Never never ever do we the taxpayer see incompetent civil servants get dismissed without all their privileges.
I have worked in companies where executive directors, managers and officers have been stopped from re-entering the building, hand over the keys to their company vehicle and been asked to sign for a tea chest covered in cling film as proof that all items found in their office considered to be of a personal had been deposited had been received. If it can happen in the real professional private sector why in hell cannot be applied to the civil and public services?
Is it that ministers are too s### scared in case these people write a book or get on the media carousel?
Why does this country always appear to reward incompetence and failure?
April 18, 2021
JR
“It also meant pro EU commentators and politicians could claim EU migration was not large or important , when the numbers were understated by 76%”
============
Therein lies the stink.
We, indigenous, hard working taxpayers have been warning of this for years. We were constantly acused of racism and phobia.
And you’ll find the institutions responsible for underestimation are themselves biased against our country.
This is what happens when you don’t clean out anything Blair created or corrupted.
April 18, 2021
Steve
Agree for decades everyone who has lived here was aware the population was growing.
Schools crowded, Doctors surgeries crowded, hospitals crowded, roads crowded, trains and buses crowded, too few homes, extra demand for all sorts of services etc etc.
But politicians seemingly failed to notice, really ?
Perhaps we should get back to the real basics and calculate the volume of human waste treated in our sewerage treatment works, they have daily/weekly/monthly/annual records, so use them !
I guarantee they will show a real increase in volume over time, which must by the simple fact that everyone uses a toilet of some sort, prove that the population has grown by that same percentage.
Oh no, far too simple !
The governments solution, fill in a voluntary Census form every 10 years or get fined, oh and while your at it tell us what gender you would like to be known as for good measure, pathetic !
Does they really think people who are overstaying or who are illegal, are going to fill in a voluntary form.
April 18, 2021
Alan Jutson
“But politicians seemingly failed to notice, really ?”
Lame excuse isn’t it.
Truth be known the political and business classes love immigration cos it provoides cheap labour, and of course the misguided belief that immigration brings with it votes.
I look forward to I’m retired and industry realises it’s gone too far with de-skilling with cheap labour at the cost of our jobs.
One day they’ll need our skills back…..but the response would be something along the lines of ‘GTH’.
April 18, 2021
+1
April 18, 2021
Apart from brexit its been the top priority of taxpaying voters for the last 3 general electionsā¦..the public have been shouting and our MPs look the other way
April 18, 2021
the arrivals were generally young people who as it has been scientifically proven several times, contributed more to the economy than they took out.
April 18, 2021
Contributing to the economy isnāt the same as contributing to society
April 19, 2021
And contributed FAR more to society than the typical untalented, niggardly, parochially-minded Leave voter.
April 18, 2021
Is there a link to that scientific study?
GDP per head doesn’t bear out your claim bill.
April 19, 2021
BillB, the British statisticians have been shown to be incompetent at their jobs, Windrush showed the British record keepers were incompetent at their jobs of recording people in the UK legitimately. We don’t hear anyone was dismissed for failing to do their jobs properly. So which departments and scientists ‘proved’ your point what is your source and where did they get their information from because it is clearly false if 76% of people were ‘missing’.
Do ‘missing’ people from our office of national statistics work legitimately and pay their legitimate taxes 50% nearly of their earnings or do they just take the jobs of people who would? Where are these people all living? How are they eating (foodbanks?) How are they managing here?
April 19, 2021
They seem to be doing a pretty good job of putting an end to peace in Northern Ireland, Steve – rejoice eh?
April 18, 2021
Why are we still talking about it, the Home Office are supposed to have dealt with it. The ONS would seem to have lost their ability to count. All this continuing while UK citizens have only started to be let out of their houses. Those of us who might want to return to our residences in Europe or just go for a two week break in the sun cannot even get an authenticated proof of vaccination.
For UK citizens we run a gold plated service of bureaucratic malicious incompetence. For everyone arriving on our doorstep the welcome is penalty free. We the citizens are made to feel guilty or racist because we cannot offer what we consider the requisites of daily life.
Yesterday for the funeral of a very dear HRH the Duke of Edinburgh those involved demonstrated that we can act with great compassion, dignity and precision.
Why when we hand a task to politicians do we invariably end up with an utter shambles.
April 18, 2021
Agriola
One point I want to pick up on… I know the Royal family wore masks and social distanced to show us they are no different to the rest of us . Thatās just how great and dutiful the Queen is, but to me and Iāve no doubt countless others, seeing that tiny little lady sitting alone at her husbandās funeral showed up the cruelty of the ridiculous Covid ārulesā.
Nig1 And for migration figures… I totally agree that we have been run by top civil servants for decades and I think it may have been Charles Moore in another article state that theyāre all socialist (I missed the one you refer to). And consequently this is why the phrase, āvote Conservative, get Labour anyway ā is so often said. Dare I say that goes back to our membership of the EU, and why so many MPs are of low calibre?
And the stupidity of allowing in tens of thousands of people monthly and then having the cheek to say we have too many cars on the road …..just about sums up the idiocy of our āleaders.ā
April 18, 2021
@Sharon; “[the] funeral showed up the cruelty of the ridiculous Covid ārulesā. “
You forget one thing, the Covid rules do not prevent family or care bubbles, for what ever reason the Queen sat along it was not entirely due to the Covid rules, even had she simply had a member of the Windsor staff (her Lady in Waiting perhaps) present – did you miss the fact that the Queen travelled in her State Limousine, between Castle and Chapel, with another person?
Far from showing up how wrong, unworkable, cruel, the Covid rules are the events of Saturday actually showed just what can be done. Even to the point of someone flying in from a ‘Yellow’ country and having to self isolate for 5 days along with Covid tests.
April 18, 2021
+2
April 18, 2021
Sharon, having been widowed myself, I too felt so sorry for the Queen having to be so isolated – would it have been so awful for her to have had her children at least in the same row, even if sitting a seat apart?
April 18, 2021
Yes, having her children (no names, no pack drill) in the same row would have been very embarrassing for her most gracious and supreme majesty.
April 18, 2021
SM -Do not get too emotional regarding the Windsor family. The truth will out.
April 18, 2021
Agricola & Sharon. ++1
April 18, 2021
We are digging up the fields and concreting over to build homes for the immigrants.
April 18, 2021
Defo +1
April 18, 2021
Sharon
MPs of low calibre
Too cocking right and to rub the taxpayers noses really in it, experienced, established street and market wise parliamentarians when elected get banished to the back benches and totally ignored.
April 18, 2021
Sharon
“seeing that tiny little lady sitting alone at her husbandās funeral showed up the cruelty of the ridiculous Covid ārulesā. ”
…….my guess would be it actually didn’t have anything to do with covid. Possibly some kind of royal protocol, or maybe even Her Majesty might have wanted to be on her own. Who knows.
April 18, 2021
+1
April 18, 2021
Why when we hand a task to politicians do we invariably end up with an utter shambles. Well we get the wrong politicians lefty ones pushing the evil politics of envy and in the Tory party we lefty, pro EU, climate alarmists and tax to death big government dopes like Major, Osborne, Hammond, Cameron, Sunak and May just pretending not to be before elections.
We also need far less crony capitalism, far fewer lawyers and PPE types and people on the make. Far more people with a real grasp of logic, science, engineering, maths and real economics. More people like Sir John Cowperthwaite with his governing of Hong Kong. But then we might soon get several million coming from Hong Kong with over 5 million now able to obtain visas and Chinaās dire agenda there.
April 18, 2021
We recruit top civil servants from the red brick universities only to find to find they can’t do the simplest job , like counting. You either believe that or you believe their heart really isn’t into managing our borders, so what they deliver is managed incompetence , a completely shambolic system where you can’t tell the difference between no border controls or border controls, we get the mass immigration they want what ever the policy.
You can say the same about Government policy. I doubt the wisdom of allowing Hong Kong Chinese people the right to settle here, they say 300k , it is going to be a lot more than that, especially considering the last estimate the British establishment gave us on 13k Eastern European migrants. But say you want to make the offer to these Hong Kongers, you might have thought the Government would say this offer is going to cause us a lot of infrastructure and housing problems so we are going to have to severely restrict immigration from elsewhere, but they don’t, we get the Hong Kongers in addition to all the other people they are cramming into the country, as well as Priti Patel’s Channel taxi service.
April 18, 2021
Top civil servants are from Oxbridge, not oils from red brick, third rate dumps.
April 18, 2021
Alas rarely with degrees in Maths, Physics, Engineering, sensible economics or anything very useful. Generally PPE, Jurisprudence, Law, Land Economy, History of Art or similar. Often from wealthy backgrounds and private schools where they have rarely had to so much as wire a plug for themselves.
April 18, 2021
Over 5 millions will be eligible to come it seems. All we need is about 1,000 Sq miles of the UK with a decent port, airport, and almost no red tape, a John Cowperthwaite type Governor and a sensible tax regime (of no more than 20% of GDP) for them. Grimsby and Immingham perhaps? Better still why not give the whole of the UK a sensible tax and regulatory regime like this?
April 18, 2021
Agricola is qualified to talk about this as he is a part time immigrant. Spending time in Spain. Hopefully not more than the 90 days in every 180 which Brexit allows him. Unless of course he is somehow exempt from rules he expects to apply to everyone else.
Tell us Agricola – what do you do to fit in with the indigenous people in Spain? Are you are a hard-working taxpayer when you are there? Do you have a Spanish driving licence? Do you speak the lingo, buy Spanish food and mix with locals?
Or is it all a bit Costa del Brexit with fish and chips, pubs and lots of Union Jacks?
April 18, 2021
Sir John, please excuse my reply but Andy, the proverbial dolor en el culo, has I think earned it.
Mi nacionalidad es ingles per mucho despues de la jubilation he vivo en Espana la mayor parte del tiempo. Ahora pago todos mis impuestos en Espana. Tengo un carnet de conducir espanol. Tambien una licencia de piloto que es EASA y que sea valida en Europa. Puedo quedarme todo el tiempo que quiero en Espana porque tengo una Residencia Permanente.
Mis amigos son espanola, polako,belga y inglese. La comida espanola es el mismo como la comida inglese, es la preparacion que es diferente. Hay un posibilidad que compra el mismo en Tesco si puede cocinar.
Apologies to any spanish national but it was only done to make a point that all the Brits in Spain are not in Andy’s image or share his tastes.
Reply Muy bien dicho
April 18, 2021
Good for you. Retiring to Spain.
An automatic right you enjoyed – but denied to me, my family because of your vote.
April 18, 2021
Being the owner of a translation company I was looking forward to you showing a bit of sophistication by responding in Spanish, Andy.
You can still retire to Spain.
April 19, 2021
Absolutely wrong again Andy. You could retire to Spain if you so wished. You will need to buy somewhere to live, have sufficient income so as not to become dependant on the spanish state, and subscribe to private health insurance. If you have a UK vehicle it will have to be re-registered in Spain. After six months stay you will require a spanish driving licence and be required to register with the Hacienda for tax on your worldwide income. My advice would be to get a good honest lawyer and tax accountant plus an abogado to deal with licences etc. Additionally learn some spanish, you wilk gain respect for doing so and you will find the Spanish a very forgiving nation when you mangle their language. Learn to cook, it is a great door opener and the array of ingredients quite inspiring. Sit back , observe, and watch how they do things. Only open you mouth to ask questions. I can promise you a very healthy, relaxed and PC free life, disfruta lo.
April 18, 2021
LMAO
First class + !
April 19, 2021
No hablo espaƱol.
April 18, 2021
Andy
Your comments suggest to me that you might not be as familiar with continental culture as you make out.
April 18, 2021
You are a funny mixture of chipyness and snobbery.
April 18, 2021
Agricola
“Why when we hand a task to politicians do we invariably end up with an utter shambles.”
…..it appears as a shambles, but really it’s deliberate. These people do the bidding of those who seek to render this country impotent. They don’t want a successful UK.
April 18, 2021
It’s time to end inward migration.
April 18, 2021
@OA; If so then it is also time for you and others to tell your (grand)children to forget college and university unless directly linked to a career pathway, time for them to get to work in the fields and all the other low paid dirty or menial jobs all to often done by seasonal workers -who might not actually return home- or migrants into the UK…!
April 19, 2021
Agreed. University for the academic. Manual work for the non-academic. It worked brilliantly for decades.
April 18, 2021
The government has no intention of doing this. They want more workers to push up GDP to support the burgeoning national debt, because they have lost control of spending.
April 18, 2021
Why? Maybe the problem is not migrants but those who have a problem with migrants.
Education is the key.
April 18, 2021
states Andy.
But it has to be a proper education. Look at the bigoted nonsense you come out with 3 GCSEs to your name.
April 18, 2021
And A levels, and a degree and masters level professional qualifications.
It was your generation who left school with no qualifications but walked straight into good jobs.
Now you need a degree just to get an interview for a blue chip company. Yes, the pointless degrees Lifelogic and others whine about are required just to get an interview. No degree and you spend your life stacking shelves. Unless your father is rich and has bought you a place at Eton and in government.
April 18, 2021
Because degrees are as common as muck and the Red Bricks were turned into adult creshes.
I have GCEs, A levels and a degree level professional qualification too.
Taken before Blair stuffed up adult education and cheapened degrees.
Perhaps for modesty I should have posted as Anonymous.
(I also managed 15 chin ups in a row today and I’m older than you. Har har.)
April 18, 2021
One minute you tell us you run your own company.
And how you were going to lay off all your staff.
Next minute you tell us you need a degree to stack shelves.
Not sure you can remember what your cover story is Andy.
April 19, 2021
@Andy; “It was your generation who left school with no qualifications but walked straight into good jobs.”
You really do not have a first clue. Many of my generation did walk straight into jobs, but many were not good jobs, nor well paid (no NMW back then, although they often did have a defined career paths to a better future for those prepared to work hard and could show ability. School leavers often doing so with few, if any initial qualifications, CSE’s or above, but unlike your generation we were never brainwashed into thinking we could simply walk straight into good well paid jobs via made-up non-qualification handed out as if confetti.
Stop blaming others for the fact that you bought a pup, as sold by the Blair govt (and, sorry to say, continued by the Cameron/Clegg govt), it was your choice, the only person you have to blame for that chip on your shoulder is yourself, after all it wasn’t just the Baby-boom generation who voted for Blair, it was Generation X (and later the “Millennials”), had the choice been left to mine and my parents generation John Major would likely have been returned to govt.
April 19, 2021
Andy, you don’t mix with many people do you? I have nephews in their twenties that chose not to go to University, one went into the RAF and was paid to train as an engineer. A niece got a trainee post in an accountant and is in her final year of examinations to qualify as a chartered accountant. Another young man I know got a degree apprenticeship that paid him a good wage with day relief and it took him five years to get his engineering degree whilst earning a living they have all bought their own homes without parental help. None of these people had rich parents and none are shelf stacking. Many of the middle aged took on traineeships and did evening classes and qualifications for most of the first ten years of our careers, get your blinkers off.
April 18, 2021
So when are you back at school.
April 18, 2021
100% agree
April 18, 2021
Hi Old Albion,
Would “inward migration” be the same thing as “immigration” which was the shorter term used when I was at school?
It has come to a sad state of affairs when even the outspoken Sir John is unable to use the feared “i”- word (immigration!).
In his piece Sir John notes that “It appears net migration has been running at around one third of a million a year.” Fear of the cancel-culture and PC twatterati brigade screeching “racism” would appear to scare even the bravest politicians from using the Queen’s English to succinctly distinguish between “immigration” which simply means inward migration and “emigration” which means outward migration.
Or am I missing something here?
April 18, 2021
It APPEARS net migration has been a third of a million a year.
No! No! No!
Net migration HAS BEEN A THIRD OF A MILLION A YEAR under the Tory Party.
The Tory Party – when you want high levels of immigration, vote Tory.
reply Recent higher levels of immigration started from a major Labour policy change when they entered govt at the enD of the last century.
April 18, 2021
But your Party has continued that policy, despite pretending to put an end to it.
April 18, 2021
As life becomes more difficult in Hong Kong we shall see more of them moving to the U.K.
April 18, 2021
@Bob Dixon; Define “more difficult”.
April 18, 2021
Oh, I’d say getting imprisoned for criticising the Government is a pretty good definition of ‘more difficult’.
April 19, 2021
@SM; Well yes, but the same applied (perhaps still does?) to many countries, indeed only three weeks or so ago 24 men in the UK had their 1972 convictions overturned (six of them having served prison sentences), no one doubted that the 24 were protesting against employment conditions and govt policies at the time…
The majority in HK appear able and willing to live under the then, and now the new, security laws, if that is the case why would they leave, I suspect the majority of the population of HK are leading close to normal lives today as they have since 1997, if not before.
April 18, 2021
I wonder what assumptions are made about the number of migrants who arrive illegally.
April 18, 2021
Wokinghamite – No assumptions. A tv prog years ago ( undercover hidden camera reporter ) showed the staff being threatened with the sack if they told the truth about immigration figures way back then. That was true. I knew someone who worked in one of the offices, then by chance got talking to a lady who said her daughter worked in a different city office for immigration – and both had said EXACTLY the same thing. Inwards figures are massively dumbed down – and deportation figures are vastly inflated. Everything we are told from govt is FALSE.
April 18, 2021
Bigneil(newercomp)
I have a friend who worked at the croydon immigration centre, and she told me about 15 years ago that the immigration problem on the news – āSharon, itās much much, worseā but thatās all she could say!
So like much else that govt say, itās all wrong and lied about.
April 18, 2021
Not really errors I suspect, just yet more government misinformation, lies & propaganda. They could not really be that incompetent. While in the EU we had a racist immigration policy anyone with an EU passport good everyone else bad agenda. Please can we have one based on merit and legal application now, this rather than the ability to obtain a RIB in Calais or an EU passport.
Peter Hitchens spot on today on Cameron:-
Mr Cameron was one of the worst Prime Ministers we ever had. His Blairite takeover of the Tory Party (which has not been reversed, whatever they may tell you) robbed conservative-minded people in this country of any true voice at Westminster.
His foolish war in Libya turned that nation from a stable tyranny into a pit of fire and blood, which will end up as a tyranny again but after countless avoidable deaths which are Mr Cameron’s fault.
It also breached a major defence against people-trafficking and helped to destabilise the whole of Europe.
Also on Shirley Williams a pleasant well meaning person who did huge damage in her destruction of grammar schools (absurdly acpolicy continued by Thatcher). May promised to reverse this but May, as usual, was clearly just being dishonest.
April 18, 2021
Peter Hitchens as clever as you. Never wrong in hindsight.
April 18, 2021
He like myself have usually made the point in advance too, but not always.
April 18, 2021
LL, I see that youāre attracting a lot of flak these days, a sure sign of being hot over the target. Respect!
April 18, 2021
Thanks.
April 18, 2021
L L
They could not be that incompetent
Sir. You are having a laugh. From where most of us are sitting and struggling to exist all we see is gross incompetence.
That is why governments waste so much of tax payers money. They are neither use or ornament.
Is anyone ever held accountable?
April 18, 2021
Cameron was quite proud to be heir to Blair and loudly proclaimed it.
The problem is the people are too fickle. They have seen the results of both Conservative and Labour governments and will NOT vote for any other party.
(I exclude the useless libdems and the green idiot,my MP)
I know the electoral system is rigged but if enough people wake up maybe, just maybe we could see some change . We have NOTHING to lose.
April 18, 2021
This was a wilful blind-eye by a Tory government.
The failure to control immigration still happens today and the refusal to close our borders even during a global pandemic under an 80 seat majority Tory government shows that it will never be brought under control.
The use of the ‘net’ measure is just as disingenuous as counting CV-19 ‘infections’ since the arrival of vaccines, both are used to deceive the public.
We have very low standards for accepting migrants and most of those can tap into free education and health care straight away.
Those who emigrate usually have to fulfil high standards to enter their new countries and must fund everything themselves.
The result ? A net outflow of wealth and skill. For every doctor we import we need to accept five car washers and a few gangsters.
Since CV-19 and the abolition of commuting we no longer need migrants to make our sandwiches and coffee. There will be plenty of British workers wishing to become taxi drivers once furlough ends.
April 18, 2021
Further … this loss of border control happens under an 80 seat majority Tory govt … out of the EU ! Now we know who wants mass immigration in the UK. It is plain to see.
And my estimation of 5 car washers for each doctor in the post above. Possibly hundreds of car washers and low skilled or unemployed arrive for each doctor we take in.
It was one thing factories going abroad – an obvious effect of globalisation but it is another a Tory government purporting to be the party of the working class importing cheap labour to compete for the jobs and resources left behind.
And no, Andy, MiC. I do not have an issue with foreigners. Yesterday I paid a minutes silence in respect for a Greek man and at Easter I paid tribute to a man from the Middle East.
April 18, 2021
Well said!
April 18, 2021
They are incredibly efficient at denying entry to those they do not want in the country.
Those who have maybe arranged to come and speak against the agenda for example.
Those who are allowed in…they are wanted …to fulfil international agreements.
As I said yesterday…we naughty children must be made to share our self-made, blood, sweat and tears success..
Or else it just isnāt FAIR!
Or so the globalist bodies maintain.
April 18, 2021
and we paid millions to France and sub-contracted the problem to their coast guard ? with no penality clause nor arrangement for returning illegal immigrants ?
April 18, 2021
+1
April 18, 2021
And in other news Lifelogic revealed another skill in his incredible armoury, that of seeing into the future labelling technology duff before the R and D cycle has even been completed.
April 18, 2021
The point of the technology is not to be available to the masses.
The green push (putsch ?) is designed to cover that a great reckoning is happening. A shift of wealth from the people of the west to the east.
The idea is to let us get poorer but to make us think it was being done for our own good. Perhaps even make us think it was our own idea. Putting a young girl with special needs at the head of the government and corporation backed movement a master stroke.
We cannot criticise her without being told we’re being nasty therefore “everyone loves Greta”.
Power to the people. Not (especially those in flats and terraces.)
April 18, 2021
@Nig 1 – What on earth are you on about? I am in favour of sensible R&D. Then when and if it works and is economic then roll it out. It will sell without subsidy. I am very much against rolling out duff & uneconomic technology early by using taxpayer subsidies or other government market riggingd. Duff technology they makes no sense without these artificial market distortions. This as it is job destroying economic lunacy.
Surely this concept is not that hard to grasp is it? They did not need to ban horses to force people to buy cars and tractors. Quite the reverse in fact, many vested interests fought against the new technology men in front with flags for example (as is very often the case with new tech.).
April 18, 2021
Corrected version.
@Nig 1 ā What on earth are you on about? I am all in favour of sensible R&D (indeed I have done and funded some in electronics personally. When and if it works and it is economic then roll it out. The products should then sell without needing subsidies. I am very much against rolling out duff & uneconomic technology using government market rigging, legal forcing or other distortions. Duff technology that make no sense without these artificial market distortions should not be rolled out. This as it is generally job destroying economic lunacy and clearly unfair competition to other better solutions.
Surely this concept is not too hard to grasp? They did not need to ban horses to force people to buy cars and tractors. Or ban landlines to sell mobiles. Quite the reverse in fact, many vested interests often fight against the new technology (men in front with flags for example). This is in fact often the case with new technology and vested interests.
REPLY
April 18, 2021
Well said Life Logic.
April 18, 2021
Good morning.
I could have told you all this over 15 years ago ! MASS IMMIGRATION ‘is’ UK Government policy irrespective of what promises are made at election time.
So in effect our kind host is telling us :
a) the government QUANGO’s are not doing their job – quelle surprise.
b) that UK citizens have to take their place in the queue along with everyone else regardless. There is no UK citizen first policy when it comes to social housing, education or access to services. Of course the rich are not affected by these policies since they can pay to have access to better homes, schools, healthcare and so on.
Not much point in voting Tory is there.
April 18, 2021
Sir John is clearly in favour of mass immigration. He just wants it to be managed better. I bet he won’t like the use of the word foreigner.
Reply I support the Conservative policy of controlled immigration at substantially lower rates than recent years.
April 19, 2021
That is NOT Conservative PARTY policy, because, despite being in government for 11 long, cruel years, we have mass immigration.
April 18, 2021
In the Far-East, Middle-East, Africa and South America it doesnāt matter if youāre an illegal or legal immigrant you canāt use public health, housing or education service you have to pay and go private i.e public services are for indigenous taxpayers
The UK is noted around the world for its freebies and allowing anybody to use our services ā no wonder weāre the destination of choice
April 18, 2021
“Assuming more than 3 million additional people have come over the last decade, as seems likely, that means we needed another 1.25 homes…”
Very big homes, presumably. One and a quarter homes several times the size of Wembley stadium.
April 18, 2021
Many migrants from the rest of the world came to the UK via the EU. We have Portugal giving passports to any citizens from Goa, India, Malta selling passports, the Baltic states selling passports to the Russianās, Spain giving citizenship to South Americanās.
Our immigration system has been far too lax and it was not just because of the EU. Even before Brexit if I wanted to live in Spain I would have had no recourse to their benefits system, would have had to have 7K in the bank and pay for my own health care. Yet we allowed people to come here with nothing, claim benefits and even gave them free houses. All UK governments have been a soft touch in regards to immigration and taxpayers have had to pay the price.
April 18, 2021
Precisely – immigrants from the rest of the world are coming in through the EU.
We have a huge local community of Italian speaking Somalis, I doubt the airport video surveillance counted them as European on entry but European immigrants they are.
April 18, 2021
The English have paid the price of the former conservative Party’s deliberate mass migration and the consequences of less health, education, and all public services. All treated exactly the same with no preference. Where else in the world do successive woke Governments treat its people with such contempt.
April 18, 2021
+1
April 18, 2021
Absolutely right Christine. When we went to Spain to live we were entitled to medical care for two years on the back of NI contributions we had paid in the UK. After this, nothing. No translators provided like here. We had to either pay full rent or buy a property. Even the Spaniards only get benefits for a few months. Not indefinite like here. We really are a stupid nation with a welfare bill that’s getting bigger all the time.
I’ve just been told that our neighbours received Ā£500 each to self isolate. He’s self employed but she works for the NHS and was on full pay for the duration. Great if you can get it.
April 18, 2021
I hesitate to mention that we have been saying this for the past decade. The evidence all around us is that there is a free-for-all here. There has to be some respect for our forefathers who built this land. Would they have wanted their investment to be muscled-in on in this way? There has to be some respect for a vote to leave the EU and to control this surge. There’s one big vacuum for a party to take on this void.
April 18, 2021
āWe need to grow more of our own skills base by excellence in educationā
And yet we hear this week that bad spelling and grammar is to be ignored in our universities.
What we need is a return to technical colleges and grammar schools where youngsters are taught according to their vocation, not the figure of 50% university-educated youngsters that Blair imposed that has been a disaster, leaving a shortage of tradesā people.
April 18, 2021
+1!
April 18, 2021
Surely the recent census will give you accurate figures for legal immigration. If thatās not its purpose then what is the point of it?
April 18, 2021
Let’s face it, the government hasn’t got a clue how many are staying in Britain.
Thousands are co.ing over the Channel without any documentation. France is actively encouraging it.
There is no appetite in government to reduce immigration as it doesn’t affect the great and good.
April 18, 2021
Oh dear! But youāve got to be FAIR ( bleat).
Ho…hum āourā country. Yeah!
I certainly do not remember ever being able to dictate location or type of housing.
I had to go where the jobs were and live in what we could afford. āNo council house for you..youāve got access to a tapā ( and a baby on the way).
Of course that was London and in those days we did not understand the priorities. We TRUSTED our government. Haha!
April 18, 2021
Canāt post.
I keep getting this….( even at first attempt)
āDuplicate comment detected; it looks as though youāve already said that!ā
Ā« Back
April 18, 2021
Seems to be working now!
April 18, 2021
I’d have thought several of our contributors ought to get that message.
April 18, 2021
My confidence in government produced and sponsored data is low. If they cannot get historical data like this right, if covid deaths are overstated (as they are as a consequence of changing the basis cause of death on death certificates last year and questioned at the time), what confidence can be had about government predictions of the future? My opinion is that such data is used to manipulate public opinion, should be taken with a large pinch of salt and heavily discounted. It usually starts with a range of scenarios, selection of the worst case followed by the adoption of the precautionary principle (another EU watchword) and the implementation of the policy option the government wants. Sheep like MPs can usually be relied on to endorse it.
April 18, 2021
Well done the Home Office. It is all too easy to assume “Not fit for purpose” comes naturally and easily but perhaps it does require persistent effort.
April 18, 2021
Iām not so much bothered by free movement if people canāt access free healthcare and benefits from day one including housing by getting themselves eventually thrown out of private rentals they stopped paying for six months. We never seem to action anything in this Country, including returning criminals after serving their sentences, in fact I see it as a benefit we canāt extradite criminals back from the EU now let them keep them just remove access to them back to the UK, or asking people to return home if they canāt find work after six months.
The ONS is not fit for purpose, how many of these 76% extra people are on housing benefit, child benefits, working tax credits, child tax credits (often for children not in the UK). Surely the statistics office can tell us those figures the government are paying them out. How come we canāt add up the number of babies born in UK hospitals to none UK registered people. The number of GP appointments or A&E appointments to people not in the NHS system.
The Conservative government are not looking after their English electors, everyone else is at the front of the queue for everything and we have no alternative if we donāt want Labourās anti-monarchy, anti-Union Jack, state control, state selection, abandonment of meritocracy, levelling down free for all Labour Party. A party that wants British people on their knees saying sorry for being white and British every week. I never understand why Labour is the strongest in all the most depressed areas in the UK, Stoke has woken up and your government actually need to get on and start to provide opportunities there, its within your remit and I donāt just mean sending them all the boat people because Labour councillors never say no.
April 18, 2021
I share your anger and frustration.
April 18, 2021
So the biggest concern about uncontrolled immigration is possible failure to provide housing, services and benefits to the migrants? Because the country has limitless capacity, like the TARDIS. Talking about birth rates is a taboo to some, but it is simple arithmetic that if you import peoples with high birth rates they will eventually form such a large proportion that they will demand the culture and customs of their own countries become the norm, at which point the original indigenous inhabitants will find themselves with the status of the Native Americans of the USA.
April 18, 2021
High birth rates come with societies where women have limited life choices. Once women have career options, they are more likely to choose a career path rather than have babies. Education is the answer.
April 18, 2021
I wrote about using the Census to mine answers to many social questions about how the population has behaved, and the future direction. An opportunity missed.
April 18, 2021
Weasel words by those trying to avoid responsibility for an incredible situation – They are basically saying that they don’t really know EXACTLY how many people came to live in our over-crowded isles.
How on earth did we ever rule a huge empire if this is an example of how the government keeps it’s statistics.
Considering this, and how the government is totally unable or unwilling to estimate costs of major projects accurately, you have to wonder how far this goes. It appears that where there is a knowledge gap that numbers are made up to look not too bad.
Will we find out at some point in the future that the estimated and extrapolated numbers around CV testing, and deaths from CV were also made up, bearing no resemblance to reality? – I FEAR SO
April 18, 2021
Sir John, you use the phrase “more migrants came from the EU” – does this mean ‘more EU citizens came’ or ‘more migrants from elsewhere came via the EU’?
April 18, 2021
Correct
April 18, 2021
Free movement applies only to EU citizens – is) citizens of an EU country. In most EU countries it is exceptionally difficult to become citizens – usually requiring a wait of several years, with additional requirements beyond that – usually including language skills. In a few EU countries you can pay for citizenship – but the cost means this is only a route for multimillionaires. It is a route some leading Brexit donors have taken to retain their EU citizenship.
But your question is presumably based on the fact that you worry the refugees Mrs Merkel helped will somehow end up living here. Why would they come here when Germany is more welcoming and prosperous than us? But even assuming they wanted to they would not qualify as they are not EU citizens. And virtually none of them ever will be.
To gain Germany citizenship they have to have been resident in Germany for at least 8 years, speak the language fluently and be āexceptionally well integratedā. In which case why would they ever want to leave?
April 18, 2021
Andy
One minute you tell us that refugees come here because of English language skills or family connections, next you tell us they don’t want to come here because Germany and othe EU countries are just so good.
April 19, 2021
Why are you asking us why people come to the UK, three and a half millions from the EU legally in recent decades, and additional tens of thousands risking their lives to come? Why not ask them?
If it comes to that, why do six million UK residents have at least one Irish grandparent? Moving to the UK isn’t exactly a new trend. Every decade has its wave of immigrants to the UK.
April 19, 2021
Andy – no, oddly enough, I was asking a straightforward question to clarify something – your ramblings about the likelihood of some migrants living in Germany wanting to come to the UK are a fantasy of your own fevered imagination.
I also view with interest the whole question of large waves of international migration, partly because of the recent significant surges from South America attempting to enter the US, and partly because I live in S Africa. Large numbers of professional black and white S Africans are attempting to leave the country, while significant numbers of black migrants from surrounding countries illegally enter SA as it is perceived to be just marginally better than their own nations.
Globally, I feel politicians should stop faffing about unreachable NetZero concepts and start addressing the basic reasons why so many human beings are taking desperate steps to leave their own homes to reach a handful of countries so often derided by people with your mindset.
April 18, 2021
It is becoming ever more clear that the ONS is not fit for purpose, but what is being done about it? In private industry an error of this kind would have lead to resignations, or failing them, sackings, but in the world of ‘Government’ life just goes on the same without anyone accountable or even expressing any regret. How can one believe a word they say?
April 18, 2021
It stands for ‘Our Nonsense Statistics’.
April 18, 2021
Since the loss of Dame Jil Matheson as chief statistician, the ONS participate in cheating people. Evidence? The lobbying for and eventual reversal of Dame Jil’s decision to maintain the integrity of the Retail Prices Index (RPI) : the ONS have changed a key formula in the RPI, whilst still calling the index the RPI. Result? People who entered binding RPI-linked contracts in an open market will get less than they paid for.
April 18, 2021
Seems extraordinary the ONS were counting via a “survey” of a few people conducted on arrival (even if they all answered truthfully) rather than via the mass of actual real data they have (NI numbers, income tax records, council tax records, local electoral rolls, etc. etc.) which has now highlighted this massive error.
April 18, 2021
And I have just read in the Thunderer that Hancockās defence to accusations about a Greensill accessing NHS staff personal details, incidentally no comment on data protection, is that he made it clear it should be cost free to the staff and the taxpayer.
So who did he think would pay for it? The tooth fairy? Am I missing something or are he and his advisers so naive to be this stupid or to think we wouldnāt see through such a pathetic response.
The sloping shoulders brigade of NHS England and NHSX claim innocence stating it was up to individual trusts and organisations. So zero leadership to compound the disgrace.
April 18, 2021
+1
April 18, 2021
I hope you will allow a second comment on this post! Thinking further about it made me wonder which Minister was responsible for the ONS, and I find that it is a ‘Non ministerial department answering directly to Parliament’. So when is Parliament going to do something about its department’s ineptitude?
April 18, 2021
ONS Table 1.1: in “Population in the United Kingdom […] by country of birth”, shows 66.2 million population of which 9.1 million were born outside the UK; 3.4 million born in the EU and 5.7 million born somewhere else. Do I assume those figures are now 5,5 EU and 3.6 million rest of the world? Exactly what difference does this make other than this total immigration is more likely to speak good English. Or, is this just another EU bashing post?
Meanwhile, I suggest Border Force adopts as a motto the famous phrase of the late Brian Hanrahan of the BBC; “I counted them all out, and I counted them all back.”
April 18, 2021
Acorn
Many reports suggest no one is actually counted in or out, they simply take a random count, at a random time, at random points of entry, and then multiply it by an unproven figure, to estimate that some people may come in, or go out, with other family members.
Then they think it’s real information !!!!!
April 18, 2021
If you have ever gone through immigration in Chicago or Dubai, you will have realised what a joke UK immigration is.
April 19, 2021
Acorn.
Not Dubai, but a number of American immigration entry points, and other centres around the World, so yes understand and agree completely.
A couple of years ago when we entered the UK from France by ferry, even cars towing caravans were not searched, indeed they did not even open the caravan doors or look through windows.
Then of course we have the Channel taxi service operating on a free of charge basis.
April 18, 2021
I think you mean ‘ I counted them all in, but there weren’t many going back’.
April 18, 2021
This may be news to the political class, but it has been well known by the paying public for years. In fact governments have actively incentivised immigration legal and illegal, as the only way they can get GDP up, by importing people to use more services and keep wage rates low. When they arrive some alien cultures then want our society to bend to their will and have no intention of integrating and make some of our town centres look like the places they came from, enhanced by special laws for them, such as the ritual killing of animals without any stunning, opening shops whenever they like for as long as they like even on holy days, which if the ordinary indigenous person did it, he would have the law upon him in a flash. It’s like having someone come into your house uninvited and start moving the furniture around and telling you that’s how its going to be. The only people able to walk around as they liked during lockdown, without being harassed by the police were the illegals kept in hotels and army barracks.
We of course welcome the oppressed as we always have, but the majority do not qualify in any way, yet are not sent back nor will they be.
April 18, 2021
What’s so difficult about stopping unwanted migration? The term “asylum seeker” does not apply since, with little or no exceptions, all must have travelled by sea from a safe country; they would not be allowed to fly from elsewhere without proof of an entry document.
The only conclusion is that government doesn’t want to stop it.
April 18, 2021
+1
April 18, 2021
Letās face it, since proper entry and exit controls were done away with, no-one has any idea how many people are in the county.
April 18, 2021
+1
April 18, 2021
No John, I’m sorry but this will never do. Far too much wisdom and common sense for the liberal left to take on board. Too many inconvenient truths. This tends to blow their arguments out of the water and is so beyond their comprehension, they will look upon the stats with incredulity and still cling to the idea we must fill the United Kingdom up to the rafters with everyone and anyone who wants to come.
Now a reality check. This problem has been permitted to fester by politicians who were singularly useless. Their inability to grasp this nettle is a poor reflection upon their lack of ability, unless…..
….. it has been a cynical trick played upon the rest of us by those who say the right things to get elected, then do something completely different the moment they get into power, you know the thing, just like those Tories who convinced us they were Eurosceptics but turned their coat at the first opportunity.
April 18, 2021
And Traitor May, “Brexit means Brexit” when she had absolutely NO intention of persuing this agenda and she is still in parliament.
April 18, 2021
Just think of all the “fact checks” based on the ONS figures up to this point. All the things gleefully labelled as Fake News, which now turn out to be true. All the people labelled as xenophobes and worse, stating the official stats as part of the justification.
There needs to be a lot of grovelling apologies it seems.
April 18, 2021
I’ve tried to find this story on the BBC News site, no luck.
I don’t recall it’s been on the BBC TV news either.
Why is that?
April 18, 2021
Nobody can believe Government immigration statistics – there is no real will there to reduce numbers although they do now want to deal with the consequences – a lot more houses – an awful lot more (very unpopular), the health, social and education services not upgraded to cover these extra numbers with the result all to obviously seen with Covid 19.
Unless the Government can do something about the stranglehold a few big builders have on land supply there will always be a housing crisis.
April 18, 2021
Mr. Redwood – a couple of questions, if I may.
Why has your government allowed such high levels of immigration for so long?
Every day you post at least one article here. Generally your governments actions get a good roasting from those who comment. Given Thai, presumably, most of your readers are Tory voters, do you ever report to those leading your party that most of the Tory voters on your blog think that this Tory government is worse than useless?
April 19, 2021
Sir John has always had a handsome majority in Wokingham. With a swing of 10% against Tories in the next GE, approx 170 Tory MPs could be unseated. They ought to be making it clear that they don’t want the policies trotted out by this and Government and its leader.
They have the one chance to be re-elected or be consigned to the list of those who sat on hands while UK burned under Johnson.
April 18, 2021
The government has no intention of reducing immigration. It is all part of the Establishment plan.
April 18, 2021
After 10+ years of ever increasing immigration; I tend to agree with you
April 18, 2021
Revising the numbers is interesting, I suppose, but to me the most amazing thing is that so many people want to come to the UK, mostly permanently,and are willing to make a significant effort to do so. Illegals and “boat people” make headlines, but boat people are just the visible symptom of violence somewhere. Most of the entries to the UK were not refugees, but simply people who figured that they had better prospects in the UK than elsewhere.
In my lifetime we have had many waves of arrivals, from Irish and Caribbean migrants in the Forties, then from Eastern Europe in the Sixties and Seventies, to today’s snooty EU migrants who think they are doing us such a favour.
One thing they all have in common is that eventually they all become more British than the British, and some come to have quite strong opinions on immigration.
April 18, 2021
“Nor in a decent society should we say No to asylum seekers seeking a haven from violence and oppression”
I’m sorry, but this is just sentimental nonsense with no basis in logic or reality. Britain is not now, and nor has it ever been, responsible for the rest of the planet’s seething mass of humanity. We are a small and over-populated island (one of the most densely populated in the world). We are struggling financially and are increasing taxation. We have huge social problems and a lack of housing and other infrastructure. Our public services (schools, hospitals, etc) are overstretched. The notion that we should add to our population (already at an all-time high) by accepting asylum-seekers is a fantasy that is grossly unfair to the existing British population. You know, the people you are supposed to actually represent.
And who are these asylum-seekers anyway? If they were genuinely seeking safety they would go to the nearest safe country. In no case is this the UK. Those coming here go throough innumerable other countries before reaching our shores. They could claim asylum a dozen times over befre coming here. But they don’t. And that proves they are bogus. Yes, many are fleeing poverty, or civil war, but there is NO right to go ‘country shopping’. And anyway, where would Britain be today if all our young men had fled in 1939 saying they didn’t want to be conscripted? Fleeing a war instead of fighting for your country is hardly an honourable act, and not one which we should reward. We have introduced a points system which is based on the principle that we have a right to choose the best and most useful peopple to reward with the privilege of British citizenship. Asylum-seekers are trying to sabotage this system and force their way in. They are of no value to Britain. We should make it clear that Britain does not exist for the benefit of foreigners. Foreigners who come here should benefit Britain.
April 19, 2021
Looking at very simple & ever changing population figures on Worldometers, just as a personal and simple observation over a sample period from 30 June 2020 to 07 March 2021 ( Period 1 ) then again for period 07 March 2021 to 17 April 2021 (Period 2) for the UK, SPAIN, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY with all figures rounded down, I noted that the UK records by far the higher population increases over those periods, with only Italy recording decreases.
UK (1) plus 243000 (2) plus 39000.
SPAIN (1) plus 12000 (2) plus 2000
FRANCE (1) plus 98000 (2) plus 16000
GERMANY (1) plus 182000 (2) plus 29000
ITALY (1) minus 60000 (2) minus 9000
Good & interesting sources of information on migration stats and related issues, facts & figures with some interesting graph illustration is available on the Migration Watch website which is also, seemingly, well maintained.
April 19, 2021
I think I missed a referendum! The one asking about taking in 200,000+ Chinese.
Even now, there will be a small secret group in Peking infiltrating the HK Chinese.
April 19, 2021
The National Housing Federation say “8m people in England live in unsuitable, unaffordable, unsafe homes.” source Guardian 19/04. It doesn’t say how many of these 8m are immigrants? Does anyone know or care? Why is it seeking the optimal solution for the rest of the UK to provide cheap homes for them if they came here with nothing? Especially if they want to live in London or the South East. When I left home I wanted to live in nice expensive towns but the rents were too high so I had to rent 22 miles from work or an hours drive into Central Manchester because staying at home with parents to save up a deposit wasn’t doable, just what % of British couples are currently getting HA/Council housing?
Then Shelter say people need an income of Ā£59,300 to buy with a 5% deposit crikey you can still buy a 2 bed house near where I live for Ā£75,000 and a 3 bed semi for Ā£120,000 with gardens front and back. Shouldn’t these articles be broken down into the regions. A public sector worker in Wales is wealthy often the same public sector worker in the South East feels poor.
We’re told this is all the fault of the government – where I do hold you at fault is when you haven’t checked on the contracts with the Housing Associations when they fail to invest what they promised in housing and improvements, whilst they can afford to fill their own annual pensions pots with top-ups of nearly Ā£10 million and are the best employers around – any fool can spend money. They should be bringing in approx Ā£3,000,000.00 at least in rents from their current portfolio, plus the money from homes they sold and shops they rent out. Yet they have built very few houses or apartments, why? When we have 400 new homes on a private development and this HA buys only 9 what price do they pay? [market rate or is this another kick back for them] and the old section 106 orders then don’t get collected to be spent on the rest of the town, the potholed road leading up to the estate, the estate roads, the pavements – the town gets nothing! You never read the Guardian investigating that do you!
April 19, 2021
Sorry not Ā£3,000,000 – Missed off the 6, the rents would be in the region of at least Ā£36,000,000 [Ā£500 pcm rent = Ā£6000 pa x 6200 homes = Ā£37,200,000.00] {calc Ā£600 pcm = Ā£7200 x 6200 houses = Ā£44,640,000.00 pa] plus the shop rents + the garage rents. The 7200 houses should have reached Ā£70,000 each not the Ā£7000 they were sold for. Average rental yield on private properties = 4%. So the value of the homes is at least Ā£120,000 each now x 6200 = Ā£744,000,000.00 so why hasnāt the HA borrowed money against this and build double the number of homes? That was the main reason we were told in many meetings was their main reason for existence because the Council couldnāt borrow money to build new homes but HAās could. All they seem to be doing is paying over the top salaries and pensions and perks and benefits and dropping the total number of social rentals. Iām not bothered if you donāt want to share this John but you should be looking into it as we were ripped off here.
April 19, 2021
I don’t know whether I’m alone in this but I don’t want to replace excess immigration from eastern Europe by excess immigration from the Indian subcontinent, the Islamic world and Africa. ZPG and an economic policy that targets high GDP per capita is what is needed for the UK. This can be achieved with a lot less immigration than we have at the moment.
April 20, 2021
The conservatives are lucky that labour are so bad. The attitude of the political class to the real voters is terrible. The kier starmer I am not going to be lectured by you incident says it all. This country is in serious trouble, and the gates are wide open for a new political party. This cannot go on.
April 20, 2021
BBC reporting 113 people / 7 boats in the Channel arrived yesterday 19 Apr. Report is not under ‘Dover’ but ‘England’ The arrivals last week ( assuming that was the last ‘event’ ) reported on BBC 14 April 42 people / 3 boats under ‘ Dover’ Reports seem ever vaguer these days sometimes just mentioning e.g. ‘attempted to cross’ or ‘ were intercepted ‘ & no longer any detail on nationality. This detail stopped quite a while back it seems but what has appeared on reports is the number of movements being stopped by the French authorities which in the last two landings 14/4 3 crossings / 45 people and 19/4 4 crossings / approx 72 people. We should be reassured though that “more than 60” small boat related prosecutions have been secured since the start of 2020.