Across the pond

The question on immigration in this last TV debate, which according to the rules was supposed to be on the economy, was asked by a man who was most definititely not the white working class, who support the BNP, nor the white upper class, who fund UKIP. He was most definitely coal black, with ancestry from either Africa or the West Indies.

This was Cameron’s moment and he took it.

He pledged that he would put a cap on immigration. Alone of the three leaders.

That changes the political landscape.

No longer is it necessary for those worried about immigration to vote for the BNP or UKIP. Cameron has commited himself to do what they have been asking for.

Whether he will get Mrs Duffy’s vote is more open to question.

Cameron not only responded to her fears, he magnified them, by asserting that there are 1.2 million illegal immigrants in Britain.

The plain fact is that no-one knows how many illegal immigrants there are. Because they are not in the records. They have came illegally – risking suffocation in lorries from the continent. Others  brought in by unscrupulous gang masters.

But no-one knows how many there are. Befcause they don’t have national insurance cards, they are not on the electoral register, they don’t pay any taxes.

Nick Clegg wants to give them an amnesty, and give them a chance to become tax-paying law abiding citizens. Brown and Cameron say that this will be an invite to any would-be illegal immigrants to get into Britain illegally. And also give them the right to import all their relatives quite legally.

This is nonsense.

It is entirely possible to give them an amnesty, without giving them the right to import their relatives.

It is entirely possible to combine the amnesty with tighter immigration controls.

Such controls would target, not the desparate immigrants, but the ‘entrepeneurs’ who have been making profits from taking their life savings, and transporting them here in the cargo holds of commercial transports.

So while I am sure that Cameron will get extra votes from his stance on immigration, I think he will also lose some.

Neither Harold Macmillan nor Benjamin Disraeli would vote for him, although he says he is an admirer of both.