Some years ago, when I was a jobbing councillor in Southampton, I was asked a question which I failed to answer adequately. The question was simple enough, “Why aren’t illegal immigrants treated the same way as anyone else who breaks the law?” I waffled my way through a response but my questioner just kept repeating, “They are illegal, aren’t they?” He was right, of course. He had noticed then, as most people do now, that entering this country illegally carries no sanction or penalty but stealing a loaf of bread or exceeding a speed limit on one of our congested roads, does.
25 years later every voter can see what has happened to our country and what is continuing to happen at an eye watering pace. People don’t look at immigration figures and trends, they don’t need to, they can see the change in demographics in their neighbourhoods and communities for themselves.
The official figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) tells only half the story. Their figures show those that have come here legally or applied for asylum or refugee status, they do not include all the illegal entrants of which there are hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions. No one really knows.
How did we allow this to happen? How did our country get into such a mess that the government doesn’t know how many people are here? The truth is, no one in Westminster and Whitehall cared. Allowing low skilled labour to come here and do low skilled jobs was convenient.
Labour have no appetite to solve the illegal migrant crisis.
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In the UK we have replaced a Conservative Government too lazy and divided to deal with illegal immigration, with a Labour Government that doesn’t want to.
A recent report obtained by the Telegraph suggested, 585,000 people, one in 12, in London are illegal immigrants. Those figures don’t include legal migration and those who are here on study or work visas.
The latest figures from the ONS say the population of the UK will grow from 67.2 million in 2022 to 72.5 million in 2032. Almost all of this population growth will be immigration and doesn’t include illegal immigration, which by its nature is hard to predict, but could be millions more.
Let’s assume the government have a plan for the size of our current population and for what is predicted over the next 10 years. If we optimistically believe that all the school places, hospital beds, and GP appointments will materialise in time for the expected population growth, what plans do we think they have for all the illegal immigrants here now and those that will no doubt join them in the next decade?
The government must stop sweeping this crisis under the rug.
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If we don’t have all the infrastructure we need for those that we know about, how will we manage to accommodate those we don’t? The answer is simple, we can’t. Those that pay for our crumbling infrastructure and public services will continue to do so but the queue to access education and health will just get longer.
The Government can’t keep sweeping immigration under the carpet. They can’t keep accusing those with concerns about our ever increasing population of being racists or xenophobes. The immigration genie is well and truly out of the bottle. The establishment will continue to ignore it at their peril. The British are quite a reserved lot but does anyone seriously believe they will put up with this for much longer?
Politicians bang on endlessly about representing their constituents and serving their country. Who is it they think they are representing and serving when they lecture and bully the voters when they voice their concerns?. The gulf between the electorate and the government has never been wider. If we are to have a solution to mass migration the establishment must first acknowledge the problem, Currently, there is no sign of that.
