WATCHING MIGRATIONWATCH

Have finished moving house now. And at last I’m back on-line. Also have a new telephone number which I’m gradually spreading amongst people I trust (well, I will when I find the notebook I keep my phone numbers in). So Red, that “List” is now out of date as far as I’m concerned – new address and new phone number – please update your records for making late-night phone calls. Here are extracts from the latest press releases from Sir Andrew Green’s ‘MigrationWatch’, which might go some way towards explaining why, five years ago the BNP had no – or virtually no – elected representatives, but now have about 100 councillors at various levels, one representative on the London Assembly, and two Members of the European Parliament. We are now making faster progress than the fledgling Labour Party was making this time 100 years ago. Read this and wonder why - no more.

- 81% are worried (45% of which are ‘very worried’) about the prospect of a population of 70 million in 2028. - 78% say that Alan Johnson is out of touch with people like them.
- 76% want to see net immigration cut from its present level of 237,000 a year to 50,000 or less a year. Of that 76%, 32% want to see a policy of “one in, one out” while 22% want to see no immigration at all.

The party affiliations are also of interest:

- 90% of Conservative voters are worried (55% very worried) about a population of 70 million. For Labour voters it was 70% worried (29% very worried). Lib Dems were higher at 76% (38% very worried).
- 65% of Labour voters think he is out of touch with them, as do 71% of Lib Dems and 90% of Conservatives.
- A sharp cut in immigration (to 50,000 a year or less) was supported by 85% of Conservative, 70% of Labour[1] and 65% of Lib Dem voters.

The ORB poll of voters in Alan Johnson’s own constituency found that:

- 80% of voters thought that Alan Johnson was “out of touch” on immigration
- 85% were concerned that 7 million of the 10 million increase will be as a result of immigration
- 83% want to see net immigration reduced to 50,000 a year or less
- 80% of voters thought that immigration is putting too much strain on public services.
- 78% of voters opposed his general attitude to immigration and population
- 73% are concerned that Britain is losing its own identity and culture
- 69% of voters were concerned that, over the next 20 years or so, the population of the UK will rise by more than 10 million, from 61 million today to over 70 million.

… ‘In many parts of Britain the public are seething with resentment at the total failure of the political class to take seriously their deep concerns about the impact of immigration on the future of our country,’ …

'The main parties talk tough on immigration, but they are trying to ‘con’ the British public. According to Government figures, we can expect almost another 10 million people in England in 20 years time of which seven million will be due to immigration – equivalent to seven cities the size of Birmingham. Current Labour policy won’t begin to address this. The Conservatives are barely better: despite their rhetoric, they have a lightweight policy that sounds tough but won’t deliver.

The number of illegal immigrants from Pakistan in the UK could be as high as 200,000 according to a new report out today which has compared official statistics on the number of Pakistani born workers with a dramatic increase in the level of remittances being sent to that country.

… only 180,000 Pakistani born workers appear in the official Labour Force Survey so the remaining 170,000 workers needed to reach this level of remittances are likely to be working illegally. But illegal workers are likely to be paid less than those here legally, so there could well be, on this very rough calculation, as many as 200,000 Pakistanis working illegally in Britain.

‘We already know from investigations by newspapers that there are significant numbers of fraudulent students from Pakistan but not all will have come via this route. As there are still no checks on departure, a proportion of those coming as visitors might well stay on after their visas expire. In the five years 2004-8 over half a million visas were issued in Pakistan, including nearly 60,000 student visas[1]. Others could have arrived on the back of a truck,’ said Sir Andrew, Chairman of Migrationwatch.

‘In our view the only plausible explanation for such a rapid increase in remittances from Pakistan is a sharp rise in the number of illegal immigrants sending money home. This paper only attempts a ball park figure but it points to a matter of considerable concern. Not only are illegal workers undercutting the wages of British workers but, in the case of Pakistan there are serious security aspects to an immigration system that has more holes than a Swiss cheese. This requires a root and branch review of the visa system for Pakistan,’ he said.

1 Hansard 29 April 2009 Col 1352W and 6 May 2009 Col 281W

And they wonder why the BNP now has nearly a million voters, and is still growing. Well Red (and colleagues), we've already pasaranned, so now what are you going to do? Go read it all:

http://www.migrationwatchuk.com/pressReleases/23-July-20

Morg

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