British people have spoken about multiculturalism — so it’s time to stop giving immigrants a free pass
Just one in six people show any faith in the Government to tackle migration, while only 13 per cent feel that politicians are 'open and honest'
BRITAIN is going through one of the biggest social revolutions in our history.
Mass immigration is transforming the size and the nature of our population.
Between 2001 and 2016, the number of people living in the UK increased by 6.6million to 65.7million. And the influx continues.
Latest statistics show the number of migrants who settled here in the year to March 2018 was 614,000, equal to a city bigger than Bristol. Net migration was around 270,000.
Yet the revolution has been imposed by the ruling elite without any consent. No British citizen was ever asked to vote for this upheaval. No major party ever sought a mandate to open our doors.
This helps to explain why the British public has such profound distrust in MPs on the question of immigration, as revealed in a major new opinion survey published this week.
In the biggest consultation of its kind, involving 20,000 interviews, just one in six people showed any faith in the Government to tackle migration, while only 13 per cent felt that politicians are “open and honest” about the issue.
These findings are not the result of bigotry or prejudice. Britons have been remarkably tolerant in the face of change.
Indeed, that shines through the survey, which discovered that 65 per cent of people believe migrants bring valuable skills to the economy and the public sector. Similarly, 59 per cent think that diversity benefits our national culture.
But British decency has been exploited by the political class to implement its agenda, with the result that disillusion is now widespread.
People are rightly fed up with politicians who indulge in denial and deceit about the reality of mass immigration.
A classic example was the phoney claim from the last Labour Government that, when the former communist countries of eastern Europe joined the EU in 2004, just 13,000 of their citizens would come to the UK. In fact, more than a million did.
Even worse has been the attempt, particularly by the Left, to suppress open discussion by hurling accusations of racism against critics of mass immigration.
A climate of censorship now prevails where public figures are expected to parrot the fashionable orthodoxy, and ordinary citizens are afraid to voice their concerns.
Yet the anxieties of the public are all too genuine. Immigration has imposed more strain on our civic infrastructure, reflected in the shortage of affordable housing, the never-ending NHS crisis, the growth in the welfare burden and difficulties for parents in finding school places for kids.
People are rightly fed up with politicians who indulge in denial and deceit about the reality of mass immigration
Leo McKinstry
The import of cheap foreign labour has meant lower wages and job insecurity. Just as disturbing is the erosion of solidarity because of this upheaval.
Social cohesion cannot exist without real integration, as the public recognised in the survey.
The majority of respondents, 88 per cent, agreed with the idea that “migrants should learn English” and 85 per cent believe that migrants “should share our values”.
But the multicultural ideology, which has long been the creed of the state, works in the opposite direction.
It encourages migrants to cling to the practices and languages of their native lands, fuelling division. As does the institutionalised acceptance of sharia law, which arguably offers more protection to men than women, undermining the traditional concept that we are all equal before the law.
The consequences of multi-culturalism are seen at their most corrosive in the failure by the state to tackle serious crimes perpetrated by ethnic minorities, such as the organised abuse of girls by mainly Asian gangs in places like Rotherham and Derby.
More concerned to uphold the illusion of cultural diversity’s success than to protect victims of crime, the police and other authorities indulged in a cover-up. It was only exposure of the abuse by journalists that finally forced them to act.
That mix of official dishonesty and paralysis only undermines our society. There is a lesson for us from Europe, where the political order is threatened by growing public anger over immigration.
Britain has always been renowned for its avoidance of extremism. But we will avoid the same fate only if the state adopts a new approach on immigration
Leo McKinstry
In 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that “this multi-cultural approach has failed.” But she did nothing to reverse the policy. Instead, she opened the door even wider, especially in 2015 when she allowed in more than a million migrants.
The crime that followed has led to public outcry.
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Britain has always been renowned for its avoidance of extremism. But we will avoid the same fate only if the state adopts a new approach on immigration, including more political honesty, tighter border controls and an emphasis on British values.
That is not racist. As the public knows, it is a recipe for greater harmony.