A plan for immigration

When trying to justify Labour's immigration policy – if "policy" is quite the word for something so aimless, confused and occasionally craven – David Blunkett referred to Britain as a "crowded, vigorous island". Whether we have grown more vigorous on this Government's watch is a moot point; but we have certainly grown more crowded. Britain, and more particularly the south-east of England, is packed tight according to the cross-party parliamentary group on balanced migration, between 1991 and 2007 more than 2.1 million immigrants were added to the English population, with an estimated seven million more to come over the next two decades.

The economic impact of immigration is a matter of some debate. Last year, the House of Lords' economic affairs committee, which is stuffed with the great and the good, concluded that record levels of immigration had brought no economic benefit to the country the official statistics used to justify its merits had been "irrelevant and misleading". In some areas, existing workers have been displaced and alienated; in others, immigrants have plugged vital skills shortages (indeed, the Ernst & Young Item Club warned this week that the departure of migrant workers will retard our emergence from the recession).