The Conservative Party's message about the need for controlled immigration at their annual conference is both laughable and wholly deceiving. While both the Prime Minister and Theresa May echo Ukip's language almost verbatim, it is important to bear in mind that this is the second term under the Conservatives, with Mrs May as home secretary and David Cameron as leader and their government has broken all previous records on net migration and asylum into the UK.
The Home Secretary for a start needs to explain why it has taken her so long to set up a full review of the UK asylum system when she has presided over the collapse of it for the past six years, without even raising an eyebrow. So many of the initiatives that Theresa May mentioned in her speech today will be subject to future rulings of the European court as the EU human rights industry fight any sensible changes every step of the way, just showing how out of touch she and the European Courts really are.
Her statements recognising the impact of migration on public services are welcome but leads anyone who resides in any of England's big cities to say: "Great, but where have you been living Mrs May? We've known this for years!" Can we take it that the government finally realises that the number of migrants coming to the UK has much more profound effects on our communities then on just how nice we are as a people and where immigrants sleep? A recognition from a failing Home Secretary that despite a vocal minority wanting the UK to just open our borders to all and sundry the silent majority understand just how crazy this idea is.
I believe the impact we see on public services like health, education and on infrastructure like roads, water and sewage are too often ignored by those who think that those of us who approach the refugee crisis with a head as well as a heart, are less compassionate than they are. The stark reality for countless families is that, too many communities are struggling to educate the children who already live in them. Simply wishing for the best which has been Conservative policy up to now is not sensible public policy, nor is it long term and sustainable.
Next though, I feel, we will be seeing net migration figures soar as residency documents are handed to millions of new economic migrants who have reached the continent this year, Mrs May's remarks must be seen as a sign that the government knows what's coming. This is the arrival in the UK of tens of thousands more migrants who think that their economic prospects are better in Britain, than anywhere else in the EU.
Thus government offers piecemeal solutions to these huge problems. Restricting benefits in a partial way is not the answer to the uncontrolled mass migration problem. Most migrants do not come to the UK intent on claiming benefits, they come to find work at any price. That's why unskilled immigration on the scale we have seen, compresses wages and has a huge effect on job displacement. Tinkering with the benefits system is a smokescreen for the Prime Minister's failure to address the rather important issue of how many EU citizens, particularly from Eastern Europe, can just 'up sticks' and come to Britain under the free movement of people principle associated with our EU membership. Until we address this issue, Britain will continue to be a magnet for economic migrants.
The Tories set meaningless targets, time and time again and then use a PR bluster like this speech to camouflage their failures. In the real world the UK's immigration policies cannot be divorced from our membership of the EU and the free movement of people principles that accompany such membership.
Until the government grasps the nettle and opts Britain out of free movement or leaves the EU entirely, it can only talk about controlling our borders not actually do anything about it. Similarly just sounding like Ukip doesn't mean that they have the well thought through fair and ethical migration policies that our party won so much support for at the last general election. The bottom line? Mrs May's speech would have been far more coherent if she had just made a call for Brexit. I feel we will never see her say that, so until then, we continue to be borderless Britain.