UK, Immigration: The disgraceful censorship

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Immigration: The disgraceful censorship by all political parties of the greatest issue of our time

23:31pm 26th October 2007
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Peter Oborne
Although this country is supposed to be a democracy, all the most important decisions of the last 50 years have taken place without the consent, and in some cases, without the knowledge, of the British people.

The decision to develop the atom bomb in the immediate aftermath of World War II was made in secret.

When Britain entered what was then called the Common Market in 1973, the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, informed us that there were no implications for national sovereignty.

The cynical Heath was well aware that he was telling an outright lie.

Mass immigration is another case in point. The British people have never been consulted and, more importantly, have frequently been deliberately misled about the massive demographic change of the past ten years.

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The majority of projected population surges are thought to be down to immigrants

For example, when Poland and other Eastern European states joined the EU three years ago, ministers blithely said that the impact of immigration from these new member states on this country would merely amount to somewhere between 5,000 and 13,000 people a year.

For good measure, they denounced as racist those who warned that this was an absurd underestimate.

Of course, as is now well-known, the numbers arriving here from Poland alone has amounted to at least 150,000 a year, and the true figure is probably far bigger. Yet we have yet to receive an apology for this egregious act of public deception.

Last week, however, something unprecedented happened. The British public was told the truth about immigration. Needless to say, this unusual act of candour did not emanate from ministers.

Instead, it came courtesy of the impartial and objective Office of National Statistics (ONS), which predicted that Britain's population will surge from the present 60 million to an unbelievable 71million over the course of the next generation.

By 2051, it is projected to stand at 75million. The majority of this increase will come from immigration. It is worth bearing in mind that England, which will bear the brunt, is already extremely densely populated.

Whereas France has 289 people for every square mile, in England, 1,007 of us struggle to live in the same space.

THE next wave of immigration, according to the ONS figures, will bring an extra population the equivalent of 11 new cities the size of Birmingham ...

Is this the kind of Britain we really want?

And yet all our politicians — Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat — are determined not to discuss the issue.

This censorship is a failure of leadership on an epic scale.

If David Cameron and Gordon Brown are too cowardly to talk about immigration in an open and honest way, in due course, a new and perhaps more menacing type of political leader will emerge to fill the space they are leaving vacant.