Knowing and Making

David Cameron claims in a speech today that the 2.2 million total of net immigrants from 1997-2009 is "the largest influx of people Britain has ever had". But I was unsure, so I thought I'd check the data. 15 minutes of searching and downloading some national statistics data proved him wrong. In fact, in the same length of period from 1946 to 1958, a net total of 2.8 million people arrived in Britain - none of whom could speak English, or had any assets, none of whom knew or followed our cultural norms, and none of whom got a job or started a business for at least a decade after arriving. Indeed the total arrivals in this period were 9.4 million, with 6.6 million people departing. And yet nobody at the time had any problem with them - we fed, educated and housed them, and indeed they were one of the major reasons for the creation of the NHS. Today, those who are still here (nearly all of them) make an overwhelming contribution to our economy, creating much of the ...

The BBC reports that: Nearly 37,000 immigrants landed on Italian shores last year, an increase of about 75% on the year before. This increase means that last year's invasion - making up 0.004% of the EU's population - has leapt to an overwhelming 0.007%. Clearly this army of economic refugees must be stopped. Otherwise Europe's carefully designed demographic timebomb will be accidentally defused. Instead of declining by 9.4% in the next 25 years, Europe's population will fall by only 9.2%. If they're not careful, European countries may actually be able to pay some of their pension commitments. The question the BBC has to ask itself is not: what should we do about this incoming flood of one immigrant for every 13,480 Europeans? It's not even: why are you publishing ridiculous stories like this? After all, the BBC covers plenty of ridiculous stories . The question that matters is: why do you bring attention to the laughable opinions of Nick Griffin? Just let t...