A group of cross party Parliamentarians (including a former Archbishop of Canterbury) have released a statement (extracted and linked at ConservativeHome), saying that immigration is too high and that the population of the country should be capped at 70 million.
It is not surprising that a bunch of backward-looking, right-leaning MPs should want to stop immigration. It is not surprising that they should garland their views with endless protests that some of their best friends are Polish, and they just love what Indian women do with those henna patterns.
What is surprising is that they think their idea of a 70m cap is even slightly credible.
First problem: Why 70m? The UK population doubled in the eighteenth century and more than doubled in the nineteenth – presumably former MPs would have set 10m as the target, or 20m. What makes a less-than-10% rise unacceptable now? Is there some magic number of schools or hospitals, beyond which more can never be built? Are there no empty homes in northern England, no brownfield land where these new arrivals can be accommodated?
Second problem: Which 70m? If an economist were to choose 70m people to live in the UK, there would be far more hard-working, young, tax-paying immigrants and far fewer old, workless, unhealthy, pension-drawing British people. Is it really a good idea to shut out the people who will be paying for my pension?
Third problem: How 70m? Given that the population of the EU is about 500m (and will be more soon), and that they can all live wherever they like, how do we keep them out? Do we start culling when we get to 70m+1? Leave the EU? Smear excrement around the arrivals lounge at Heathrow to discourage people?
Fourth problem: Why bother? The statement appears to believe that the growth in the BNP vote is linked to some sort of rational concern about immigration, and that if the government only adopted an explicitly xenophobic immigration policy, everyone would be happy and the issue would drop off the agenda. Well, nice idea, but the right-wing papers are driving this agenda, and will continue to do so right up to the moment when their man gets into office. As soon as that happens, the tone will change and the Government will be become the good guys who are doing their best (except for occasional beatings to serve as a warning). Then we’ll see what happens to the salience of immigration, and the BNP vote.
Update: Some excellent critiquing of the “balanced migration” report at Left Foot Forward.
How big a population are we supposed to support-70,90,100 million?Immigration is bad for wildlife,the environment,and the quality of life.