This morning, news came through that UK net migration is up 21% on last year, which seems to have rather weakened the coalition's claims to trying to stem immigration. It is mildly surprising that so few Britons have upped sticks and left to work in more congenial environments - perhaps to places not threatened with imminent financial collapse - but rather less surprising is the provenance of many of our new chums. Being part of the EU, Britain is bound by laws from our excellent friends in Brussels to take all comers from within the European Economic Area, regardless of whether they're actually any good or not. The number of non-student immigrants who come without a job to go into stands at a six year high, just at the time when the political classes are rushing about wringing their hands over the vast number of unproductive wastrels making a nest of the benefits system.
While these statistics may be annoying, I do not think that they will be particularly significant to anybody who does not base their lives on what the Daily Mail tells them. What is useful about them is that they raise two questions which are very significant at the moment. Firstly, by far the largest single group of immigrants is that made up of students coming to take advantage of our excellent but creaking higher education system. Indeed, overseas students, through their higher fees, now contribute a significant portion of the income of many universities, particularly those with the great financial misfortune to be humanities-heavy, and their numbers increase every year. Meanwhile, British students are finding it increasingly difficult to get into university, such is the pressure on space, as well as having to pay a lot more. Since the market is quite clearly strong for foreign students wishing to come to study in the UK, why not put the squeeze on foreign students rather than our own?
The second point that the migration figures raise is that of the EU. Every time new immigration figures arrive, there are always calls to reduce it in some way, and that generally means capping extra-EU immigration. This, unfortunately, does not actually help as immigration from Europe continues to be allowed. All very splendid - many hands make light work and all that - but why must it only be EU immigrants?
I have a good friend and bridge partner who came to the UK from Australia having got a good degree from a very good university despite all the while serving in the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve. She now works for a well known law firm in the City and is a credit to her profession, but will shortly have to return to Australia for an extended period while renewing her visa. Not only does this remove a motivated and productive member of the work force who would otherwise continue to contribute tax revenue, it means that a subject of the Queen, a person who shares our Head of State, Parliamentary system, judicial system, military tradition, language and a good deal of our history and culture is ejected from the country in favour of immigrants who share none of these things and are not required to be at all qualified.
Now that the euro appears close to collapse, and even traditionally stable countries such as France are feeling the pinch and credit agencies beginning to look crititcally at AAA rated EU countries, is there much point in us staying in the EU? The English Channel has been described as the biggest cultural fault line in the world, and it is true that most Britons feel they have very little in common with their fellow Europeans. On the other hand, the Commonwealth provides a ready-made bloc of fifty-four countries, with the majority of which we have far more in common and has the excellent strength of having a much more diverse economic basis, and a much wider global reach. No single currency obviates the possibility of an bloc-wide default, and the diplomatic potential is arguably much greater.
Let's get shot of these CAP-munching, debt-reliant, orgy-indulging contintentals and remember why we never used to care about Europe anyway. The world is a big place, and there is a lot more out there than a Franco-German hegemony can offer us. At least I might be able to keep my bridge partner...
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