Free Lunch: The immigration fetish

One therefore sadly has to agree with Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform, that the government’s obsession with immigration is a form of political displacement: UK leaders play along with a popular but false narrative that sees immigrants as the cause of the country’s ills, in order to deflect criticism for inadequate economic growth, insufficient housebuilding, and above all the loss of status of the white working class. It may be smart electoral politics. But it is the opposite of leadership.