I don't know about anyone else,
but when I was at school 212,000 didn't really represent tens of thousands of
anything, because for it to do that, it would have to be below 100,000, say
something like 50,000, 60,000, 70,000, 80,000 or even 90,000 they would all
represent tens of thousands, because they fall below that benchmark 100, after
which numbers tend to be called.....well, hundreds of thousands!
Anyhow, so today we finally
managed to find out that a net 212,000 foreign migrants arrived on our shores
in the year ending September 2013, supposedly to either work, or to educate
themselves, because as we all know, the Coalition has tightened up the
regulations relating to benefit entitlements, so none of these 212,000
individuals can or will arrive here expecting to be kept by the taxpayers of
the UK. Yeah right!
It's interesting to consider that
if you just repeat the number 212,000 often enough, it tends to lose its
effect, but if you think of it this way that in that 12 month period we
imported another Wolverhampton, or a Derby, or a Stoke-on-Trent, or a Salford,
or a Southampton, or another Westminster, or even another Portsmouth, then do
you suppose that people might begin to see the scale of the problem that's
facing our country, each and every single year that we continue to belong to
the European Union?
Of course, another good thing
about the ONS (Office National Statistics) releasing the figures, is that we're
finally able to figure out exactly what happened to all of those disappearing
migrants from Romania and Bulgaria that the pro-EU mainstream media were more
than happy to point out didn't arrive in January 2014. Apparently they arrived
prior to January 2014, by September 2013 in fact, an additional 24,000 of them,
on top of the 9000 who had arrived in the year before that; and the thousands
in the year before that, yada, yada, yada!
It's also worth bearing in mind
that the 212,000 migrants mentioned in the report, are not necessarily the only
new migrants arriving in our country, as the 212,000 represents a net figure,
the difference between those going out and those coming in (or at least those
that we know about). However, to get a better idea of just how significant the
numbers are, the ONS also points out that during the same period, the 12 months
ending September 2013, a total of 617,000 new National Insurance Numbers were
issued by the British Government, suggesting that over 600,000 individuals
needed them for either work and/or education (but clearly not for benefits
though!)
Obviously it would be unfair to
suggest that Romanian and Bulgarian migrants were in any way solely or directly
responsible for this sudden increase in EU migrant numbers entering the UK, as
there were any number of EU member states whose citizens felt compelled to come
to the UK for work. Bulgarians and
Romanians accounted for 24,000 individuals (an increase of 166% on the previous
year), The number of Italians migrating to the UK accounted for 44,000 (an increase
of 66% on the previous year). However, it should be pointed out that as Italy
is renowned for its habit of issuing citizenship to foreign migrants, just to
get them out of Italy, is is just as likely that a large proportion of those
listed as "Italian" by the UK Border Agency, are just as likely to
originate from Sub-Saharan Africa, or some other African state. The number of
Portuguese workers entering the UK was reported to be 30,000 (an increase of
47% on the previous year), while the number of Spanish citizens coming to
Britain was said to be 52,000 (an increase of 36% on the previous period).
Although one would have imagined that Britain already had its fair share of
Polish workers already resident in the UK, according to the latest ONS figures,
an additional 111,000 Poles arrived here to work (an increase of 39% on the
previous year). Just by way of interest, other nationalities taking full
advantage of Britain's much talked about economic upturn include, the French
(+23%), Slovakians (+26%), as well as the Greeks (+33%).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the
Coalition were quick to try and "spin" the latest immigration figures
by pointing out that non-EU migration had fallen to its lowest level since
1998, although the fact that they had essentially been replaced by European
citizens rather took the shine of the Coalition's attempt to paint a more
positive picture! Given that Mr Cameron and his merry band of Coalition
halfwits are now fully aware of the rising public antipathy to foreign
migration into the UK (from anywhere in the world), the fact that European
migration doubled from 2012 to 2013, from 65,000 to well over 130,000 must be a
doubly bitter pill to swallow, yet Cabinet Ministers still choose to hide
behind the old excuse of treaty agreements limiting their ability to act. It is
worth making the point however, that although the Labour Party leadership have
made great play of the rising immigration figures, which have caused huge
embarrassment to the government, bearing in mind the astronomical levels of
migration that the last three Labour administrations presided over between 1997
and 2010, one can only surmise that had they been in office, today's figures
would have been even worse still.
Just by way of finishing off the
ONS figures, according to their press release, in the 12 month period ending
September 2013 some 23,507 Asylum Seekers presented themselves to the British
authorities, as opposed to the 21,843 who presented themselves in 2012, an
increase of 1654 individuals. Much of the increase in 2013 was said to have
arisen from people claiming asylum having arrived from Syria, Eritrea and
Albania.
To make David Cameron's day even
worse, today was also the day that the most powerful female politician in the
world (supposedly?), Angela Merkel arrived in the UK to speak to the two Houses
of Parliament, where many hoped that she would offer some sort of tacit support
for Mr Cameron's much talked about reform of the European Union. Unfortunately
for the Prime Minister, the German Chancellor quickly dispelled any hopes of
receiving her help in promoting any such reforms, save for those that might be
mutually beneficial to Germany itself. It is clear therefore that any hopes
that Mr Cameron might cling to regarding any large scale reform of the EU, is
little more than a personal fools errand that the Prime Minister and most of
his parliamentary party seem bound and determined to follow, even if the path
that they are choosing to pursue, will almost inevitably lead to their own
electoral destruction.
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