johnwest

Mass immigration is one of the biggest threats to our national identity after the EU. Currently we get over 250,000 per year, many of which go on to benefits. My wife used to work for a Job Centre and found that almost every new claimant was foreign born. Most could hardly speak English and so needed a translator which cost the public thousands every week. They were treated with kid gloves for fear of being branded rascist. In the end my wife got so sick and tired of the way they took advantage of us that she left for another job.
I am very glad that UKIP have a decent policy on immigration. I think that this should be pushed as one of our major policies as all the people I speak to are sick and tired of the Tories, Liberals and Labourites soft attitude when it comes to this issue.

Tony Gardner

Each citizen of the EU member states has the right to live and work in Britain if they wish. The ultimate UKIP objective (withdrawal from the EU) will make great strides towards bringing immigration back under control.

Tony Gardner

bexy

How will pensions be funded 30 years from now? Would you rather force women to have more babies, or allow immigration?

Tom Wilde

I am bored witless with people complaining about immigration. We do not have an immigration crisis in Britain. Mass immigration ended in the 1970s.

In 2002 Roger Knapman announced that UKIP should adopt a new hard-line on immigration, and I almost gave up on UKIP in response. It is obvious that by making a big fuss about this subject UKIP will (a) attract the sort of people whose true spiritual home is the National Front and (b) make it easy for the many enemies of British independence to portray our party as being part of the far right.

When people with only a passing interest in politics (ie the bulk of the population) contemplate voting for us, the first thing they come across is a barrage of deliberately dishonest and self-serving statements from Labour, LibDem and Tory politicos claiming that we are extremists. They may well do us the courtesy of taking these statements with a pinch of salt, but as soon as they turn to UKIP's literature and see statements like "Britain is Full!" or "We're Being Flooded!" they think "Oh, yes, that was right. These guys are plainly Nazis". NOT because there is anything inherently extreme about advocating this or that immigration policy, but simply because an obsession with immigration has been the hallmark of far right parties in Britain for over 30 years.

Therefore it is a fact of political life in this country that we can EITHER effectively oppose Britain's membership of the EU OR we can make a lot of noise about immigrants, but we can't do both.

UKIP's actual policy on immigration (a points based system with quotas) strikes me as perfectly reasonable. I have no problem with it. But I think the party needs to distance itself from some of the statements it made in the last election campaign and from the kind of hysteria generated by the 'moron press', such as the Daily Express.

Anthony Butcher

I think that UKIP were lucky when the Tories adopted the same immigration policy; it gave it a little more credibility after being labelled a far-right party in much of the press.

Carl Faulkner

The above post by Tom Wild is typical of those who wish to stifle debate on immigration. The tired old tactic was much in evidence...raise the spectre of racist right-wing politics and folk will back off.

Immigration is a problem. Ask people in the industrial north what has happened to their communities. Much is said about this community or that community but these new commmunities have displaced long established ones with a culture that is alien to these shores and as a result of continued mass immigration second and third generation children are being brought up in what could only be termed a semi-British environment.

We are only custodians of this country for future indigenous and immigrant peoples. Allowing mass immigration may suit the Lanour agenda of social engineering but ultimately it will ruin this country.

Nationalist

Do you REALLY believe this or what. Being afraid of a subject coz dripping wet liberals will call you a racist will get you nowhere.

johnwest

I can't believe that some people think mass immigration ended in the 1970's. What planet are they on? We get over 250,000 immigrants per year. It costs the people millions in benefits every year. I am sick and tired of people branding those of us concerned about this 'rascists' and 'nazis'. They have no argument and so resort to silly, pathetic insults in the hope that people will remain silent. The fact remains if nothing is done to end this madness our national identity will be lost forever. I am not prepared to see a 1000 years of freedom and identity vanish just because a few 'wets' are too scared to admit the truth.

Tom Wilde

Nationalist, I AM a dripping wet liberal. You have some problem with that?

I don't wish to stifle debate on immigration. I merely said that it bored me witless and that I personally think it is based on a misconception and on stirring by the media. But if you feel differently, as you obviously do, then feel free to debate it to your heart's content.

But regardless of which of us is right about whether immigration is a problem, I'd love to hear your views on the other point I made. This is that for better or worse it is a fact of British political life that no party can go on and on about "the immigration problem" without being labelled far right; and that as the main aim of UKIP is to get Britain out of the EU, this is a trap that we should at all costs avoid.

johnwest

Who said anything about forcing women to have babies? I am afraid that the claim that we need mass immigration to finance pensions is false. Silly scare stories will not work. If we leave the EU the money saved could finance pensions. This was stated at the Bristol conference. Besides we are helping to finance foreign pensions at the moment.