Theresa May's immigration speech is dangerous and factually wrong

[LeftishBrit]

It's hard to know where to start with Theresa May's awful, ugly, misleading, cynical and irresponsible speech to the Conservative Party conference today.


If you haven't seen reports of it, allow me to summarise: "Immigrants are stealing your job, making you poorer and ruining your country. Never mind the facts, just feel angry at foreigners. And make me Conservative leader."


... The government's own assessments in other documents say other things too. The Treasury, for instance, says immigration means annual GDP growth is .25 percentage points higher. The OBR, meanwhile, says immigration means the deficit is smaller because of the taxes immigrants pay. And then there are studies from the OECD and the rest showing immigration makes Britain richer and British public services more sustainable.

...If, as Mrs May argues, immigration makes British society less cohesive, leaves groups of people less unable to get along, isn't that at least partly the result of politicians pandering to ignorance and prejudice and wilfully distorting the evidence to persuade people to be angry and afraid? ...

(By James Kirkup, in that well-known ultra-left paper the Daily Telegraph. Much more at link):


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11913927/Theresa-Mays-immigration-speech-is-dangerous-and-factually-wrong.html