Today's Truism

EU Referendum today points to a piece by Fraser Nelson in yesterday's News of the World, who says that "things are looking great" for the BNP and Nick Griffin. Not because of their recent election results, but because the 'mainstream' politicians have completely failed to learn anything in the aftermath. Immigration, as massive an issue as it is, and long has been, for many people, is still very much a taboo subject for the men and women of Westminster.

There's a certain degree of snobbery about it. The old 'argument' of foreigners coming in and taking jobs from British workers, whether right or wrong, has always been seen as an excuse for idleness. Now we're in a recession, though, yesterday's cliché becomes today's truism, as proven by unpublished figures Nelson has obtained from the Office of National Statistics:

Strip out the public sector and do you know how many new jobs have gone to British workers since 1997? Zero. Squat. Nada. In fact, there are fewer UK-born workers in the private sector than 12 years ago.

In the last year there are 119,000 more migrant workers in UK jobs, but 615,000 fewer UK-born workers. In recent months, both are falling. But UK-born workers are being laid off at five times the rate.

Nelson goes on to point that the 'benefits culture' been part of the problem for a long time too, as well as emigration. I would add a lack of trained and skilled homegrown workers coming into the market, as well as an educational infrastructure to produce them, is another large part of the problem. It's the final statistic, that "UK-born workers are being laid off at five times the rate" of migrant workers, that has the potential to be political dynamite in current circumstances.

Of course, the view is very different from Westminster. Unemployment, and concern about immigration, is reserved to those ghastly council estates, so far from the House of Commons in so many ways that they may as well as be in a different nation altogether.

Was it actually a surprise, then, when the BNP finally got those European seats? Not really. Not if you still live in the real world. What's most aggravating, though, is that we know what the problems are, and to an extent we know how to work towards solving them. It's just that no one who 'matters' seem to really give a damn.