Down With The EU

David Cameron and George Osborne have been EU-bashing again this week, and they mean what they say as regards the financial transactions tax and financial services regulation. It’s not clear that they mean what they say as regards immigration: they have to pretend to be against it in order to placate would be supporters of UKIP and other lunatic fringes. In fact, as they know very well, the UK has benefited enormously from successive waves of immigration resulting from illiberal and repressive policies pursued by successive Continental tyrants, from Huguenot weavers in the seventeenth century to Jewish scientists in the 20th. Countless surveys have shown that immigrants add value to the UK, work harder and are less of a drain on the social services than native Brits; but if they want to get re-elected Tory leaders have to pretend otherwise… Read More »