Eurocrat Defends Migrant Hordes

A Euro-wog with a funny name has expressed concern about the debate over immigration in Britain. Nils Muiznieks, who is the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner and therefore ranks somewhere between Abu Qatada and Nick Clegg in the esteem of the Bullingdon Club, is worried that depriving immigrants of education, housing, health care and social security will increase their social exclusion and fuel xenophobia. It is certainly a little disturbing that the Council of Europe is so far removed from British realities that its human rights commissioner can believe the Government has any interest in providing education, housing, health care or social security, or that the Government has the slightest objection to social exclusion or xenophobia. One would hope that the Latvian Muiznieks might at least be aware of the Conservatives' ties to the far right in eastern Europe, including a Latvian Waffen-SS fan club.

In any case, thanks in large part to Labour's famous political courage and the Liberal Democrats' noted strength of principle, the immigration debate in Britain has become increasingly mature in the sense of being increasingly polarised between the don't-let-'em-in faction and the kick-'em-all-out faction. At present, the former is in the ascendant thanks to the imminent threat of Bulgarians and Romanians arriving in their millions to enjoy a life of unearned luxury on Universal Credit. The Government is already planning to rope schools into the witch-hunt by turning them into outposts of the UK Border Agency and depriving the backlog's offspring of the admittedly dubious privilege of a Michael Gove education.