This morning’s papers have followed the lead of yesterday’s TV news bulletins: the prime minister’s immigration speech was not the success it might have been. The Times is lukewarm (£). The Guardian is suspicious. The Mail is derisive. And our own Douglas Murray is contemptuous of a speech which merely stated the ‘utterly obvious’.
Yet again, the government has failed to convince the media. Part of the problem is that the numbers are inconclusive. The Guardian has built on yesterday evening’s BBC news reports, which claimed that only 13,000 migrants from that part of the EU have claimed JSA since 2009. This contrasts with Mr Cameron’s concerns about a widespread ‘something for nothing’ culture. The paper also adds that migrants account for only 9 per cent social lettings. Downing Street has countered each claim, usually by arguing that the strain on public services is getting more intense; for example, it points out that there was a 40 per cent increase in the number of social lettings to migrants between 2007-08 and 2011-12.
The occluded figures do not necessarily prove or disprove either side’s case.
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