Poles are the fall guys of the immigration debate

When, back in 2005, Michael Howard said, ‘it’s not racist to talk about immigration’, his words sounded less like a statement of the obvious than a plea for the political and media classes to cut him some slack. They didn’t, of course. The then Conservative leader was roundly chided for playing the race card, accused of giving aid and comfort to the BNP, and warned that his focus on immigration would lead to an increase in racial assaults.

These days, however, everyone is thinking what Michael Howard was thinking three years ago. Gordon Brown talks about ‘British jobs for British workers’; Labour has no qualms about blowing the dog-whistle on Polish migrants at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, and the BBC appears to have granted Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of the anti-immigration pressure group MigrationWatch UK, indefinite leave to remain on the airwaves.