The government could tackle immigration – if it really wanted to

00:00 08:50

I’m fascinated by the subject of immigration because I’m a sucker for moral complexity. For decades, too, I’ve been an immigrant myself, though I’ve played by the rules (at some cost), and I’ve never been a burden on the state (to the contrary). Besides, I am by nature territorial. Even having perfectly agreeable house-sitters in London during my summers in Brooklyn has been painful, and the first thing this Goldilocks has always done on returning home is expunge every reminder that bears have been sleeping in my bed and eating my porridge. That said, we’re all territorial. Hence the moral complexity.

So I’ve developed an unhealthy addiction to reading comment threads after articles about immigration. I never comment myself; this is a spectator sport. Admittedly, people may be more likely to contribute opinions on immigration when they want less of it. Still, by now I must have read tens if not hundreds of thousands of online diatribes and laments by ordinary readers.