The rich can afford to be liberal about immigration; the poor can’t

The invasion of Iraq and everything that followed caused grave difficulties for the government. But at least it created a sense of purpose and perpetuated the illusion that Tony Blair is a strong Prime Minister. The primacy of domestic issues over the last few weeks has reminded us how vacant New Labour really is. Politics has suddenly lurched back three or four years to the era of government by gimmick, the cringe-making early Blair period when Downing Street was dominated by a frenzied desire to create newspaper headlines.

Contemplate last week. The Prime Minister launched his plan for random drug-testing in schools on Sunday. By Monday his scheme was in trouble and by Tuesday it was halfway to collapse. Over at the Treasury Gordon Brown was not to be outdone. A flurry of newspaper stories about obesity met the Chancellor’s eye. A tax on obesity was invented, floated, proposed and junked, all within the space of a 20-hour news cycle.