Nigel Farage and restrictions on immigration

This was going to be an article about the seven-way leader debate yesterday evening (Thursday) but there’s a point that needs to be made about Nigel Farage, whose performance was so monotonous it is hard to understand why so many people thought he came out on top.

150312seussfaragetwitOne point he kept repeating was his claim that UKIP wants a cap on immigration at 50,000 – except it would not actually be 50,000.

Allow me to quote from Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy by Kerry-Anne Mendoza (a book which is proving extremely useful): “UKIP would cap net immigration at 50,000 a year, excluding work permits and students [Italics mine]. Students (282,833) and work permits (147, 385) made up 430,218 of the 2012/13 immigration numbers*. That leaves only 78,190.

“UKIP are actually talking about reducing immigration by 28,000 people a year. Hardly revolutionary.”

*According to the government and the BBC.

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7 Comments

  1. Bill Kruse April 3, 2015 at 2:15 pm - Reply

    It probably wouldn’t cover Mode 4 immigration either. I’d have been embarrassed to share a platform with Farage last night, from what I saw. How ignorant can you get? Absolutely laughable.

  2. Tony Dean April 3, 2015 at 2:44 pm - Reply

    I only saw a couple of minutes of the debate and it made me wish I had access to one of these:-

    http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/deadliestfiction/images/d/df/Claymore2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100907023850

  3. bookmanwales April 3, 2015 at 2:54 pm - Reply

    The problem is clown or not he does have a following. Lots of people see immigration as a problem , parts of London for example, Blackburn, Birmingham, Leicester all draw lots of immigrants. The following pressure on housing and services is bound to happen and make people resentful.
    We all know it is government cutbacks which causes the hardship in housing and services and the high unemployment some of these areas suffer. However no one seems to want to address these issues so blame is once again placed on those who cannot defend themselves in this case the immigrants.

    Nigel is doing what the Tories are doing, pandering to peoples selfishness and playing the blame game, Tories blame the sick and unemployed Nigel blames immigrants both have their followers, though to be fair there is less support in the country for the sick and unemployed than there is for immigration.

    As a side note, Hitler was also described by Hindenburg as “that clown” but a clown saying the right things can become ever more powerful.

  4. Barry Davies April 3, 2015 at 7:36 pm - Reply

    So you heard what you wanted to hear not what was actually stated by Farage. You don’t have to be in a large city to see the problems caused by unrestricted immigration it is in small and moderate sized towns as well, anyone who considers allowing anyone from 27 nations free access whilst making it more difficult for the rest of the world, thereby allowing unskilled labour to freely come whilst skilled labour is restricted doesn’t really have any idea of what the eussr regulations imposed by an unelected committee called the commission actually really means. It is this bigoted ideation causing he problems, not UKIP which would restrict immigration to a manageable level and not accept beggars and criminals from europe to come here to carry on with their non trades.

    • Mike Sivier April 3, 2015 at 9:34 pm - Reply

      But the article points out that UKIP would hardly restrict immigration at all.
      I didn’t hear what I wanted to hear – I applied what I heard to the facts of the matter and pointed out that UKIP would cut immigration by just 28,000 per year, which is not that big a deal.

  5. Guy Ropes April 3, 2015 at 8:52 pm - Reply

    It’s difficult to understand why you expend so much energy on deriding Farage and UKIP. Are you too dim to realise that they don’t have a chance of influencing anything to do with the election? What have they done to you and/or the Country? It may have escaped your attention but what you most hate about government in the UK is that which is carried out by the Tories (just in case: they’re the one’s headed by a guy called Cameron). Actually I’ve sussed out precisely why you keep up this relentless negative comment on them – so that when they don’t achieve anything vote wise on May 7th (a given) you’ll be able to trumpet on here that “It was Vox Pol wot wun it”. And Cameron and his followers will raise a stiff finger to you – and others who genuinely want Tories to be gone. “Cameron – my role in his re-election”. Labour aren’t in the slightest bit worried about UKIP, why should you be?

    • Mike Sivier April 3, 2015 at 9:41 pm - Reply

      UKIP is a political party here in the UK, with candidates seeking election. This is a site for political commentary. Of course I am going to comment on UKIP.
      One of the reasons I comment on UKIP is to ensure that readers can see robust responses to that parties policies and claims; so everything that deserves to be challenged, is.
      I write about the Conservative Party as well. In fact, I’ve written a staggering amount about the Conservative Party. They get about as much respect from this blog as UKIP.
      But I’ll tell you what – let’s turn this around: Nobody reading this blog is going to let your comment influence them in the slightest, so why did you write it?

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