Controlling Immigration

David Cameron has been interviewed by BBC Newsnight on a variety of issues including green taxes, immigration and Shadow Cabinet outside interests.

However, his comments on immigration were of particular interest because, for the most part, Mr Cameron has avoided focusing on this topic in his quest to re-brand the Conservative party by approaching issues with which it is not normally associated.

Immigration to Britain is far too high as David Cameron pointed out in the interview, and has reached completely unsustainable levels during Labour’s ten year tenure, causing both widespread social friction, housing problems, and increased pressure on public services.

Opinion polls reveal that immigration is consistently among the top three most important issues that concern voters, and also show that Mr Cameron’s views reflect the majority of British opinion. Therefore it’s welcome news that Mr Cameron is at least tentatively discussing the issue, even if he is also discussing possible ‘green taxes’ too.

I think it’s also useful to contrast Mr Cameron’s Newsnight comments with an announcement on Sunday by Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman who said the problems of immigration and the ‘twilight world of illegality’ needed to be tackled by allowing the legalisation of illegal immigrants that ‘proved’ themselves.

Cameron Renews Referendum Demand

In this morning’s Sun, David Cameron renewed the Conservative’s call for Gordon Brown to fulfil Labour’s General Election manifesto pledge to hold a Referendum on the EU Constitution.

It’s also being reported by the Telegraph that as many as one hundred and twenty Labour MPs could be set to defy the whip and Gordon Brown over his failure to consult the people on this vital issue.

Practically all the leaders in Europe have admitted that the EU ‘Reform Treaty’ is practically identically and virtually indistinguishable from the Constitution which was chucked out by French and Dutch voters only two years ago.

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said, ‘the fundamentals of the Constitution have been maintained in large part’. The Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Zapatero, commented that ‘a great part of the content of the European Constitution is captured in the new treaties’, and Bertie Ahern the Irish PM said, ‘thankfully they haven’t changed the substance - 90 per cent of it is still there’ – and yet Mr Ahern is still giving the people of Ireland a referendum.

The only politicians desperately continuing with the charade that says the new Treaty is substantially different to the old Constitution are the European Governments that do not wish to let their people have a say. Britain is most definitely one of those.

In his Sun article, David Cameron’s criticisms of Gordon Brown and our Labour Government are extremely well placed. He is completely right in observing that the Labour leadership have become incredibly arrogant, to the extent they believe they always know best.

Mr Cameron is also absolutely correct in asking the Prime Minister, ‘what makes you think you can change the way our country is governed without asking the British people first?’ We’re still waiting for the answer, Mr Brown…

Cameron Launches Fightback

David Cameron has reaffirmed his commitment to economic stability in an interview on the BBC this morning, in which he actually came off rather well.

With the prospect of an early election in the autumn, Mr Cameron has to regain the initiative and political advantage he had enjoyed under Tony Blair if he has any hope of winning and forming a fresh Government capable of real and lasting change.

Despite the fact that Mr Cameron says he had not underestimated Gordon Brown, I think that he and his team privately know that they have. The Conservatives have allowed themselves to be panicked unnecessarily.

However, all is not lost. If Mr Cameron really wants to improve the Conservatives’ polling figures, then he needs to make a concerted fight back on policy issues. At a General Election the general public do not care what the Conservative party has done to change itself internally, but what the Conservative party is proposing to do for them.

It’s that which Mr Cameron and his frontbench team must now focus upon - that, and mercilessly attacking the record of Gordon Brown; the co-architect of the New Labour social experiment and direct cause of so many of Britain’s problems in the past decade.

Mirror Journalist Rumbled

It’s been revealed that the Conservative party has uncovered a Daily Mirror journalist who tried to infiltrate the party headquarters in order to spy on internal party workings and strategy.

Emily Miller, applied for a £40,000 a year job to work for Conservative party Chairman, Caroline Spelman, and would have been privy to private information and plans concerning any potential up-and-coming general election.

The Daily Mail reports that apparently suspicious party workers made background checks on her after one of her CV referees did not appear to exist. Her job application was eventually traced back via email to having been sent on a Daily Mirror computer.

This doesn’t really surprise me, as it’s exactly the sort of tactics the Mirror have stooped to before. When Piers Morgan was Editor, the paper managed to infiltrate Buckingham Palace and have their journalist serve breakfast to the Queen.

The fact that the Mirror, a leading Labour party supporting paper, was prepared to infiltrate a political party is nothing new. This happens all the time on all different sides.

What does surprise me though is that someone didn’t spot Ms Miller a mile off at the interview stages. Surely anyone claiming that they were ‘very encouraged by the policies the Conservatives are putting forward on tax’ (ie. sharing the proceeds of growth) must obviously have been lying through their teeth!