It wasn't a grand plot; it was just a shabby little scheme

The admission by former Labour adviser Andrew Neather that the government deliberately set out to make Britain more multicultural, by relaxing immigration controls towards the end of 2000, stirred up a row over the weekend. "Conspiracy,"  shout the usual suspects.

So were the BNP and their ilk right all along? Is the government part of some vast plot to control the world by destroying national identities?

Naah, come on, this is New Labour not SPECTRE. They're not that good.

In fact, their reasons were rather shabby.

They just thought it would be nice to make the place a bit more multi-cultural, that the immigrants would probably be more likely to vote Labour and that more immigration would get up the noses of right-wingers. As an added bonus, it would mean that their Ben and Chloe supporters wouldn't have to employ chavs as their domestic help; they'd have polite, willing and cheap east Europeans and Latin Americans to choose from instead. As Mr Neather explains:

The results in London, and especially for middle-class Londoners, have been highly positive. It's not simply a question of foreign nannies, cleaners and gardeners - although frankly it's hard to see how the capital could function without them.

Yes, how did we manage for so long without them? Remember the chaos of the years before 2000? Houses left untidy, children uncared for, parks and gardens overgrown. It sends a shiver down your spine when you realise how close London came to complete collapse.

He goes on:

Their place certainly wouldn't be taken by unemployed BNP voters from Barking or Burnley - fascist au pair, anyone?

So don't they have fascists in Belgrade and Bucharest then? Or in Brazilia and Bogota? Or is it just that those in Barking and Burnley are the wrong sort of fascists?

In today's Evening Standard Andrew Neather is trying to pour cold water on the story. Not that it will do him much good; he's let the cat out of the bag now.

He's right about this though:

The Right see plots everywhere and will hyperventilate at the drop of a chapati.

Dignifying this policy with terms like 'conspiracy' and 'plot' creates an impression that it was part of some grand plan. It wasn't; it was just another self-interested, short-term ruse from a bunch of politicians who are incapable of seeing further than the next general election.

Comments

[nano]

predictable post Steve.

I have argued about 'mass' immigration ever since Labour came to power, remember originally in 1997 Blair pretended he was going to be tough in the issue.
I've always been talked down to, oh you're just a 'right'-winger, a Daily Mail reader, closet racist, etc.

People like you and Laban have always insisted it was an innocent mistake by incompetent Ministers who really genuinely believed that only 15,000 Eastern European immigrants were going to come..
How naive, really.

Even now 'part' of the true comes out you still wont accept that something much bigger was/is going on.

If its the simple "shabby little scheme" as you say, why is the same thing happening all over the Western world?

[Evelyn]

This 'secret' scheme of deliberately encouraging mass immigration is no surprise to me. I've known about this since the 1960s Wilson & Callaghan government. James Callaghan was the one who started it, and who encouraged large-scale 'city-grabbing'. All he ever snapped at those who protested against it was "Shut up and stop being racist!" I couldn't stand that man.

This practice is called GERRYMANDERING and it has a very long history. It was named after an American 19th Cent. politician, who was up to every sneaky trick to manipulate votes his way.
The USSR and did it all the time by moving people about internally, to destroy unity and suppress resistance in places like Georgia, Ukraine etc. Even Machiavelli wrote about it, although he only understood armed support for leaders.
The slogan is "To get votes, don't change your policies - change the voters."

I always thought that GERRYMANDERING was illegal, and would be reported to the Electoral Commission. The mystery to me is 'Why do they get away with it?' Any Prime Minister of any government, found to be practising it, should be thrown out without mercy, AND face serious criminal charges.

[Haw Haw Harry]

"The Right see plots everywhere and will hyperventilate at the drop of a chapati."

HA HA HA

Yes, those conspiracists are a real laugh a minute aren't they, Stevie. Now where did I read not so long ago...

"The liberal consensus is characterised by a tacit agreement not to challenge each other's version of liberalism." etc. etc.

So now I get it Stevie.

I will no longer say there is a Jewish conspiracy or plot. Instead I will refer to it as an "agreement" or "understanding" among Jews.

Aint politically correct language a wonderful thing.

[Moomintroll]

Just remember Brecht's quote "when the government and people disagree then it is time to change the people". I would say that this government is doing that pretty effectively.

[Cicero]

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

[Mark]

For once Melanie Phillips is right to let her indignation rip; to refer to the work of the Blair think tankers as a 'shabby little scheme' as you do, is to trivialise the impact of the changes they have wrought- without the electorate's consent.

Of course these people aren't serious players at the game of political deception. They are callow policy wonks wrapped up in their own bubble world, who see immigration largely through the prism of a wider range of ethnic restaurants, and an increased supply of pretty Slavic au pairs. Neather's sneer about those who don't share his world-view hyperventilating 'at the drop of a chapati' just about sums him up- he belongs in a second rate Footlights revue, not in Whitehall.

The blessed Melanie did get one thing wrong in her reaction to this scandal. Two days ago, on her Spectator blog, she wrote 'Tomorrow is Prime Ministers Question Time in the Commons.David Cameron must use the opportunity to demand an explanation of Neather's original claims and to challenge the government finally to come clean about its immigration policy'.

Of course, Cameron did no such thing.

[Michael]

Who knows, in 20-50 years time, GB might benefit from our global biz-linx.

Don't know where this place is now though.

What a ruse.

[Andrew Zalotocky]

The short-termism and irresponsibility of this government has been utterly appalling. But Labour never really started acting as though they were in government. They remained in permanent campaign mode, obsessed with controlling the next day's headlines as if they were still an opposition party that had no power to do anything else.

The ultimate cause of this failure is the ideological emptiness of New Labour. They had a programme for getting into power but no real idea of what they were supposed to do when they got there. The visceral tribal hatred of the Tories that drives Gordon Brown was actually crucial to the project because there was nothing else to unite them. New Labour had to demonise "them" in order to create an "us".

So the means became the ends, and instead of a Labour government we got a never-ending hyper-partisan Labour election campaign.

[chachi]

Immigration will NEVER stop in britain, it was built & is run on immigration. Those immigrants of the 60's who worked themselves to the bone have created confortable lives for their children, just as many native generations did for their children, many who have educated themselves & now compete with the native proffessionals & other native workers, others like so many of the white working class sit on their arses living off benefits unwilling to do the jobs which they believe are below them, this whole situation would quickly cripple the UK economy had it not been for the relaxing of immigration controls. Its not only about cleaning & gardening jobs, the whole farming industry relies on immigrants, in hard times like today even the construction & other labour jobs rely on, in many cases illegal immigrants who are paid well below minimum wage as that is all the employer can afford in order to stay in business. Niether the native or second generation immigrants are willing to make the financial sacrifice needed to keep their employment viable during these times hence the need to replace them with very cheap labour.
The uk population is increasing, more & more people are choosing to claim benefits rather than work for their living, but those same low level jobs need filling, & with an unwilling workforce the only choice labour had was to open the borders & keep this nation going, money don't grow on trees, with more & more people claiming benefits somebodies going to have to work & pay for it.
Go to any food producing farm early in the morning, see whose working the fields & processing factories..99% are new immigrants of which many, many are illegal immigrants, the police use stop checks on minibuses to catch a few here & there but ask yourselves this, if the government thought that removing illegal workers from britain was beneficial then why don't they raid the farms & capture the majority of illegal immigrants? because the farming industry would totally collapse thats why.
(btw, this is not just my opinion but from personal experience when i was younger during summer jobs)
Its all good sitting behind a computer & critisicing the governments actions but go into the real world, or just even use some logic & you'll realise that without immigration britain is dead in its tracks.
This strategy is what built britain & will also destroy it...thats life.