In "his most forthright speech", Euroslime Dave is going to emote about immigration (full text here), pretending that, somehow, the situation has got nothing to do with him and his loathsome party. He always does that when he want to address a contentious issue.
He will then quite wilfully and even laughably miscast the problem, telling us it has led to "discomfort and disjointedness" in neighbourhoods – words that do not even begin to describe the nature of the problem and its effects. Uncontrolled immigration has "undermined" some British communities, he will say. Try "destroyed", Dave.
Thus, he will offer a faux solution. However, this time, instead of ignoring the EU dimension, he now lies about it and the nature of the problem. "Yes, our borders are open to people from other member states in the European Union", he says. "But actually, this counts for a small proportion of overall net migration to the UK. In the year up to June 2010, net migration to our country from EU nationals was just 27,000".
But, as we all know, does not in any way reflect the truth. People with EU passports are just waved through the channel. They are not even counted. Dave does not have the first idea how many people from the EU have set up in the UK. And then there is the slight problem that EU-immigration brings with it acquired rights. Existing immigrants - living anywhere in the EU - can invoke EU law to bring in their families and relatives, who aren't EU citizens. And the problem is getting worse, as you can see from this 2010 report.
To hide his omissions, we see the "smoke and mirrors" attack on Labour. This starts with a nice safe assertion that NuLab made it racist to talk about immigration. With that, he will say it is "untruthful and unfair" not to speak about the issue, "however uncomfortable". But that, of course, is just what Dave has been doing – not speaking about it. Worse, he is not dealing with it, when it comes to the problem of EU immigration. But, as long as you are focusing on the dreadful NuLab, you don't notice that.
But guess what? The speech comes three weeks before the local elections and is likely to be seen as an attempt to convince voters that the Conservatives are in touch with public opinion. Well, they aren't in touch will public opinion. And a fatuous, self-regarding, and frankly insulting little speech isn't going to make any difference, Dave.
UPDATE: There are fools, and then there is Vince Cable. But you can tell it's election time. The slime are jockeying for position. But why do they think we are in the least bit impressed?
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