Losing Control of Our Borders

David Green, 26 October 2004

David Blunkett has admitted that he intends to give up Britain’s ability to veto EU policies on immigration and asylum. He claims that we will not have to accept any policies we do not like, but the EU has never operated that way. The European Court of Justice will impose policies agreed by a majority vote against the Britain’s will. Moreover, once power has been surrendered it has been the custom for it never to be given back.
Mr Blunkett has claimed that abandoning our veto will allow us to force other countries to follow policies we prefer. Mrs Thatcher made the same mistake over the Single European Act in 1986. She acknowledges in her book, Statecraft, that she thought Britain would be able to force other countries to de-regulate trade and commerce. Instead, Britain was coerced. Immigration and asylum will be no exception.
A country that cannot control who lives in its territory has lost the capacity for self-government. Our system of liberty demands much of ordinary citizens. It is only feasible where there is a common language and shared beliefs about fundamentals and it takes time for newcomers not used to the ways of a free people to settle in. Yet in 2002 the net number of foreign immigrants to the UK was nearly 250,000, double the rate before 1997. For accurate information about immigration check the MigrationWatchUK website. For further discussion of immigration take a look at Anthony Browne’s Do We Need Mass Immigration? (PDF).