Immigrants put public services under pressure, says Cameron

David Cameron's greatest success so far in leading the Tory party has been his complete and total lack of anything that one could describe as a policy. He immediately, upon assuming the leadership of the party, put all Tory policies out for a review which he promised would be revealed before the election.

This has enabled him to peddle around on his bike talking about a greener Earth without ever saying what he intends to do to achieve this goal. The overall aim of this has been to dispel the Tory party's image as the "nasty party".

And this appeared to be a working strategy as long as Blair was in power. However, with a new Labour leadership enjoying a surge in the polls there have been calls within the Tory party for Cameron's head. So Cameron has responded. And what issue has he zoomed in on to reassure the Tory party faithful that he is still the man to lead them?

Immigration.

Interviewed on BBC2's Newsnight programme last night, Mr Cameron said politicians had to combine "a careful use of language" on immigration with "tough and rigorous action". He accused Labour of combining, "loose, inflammatory language" with "weak, ineffective action".

He said: "It is about the pressure on schools, the pressure on hospitals, the pressure on housing."

In a wide-ranging 45-minute interview, the Tory leader insisted his party had "fire in its belly" despite falling behind Labour in the opinion polls and was ready for a general election.

For all his playing the role of a new kind of Tory leader one should never forget that Cameron was behind Michael Howard's disgraceful election campaign where many of us thought he played the race card. And it is interesting that, at the first sign of trouble amongst the ranks, that Cameron should have decided that immigration is the way to unite his party.

Swinging his party back on to more traditional Conservative territory, the Tory leader said the number of people arriving in Britain over a decade of Labour government had been "too high".

The "huge numbers" had placed "too great a burden" on public services, which were creaking under the pressure.

"There are benefits from immigration and I want Britain to capture the benefits from that immigration," he said on BBC2's Newsnight.

"But I think the levels of migration we've seen... have put too great a burden on public services. It needs to be better controlled.''

What's really interesting is what Cameron actually plans to do about this "burden" on British society. He has assured us that he will not be sending any immigrants home nor will he renegotiating any accession agreements with European countries, such as Poland, which already exist.

A Conservative government would push for "transitional periods" before people from future EU entrant nations could come and live and work in Britain.

In other words, he wouldn't actually do very much. But he gets the headline and he pleases the base.

He then hit other Conservative talking points:

Seeking to maintain the momentum last night, he strongly defended his plans to encourage marriage through the tax system.

He denied that this was a "bribe'' to existing and future married couples, saying Britain needed a "culture change" to encourage couples to stay together - something that would strengthen society.

If couples need financial incentives to stay together then I would counter that their relationship is probably not very strong anyway. And Cameron's argument that children benefit from being brought up in an environment in which they are raised by both parents appears to assume that the relationship between both the parents is a good one. I would argue that just as much harm can be done to a child who is brought up by parents in an abusive relationship.

But that's a side issue, the main point is that Cameron, for all his talk of dragging the Tory party towards the centre of British politics, has actually settled on the same tired nonsense that this country has rejected at the last three elections.

Dear God, he even managed to bang the drum about law and order.

He denied Labour charges that he was moving his party to the Right on immigration and crime.

"I've been very consistent on this issue of crime. We need strong families, we need youth clubs, we need things to divert people away from crime, strong schools. That is the context to crime.

"But when people break the law, I am a Conservative, I've always been a Conservative.

"I believe in tough punishment. I worked for Michael Howard, for heaven's sake, who put through some very tough changes to the criminal justice system."

Yes, you did, David. Thank you for reminding us. Although I think that sentence was for the consumption of those old ladies with the blue hair rinses at the Tory party conference who think the country went to the dogs when they stopped allowing birching.

With one interview Cameron has shored up his base... and probably lost himself the next election.

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