Worsening deficit? Blame tax-dodging Latvian construction workers. Hospitals struggling? Blame health tourists. Finally, the PM has grabbed the ear of the electorate
We connect the dots so you dont have to. All part of the service. And last week the prime minister provided a useful pointer to the way things are going in politics. I know you are worried about immigration, David Cameron said, via his speech to the CBI. But there is no point clamping down on immigration if we dont also attend to welfare and education, he added. Thus skilfully grafting the fate of two policies to which he is ideologically wedded cutting the welfare bill and imposing Tory philosophy on schools to the immigration issue that is causing pre-election hyperventilation among the media and the public. At a time when people cant be bothered to listen to politicians and hardly believe what they say anyway he has found the device to get their attention. Immigration is like a giant gong for politicians seeking a hearing. Bang it and everyone sits up.
The PM is canny, but this was not a new discovery. Nor was it his. Consider the UK Independence party. Consider how long the inveterate Europhobes spent raging, pleading, cajoling and fabricating to grab the publics attention over the EU. Nothing much worked, until they addressed the issue through the dark, ugly prism of our immigration debate. Bong! Suddenly, everyone sat up. Suddenly Cameron, having pledged to campaign to keep us in the EU, wasnt so sure. Suddenly, the issue was no longer whether the president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, was a damp rag (© Nigel Farage) or whether Brussels was dictating the curvature of our bananas. It was foreigners; for without this EU encumbrance, we would be better able to push back these funny-speaking, job-taking, lefthand-driving foreigners. You might not like it as a tactic, but you have to agree: its a masterstroke.
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