In a contrast to the BBC’s take on East European immigration here is the Daily Mail’s:
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: A million of our young out of work, dictatorship by Brussels and why Mr Cameron can no longer ignore the people on immigration
In less than six weeks, unless there is a decisive Government U-turn, Britain, as required by the European Union, will throw open its jobs market to the 29 million citizens of Romania and Bulgaria.
It’s a development which could have the most considerable implications for the Prime Minister, British society and, most importantly, this country’s one million unemployed young people.
Yet David Cameron and his ministers are approaching January 1 with a head-in-the-sand insouciance which is so sadly typical of a political class that is increasingly remote from the lives and concerns of ordinary voters.
Incredibly, the Government has refused to estimate how many migrants will arrive.
This week, Mark Harper, the Immigration Minister, said — with frightening complacency — that he didn’t think the number would be huge.
In doing so, he ignored hard empirical evidence that a new wave of immigration is about to take place that will place huge strain on our already stretched schools, hospitals and housing.
Consider the facts: the average wage in Britain is about £26,000 a year, compared with just over £3,000 in Bulgaria and £4,000 in Romania. It’s utterly unsurprising that, when the Mail visited both countries recently, there were huge queues at recruitment centres for British hotel chains, fast-food firms and the NHS.
Even before the restrictions are lifted, 135,000 workers from Romania and Bulgaria are already in this country. This number has increased by 23,000 in the past year alone.
Salford University research reveals Britain already has one of the largest Roma populations (which includes migrants from Romania and Bulgaria) in Western Europe — with about 200,000 living here.
That figure, typically, is four times higher than the Government’s own estimates.
Worryingly, MigrationWatch UK chairman Sir Andrew Green, whose research has proved painstakingly accurate over the past decade, is predicting 50,000 arrivals every year from Romania and Bulgaria from January 1.
Over five years, that is the equivalent of the population of a city the size of Hull.
The Mail cannot be accused of irresponsibility in raising this issue.
I wouldn’t bet on that.