I woke up this morning to the news that 98% of the jobs created by Browns Government have allegedly been filled by foreign workers.

That headline reminded me of the electrician I met last night. He was angry and bitter at the way Labour had mishandled immigration and failed to protect “British” jobs. He told me he had been unemployed now for 18 months, his job having been filled by less qualified and cheaper Polish electricians. He was inclined not to vote at all so dissilusioned was he.

Previously I met a man still angry and seething at the MP’s expenses scandal. He had now reached the conclusion that all MP’s were corrupt and “just in it for what they can get out out of it”.

Both incidences highlighted to me what happens when Governments fail to recognise public concerns about issues and then fail to take strong decisive action.

We need a Government that listens, that understands and then acts on public concerns. That doesn’t mean knee jerk reactions, or tabloid led decision making. It does mean recognising the concern ordinary people feel about immigration and corruption and considering rational, fair steps that can be taken to address those concerns.

As I said in a previous post, we need a rational grown up debate about immigration that evaluates the seperate and considers what needs to be done to deal with the seperate strands – illegal imigration and trafficking, Asylum immigration and skills shortfall immigration through economic migration (as desired).

Of course too often illegal and Asylum immigration gets blurred. And it doesn’t help that the Government doesn’t seem to have accurate figures.

What is clear is that yet another of Browns promises – “British jobs for British workers” is yet another failure by him and Labour.

You can read about Lib Dem Policy on Asylum and Immigration here:

asylum.pdf            immigration.pdf