Finally, there is space for rational debate on the consequences of mass migration
It was not preached to the crowd, but nonetheless Brits have joined the dots: the link between mass migration and a spike in crime, especially sex attacks, has entered the public consciousness.
Ministry of Justice data for England and Wales shows that a quarter of rape convictions last year were of foreign nationals. They account for just a tenth of the population but up to a third of sexual assault convictions. Many more convictions — of migrants now classed as British citizens — will be hidden within native conviction numbers.
Some politicians have picked up this mantle — raising alarm about the fact that Afghans are 22 times more likely to be convicted of sexual offences than Brits, or that 40 per cent of sexual offence charges in London are tabled against foreign nationals.
But rather than report these facts, the established media has adopted a rearguard position — desperately pleading with the public to ignore the mounting evidence. As this issue continues to grow in salience, we should be concerned that traditional media outlets are about to embark on a campaign of mass obscurantism.
Take Sky News’ recent “fact check” on migrant crime data, in which they looked to downplay the representation of foreign nationals in crime data. The whole thing was methodological nonsense — based on quotes that were misattributed to university academics, and advice from the ONS that was no such thing. According to the ONS, they have no record of giving Sky News any analytical “recommendation” akin to what was claimed. Corrections have been requested from impartial academics, and if Ofcom is anything more than an impotent legacy of the Blairite quangocracy then it will act.
This won’t stop witless left-wing commentators citing the piece — of course it won’t — and that, really, was the whole point of Sky’s excursions. Unforgivably, a significant number of journalists have decided to become the media equivalent of a budget-range concealer — vainly attempting to mask the acne scars of mass migration.
For example, when BBC data journalists admit that foreign nationals are disproportionately represented in crime statistics, but then tell Nick Robinson or Amol Rajan on Radio 4 that there is no evidence of a link between mass migration and increased sexual offences, they are spreading falsehoods to the public.
Luckily, as with many facets of modern Britain, the political and media establishment — still gently drunk on the bottle of multicultural liquor they have been gulping from for twenty years — have been caught off guard on this issue. So certain were they that open borders were virtuous, that they failed to notice the tens of thousands of foreign nationals being convicted each year.
Others have not. Barnes Wallis’ political descendents have unleashed a barrage of bouncing truth-bombs in recent weeks, unalterably shifting the axis of debate on this issue for the remainder of the parliament. Westminster has been flooded with the truth, and things are changing.
On Sunday, the Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced that all foreign nationals given a custodial sentence would be eligible for deportation — a long overdue measure, and which marks a significant shift from the current rules, which only permit the removal of a migrant if they are given a 12-month sentence.
Of course, Labour lacks the operational cajones to ensure that our prisons are actually liberated of the 10,000 foreign nationals currently presiding in them. Human rights legislation, and the resistance of countries to take their own criminals back, will inevitably scupper their plans. But the soil is being richly fertilised for a future centre-right government to begin harvesting from Day One.
So the first dam has burst. And we must ensure the second is also breached — and push for measures which actually prevent foreign would-be criminals entering our country in the first place. The most obvious manifestation of this is the detention, and swift deportation, of the tens of thousands of undocumented men flooding across the channel. Posterity will view the decision to place them in hotels and HMOs unfavourably. Decisions taken by the Home Office have actively placed schoolchildren at risk.
The threat being posed to the British public, especially women and girls, means these fantasies must be scrapped
If politicians are going to insist that the current levels of immigration must continue — in the face of the facts of public opinion — then those we allow to enter must be coming from culturally compatible nations. The Home Office must construct an “immigration red list” of nations that have sky-high crime rates and are overrepresented in Britain’s burgeoning illegal migrant population. Severe restrictions must be put in place, much as they were until 2020, which unashamedly recognises that not all migrants are the same.
Any sane individual can see the difference between a Swiss pensioner looking to retire with her grandchildren in Kent, and a nineteen-year old Afghan allegedly coming to work in his cousin’s barber shop, or an Albanian looking to work as a rickshaw driver. Yet somehow, our visa system — under the thumb of the Equality Act — treats them the same.
It is time to grow up. The threat being posed to the British public, especially women and girls, means these fantasies must be scrapped. Our society is fraying at the edges. If we have to be a little impolite in order to reorient the boat, then so be it.
