To think that many people will fall for the immigrant scapegoat just before an election again?

[capricorn76]

The election's are only a couple of weeks away and the Tories are scared of a trouncing following a lot of public anger surrounding the cuts, their inability to create real growth, the failure of the NHS reforms and finding money to bomb Libya despite cutting things here.

In times like this, it's not unusual for a government to find a scapegoat to deflect attention from their own failures. The scapegoat is usually immigrants and today Cameron is announcing that he is against immigrants who can't speak English and that Labour let in too many.

Normally this deflection tactic works but the timing is very obvious being so close to the elections and only a day after the Health Secretary had a 'no confidence' vote against him. They can no longer blame cold-snaps or Labour for the current state of the economy so need the oldy but goody 'it's the immigrants!'

Will it work this time? Probably as this country has a good track record of producing useful idiots who will attack their fellow poor people rather than the people who are really making their lives hard.

Timing may not be perfect and as you say could be to deflect attention from other matters but you can't deny that immigration was one of the key and concerns in the lead up to the last general election. It has to be dealt with at some point and no matter when it is there will always be someone saying the timing isn't right.

lol look at how many dimwits fell for the Boy Clegg, and wouldnt/couldnt understand he was saying anything that the gullible wanted to hear

oooh i agree with Nick

the electorate are in the main quite stupid - ffs we had Labour in power for 13 years how much stupider can you get lol

the electorate are in the main quite stupid - ffs we had Labour in power for 13 years how much stupider can you get lol

People who expect sweeping changes to have been made in the short period of time that the Tories have been in power are rather daft though. It will take a lot longer than this to undo the damage that Labour did.

I agree Squeaky

Many people worry about the level of immigration, not immigration itself. All DC is doing is acknowledging that the number of people coming to this country are at record levels. This would be bad enough in a boom time but when unemployment is soaring and cuts are being made, it is even more worrying. Look at any graph from any source and you will see that net migration is at record levels.

Well Vince cable has spoken out

Nick Clegg stayed silent.

They are both in the same political party.

Come on Nick, go out with a blaze of gory.

This drives me crazy

they (whoever is in charge) announce that immigrants will no longer be allowed to x y z

never mind that they never were allowed to x y z and legislation already exists toward this end

it makes it look like they are doing something, and makes it sound like immigrants are te recipients of some crazy ass gravy train at the expense of the poor hardworking taxpayer

ie 'illegal immigrants will no longer be allowed to receive benefits' well guess what, they never were

Maybe next week they can announce that immigrants will no longer be allowed to hunt and eat unicorns FFS

Don't get me wrong I'm no Labour supporter and did not vote for them in the last two General Elections (voted Lib Dem and yes I'm embarrased) but if they really left us broke how come we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan with no end date in sight, just entered Libya and still buying Trident? How come we also increased aid to Pakistan? Reforms aimed at closing tax havens have been quietly forgotten about as well as other tax loopholes such as non-dom status etc. There's been no solid agreement on banking reform. Doesn't add up. If we were genuinely broke these things wouldn't be happening.

Huge cuts are being made, people are losing their jobs and businesses and he wants us to focus on people who can't speak English weeks before an election. It's too obvious.

Maybe next week they can announce that immigrants will no longer be allowed to hunt and eat unicorns FFS

Absolutely PMSL. Spot on.

So right Chibi! I've often wondered, what's the problem with immigrants anyway?? Why do people feel threatened by them? Aren't we all nomadic to some degree anyway?

Yes, and the main problem may well be Europe; and we seem to be staying in.

Although to give it its credit, it seems to be a better runner than the "Oxford is elitist" line.

Most people are annoyed at illegal immigration surely and not legal immigration . This morning, on the DM website they had a further two back up stories on immigration - one being to charge migrants £30,000 to live here - and I can't remember the other.

If people fall for this they are daft. I'm a bit annoyed at how little coverage the Scottish elections are getting though.

If they were genuinely serious about immigration and immigrants speaking English they wouldn't have sacked a shedload of UK border force officials and cut ESOL.

Also nobody expects a quick recovery but there must be a reason why every equivalent country seems to be recovering quicker than us?

I think Capricorn76 has got the politics of todays news right. As a tactic it may work in some areas but not others.

I am only guessing, but I think the Tories may do slightly better than they were expected to; and the Liberals even worse