NC admits he got his figures wrong on immigration..

[atlantis]

... and that's because he got them from a magazine article !!

When he was interupting Cameron in the debate the other night he was claiming that 80% of all immigrants come from the EU, but the official figures show it to be just 39%.

Sounds about right for the man who claims scrapping trident would save 100 bil, when it's closer to 20 bil.

Or that he was not advocating joining the Euro, when his manifesto says otherwise.

Who gets their 'official' figures from a magazine article ffs ?

Now wonder they are calling him the flop-flop kid.

Quick someone get him a copy of GQ magazine so he can find out how many stinger missles it would take to replace trident.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1270209/Flip-flop-Nick-Clegg-gets-migration-sums-wrong.html

yes, it the DM, but at least they got their figures from an official source.

yes they pointed that out the day after on the Today programme. Very irritating of him.

I thought it was funny when Mathew Parris said of NC "I've got piety fatigue".

Blimey all that crap he been spewing now he is having to backtrack on now there is a chance he may actually get some votes!

It is what was said all along the LDs have been able to tell poeple just what they will do without actaully doing their homework because they thought there was never really a chance of them being elected into any kind of government.

That sound is it all coming crashing down around Nicky Boys ears!

Anyone who knows anything about immigration knows NC is a complete fool and totally out of touch....he plucks fiqures out of the air and expects people to make him PM.....??

He's ok as an MP...but that's about his level.

An amnesty on illegal immigrants..?

yeah right.

The 80% figure from the EU is patently ridiculous.

I am a bit disappointed in Cameron though.

I know he himself has said that only 1/3 of our total comes from the EU in the past - so he knew the right number. He had the ideal opportunity, when Clegg was pulling his childish "Yes or No" stunt, to slap him down.

Far more people got a false number from the debate than the true number from the Today programme.

I agree with you longfingernails,i thought that was the perfect opportunity for DC to correct NC.

I wonder if they had been told beforehand to play nicely as non of them really went for it with each other did they?

I cant wait for Thurs,& i dont normally do politics.

I think DC had done his voter research.

That poll thingy went down whenever anyone got nasty, it was an immediate reaction.

Yes, true HumphreyCobbler - the worm really didn't like attacks, even when they made perfect sense.

I just don't get this mentality personally - how exactly are we meant to find the best solutions if people can't argue against flaws in their opponents' policies?

exactly

it is like when people just say "Oh they are all the same blah blah"

well no they AREN'T actually

"I think DC had done his voter research.

That poll thingy went down whenever anyone got nasty, it was an immediate reaction. "

It also made Clegg look like a bully and a pra** , which is why he slipped down in the polls.

But where have all the LibDems gone to defend their leader, the other day people were moaning that the Tories weren't posting threads, but when I post one that shows their glorious liar leader up for what he is they run and hide.

Has anyone else noticed that when you challenge a LD supporter on a thread about their policies they don't have the answers?, because neither do the lid dems themselves, a wishy washy manifesto made up of stupidities, half truths and uncosted pie in the sky.

Roll on thursday, no more canvessing !

I do agree Atlantis.

I agree with you also Atlantis.

Where have all the LD supporters gone. Well personally (am Labour, but will be tactically voting Lib Dem) I can't be bothered posting on all these vitriolic Tory-boosting threads where ad hominem invective seems to have replaced debating the issues. I imagine I'm not the only one.

It is so funny.

I just see all the vitriolic Tory hating threads

We all see what irritates us the most.

Try debating the issues then, we were discussing a specific point of an incorrect statistic.

Atlantis - how much has the tory party paid you to campaign for them on every thread in the politics section of mumsnet? It would be good if the tories had actually told us what their immigration policy is.

Was it labour/tories or liberal democrats who ended exit checks?

Which party/parties were in power when the illegal immigrants came into the country?

According to the BBC news this week more non EU immigrants left the country than arrived over a given period (can't remember what the time frame was)
so I'm wondering if the problem of immigration from non EU countries may be being overstated.

Is it or is it not true that a large number of immigrants have come from the EU and that the tories will not be able to stop them coming. David Cameron went on about imposing restrictions on new countries joining but did not acknowledge that he can do nothing about those coming from existing EU countries.

The tories say they are tough on immigration but what will that mean in practice? How are they going to locate the illegal immigrants and send them home.

The tory mayor Boris Johnson said he would like a full amnesty for illegal immigrants so the tories do not appear united on this issue. If the lib dems showed such disunity you can be sure it would have been front page headlines for days.

I am not a member of the liberal democrats and don't know the ins and outs of all their policies/figures on this. However it seems that the press are out to pick holes in the lib dem policies but the tory/labour policies are not being scrutinised in the same way. The tories are hoping people will just vote for change and on instinct without checking what the change will be.

Immigration is not a major issue for me so will not really affect my voting but I do think Nick Clegg has given more information on his immigration policies than the other two even if one doesn't agree with his views.

the other two leaders have far more money behind them so probably have more support in preparing for the debates.

Clegg was excluding students from the figures. Why are you getting so het up?

If you have a system that works properly and ensures students come to study, end of (unless they then qualify to work) then that's OK, isn't it?

I was looking up Cleggs 80% figure to see where it could have come from but instead I discovered an analysis by a blogger over at the BBC. It's interesting and worth a read. According to that article the cap would only apply to 12% of immigrants - namely non-EU folk coming to the UK for work.

So it appears that while NC was wrong about the actual number of EU workers, he was right about the fact that the cap could only be applied to a minority of immigrants coming in to the UK.