Bel is thinking

I don’t know what to make of the news that the Government has refused to estimate the number of migrants who might come from Romania and Bulgaria when those two countries join the European Union on 1 January. So the immigration Minister, Liam Byrne, declared yesterday.

I suppose in one sense, we should be thankful that they are being somewhat honest about the fact that they have no clue. Remember last time? They had confidently predicted that only 13,000 migrants would arrive from the former Soviet countries following the enlargement of the EU on 1 May 2004. Perhaps they were the only people shocked when the total figure exceeded 500,000. I don’t think anyone else was surprised.

So yes, they are being realistic this time, but this still gives cause for worry. For one thing, the fact that no one knows how many people are coming means that no one knows what impact they would have on the public services. True, John Reid has been talking about imposing restrictions on certain types of workers, but these are going to be impossible to enforce, and he knows it.

This is grossly irresponsible, but no longer surprising. This is a Government that has shown itself to have no workable immigration policy. It cannot even keep hold of foreign criminals when they are locked up in its jails. This is also a Government that learns nothing. One would think that they would have come up with a coherent policy to deal with some of the issues that arose after the last EU enlargement. Clearly not. For whatever it’s worth, they no longer seem to be pretending they have the answers.