August 29, 2006 | posted by Michael Baxter in Uncategorized |

We will save a detailed look at this topic for a later date, but can’t let today go by without a reference to the tabloid newspapers, spreading their message of hate and intolerance.

Why do they always want to find victims, and why does their editorial look more like bully boy rhetoric with each passing day?

The fact is, immigration has boosted the UK economy. As Peter Spencer from the Item club recently pointed out, Immigration from Poland, by creating a greater level of supply in the UK, has helped keep inflation down, and as a result, the UK rate of interest is at least a quarter of percent lower than it would have been.

It’s quite ironic that as the tabloids try to talk up house prices, headlining every report that has prices up, they should take such a short sighted and economically ignorant view of immigration, something which has helped keep house price inflation going.

The biggest trouble with immigration from Eastern Europe, or so it seems to us, is that the phenomenon is likely to be temporary. First of all, most immigrants say they only plan to work here for a year or two, and it seems likely that as their home economies take off and offer more opportunities, they will return home faster than they came here in the first place.

Secondly, Eastern Europe sits on just as serious a demographic time bomb as the west. Their population is aging too.

Here’s the real sticking point. For Europe to continue to support its retirees, there is a simple choice to make - either import supply from developing economies that have a youthful population (Africa, Continental Asia, SE Asia) and get over the xenophobia, or prevent the free movement of a global workforce and end up with a country that is neither integrated with the global economy, nor able to take care of its elderly.

Ultimately, we can but wait for positive tabloid comment on the subject, but we’re not planning to hold our breath in the meantime.

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