18 min listen
This week's net migration figures were lower than expected, but still far higher than the 'tens of thousands' first promised by David Cameron. What's gone so wrong, and what's the downside of using immigration to boost economic growth? Fraser Nelson speaks to Damian Green, the Conservative MP and former immigration minister, and James Kirkup, a Spectator regular who runs the Social Market Foundation.
After former Met police assistant commissioner Bob Quick told the Sunday Times that ‘extreme’ pornography was found on Damian Green's computer during a 2008 investigation into government leaks, Green issued a statement denying the accusation. Here it is: This story is completely untrue and comes from a tainted and untrustworthy source. I've been aware for some years that the discredited former Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick has tried to cause me political damage by leaking false information about the raid on my Parliamentary Office. No newspaper has printed this story due to the complete lack of any evidence.
The apparently eternal battle between politicians and bureaucrats for control of the government machine has been better for TV comedy writers than for the governance of Britain. Ministers complain that officials obstruct their plans to implement election promises; officials complain that special advisers drive a short-term media-obsessed agenda, and everyone objects to interference from the centre (except at the centre where everyone complains about off-message barons pursuing personal agendas). The first big divide that any minister faces is between policy advice and operational capacity. I will start with policy, because it is where the British Civil Service has always prided itself on providing a Rolls-Royce service. In most areas their pride is fully justified.
