Polly Toynbee is absolutely right in her Guardian article (Brexit supporters have unleashed furies they can't control, 14/6) to highlight how any rational debate on Europe is being lost amid a cacophony of nonsense about immigration. It is not insignificant that the owners of the newspapers who have done most to sell their products on the back of anti-migrant coverage over recent years are almost uniformally in favour of leaving Europe.
Polly is also right to point to a further lurch to the right following brexit. Indeed, on the subject of migration, the chances are that in the short term at least numbers will actually increase. The work will still be there, so those good old Tories like Boris and Gove, won't have a problem seeing European migrants replaced by migrants from elsewhere. Then what will happen to the returning Brits (2 million plus) who presently live and work in EU countries?
Migration will only reduce when the economy begins to falter. Then the migrants will disappear as quickly as they came. This doesn't ofcourse fit with the Brexit backing parts of the media fiction that migrants only come for benefits but it is the hard cold economic reality.
Migrants are not the problem and certainly no reason to leave the EU. Most of the hardships that the migrants are being scapegoated for are caused by the austerity measures being imposed by the present government. That is where the focus should be not on those who come here seeking only to contribute, earn a living and pay their taxes.
*published Guardian - 15/6/2016
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