..... Not for the first time, Mr Blair's words bear little relation to his Government's actions. The issue he is addressing - the surge in the number of legal immigrants - is almost wholly of his own creation.
Two years ago, he incautiously told an interviewer that his Government would halve the number of asylum claims within months. In order to fulfil this commitment, Labour doubled the number of work permits being issued, so that migrants no longer had to claim refugee status to remain in Britain. Now, scuttling to catch up with public opinion, the Prime Minister is essentially promising to reverse his own policy.
That he should be doing so at all is none the less a handsome compliment to the Tory leader, Michael Howard.