26/11/2013
As the immigration issue grips British politics, we are seeing several interesting phenomena, not least
the intervention of Romania's Foreign Minister, Titus Corlatean.
He does not expect a "flood" of migrants from his country to come to Britain after 1 January and attacked the way the immigration debate had been conducted in the UK. He has thus called on Mr Cameron to reject "the xenophobic and populistic and once again sometimes racist attitudes which are promoted by some other British politicians".
Meanwhile, Downing Street has said the Government is still looking at what more action could be taken on benefits for immigrants. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman says: "The Government is taking action. Of course we are looking at what more can be done".
Asked when the Prime Minister's thinking in this area would become clearer, he declined to provide any timescales. The spokesman was also asked what the Government's stance would be if the next steps contravened EU law. He would only say: "The Government acts within the law".
That is going to be the crunch issue. Within the framework of EU law as it stands, the Government has no scope for manoeuvre in tackling its own defined target issue of cutting benefit opportunities for migrants.
Thus, Mr Cameron can either reject EU law, and take the consequences â which would probably give him a short-term poll boost, or he can try a fudge, only to be ripped apart by the
commentariat, probably taking a hit in the polls and possibly giving UKIP a boost.
There again, Mr Cameron could perhaps have a secret weapon up his sleeve, ready to unleash on the unsuspecting migrant population, solving for once and for all what has hitherto seemed an intractable problem.
Up to press though, we have had no news of Mr Cameron's consultation with the tooth fairy, but it is going to take something of that nature to pull this particular rabbit out of the hat. We wait in awe for the magic trick, to end all tricks. This is going to have to be pretty spectacular.
