Immigration – never debated, never submitted to the voters.

On a small and crowded island [Britain], boosting the population from 60 million to 70 million by 2030, almost entirely as a result of immigration, as official figures forecast, is a serious matter (especially when, as we report today, decision-making is hamstrung because we can't be sure it hasn't already happened).

Did the Government take a decision in 1997 that the British population was not growing rapidly enough and that, for the long-term economic betterment of the country, it had to be boosted by roughly one sixth in just over 30 years?

If so, it passed everyone by. It was never debated by Parliament or put to the people in a general election. When there was an attempt to raise the issue in the 2001 election campaign, the Government cynically played the race card to close the debate down.

Yet it could be argued that the changes to Britain engineered by mass immigration will be Labour's most enduring legacy.

See interesting comments, with the inevitable accusations of "racism," the sine qua non of any political debate in the modern age.

"Immigration doesn't benefit Britain." By Philip Johnston, Telegraph.co.uk, 3/31/08.