A very sad day for Britain and Cameron

How sad it is that British prime minister David Cameron is leading a response to immigration so very out-of-step with the needs of the world, especially the poor.

How sad it is that a society that a lifetime ago saved our civilisation has so easily conceded and adopted a position that threatens EU solidarity. How sad it is that these policies are provoked by fear rather than more humane, nobler if more challenging instincts. Mr Cameron may have to deal with the threat of Ukip but that hardly justifies his efforts to blackmail the EU unless it allows him impose sanctions to exclude immigrants from the poorer EU countries. Mr Cameron claims the changes will be a “return to rules” put in place by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s that were overturned by the European Court and would “deliver the toughest system on welfare for EU migrants anywhere in Europe”. It was not immediately clear if these sanctions might be applied to British Commonwealth immigrants.

It is hard to think too that Anglo-Irish relationships, thankfully at an all-time high, would not be terribly damaged if these limits were imposed on Irish immigrants. If this is the kind of society Mr Cameron’s Tories really want, then there can be no place in the EU for them.