Yet more mess

As soon as Liam Byrne put his mobile phone down, his mind must have gone to immigration statistics. Surely? But sadly no, the case appears.

I've just witnessed his moronic approach to being a government minister. On the BBC's Daily Politics he was asked repeatedly by Andrew Neil if he knew the correct figures for legal immigrants. "If you'll forgive me (said several times during the interview), I've left these stats behind" and then went into a kind of flustered grinning. Andrew Neil could not get any sensible reply from.

"What does British jobs for British people mean?" asked Neil. Again a rather tortuous answer of nothingness came back. "Keith Vaz says, if it means giving British people advantages, then we will get some kind of employment apartheid." "I've spoken to Keith and he's wrong." "British jobs for British people is straight out of the BNP's policies. I've seen it on a leaflet." Byrne just waffled on, not even bothered by the fact that New Labour was now copying BNP policies.

Incredible, isn't it? What could be better for those who want to whip up a storm on immigration than another incompetent minister for immigration? The gravest thing in all this is that Byrne sees some humour in his incompetency!

At the end Neil showed Rory Bremner taking off Peter Hain adding up figures on a calculater. "100,000 Lithuanians, 20,000 Latvians......... Take away..... That leaves 11. Can't be right!"

Byrne then quipped "We're getting something a bit better than a calculator now." Again all jokes! Iain Duncan Smith, sitting next to him, muttered in amazement.

Posted in: BNP,Immigration,Liam Byrne,New Labour