One Newspaper Goes Against the Mainstream

One newspaper - yes, the Guardian - goes against the overwhelming public opinion in Britain and publishes a blog about the whole Duffy-the-Eastern-European you-know-what affair.

It's written by a Polish woman living in Britain and shows the other side of the coin - how an Eastern European feels about Duffy's remarks.

Most Eastern Europeans here work and pay taxes, without having the right to vote. Nationals from the 8 countries that joined the EU in 2004 do indeed have the right to work without work permits but they have to register, so there are exact figures at the Home Office available to anyone who wants to see how many of them there are.

The latest entrants, Bulgaria and Romania, are still under a restricted regime. Nationals from these countries must either be self-employed - and obtain a yellow card certifying that status - get a work permit for a specific job, or be highly-skilled, to fill Britain's needs in areas such as technology, engineering, IT, medicine.

Figures about how many Bulgarians and Romanians are working in the UK can be easily obtained from the Home Office as well.

I am sure it would be possible to obtain figures on how many Eastern Europeans are on benefits - although they do not qualify for a lot of them, such as housing benefit, for example. So it would be easy for any journalist to get these figures and write an article about how Eastern European migration really affects this country.

They don't do it and I think that this is because it's easier to stick to alarmist headlines that grab British readers attention - even though they aren't accurate - then present them with the truth: it's not immigration that is causing Britain's problems.

But that would open a can of worms both for politicians and for the media, because in the absence of the immigrant enemy they will have to take a look in the mirror. And they may not like what they see there.

For instance, none of the candidates honestly told the British people what spending cuts will be made to reduce the UK budget deficit. I think the British people should worry more about that than about the handful of Eastern Europeans paying taxes here.