The British government still doesn't know the true scale of immigration. A report by the Public Administration Select Committee has condemned official migration figures, which were based on random interviews of around 800,000 people passing through ports and airports, of whom only around 5,000 are immigrants. The government still used this sample to boast of its progress towards cutting net migration from 252,000 in 2010 to 100,000 by 2015, says Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail.
Yet the worthlessness of its data has far-reaching implications. This research on population plays a key role in developing the "administration of the country". Without it, the government becomes "a shambles". The rise of Ukip has forced the Tories to address the issue, but still they shield their eyes, because "to address the problem properly would mean confronting its root causes", such as Britain's membership of the EU, whose "foundational principle is to allow the free flow of migrants".
The British are more tolerant of immigration than they get credit for, but "tolerance does not extend to a cross-border free-for-all, and all the parties should be honest about that", says Labour MP Tom Harris in The Daily Telegraph. Unfortunately, the Tories have not encouraged much-needed "rational debate" by driving "distasteful" and "intimidating" billboards around London, which declare: "In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest".
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We have arrived at this "ugly, unkind, alarming state of affairs" because it is "impossible to discuss immigration without people going red in the face and calling everyone a racist", says India Knight in The Sunday Times.
The Farages sound like "scared Little Englanders"; the Tories don't wish to do so but are "mindful of the fact they need to be seen to be doing something". Labour hovers around the edge, "wringing its hands and making a kind face while not really offering any kind of remedy". Having the conversation may be unpleasant, but it needs to be had.
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