Numbers game

MORE than five years after Michael Howard told voters that it wasn't racist to talk about immigration, his party is now in a position to act on the hottest of political issues. The former Conservative leader was trying to disassociate prejudice from the legitimate debate to be had about the benefit to Britain's economy and public services of the number of migrants coming into this country.

His successor won the public's backing for a policy of cutting the

number of entrants to Britain and that's why David Cameron and his Cabinet must be given the chance to reform our chaotic immigration system.

A broad spectrum of voters back the Prime Minister's experiment. From the Right wing of the Conservative Party to "old" Labour voters, and among unemployed people of all persuasions, there are concerns. They worry, firstly, that there are too many people coming in and, secondly, that the previous Government had no plausible system for deciding who stays and who goes.

So a temporary limit on non-EU arrivals, conceived to prevent a "surge" in numbers in the run-up to the introduction of a permanent maximum next April, is a necessary part of reforming a system for which Labour had not done enough, as the former Home Secretary Alan Johnson admitted on Saturday.

The new era of controlled immigration must allow the best workers in to help return Britain to prosperity, show compassion to genuine asylum seekers and deal swiftly with those who make false claims to sanctuary. To do so would show that it's not racist to talk about immigration;

it's a matter of common sense.