Ben Pruchnie/Getty The prattling prelate's hollow contribution is so typical of the dishonesty that grips progressives

FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Profoundly reactionary in its consequences, this demographic revolution has weakened solidarity, worsened living standards, and intensified pressure on our public services. As cohesion frays, our once gentle, well-ordered society is awash with violent crime and poisonous identity politics. A classic example of liberal doublethink on immigration came yesterday from Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury. In a newspaper article, he trumpeted the need for a “generous” border policy. “Welcoming strangers to our country and integrating them is important,” he declared, adding stridently that “we must never crush the new diversity”. The prattling prelate has certainly had his wish in recent years.

Ben Pruchnie/Getty A classic example of liberal doublethink on immigration comes from Justin Welby

“Generous” might be one word for the Government’s approach to immigration. “Criminally lax” and “institutionalised suicide” might well be others. Last week, latest figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that 578,000 migrants settled here in the year to September 2017. Having called for generosity on immigration, Welby then descended into a catalogue of woe about the problems of modern Britain, including the crisis in the NHS, the lack of “proper homes”, and education “cuts”.

Doesn’t Welby, even in all his Anglican soppiness, see any connection between the unprecedented levels of migration and the decline that he outlines? He wails that “the most important building blocks of our nation have been undermined”, but refuses to admit that the cause is the systematic demolition of our national identity and heritage by the obsession with diversity. In the same contradictory vein, he moans about a lack of “common values” in Britain. Well that’s due to the pro-immigration doctrine he so blindly espouses. Through open borders, our once united country is being turned into an arena of competing minorities, devoid of any shared sense of belonging or mutual trust. In large swathes of urban England, Britons are now aliens in their own land. Welby’s hollow contribution is so typical of the dishonesty that grips British progressives.

Chaos at Pro-immigration protest Sun, October 25, 2015 Pro-immigration protestors caused chaos last night as they clashed with police during a pro-immigration demonstration which saw hooded campaigners storm St Pancras station Play slideshow Lee Thomas 1 of 18 Angry protesters clash with police as the attempt to storm St Pancras Eurostar terminal

In large swathes of urban England, Britons are now aliens in their own land

Instead of facing up to the heavy economic costs of mass immigration, including rising welfare bills and strains on the civic infrastructure, they pretend that Britain could not possibly survive without the import of millions of foreigners. This attitude was summed up by former diplomat Lord Kerr, who said recently that “native Britons are so bloody stupid” that we “need an injection of intelligent people from overseas”. That kind of self-loathing is absurd, given Britain’s historic record as a powerhouse of industry, democracy and invention. But it is also based on the fallacy that migrants are far more diligent and dynamic than British people. “They come here to work,” is the favourite mantra of the progressives. It is untrue.

Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Justin Welby bemoans the state of Britain

According to last week’s ONS report, less than half of all immigrants arrived here to work, and just 32 per cent had definite jobs to go to. Just as damningly, the ONS pointed out that the employment rate for UK citizens is 76 per cent, compared to just 63 per cent for foreign nationals from outside the EU. Within the jobs market, mass immigration has the effect of driving down wages and promoting poverty pay through the import of cheap, low-skilled labour. It is remarkable that self-styled liberals should support such a process. Indeed, Welby inadvertently gave the game away yesterday when he wrote that “we need to support strongly those poorer communities that have had high levels of immigration”. If the foreign influx is so beneficial, why on earth would it be breeding poverty? Such twisted illogicality extends far beyond the economy.

© Paul Donnelley, 2018 Immigration officers prepare a raid

Blathering on about cultural enrichment, progressives are so determined to maintain the illusion of success they try to conceal any evidence about the damage caused by mass immigration. That impulse has been seen at its worst in the shameful reluctance by the authorities to tackle predatory Asian grooming gangs across urban Britain. In its worship at the altar of cultural diversity, officialdom felt it more important to protect its fashionable creed than vulnerable white girls. Last Friday, a report on further investigations into the grooming scandal in Rotherham showed the number of victims may be as high as 1,510, 90 per cent of them white, while 80 per cent of suspected offenders were of Pakistani origin. A similar report last week into grooming in the North East showed more than 700 girls were targeted by gangs of Asian men, who long acted with impunity due to official inertia.