Members of a Conspiracy? Us?

We have recently touched upon the thorny issue of the driving mechanisms underlying global migration into the Eurosphere, into the EU and into Britain in particular. It’s probably fair to say that there are two main schools of thought on the matter: the Conspiracy Theorists and the Cock-up Crowd.

As it happens the BBC has just re-opened the public debate into the question with a programme aired on Radio Four earlier this week: Analysis: Foreigner Policy, hosted by David Goodhart, the estimable editor of the ‘progressive’ magazine Prospect. The recording is available in the BBC iPlayer, and a full transcript can be downloaded from here. If possible, a listen to the broadcast is recommended, since this conveys far more information than the bare transcript. Sharp intakes of breath, nervous giggles, bombastic defensiveness and oily evasiveness are all easy to detect with a little close listening.

Goodhart interviews a number of leading industry luminaries including Tim Finch of the IPPR [“The most dangerous organisation in Britain – Dan Dare] and Sarah Spencer of taxpayer-funded pro-migration ‘research’ unit Oxford Compas. Most intriguingly, Goodhart also gives an airing to Andrew Neather, the former Labour policy wonk whose revelations about NuLabor’s alleged plan to import a new, ethnically-diverse electorate caused such a stir a few months ago.

The programme certainly starts out with the intention of exposing a possible conspiracy, if one existed. Indeed the station announcer introduces the documentary with the question “Did Labour pursue an immigration policy deliberately intended to increase diversity?”

After reviewing the evidence presented, however, Goodhart dismisses the allegation and suggests instead that the migration boom under the Labour regime was not the outcome of an ideological crusade, but rather the result of misguided economic imperatives, general liberal sensibilities and straightforward bureaucratic bungling.

A cock-up it is then. Or a cover-up?