The Government's plan for three million new houses; the misery caused to thousands of families whose homes were built on flood plains because of a shortage of space; Labour's new transport "strategy", necessitated by overcrowded trains and the requirement for additional rolling stock and longer platforms; the issuing of 700,000 new National Insurance numbers to overseas nationals; Gordon Brown's promise to deport 4,000 foreign prisoners; and his pledge to establish a new border agency to control arrivals to and departures from the country.

The common thread connecting all of these issues is immigration. Not the fact, but its scale.

Each of the announcements listed above was, in part, a recognition that the number of arrivals in recent years has been too great, yet no preparations were made to accommodate them. The issue now is how the country, and especially those parts of it wilting under the strain of a growing population, can continue to absorb immigrants at existing levels when it can hardly cope with the most recent wave..........

Counting the cost of immigration - Telegraph