Jacqui Smith - lying about points-based immigration isn't how you deal with the BNP

No sooner do I write about the BNP 'threat' and Labour's woeful response to it but we see another example of how not to address it.

Jacqui Smith is talking about the new proposals for a points-based immigration system, similar to that successfully employed in countries such as New Zealand. It is probably the best way of regulating the flow of migration into this country and, as Liberal Democrats, we are minded to support it. However, Jacqui has clearly not used the funds gleaned from claiming a room in her sister's house as her main home to study elementary logic.

Her view is that such a system will support the notion that British jobs should go to British workers. Sorry, Jacqui, but that just isn't true, and if you're hoping to persuade those disenchanted souls considering a vote for the BNP, you're just lying to them. Firstly, most foreign workers in this country come from within the European Union, and won't be affected by it. Second, whilst wage levels are higher here, people will come from Lithuania or Slovakia or wherever because they can send money home.

If only the issue were that simple. We are now paying the price for generations of neglect in a range of areas that, in isolation might not seem that important, but when added together create a competitive disadvantage that is only apparent at the level of the individual.

The people most impacted by a competitive jobs market are those who have less in the way of marketable skills, and the BNP taps that sense of vulnerability. They are undercut by people who have lower financial expectations and who have no long-term intention to stay. Unlike the Lithuanians and others, they can't go to other countries in search of work because they have a language gap to overcome, salary levels are lower and their outgoings higher.

The appalling level of competence in foreign languages, which first became apparent under a Conservative administration whose only thoughts in education revolved around the three R's, selling off playing fields and increasing central control over the curriculum, means that most people lack confidence that they can function adequately in Europe. As a result, they are loathe to seek out, and take up, potential opportunities in France or Germany, for example.

Our economy is not our own any more. Nearly 40% of the 800 largest employers in this country are apparently owned by foreigners, and that interdependence means that telling an Italian owned company to employ only locals is absurd. We need, as a nation, to understand that protectionism is a double-edged sword, and given our traditional reliance on exports, retaliation would be fatal to our economic prospects.

On the other hand, our service sector does well in terms of competitiveness in Europe. Workers who make their living from the use of their brain and creative flair benefit from the freedom that the Single Market offers and they see Europe not as a threat, but as an opportunity. But then, they're not likely to vote BNP.

Politicians who suggest that a change to the immigration laws will make everything better are fools, and the consequences of such foolishness risk driving voters further into the waiting arms of the BNP and other fringe groups. Jacqui Smith might succeed in drawing attention away from her domestic arrangements by such attention-seeking dishonesty, but our democracy is not served by such a mendacious approach.