Points mean prizes

Liam Byrne gave a lovely speech to Demos about the traditional British values of tolerance and fairness, and the little things that sometimes mean everything; a cup of tea, pubs, cider, the BBC, queuing, proper chocolate, fish and chips, darts, fashion, the seasons and countryside, walks, warm beer, old maids cycling to communion through the morning mist and clubbing.

The reason for this impersonation of John Major is that the Home Office is going to bring in an Australian-style points system for immigration. It's nice to see our ministers announcing that what we need is to copy ideas from a government which was recently voted out after eleven years in power. So how will this new system reflect our traditional British values?

Liam was keen to stress that "We are not running immigration policy in the exclusive interest of the British business community," and that the views of people who don't like immigrants have also been taken into account in developing the policy.

As a result, alongside qualifications, experience and ability to speak English, prospective migrants win points according to the amount of money that they have and their previous earnings.

So if you have two identically qualified workers, the rich one can come to the UK, and the poor one can't. What better example of those traditional British values which have made our country what it is today.