10:00PM BST 16 Jun 2014
The 'liberal political class' dominating Britain is out of step with the mass of the electorate on immigration, major study warns.
Politicians have contributed to a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment because of a widening “disconnect” between the “liberal political class” and public opinion, the UK’s most authoritative barometer of public opinion suggests.
Almost half the population now believes that a decade of mass migration has not only harmed the economy but undermined “British culture”, the annual British Social Attitudes survey shows.
The “persistent public anxiety” over immigrant numbers is something the main political parties “ignore at their peril”, the Government-funded study warns.
Significantly, the study — which has been charting public opinion for more than 30 years — found signs of a rejection of a multicultural notion of Britishness.
In striking contrast with a decade ago, when the survey showed rising acceptance of minorities, increasing numbers now single out factors such as being born in the UK or having “British ancestry” as important elements of “British” identity. Telegraph.
This is most unfortunate and the blame is clearly placed where it belongs here. It is NOT UKIP's fault for pointing out the issue (as leftists so regularly suggest to be the case). Indeed, UKIP place their rhetoric on preventing negative, new immigration not on making legal immigrants a target!
