It's time to realise that immigration is not the issue

BEFORE we started obsessing about immigration, thinking it was the root cause of all of our problems, we blamed the European Union.

- Andy Phillips

More specifically, Nigel Farage blamed the EU, and his UKIP - the UK Independence Party - ran a very successful campaign on why it was all because of those bureaucrats in Brussels that the NHS was struggling, our public services were falling to pieces and our living standards plummeting.

He made such a compelling case for why the EU was a challenge to our democracy, and a dead weight on our economy, that the then Conservative leader, David Cameron, moved to silence his backbenchers with a vote on leaving.

Once the nation came to its senses and voted to stay, he undoubtedly believed, the whole issue could be put to bed. Except that wasn’t how things panned out. We voted Leave.

So, since Brexit, have all of the nation’s problems disappeared as we have extricated ourselves from the conspiracy of European rule? No.