According to @UKIPCRH there were 'many' people there - though the definition of 'many' according to @UKIPCRH seems to be 7 ???? (This might give context to UKIP claims about the problems we face because of 'many' immigrants to the UK)
I attended the start of the meeting but was unable to stay for the entire thing as I had a different engagement at 7:30pm.
The UKIP PPC for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, Robert Smith, began speaking at around 7:05pm. I left around 7:20pm so I caught around 12 - 15 mins of Mr Smith's speech.
A good two thirds of what I heard was rebuttal of the recnt bad press that UKIP have received as the media begin to examine their (lack of) policies in detail.
In particular Mr Smith was keen to point out the UKIP were all in favour of the NHS and had no plans to privatise it.
The problem with this claim is that David cameron 'had no plans' to raise VAT - yet that was what happened within weeks of him becoming Prime Minister.
Mr Smith pointed to what Nigel farage had said recently about the NHS. Conclusive proof that UKIP are solidly behinf the NHS! Thing is Mr Farage keeps changing his mind on the NHS - torn between his natural tendency towards privatisation and his knowledge that this tendency won't do UKIP any favours in the polls. At the same time the UKIP message on the NHS is a shambles with all sorts of spokespeople saying all sorts of different things.
Then the speech turned to immigration.
A background was sketched before us. We had recently had a census - the purpose of which is to aid the prediction of population trends. The Labour Party had got the interpretation of the data hopelessly wrong and immigration was massively higher than predicted. UKIP isn't against immigration at all - we should have a points system like many other countries (none of which are in the EU and enjoying the economic benefit that it brings mind you). UKIP is simply about restricting immigration for economic migrants.
So, it would seem that wealthy immigrants or perhaps immigrants with skills that would command a good salary would be welcome while poorer ones should not be allowed. OK that kind of makes sense if you're a right wing pub politician.
But then came the killer blow for me and the point where I got up, thanked the speaker and left for my other engagement.
"Of course, this is why we have to build 47,000 houses in Cornwall"
The link between immigration, following the build up and scene setting and you could see the finished painting as far as housing goes.
In Cornwall we are having to build 47,000 houses because we will need to accommodate economic migrants from Eastern Europe.
So wrong on so many levels!
What would be the point of building houses for the immigrants that UKIP want us to stop? They come from countries where the economy is more like ours in Cornwall. If our people in Cornwall can't afford the ridiculous number of houses that will be built here then I'm certain that the mythical 'many' economic migrants from Eastern Europe won't be able to!!!
What would be more likely is, if we accepted the UKIP spin on immigration, and welcomed the wealthy immigrants with open arms, then, of course they would be able to afford our houses and force prices even further out of reach than they are already.
The truth is that we are building houses in Cornwall - not to address local need in any way, but to accomodate people moving to the Duchy from wealthier parts of the UK or wealthier people from outside the UK.
How much longer will we allow UKIP to scapegoat the poor and disadvantaged for the excesses of the bankers and 'city' finance moguls and to lay a blaket of blame for every ill in society on Europe and immigration.
Ah, but Stephen, Ukip thinks that all those migrants who are buying the new houses in Cornwall are fleeing the south east of England because their houses there are being bought by Romanians etc. Which proves that migrants from eastern Europe can't be as badly off as claimed if they can afford to buy houses in the suburban south east. Or that they've been given cartloads of welfare benefits as soon as they arrive so that they can buy up places in Surrey. Ukip is merely the latest (and most dumbed down) unacceptable face of colonialism.
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