The problem with immigration is that political parties are not willing to be totally honest about it.

We need immigrants pure and simple.

I say this not as the son of an immigrant but it is a fact.

But no-one wants to admit this because to do so attracts the wrong sort of attention in what is a highly charged polarised environment.

Even bringing up the subject either paints you as a ‘racist’ or makes it seem you are trying to fill the public services with hoards of people from third-world countries. Neither of those points is true.

Yet, we must admit something to ourselves.

If we don’t have people coming to this country to work and set up businesses we won’t be able to function. 

For those who try to reminisce about a time when Britain was devoid of immigrants, a quick look through the history books will tell there has never been a time when we have not had immigration.

Throughout the ages we have had people coming here and adding to the fabric of the country.

This idea that we should have ‘controlled’ immigration is also a bit of a fallacy as we can’t be in a place where we only attract the best and most qualified people.

The point is, as well as needing the most qualified people like doctors, we also need people to do all the other jobs. 

Without them this country cannot function.

I was in London in September and one has to admit that the capital, as well as other places would come to a complete standstill without foreign workers.

People who wish otherwise are living in a fantasy world and are being totally unrealistic about where we are as a nation.

Any strain on our public services is due to a whole range of factors and immigration isn’t really the top of the list.

But it makes the best headlines so we fall for this nonsense.

What I find the most perplexing thing is hearing the sons and daughters of immigrants telling me that their parents were ‘different.’

In what way were they actually different? What made them so different?

To now refuse that opportunity to someone else seems almost farcical.

I had this conversation with one friend who constantly seems to bash immigrants and asked a simple question, ‘If you could go back to 1971 and meet your father, what would he think of the words that just came out of your mouth?’

There was of course an embarrassing silence.