Striking a Balance

David Aaronovitch’s fury that erupted in The Times on Tuesday was doubly distressing. First, it was just riddled with factual errors some of which I tried to deal with in the letter which The Times published yesterday.

But, secondly, it was also unfair as well as being so inaccurate. Balanced Migration is not a front for me as Aaronovitch claims. Our genesis is as follows.

I had noticed in our debates in the Commons that Nicholas Soames was the brave lone spirit raising questions about the impact of the rate and scale of immigration on British society. He was initially heavily criticised by Ministers replying to those debates.

As I sympathised with Nicholas’ position I joined in these debates so that he was not a lone figure trying to bring into the House of Commons the views of the vast majority of voters.

It was directly as a result of these initial debates that the idea of a cross-party group on Balanced Migration was conceived.

Nicholas was the initiator of this move. I was simply somebody who wished to support him.

Since then we have both tried to offer leadership for our campaign and no decision is made and no communication released without both of us agreeing to it, irrespective of which side of our partnership suggests the initiative.

When the history of this time is written up and historians try to understand why a desperately out of touch elite tried to impose their views on the vast majority of the community and who was first in the parliamentary arena to challenge this dangerous nonsense the name of Nicholas Soames will stand tall.

Date added: Friday 30th October 2009