A-policy-a-day Smith is up again today with something a little more palatable, though ultimately pointless. Lots of arguments are being had as I write in the House of Commons over a new view on immigration, but it seems to be about petty semantics. Ultimately it puts some more requirements on those wishing to move to the UK, charges them a little bit more money to irrelevant ends, and extends the current 5 year period before British citizenship is attained to 6.

From my point of view what is being proposed is disappointing in that it is yet another policy that pretty much does nothing to benefit the country while making life more tough for immigrants, and seemingly all in the aim of sounding tough on another issue.

The money that this claims to be able to raise is pittance in the grand scheme of things, £15m a year really not offering anything to offset any costs (though what costs is another question) that aren't already supposedly offset by council tax. £15m is not even a drop in the ocean of money raised for local services and community housing nationwide so why put that additional strain on immigrants?

And then you have the need for English to be more prevalent in those coming to the country, something that seems bizarre when coming from a party that has cut funding for things like ESOL and has readily cut avenues in which people can actually learn English. Obviously people need to wait around being persecuted in their country a little longer until they can pay for themselves to learn English, because in the UK it's something we're not prepared to pay for.

Ultimately there are real questions that need to be asked here about why Jacqui Smith and the Home Office are supposedly saying that immigrants are a benefit to society yet taxing them as if they're a drain. It, like many of her policy suggestions, just doesn't make any sense in the bigger picture and so I'm left wondering what it is I'm missing...some catch that will tie in with a policy 12 months down the line to really make an impact to our ever running horror.