The United Kingdom is at two historic turning points. They go together. Much depends on the outcome. Its rapid population growth, driven by the highest immigration in its history, is destabilising, transforming its population, its environment and its ethnic make-up into something quite new. At the same time the UK faces a choice about leaving the European Union or remaining in it. Some welcome the growth of the population and the increased diversity that it brings. For those who do not, leaving the EU offers a possibility of moderating at least some of that growth, keeping the UK in something like its present size and shape. And it is only a possibility. By itself Brexit might change nothing; it would depend on the choices made by any post-Brexit government, in particular on also leaving the European Economic Area and hence ending the commitment to the free movement of labour.
Uncontrolled migration means Finis Britanniae
If immigration is not reduced, the country will be unrecognisable within a few decades. The referendum might end the experiment. Click the link to read the original article in Standpoint magazine.
By David Coleman
