Is England intolerably overcrowded?

That's the desciption that two distinguished parliamentarians use to describe the result of recent immigration policy.

The Sussex Conservative MP Nicholas Soames and Labour's Frank Field jointly issued what they say is a challenge.

They say that "none of the major parties has a sufficiently firm policy on immigration just days away from a general election campaign".

"As it seems likely that the three main parties will stick their heads in the sand and avoid an explicit commitment to prevent Britain's population from soaring to 70 million in 20 years, we have today set out the kind of measures any future Government will have to introduce if we are to tackle this crucial issue before it is too late."

This is the firmer policy they say they'd like to see.

§ Further steps to clamp down on the abuse of student visas;

§ Suspension of Tier 1 visas which they say allow skilled people to enter Britain without a job to come to;

§ Suspension of the Post Study Route which allows all foreign graduates of British universities to stay on for two years and compete for jobs with British graduates;

§ Raise the points requirement for other economic migrants for as long as unemployment in Britain exceeds one million;

§ Require applicants for visitors visas to provide evidence of health insurance as is required by all other EU member states.

§ Require an oral test of English language skills for economic migrants and spouses, conducted in their countries of origin by skilled Border Agency staff from this country;

§ Affirm that there will be no amnesty for illegal immigrants, as spokesmen for both major parties have indicated; and,

§ Intensify efforts to remove those who have no right to be in Britain.

Will immigration be a major issue at the next election? Should it be?

Michael Howard was accused of "playing the race card" and "dog-whistle politics" when he raised the issue at the last election. Have we moved any further forward?

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