Migrants take jobs from Britons

Today’s the day the Work and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith calls for tighter controls on immigration and for British employers to favour British workers.

It is going to strike a chord with a fair slice of the electorate, I'll warrant.

Less sure if some employers will be so keen.

My old pal the Earl of Thetford was saying just the other day about how he would love to employ more British workers on his East Anglian farm but found it very difficult.

The reasons for this were varied, but in a nutshell his point was that (with some notable exceptions) the British have gone soft.

In between a couple of glasses of claret, the Earl noted that British workers he’d tried out were unable to turn up on time, moaned a lot, bunked off for breaks as soon as possible, were fat and unfit and didn’t return on day two.

The Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and whatnot worked like horses and wanted to be part of the operation.

Of course IDS will know this already.