Ministers have perfected a patter when talking about immigration. “We’re sorry – we’ve made mistakes, but we’re now getting it under control with our new, tough, Australian-style Points Based System”, they say. Last week, in his first speech on immigration in two years, Gordon Brown trumpeted the merits of the Points Based System (PBS) for immigration and citizenship. He claimed that “together they constitute a fundamental reform of a decade’s old system – a reform founded on the British values of personal responsibility and civic duty.”
From Control to Dependence: A Review of the Work Visa System
Britain’s work-visa system has been redesigned repeatedly over the past twenty-five years, each time in the name of restoring control. The data tells the opposite story.
September 25, 2026
