The UK immigration authorities have announced price increases for certain types of UK visas. Government involved in this matter will no doubt feel that these measures are needed and most immigration observers would more than likely agree.

The criticism I have lobbied at the Labour party from this very blog is that in regards to the UK immigration policy they have simply not provided extra funding for services and institutions that an increase in population would require. By this I mean public services such as the healthcare system and schools.

In this country we are very fortunate in that we have a fully-subsidised healthcare system, one in which if you are in need of medical treatment you have access to it. This system for a long time has come under criticism and indeed it was one of Labour’s main policies when they came to power in 1997, under the musings of D.Reams ‘Things can only get better’, to revive it from the inadequate service some felt it had become. It could easily be argued that ‘New Labour’ has achieved the goal of improving the healthcare system in this country, and no doubt Mr Brown would draw on five dozen reports to prove just that, citing statistics to show that waiting lists have decreased, nosocomial infections caused by hospital visits have declined and patient care standards have been raised.

However I would counter that argument in that the main gripe the average Joe Bloggs has about immigration in this country is that it drains public services. It’s not rocket science, if you have an increase in population the amount of people using public services also increases.

2004 saw the introductions of Poland and the Baltic states into the EU, subsequently citizens from these countries were afforded the right to work in the UK, without the need to apply for a UK work visa. This saw a huge surge in people from these nations coming to the UK to live and work. Labour’s immigration policy has also recently come under scrutiny for being too liberal in who they allowed into the country. This has meant that since the Labour party took office the level of immigration into the UK has been steadily rising, official statistics published last month even claiming that the population will reach 70million by 2028 if the migration patterns of the last 10 years continue. I am not professing to know categorically that the budget for public spending has not increased by some measure, it more than likely has, what is self-evident however is the feeling among voters that public services are now under-funded for the amount of people we now have living in the country.

I am a firm believer in the notion that UK immigration is a positive for the country, even asylum seekers whose first generation can speak little English, the children of these migrants will grow up in a country that provides them every opportunity to achieve whatever their goals might be, I have no doubt that many will grow up to become the next generation of Doctors and key-workers, and if not such lofty aspirations for these individuals, who would otherwise be persecuted in their own country, economically active members of our unique nation.

The new UK visa measures go some way in appeasing voters and providing much needed funds for the services that need it most. As the deadline for a general election looms, and UK immigration looks set to be a major sticking point for the current government, it will be interesting from my perspective to see what other measures Mr Brown will introduce to rescue his UK immigration plans from the death-throes of a Tory party that smells blood.