ANYONE expecting a sober assessment of the impact of immigration on British society by the House of Lords economic affairs committee would have been struck first by the worrying number of references to the right-wing Migrationwatch organisation.

This body is incapable of referring to migration without conjuring up nightmare visions of a country under critical threat of being swamped.

Such scenarios underestimate the ability of people, especially working people, to work together and to smoothe the absorption of incomers from overseas.

The idea that the influx of people into Britain can be staunched by the use of work permits or quotas is preposterous.

Britain became rich as a result of overseas trade, conquest and exploitation and the peoples of the countries that suffered as a result can see the difference in living standards in Britain and in their own underdeveloped homelands.

To imagine that they would accept poverty and indolence at home rather than follow the wealth gouged from their countries and exported to Britain is naive.

And, whatever the conclusions drawn by their lordships, the beneficial effects of immigration are there for all to see.

But for immigrants, our health service, social services, roadbuilding, railways and buses would have all but collapsed. Even today, it is east Europeans who keep areas of agriculture going, especially at harvest time.

Any problems arising from immigration are not the fault of the immigrants themselves.

They are the fault of people who exploit migrants, paying them below the minimum or industrial council wage, shoving them into overcrowded homes and keeping them away from trade union representatives.

The government ought to be quicker to respond in areas where a rapid increase in population results in pressure on housing, the NHS and welfare provision.

But it should also tighten up safeguards to prevent crooked gangmasters from taking advantage of the government’s own aversion to regulation by robbing migrant workers and undercutting the rate for the job.