'Immigration threat to Britain as single nation'
STORYImmigration may be threatening Britain's status as a country, it has been claimed.
A pamphlet by social policy think-tank Civitas said the UK may already have reached a "tipping point" where it can no longer be regarded as a single nation.
David Conway, the author, said that if Britain has become a "nation of immigrants" it could lead to political disintegration.
The 100-page booklet said: "Those for whom this country has been a model of tolerance and freedom cannot but have cause for deep concern about the seemingly reckless pace and scale on which immigration has recently been allowed to proceed.
"As a result of it, the country may possibly have reached a tipping point beyond which it can no longer be said to contain a single nation. Should that point have been reached, then, ironically in the course of Britain having become a nation of immigrants, it would have ceased to be a nation.
"Once such a point is reached, political disintegration may be predicted to be not long in following."
Mr Conway, a senior research fellow at Civitas, disputed a claim made by the Commission for Racial Equality in 1996 that "everyone who lives in Britain today is either an immigrant to the descendant of an immigrant".
The author said: "The view that Britain is a nation of immigrants suggests Britain has always experienced immigration on its present-day scale, which is not the case."
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "This report suggests that the Government's inability to get a grip on immigration or put a limit on numbers entering the UK is destabilising British society. We know that unchecked immigration is putting pressure on housing and local services. Now this report shows that its effects are potentially even more serious."
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