An unambiguously good thing to be doing. (How many would wish to avail themselves of this right is another matter and not the point.) https://twitter.com/jkynge/status/1266404844832612354

The failure to offer Hongkongers a right to come to the UK was a grave moral failure on Mrs Thatcher’s part. Other countries benefitted from that unnecessary mistake. This is a different situation but the govt is doing the right thing.

Immigration is such a weird issue. Blair’s decision to allow the Poles et al to come here (with no transition period) was a great thing for human liberty as well as being a friendly declaration that the A8 were *full* EU members...

But it obviously - in part because the British government massively underestimated how attractive the UK would be to Eastern Europeans - helped lay some (not all) of the foundations for, in time, Brexit.

Brexit was won, in large but not sole, part on the question of immigration. “Turkey week” - and it was always Turkey week - was a notable low. Bill Cash never excited many, but Johnny Turk did. I thought this deplorable.

But, fast forward, and Brexit has lanced the immigration boil. Theresa May didn’t understand this. Polling shows Leave voters are more relaxed and liberal about and on immigration than they were in 2016. Its salience as an issue has fallen.

Ending free movement is obviously a curtailment of liberty for EU & UK citizens alike. But enthusiasm for setting bespoke immigration rules is not necessarily the same as enthusiasm for actually reducing immigration.

So I have this rough heuristic: a genuinely liberal immigration policy is sustainable in the longer-term only to the extent the public think it beastly. Satisfy that and you can welcome everyone.