But by concentrating on net immigration and integration, Cameron and the government are indulging in a simple sleight of hand — they can appear to be tougher on the issue while sidestepping the wider implications of how our society and culture is changing because of it. If, say, a million people were to arrive in 2012, and a million left, that would be zero net immigration: the government could claim complete success in getting migration under control. But such a situation would make us a giant landing strip, not a country in any recognisable sense.  

Immigration long ago ceased being about colour, and contrary to what the liberal elites believe, the majority of British people are not rabid racists just waiting for an excuse to march and burn, although it sometimes appears that the more accepting they are, the more frequent and hysterical become the charges of racism. But it is, most would agree, about culture, and if this appears to be changing as fast as it is in Britain now (figures from the Office of National Statistics show that in 2010 a quarter of live births were to mothers born outside the UK), the question of who is arriving and who leaving must surely not be one purely of numbers. 

This has consequences too for the possibilities for successful integration. Any healthy, decent society should be able to absorb people from outside itself, and Britain has been better than most. When you are not of the mainstream, there are compelling reasons to integrate. This used to be the case in Britain. But when people come from different cultures in big enough numbers, that need evaporates. And not just the need: immigration numbering in the hundreds of thousands every year makes it a simple impossibility.

One way forward would surely be some sort of five- or ten-year moratorium on any further long-term economic immigration of any kind (those genuinely seeking asylum would be excluded from this). Right now, this is a political impossibility, although with the prospect of fundamental changes in our relationship with the EU and its treaties becoming ever clearer, who knows how the situation might change. Such a breathing space would give us the chance to take stock of the current situation — in which, in parts of the country, there are large communities living parallel and separate lives — and then to try genuinely to heal divisions. It would give integration a real chance. The 80 per cent or so of the public worried about current immigration — and that figure includes people from established minority groups — might have their badly damaged faith in the political elites restored. As things stand, they can be forgiven for thinking that things will continue very much as before.