What will history judge the most important policy decision taken by the Labour government? It will not, in my view, be the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, independence of the Bank of England or refusing to join the euro. Policy on immigration is more important than any of these, because it is transforming the size and composition of the population. Yet, astonishingly, the government has never made a serious attempt to justify mass immigration. Worse, the arguments it has used are specious.

In its report out this week, the House of Lords select committee on economic affairs does an excellent job of showing just how weak those arguments are.* It is an excellent example of the value to the country of a House that contains people of independence, experience and intellect, rather than the mediocre place-men and place-women with which the government and House of Commons is, alas, determined to replace them.