The Lords report is an impressive work, the result of a long, impartial investigation into the realities of mass
migration. And it cannot be dismissed as partisan for the 16-strong Economic Affairs Committee is drawn from the three main parties.

Indeed, one of the most outspoken critics was Lord Layard: Labour peer, economist and former adviser to Tony Blair.

Despite the evidence the Government is still clinging to its discredited ideology but no one is going to be fooled
by Mr Brown and his acolytes any longer.

In truth, the economic justification for migration has always been a lot of nonsense. Contrary to the Government’s claims, the cost has been huge. With a possible 700,000 foreigners arriving here every year the bill paid by the taxpayer could be as high as £29billion.

The argument about migrants filling vacancies, wheeled out again yesterday by the Home Office Minister Liam Byrne, has been equally fallacious. The rate of vacancies remains just as high as it was before our borders were abolished and we have five million people of working age who are living on benefits.

It is the economics of the madhouse to import millions of foreigners while paying a large swathe of the indigenous population to remain out of work.

And the idea that all migrants are hard-working is just another myth. In fact, rates of unemployment among Somalians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are far higher than in the British population.

Even if there were some small economic gains from immigration they could not possibly compensate for the destruction of our neighbourhoods or the growth in violent crime, or the removal of any spirit of unity.

Where the political elite sees “multi-cultural diversity” to be celebrated, we only see mayhem – such as the extra­ordinary squalor of “Tent City” in Peterborough, home to hundreds of Eastern Europeans.

Yet for all the puffing from Mr Brown and Mr Byrne yesterday, the reality is that Labour’s Government  never genuinely believed in its economic claims for migration.

Hollow talk about rising living standards and GDP has only been a cover to disguise Labour’s real motivation.

One purpose behind mass migration was the cynical goal of boosting Labour’s vote, recognising that new arrivals and ethnic minorities are far more likely to support Labour than other parties.

The introduction of postal voting and the distribution of grants to self-styled “community groups” have been further moves to strengthen Labour’s client base in migrant areas. In practice mass migration has been an instrument for anti-democratic gerrymandering.

Yet there is also a deeper, more sinister impulse at work, for the higher echelons of the Labour Party have long been gripped by a sense of loathing for their own country.

When the likes of Harriet Harman or Margaret Hodge see the Union flag or hear the National Anthem they are not stirred by the natural patriotism that inspires most of us. Instead they feel only contempt for any manifestation
of Britishness.

So they have used immigration as a weapon against British values and symbols. Every institution must embrace diversity, every service must be geared towards the needs of migrants.

In this climate of ruthlessly enforced multi-culturalism, where national self-hatred is dressed up as anti-racism, patriotism is turned into a thought-crime.

Labour’s economic arguments may have been exposed as absurd but the party’s secret project to revolutionise Britain has been all too tragically successful.

A once great nation is being ruined by its own Government.