For many people who are unhappy about their country or anything in society, immigrants are the easy, almost lazy target. It makes people feel better to think that foreigners are the cause of all of their problems and we would all be much happier if we shut the borders.

This is the politics not of people who believe in racial superiority or who are even overly patriotic, but the opinions of people who are politically illiterate. They worry about the effect foreigners might have on their lives because they are unaware that their job in the Nissan plant at Sunderland might be a direct result of Britain being in the EU.