Immigration and the Welfare State

Wat Tyler has a run down of the amount that immigration costs tax payers through increased demands on the Welfare State. Which goes to show, to paraphrase Milton Friedman, that you can have free immigration or a welfare state, but not both. Not that we can do anything about this, as part of the EU empire our immigration policy is not set in Westminster anymore but from our government over the water in Brussels. In order to deal with the problem that Wat Tyler points out we can either get out of the EU, and take back our immigration policy, or get rid of the Welfare State, and so the cost of people coming here to exploit it. Both of these happen to be good options. Personally I would like to get rid of the Welfare State and get out of the EU, then continue with an open immigration policy anyway ('cos freedom of movement, like any other freedom, is important).