It may come as a shock to the metropolitan elite but these policies have been in force in many rural areas for years. In villages with populations below 2000 in parts of somerset housing associations give prioirity to those with local connections (work/caring responsibilities etc).

Extending this wider seems sensible to me.

But the problem here is the implication itself.

And I think this is to do with New Labour being on the backfoot at the moment, repeating slogans that some people want to hear (tough on slogans, tough on the causes of slogans, as Bill Bailey once said).

So if more was done to iron out possible misunderstandings of our slogans – perhaps linking them with information crucial for the understanding of foreign nationals in this country, information that could curb some of the chatter purported by the far-right – then we might find its not legislation that is the problem at all. After all, legislation doesn’t always amount to nothing.