Holy crosier, Batman! George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, has come out for reduced immigration!

Kind of, sort of, with much hesitation, hedging, diffidence, qualification, and demurral. (I think there are a few qualms in there too.) Like another well-known clerical performance, it is not done well, but one is surprised to find it done at all.

This sentence particularly caught my eye:

And while we don’t expect groups to assimilate, there must be a willingness on their part to integrate with the rest of British society.

Well, of course we don’t expect groups to assimilate! That would be wrong. We just want them to . . . integrate. I mean, Heaven forfend they should ever come to think of themselves as British.