Each time I journey through my capital city I find myself shocked by the quantity of aliens I see.  There is no doubt in my mind that this has been an extraordinarily sudden and recent development.  Before 1997 there were, of course, far too many immigrants around.  But nothing like what I see today.

I have it on unimpeachable authority that, until this year, the government had no idea how many of our, of course, always vibrant new countrymen were here illegally.  Too many of the leading demographers couldn’t be trusted by the Home Office because they were associated with the stirling MigrationWatch.  When, finally, ministers could commission one who wasn’t, they found themselves staring at a June 2005 report giving a:-

... best estimate of 430,000 but the number could be between 310,000 and 570,000.

The Tories claim the estimate shows an immigration shambles and say it should have been released during the election.

... The Home Office estimate does not include asylum seekers whose claims are being processed, or who are appealing against a refusal.

It was produced by taking the numbers of foreign-born people living in the UK recorded in the 2001 Census and subtracting the estimated number of legal immigrants.

Home Office officials say they have sought to take into account the fact that some illegal immigrants may not have filled in their census forms.

Immigration Minister Tony McNulty said the figures were a “best guess”.

“By its very nature, it is impossible to quantify accurately, and that remains the case,” he said.

That estimate caused shockwaves, and its release was rumoured to have been delayed by the government beyond the May elections because they knew it would.

But today’s Telegraph carries an entirely different and even more serious story:-

A multi-million pound network thought to be behind the smuggling of up to 200,000 people into the UK has been smashed in a series of dawn raids by police.

It is thought to be among the biggest people smuggling gangs in Europe.

Several alleged senior members of the gang were among eight men and two women arrested in raids at 12 houses in London and one in Boston, Lincolnshire.

They are all being held on suspicion of immigration offences.

It is believed the group could be responsible for smuggling tens of thousands of mainly Turkish Kurds into the UK during the last few years.

One source described the network’s scale as “absolutely massive” and “frightening”.

The gang is thought to have lured thousands of economic migrants paying between £3,000 and £5,000 each from Eastern Europe to Britain with the promise of a better life.

Some were given stolen or forged UK papers, and many used the money they earn to sponsor other family members to make the trip.

Police say they have intervened 20 times in the gang’s smuggling operations in the last three years in attempts to disrupt its activities.

The network’s kingpins are thought to have come to Britain from Turkey as asylum-seekers and have since been granted indefinite leave to remain.

The arrests were made under the Met’s Operation Maxim.  Inevitably, they raise more questions than answers.  Is it feasible that the June figure of up to 570,000 illegals can be relied upon if just one smuggling gang is responsible for 200,000? How many other gangs are out there, still operating?  How does the Home Office plan to address this injustice?  With an amnesty like that of the Spanish socialist government, so heavily criticised by German Interior Minister Otto Schily at the weekend?

At the recent memorial service for the victims of 7/7 Ken Livingstone said, “The city will survive.  It is the future of our world.”  He meant that the browning of England was the unavoidable, irrevocable future for Englishmen.  How London has browned so rapidly we now know.  The future is here and it is “illegal”.

I wonder if Ken cares in the slightest about that as he progresses daily through my city, thrilling to the sights and sounds of the world, where once only his own forefathers stood.