LEAVE OR REMAIN? EU PRISONERS IN BRITISH JAILS

It is inevitable and rightly so that until the referendum is over we will be subjected to figures, statistics and more figures.  Statisticians, economists and politicians despite their exhortations of what is or is not the better course to take, know no better than any of us what will result of a decision whether IN or OUT.  The choice for the most intellectual or most ignorant of us is the underlying philosophy of our being master in our own little British semi or just another voice within the cavernous walls of a European mansion. The argument will be won or lost on numbers and ideas easily understood and relevant to almost unthinking analysis. Supposed to be published today by Grassroots Out, levels of  EU nationals in British prisons are IMHO an example of such numbers although the document itself has evaded my search.

First of all the most recent figures 2014  on Europeans in British prisons :-                    

That table makes a total of 4,746 from, as I understand, last year`s figures of which 4,067 are from EU states with today`s total number of prisoners at  85,398.  GO asserts  that the numbers of foreign prisoners in British jails has soared since the former Soviet client states of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Romania joined the EU whilst those countries have seen a fall in their own prison populations.  Between 2002 and 2014 EU nationals in this country`s prisons have, according to GO, risen from 1,763 to 4,252 [Apparently different periods from above].   Prison numbers in Romania, Latvia and Poland have fallen by 3,882, 3,092 and 2,997 respectively since their accession to the EU. UK prisons have seen the numbers of Poles, Romanians and Lithuanians increase by 1,800%, 1,100% and 900% respectively over the same period. 

These statistics and others similar will be converted by Leave campaigners  into pounds spent which would have been better spent  on matters over which we had direct control.  No doubt this blogger and others will be posting future posts on aspects  of REMAIN or LEAVE according to their individual interests.