Mr Shariatmadari does not seem to know much

Above:  David Shariatmadari (Deputy editor on The Guardian's comment pages and Comment is free) discussing the Daily Mail's serialisation of David Goodhart's book http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297776/SATURDAY-ESSAY-Why-Left-epic-mistake-immigration.html#ixzz2OLNF9DRu.

Mr Shariatmadari does not seem to know much about economics otherwise he would know that Japan rose from a bombed-out year zero in 1945 to challenge America in the 1980s as the world's greatest economic nation.  Despite subsequent setbacks Japan still remains in the top league of world economies and is likely to stay there despite the rise of the BRIC countries.  And yet Japan is exactly the "closed off nation state" (with almost no immigration) Mr Shariatmadari jeers at.

Japan was able to initiate the post-1945 economic miracle and sustain that drive through subsequent decades because the Japanese population had a national cohesiveness that expressed itself in a national will to achieve economic success.

Also, Mr Shariatmadari does not seem to know much about economic history otherwise he would know that the world's first industrial revolution occurred in the United Kingdom in the 18th century in what was effectively a monocultural population.

By all means promote the idea of unrestricted immigration Mr Shariatmadari, but please do not use falsehoods to support your argument.