As loath as I am to say it, Sammy Wilson has been saying some half sensible things in the last few months. Nothing earth shattering, but enough to surprise the hell clean out of me more than once.

That trend seems to have reversed itself.

Environment Minister Sammy Wilson has said firms should give jobs to locals ahead of foreign nationals in the current economic downturn.

He said it made sense to give preference to people “with roots here”.

“A lot of people moved in because of opportunities that there were,” said Mr Wilson, who is also a DUP MP.

Sammy, Sammy, Sammy… You seem to have forgotten that hundreds of thousands of people with roots here went to other parts of the world to make money, and then were the targets of policies such as you espouse when times when bad. Have you forgotten how well that turned out in the long run?

Of those hundreds of thousands (catholic and protestant), many stayed where they were and didn’t exactly feel the most welcome. Many also came home and brought tales of how they were treated. And again, it would seem like Mr Wilson didn’t exactly listen to them when they spoke.

‘course, it would appear that recent waves of migration are much less permanent than previous ones. I think that the rise of squeezyJet is being credited with that – it’s now so much cheaper to fly home than it once was. But that doesn’t mean that Mr Wilson is any less fuckwittered than he would have been 20 years ago.

Also, and here’s a little irony for you, discriminating against people with no roots here would me discriminating against lots of English and Scots folk, which would hardly be in keeping with the idea of a United Kingdom, would it?

Ah well. It’s almost good to see young Sammy return to his usual form…