British people have become startlingly less xenophobic

IN JUNE 2016 Nigel Farage, then the leader of the UK Independence Party, unveiled a poster showing a line of refugees. “BREAKING POINT”, it screamed, in red letters. “We must break free of the EU and take back control of our borders.” Boris Johnson, a leading light in the main Leave campaign, sniffily described it as “not my politics”. But perhaps it revealed something, he suggested. If Britain left the EU, people might calm down about immigration.

He seems to have been right. On September 14th a poll by Ipsos MORI revealed a markedly more relaxed nation. Excluding “don’t knows”, the share who want immigration reduced stands at 50%, down from 69% in early 2015 (see chart). A non-negligible 18% want more of it. Polls by other firms show much the same trend.

Immigration has also become far less salient, which is politically crucial. Robert Ford, a political scientist at the University of Manchester, says that Mr Farage’s star rose in the 2000s not because...