Britain is a country built on immigration otherwise we’d still be populated by Picts and Scots, Celts (still with us thankfully) and left-over Romans.
The original Anglo-Saxons were invaders from Germany, most of the aristocracy are leftovers from the Norman conquest (definitely unwelcome immigrants) and the people who supercharged the textile trade, one of the foundations of the old empire, were protestant Huguenots who’d been kicked out of France in the 17th century.
But today we had Home Office minister Phil Woollas saying we were going to put a lid on immigration once and for all and maverick Labour MP Frank Field, who’s done some good things in his time but has his worrying side, welcoming this and saying it was the only thing that would save the country. From what?
The facts are that no-one has a clue how many people come in to the country and how many leave. Many of the people who come in do jobs like cleaning and working in care homes that the home-grown Brits, a contradiction in terms possibly, don’t want to do.
It’s looking likely that the numbers of immigrants from the EU, which we can’t control anyway but who make up by far the largest number (most people think), are declining anyway as the UK economy goes into reverse and the pound falls against the euro, meaning they’re better off somewhere else.
So what do we want? Lots of old people left in the UK (the ones who can’t leg it to Australia or France or Spain) with no Philippinos to look after them?
Tough economic times always highlight immigration and, too often, its handmaiden racism, think back to Enoch Powell and his ‘rivers of blood’ speech (actually he was talking about the Romans but most people missed the classical reference).
Surely the Labour Party isn’t thinking there are votes in it?
3 Comments
Wanting to preserve your own national identity, culture, language and cohesion is not “racism.” Also, maybe the ones who are “legging it” to Spain or Australia are doing so because they no longer recognize their country as its been utterly transformed by mass immigration.
Oh come on, MaryJ! The extremely relevant point being made by the writer is that legitimate non-EU immigration has become a convenient political scapegoat. (And take a bow, the Daily Mail.) Just over 5% of economic migration to the UK is from outside the EU. We’re talking about highly skilled people from Australia and New Zealand and India and South Africa. Wow, they’re all former colonies, aren’t they?! Isn’t it the most bizarre coincidence that all these people feel some kind of cultural and emotional bond with Britain? Yes, they’re all countries that wanted to “preserve (their) own national identity, culture, language and cohesion”. But we took their countries anyway. How very dare they ask for anything back? (In perfect English at that. Where on earth could they have learnt to speak our language?)
Overpopulation.
Massive burden on our already overstretched public services such as housing, the nhs, the prison service.
Idiots preaching hate against the west yet could’nt wait to live in our cushy little country!
I could go on…..