A politician of truth as you suggest could get the immediate vote of many, imagine how wholesomely refreshing that would be, to rebuild politics on truth and trust. Alas, those centuries of lies are why they cannot now be honest, a tangled web of deceit indeed.
As a fellow immigrant, these words resonate so hard. My work brings me into contact with so much bias, hatred and ignorance it is making me doubt my sanity.
My late father did a DNA test in the late 90s. It was free with a book called The Seven Daughters of Eve.
It transpires that through his mother's line some of our ancestors arrived in the British Isles just after the end of the last Ice Age and long before that, by a total of 40,000 years, their ancestors had lived in the region near the Delphi.
The current obsession amongst the dispossessed and hard of thinking with the English flag and St George raises a late Medieval myth to a status it doesn't deserve.
And creates a barrier to engaging in a civilised discussion about the role of immigration and the positive things it brings. Which is exactly what the racist rabble rouser Farage and his ilk want. They don't want a debate, no reason can be allowed to intrude.
Farage is in my view just as bloodthirsty as Yaxley - Lennon just with an added layer of weasel like cunning.
So Bear as sound as your argument is and I agree with you on the details until we have a government with spine and clarity of world view plus the ability to communicate that we are pretty stuffed.
When I hear about sending all the immigrants back home! I get furious. Great I say, send them all home tomorrow. Then we have a problem far bigger than we have now. A total disaster, a lack of Doctors, Nurses, carers, train driving, bus drivers, delivery drivers, administrators, every damn industry, every damn employer, a lack of skilled workers and unskilled workers. Who will be paying the greatest price, those who are still here. Food shortages, power shortages, the whole country destroyed and desolate.
Nothing left. If the haters think it’s bad now, then they will really hate what tomorrow brings.
Starmer and Labour talked about going back to square one, they won’t because it comes with a cost that they don’t want to pay.
I despair of what may happen, I hope the message will be clear and people will realise the answer is not as simple as getting rid of the migrants.
It's 's a bit late to be anti-Empire, although many people are still dreaming
I don't think many are capable of thinking back even as far as 19th Century. I have ancestors who came from Ireland then, so I do know about Famine, about hard working navvies, miners, shipyard workers, steel workers. Also short of food, also treated badly.
I know about this through family history, not all Irish went to USA/ Boston, yet that seems to be a common belief.
These islands were occupied by immigrants 2000 years ago. Get over it, get honest, but I don't fancy chances of anyone going public with this attitude.
My Mum is in a care home, and the majority of her carers, who ate wonderful, come from abroad, countries such as Nepal, The Philippines and Nigeria amongst others
They are all lovely and as a country we should be grateful to them for the work they do
As per usual a very well written article. I am an immigrant myself and I recognise what you are saying. However, immigration is much more complicated as you know.
I recently read a book written by Hein de Haas “How migration really works “ and I found it fascinating. I can recommend this book. It gives a very good insight into migration and debunks many of the migration myths. It gives you more insight and ammunition to counteract all the lies peddled by the anti migration mob.
Hear hear. My very British mother and grandmother were both immigrants - both born in India as children of the Raj they came to the U.K. to live aged 6 and 36ish (gran didn’t have a birth certificate so her age was always a mystery) and when the uninformed starting going on about immigrants mum would say “I’m an immigrant” which generally killed whatever prejudiced remark was on its way stone dead.
Of course we need immigrants. The current lies and misinformation which are circulating help no-one except the far right which exploits ignorance for its own cynical aims.
If only we had a historical example of how badly this could end.
Yes to all of this. No question that we need a proper, grown-up debate and realistic solutions to the issue, but there's no way that will happen while Fartrage keeps up the shit-stirring and nobody has the balls to stand up to him. You and many others here on Substack are telling it like it is and I'm so grateful for that. But for your messages to get 'out there' requires the public to want to find out the truth - and for a variety of reasons (no time, no interest, exhausted by the daily grind of keeping their heads above water) many don't. Until that changes, we're stuffed.
There is much truth in what you say, and as a UK born citizen married to an migrant (we both now have dual nationality) with dual nationality children, I'm very sympathetic to the message.
However, much of the current debate is less about the "invited" legal migration you speak of, and more about asylum system and "uncontrolled" migration, which was meant to be stopped when we left the EU (something I also opposed).
I'm not saying this movement is rational, sensible, legitimate, economically or morally sound, but it plays into the narrative that the British state is dysfunctional. It can't control it's borders. It can't build enough houses for it's children. It can't organise healthcare. It can't fight a war. It can't keep crime off the streets.
The facts dispute many of the above claims, but the *feeling* is of a country out of control. This feeling is shared with many other Western European nations which face similar challenges to the notion that the state can wield power effectively to benefit the citizen.
Asking people to accept such alleged mediocrity whilst taxing them at increasing levels to deliver it is a gift to the far right. You talk, thankfully, about honesty in politics. But in all honesty, you mention nothing about what really exercises people about migration. Polls consistently show it's not about the Filipino care worker or Spanish doctor, it's the 100,000 (and falling) asylum decisions pending and the constant reminder that governments of all colours can't fix it.
A politician of truth as you suggest could get the immediate vote of many, imagine how wholesomely refreshing that would be, to rebuild politics on truth and trust. Alas, those centuries of lies are why they cannot now be honest, a tangled web of deceit indeed.
As a fellow immigrant, these words resonate so hard. My work brings me into contact with so much bias, hatred and ignorance it is making me doubt my sanity.
My late father did a DNA test in the late 90s. It was free with a book called The Seven Daughters of Eve.
It transpires that through his mother's line some of our ancestors arrived in the British Isles just after the end of the last Ice Age and long before that, by a total of 40,000 years, their ancestors had lived in the region near the Delphi.
The current obsession amongst the dispossessed and hard of thinking with the English flag and St George raises a late Medieval myth to a status it doesn't deserve.
And creates a barrier to engaging in a civilised discussion about the role of immigration and the positive things it brings. Which is exactly what the racist rabble rouser Farage and his ilk want. They don't want a debate, no reason can be allowed to intrude.
Farage is in my view just as bloodthirsty as Yaxley - Lennon just with an added layer of weasel like cunning.
So Bear as sound as your argument is and I agree with you on the details until we have a government with spine and clarity of world view plus the ability to communicate that we are pretty stuffed.
When I hear about sending all the immigrants back home! I get furious. Great I say, send them all home tomorrow. Then we have a problem far bigger than we have now. A total disaster, a lack of Doctors, Nurses, carers, train driving, bus drivers, delivery drivers, administrators, every damn industry, every damn employer, a lack of skilled workers and unskilled workers. Who will be paying the greatest price, those who are still here. Food shortages, power shortages, the whole country destroyed and desolate.
Nothing left. If the haters think it’s bad now, then they will really hate what tomorrow brings.
Starmer and Labour talked about going back to square one, they won’t because it comes with a cost that they don’t want to pay.
I despair of what may happen, I hope the message will be clear and people will realise the answer is not as simple as getting rid of the migrants.
Keep up your great work.
Bravo dear Bear 🐻👏 xxxx
It's 's a bit late to be anti-Empire, although many people are still dreaming
I don't think many are capable of thinking back even as far as 19th Century. I have ancestors who came from Ireland then, so I do know about Famine, about hard working navvies, miners, shipyard workers, steel workers. Also short of food, also treated badly.
I know about this through family history, not all Irish went to USA/ Boston, yet that seems to be a common belief.
These islands were occupied by immigrants 2000 years ago. Get over it, get honest, but I don't fancy chances of anyone going public with this attitude.
Nice one Bear, keep on doing what you're doing 😊
regards Jackie
Thank you Bear
My Mum is in a care home, and the majority of her carers, who ate wonderful, come from abroad, countries such as Nepal, The Philippines and Nigeria amongst others
They are all lovely and as a country we should be grateful to them for the work they do
As per usual a very well written article. I am an immigrant myself and I recognise what you are saying. However, immigration is much more complicated as you know.
I recently read a book written by Hein de Haas “How migration really works “ and I found it fascinating. I can recommend this book. It gives a very good insight into migration and debunks many of the migration myths. It gives you more insight and ammunition to counteract all the lies peddled by the anti migration mob.
Hear hear. My very British mother and grandmother were both immigrants - both born in India as children of the Raj they came to the U.K. to live aged 6 and 36ish (gran didn’t have a birth certificate so her age was always a mystery) and when the uninformed starting going on about immigrants mum would say “I’m an immigrant” which generally killed whatever prejudiced remark was on its way stone dead.
Of course we need immigrants. The current lies and misinformation which are circulating help no-one except the far right which exploits ignorance for its own cynical aims.
If only we had a historical example of how badly this could end.
Yes to all of this. No question that we need a proper, grown-up debate and realistic solutions to the issue, but there's no way that will happen while Fartrage keeps up the shit-stirring and nobody has the balls to stand up to him. You and many others here on Substack are telling it like it is and I'm so grateful for that. But for your messages to get 'out there' requires the public to want to find out the truth - and for a variety of reasons (no time, no interest, exhausted by the daily grind of keeping their heads above water) many don't. Until that changes, we're stuffed.
Spot on! What a refreshing read.
Brilliant and well observed
So obvious yet the rhetoric has been put through an meme mangle and bears no relation to what is actually happening.
Love reading your insights
Thank you
Great piece 🐻,
There is much truth in what you say, and as a UK born citizen married to an migrant (we both now have dual nationality) with dual nationality children, I'm very sympathetic to the message.
However, much of the current debate is less about the "invited" legal migration you speak of, and more about asylum system and "uncontrolled" migration, which was meant to be stopped when we left the EU (something I also opposed).
I'm not saying this movement is rational, sensible, legitimate, economically or morally sound, but it plays into the narrative that the British state is dysfunctional. It can't control it's borders. It can't build enough houses for it's children. It can't organise healthcare. It can't fight a war. It can't keep crime off the streets.
The facts dispute many of the above claims, but the *feeling* is of a country out of control. This feeling is shared with many other Western European nations which face similar challenges to the notion that the state can wield power effectively to benefit the citizen.
Asking people to accept such alleged mediocrity whilst taxing them at increasing levels to deliver it is a gift to the far right. You talk, thankfully, about honesty in politics. But in all honesty, you mention nothing about what really exercises people about migration. Polls consistently show it's not about the Filipino care worker or Spanish doctor, it's the 100,000 (and falling) asylum decisions pending and the constant reminder that governments of all colours can't fix it.