I am saddened by the governments attack on immigration.
I have an Irish passport.
My family, on both sides, could fairly be called economic migrants only a generation or so back.
I think we, as a broad family, have added value to this country.
I think this country would be poorer without the impact of its long tradition of welcoming immigrants.
The Immigration Bill sends out clear signals to all immigrants that they are unwelcome, are not equal, and are suffered rather than welcomed.
That is not chance. That is deliberate.
This is a profound message from a dis-eased society.
My worry is that my sadness will explode into others pain.
This government has sought to wreak havoc economically. Now it seeks to create discord.
No wonder I, like so many, seek an alternative.
One that upholds all people, and the common good.
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My government will bring forward a bill that further reforms Britain’s immigration system. The bill will ensure that this country attracts people who will contribute and deters those who will not.
Even the queen seemed to stutter a little when it came to this bit. The notion of ‘contribution’ might well be very subjective, just like the notion of ‘hard working people’ which means poorly paid and disgruntled victims of unaffordable housing whose wrath we will misdirect.
Richard, this is all the more reprehensible, given the purported “Christian” profession of most of th Cabinet. I remember attending a session on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers, entitled “Who is my neighbour”, put on at the behest of Bishop Peter Wheatley of Edmonton, in the Parish Hall of St Alban’s in Holborn.
One of the speakers was the redoubtable Rev’d Professor Tim Gorringe, Professor of theology at Exeter University, who gave an electrifying address, which handled the meaning of “stranger” in the Old Testament, From this I learned that where we have the word “stranger” or “alien” or “sojourner” in the translation, the word behind it is usually the Hebrew word “ger”, which really means “economic migrant”.
Thus, Leviticus 19, vv 33-34, which usually reads
“33]”When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. [34] The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”
ENTIRELY changes its meaning, when it reads:
“When an ECONOMIC MIGRANT sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The ECONOMIC MIGRANT who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were ECONOMIC MIGRANTS in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”
Professor Gorringe’s remarks caused the Chair of the meeting, a young Welsh woman, to comment that she TOO was an economic migrant, having migrated from Wales to London.
Labour really MUST go on the offensive, and this is one of the areas to focus on, for we have a Government bent on demonizing ALL outsiders. But then they took their cue from the “Wicked Witch of the West”: after all, two of Thatcher’s key phrases – motivators even – were a) “not one of us” and b) “the enemy within” She would probably have vetoed the recent honouring of the Bevin Boys, because they were miners, who couldn’t POSSIBLY have done anything useful, such as shuffling imaginary electronic money, like the shysters in the City!
Thanks Andrew
I recall that teaching too
And try to live by it
Immigrants are my neighbours
Here’s an interesting example and in line with your background. The first British football team to win the old European Cup were Celtic. Their original base was in the immigrant Irish Catholic community of Glasgow. All of their players were from Scotland and although I don’t actually know, I’m willing to bet most of the team were Glaswegians of that same Irish background. That community often lived in terrible conditions and suffered blatant discrimination and ridicule. Yet look at what these people did for Scotland and Britain in a game the English claimed to have invented.
On a more contemporary note…I wonder how many Conservatives were cheering Mo Farah’s brilliant display at last year’s Olympics?
I agree. But this is democracy in action.. the government are reflecting public opinion, and nobody is adequately presenting the alternative case. Labour are arguing that the proposed measures don’t go far enough, or will be ineffective.. not that the whole premise is wrong.
Both Labour and the Tories seem to have decided that there are enough votes in being ‘tough on immigration’ to make it worthwhile abandoning any principles which are contrary to that.
Maybe I’m unduly pessimistic.. but I don’t see any chance of change coming.
Is the role of government to lead or to follow?
The current shower first manipulate public opinion with hearsay and then use the opinion generated with support from the usual suspects in the media to justify their reprehensible and ignorant plans. Having been the creators of division in the first place, to cite public support for strengthening that division is cynicism of the highest order.
What happened to leadership, the ability to counter intellectually bankrupt ideas with rational alternatives, the willingness to be guided by solid principles and be judged by them?
I’m pessimistic too but, if we say and do nothing, nothing can change. So let’s keep on shouting.
Ed M, for God’s sake, get off your bum and onto a very high horse
I don’t think it is democracy at all to be honest. Just the bleatings of politicians and the right-wing media, defended their own power, interests and wealth. Eventually people will realise they should have been focused on other issues, but will it be too late?
What about left-wingers defending their power and wealth? At the cost of the misery of the ordinary people of this country.
I came here because I care about tax reform. If this blog is just a bunch of left-wingers whingeing it is never going to get anyway. Tax reform should be about honesty and fairness, not left-wing politicking.
You wholly miss the point
All tax reform is political
And your comment is just that
Why then should left wing politics be excluded from debate?
@ Philip Arlington
If complaining about tax dodging, and the shenanigans of the rich in defence of their (often ill-gotten, and very often without any real effort or risk on their part, in contrast to REAL entrepreneurs, such as Alan Sugar) wealth is to be characterizes as “just a bunch of left-wingers whingeing”, then it is ABUNDANTLY clear that the Right-wing have conceded the argument, and accept that the Left Wing are correct, and that the Right-wing are the the wrong-doers.
Now, much as I, an almost life-long Socialist, would like to take that easy route, and condemn all Right-wingers, I won’t, because there are honourable, decent, old-world, “one Nation Tory” type people on the Right who are JUST as angry as any of us on the Left at the unfairness and market distortions casued by these carpetbagger, rent-seeking shysters, and who long just as much as most people on this blog to see them reined in, and put back in the box or, like evile genies, back in the lamp, where there constraint might – MIGHT – just permit something like fair trade, rather than the current fixed trade, that constitutes the so-called “free (actually “stitched up”) market to operate.
I await the inevitable intervention from the EU.
As long as the UK is a member of said organisation, I see no way they can keep out anyone from another EU member state.
England is beginning to look like the England of the film “V for Vendetta”. What with the rise of the UKIP and now this. 🙁