I am a foreigner. I have a passport from a country other than the UK to prove it. It so happens this is also true of my whole immediate family. For differing reasons we all qualify for such passports. At one time that might almost have been irrelevant, or at mostly a matter of curiosity. Now it means that we could all be considered foreigners. And without doubt that is now a very explicit basis for discrimination in this country. Lord Tebbit, admittedly long a man without empathy or sense, used the term in the Lords last week, and seems to have struck a popular chord by doing so. And millions of us feel estranged as a result.
I never really expected to feel so divided from the society I live in as I do now. I presumed that this country was my home. The truth is I really do not have another, whatever my nationalities might be. I am, of course, domiciled here. But separateness has nothing to do with my sense of place: it has much to do with the attitude of others. And what has been unleashed, on at least three million EU citizens living in the UK and a million or more UK citizens living elsewhere in the EU, is a sense of otherness.
As a British passsport holder I could feel immune to this, but I don't. Empathy prevents that. So does my sense, based on fact, that it is accidents of birth that largely determine these things. After all, where my grandfather was born and where he subsequently lived was not something over which I had much control. Nor did I even meet him: visiting his war grave is the closest physical contact I have had with him.
But that does not matter, apparently. What matters is the paperwork. And the label. The label is 'foreigner'. The sense that it might be applied is now breeding disquiet. I sense it in colleagues and friends. If some of my students are not acutely aware of it I would be amazed. And such labels are dangerous. They are the basis for discrimination. On that score the damage is already done: millions now know they are just bargaining chips for a Conservative prime minister. What is more, they're aware that many applaud that fact.
A line has been drawn. And it is a dangerous one. No badges are being worn, but they might as well be. Our society is divided. And a part of me, the part that believed I lived in a tolerant, welcoming, open society has been profoundly injured. Whether the wound will heal I do not know, it is that serious. What was my country is not the place I knew any more. And despite this being the only home I have ever really had even I wonder why I am staying here any more. Living elsewhere is no longer such an issue. Those there are, after all, just people. They're not foreigners. They're just others to embrace. But that's not true here anymore. And that's profoundly worrying.
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Well, I suppose I could move to Scotland. That is where I would go if I could.
Going to Scotland may not help. It is quite likely that the British will fight the next Scottish referendum on an anti immigration, anti EU platform in direct opposition to the SNP. Since there is no rational economic, demographic or social basis to oppose free movement to Scotland that will simply be an appeal to racism. It will export to Scotland a toxic debate from which we have been largely free so far. There is certainly racism in Scotland, as anywhere else, but it has never been legitimised by inclusion in political debate.
You’re not quite right there BSA. It’ll be the Britnats, of whom there are some in Scotland (the unionists I assume) doing the idiotic flag waving against the SNP, not the British as a whole.
Certainly not this England based Briton, and certainly not many of those who voted to stay in the EU and aren’t taken in by the likes of Tebbit. I’ll side with the SNP against the Britnats any day of the week.
The area of Scotland I had in mind was one of the more remote bits to be honest!! And as for me and my family we are not toxic in any way. I only intend to import the same values that has led rhe indigenous Scots to turn away from the Tories and New(ish) Labour in the first place.
The biggest risk to me would be if the Scots voted for independence. It is also the biggest risk for them in my view.
Agreed sickoftaxdodgers. ‘Britnats’ is more appropriate.
Very well put. I share the feeling though my own situation is slightly different. Only a UK passport for me (unfortunately) but my daughter – now 15, born here, lived all her life here – is a (non-UK) EU national. We think she would now be entitled to get a UK passport (she wasn’t when she was born), but one feels different now, as if one is under question, or might be. One feels it picking up a newspaper. There’s a sense that there are those that see us as not entirely legitimate.
As someone who reads your blog daily and who bought, read and enjoyed “The Joy of Tax” – and who is very grateful for the light you shine on the economic issues of the world today – I suggest that you remain in the UK to give voice to a different narrative to challenge the propaganda of austerity and racism – to try to make a difference and to speak for the millions of people in the UK who do feel horrified by the brutal and divisive politics of the Tory right.
And as a Scot I would only add that you would be very welcome to make your home here in Scotland where we are striving to create a fairer, kinder and more inclusive society and where you would certainly be made very welcome.
Thanks
But I would not be surprised if work does take me abroad now
Funding for decent academic research is much harder to secure in the UK now and I can’t see that changing
Scotland will be ‘abroad’………….
“Funding for decent academic research is much harder to secure in the UK now and I can’t see that changing”
Good grief, if ever there were a statement exemplifying “killing the goose that lays the golden eggs” it is that one.
The reason little Britain has been able to punch above its weight is – alas I think I now need to alter the grammar to say the reason why little Britain WAS able to punch above its weight WAS- the quality of its academic environment, but especially its Universities, and the strength of the UK’s academic research and academic output.
I’ve said it before – the blame rests at the feet of Margaret Thatcher, who wanted first class academic institutions to adopt the methods and strategies of British business – allegedly superior to academia, but in fact largely (at best) mediocre organisations, when it was UK business that should have been learning from, and adopting the strategies of, UK academia.
A cautionary tale of “be careful what you wish for”, given that UK universities have undoubtedly slipped from their post-War pinnacle.
Importing business culture into academia was always a doomed initiative, given the entirely contradictory drives behind them – profit and sales for the one, pursuit of truth, or at least clarification, for the other, and so producing different definitions of excellence.
It is business culture that led to Blair’s quite silliest initiative – Academies – which have now morphed to Gove’s almost malign transformation of the same, the “Free School”, which I call “Freeloader Schools”, since they seek to benefit from (and VERY handsomely so, as your post on Hammond’s £500 for education demonstrates) State (is OUR) funding, while being “free” of any of the regulation (they would say constraints) as regards staff conditions and Health and Safety and equalities principles that other State Schools are quite reasonably expected to adhere to.
To quote again the words Tacitus puts unto the mouth of the British freedom-fighter, Calgacus, referring to the Roman invaders:
“Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant”
“Where they make a wilderness, they call it peace”.
When I met my English wife, I imagined any children that might be the product of our union would be English. As it has happened, we moved to Ireland ten years ago and the son that arrived is Irish. But it didn’t matter when he was born four years ago. He would, quite literally, be treated the same way under the law in both countries. It is not an exaggeration to saw that the foundations upon which we have built our lives together have been shaken. Even in a best case scenario, his parents can look forward to being treated differently depending upon which of the lands of our birth we happen to reside in, and he will be shorn of many of the benefits we took for granted when we met. And, assuming attitudes in British politics don’t change, that’s the best case scenario. The worst case scenario? Well, I have repeatedly said that no-one in Europe in August 1914 saw what was coming down the tracks.
I think you are in luck
The Irish will be a special case
But it does not stop the sense of alienation
This newly unveiled hostility to “foreigners” is profoundly disturbing. I thought we had got past that.
Do we want people to come here to visit, study, work, start business, participate in our open and outward-looking society, and then either stay and contribute taxes, or return and take back a positive view of the UK with them? Or do we want to become a separate, hostile, inward-looking island?
Businesses are already hedging their bets and recruiting outside the UK rather than here, where they can. I’m sure academics are considering whether they want to come to work in the UK now, and indeed those in the UK will be considering whether their options are better outside the UK.
The nasty party indeed. But a pity the opposition is so feeble. If there is a snap general election, perhaps the Lib Dems might do well as the party clearly in favour of remaining in the EU?
Academics are indeed considering these issues
It is discussed
There are two Murphy names on the list of Irish VC’s. Michael of the 17th Lancers and Thomas of the 24th Foot. Any relations? Long ago one of the senior staff officers I worked for was from the 17/21 Lancers. Before that he had been with Skinner’s Horse in India. Then there was once The Connaught Rangers, the 88th, known as the Devil’s Own.
Not so grand
Cheif Petty Officer HMS Sheffield
The Arctic convoys were his nemesis
He was too old for them in his mid forties
But he sank the “Bismarck”. I had three uncles at sea at the time, also one a CPO and in The Arctic.
He was indeed one of those who sank the Bismarck. And was almost sunk by Swordfish from Ark Royal
On a related note, Richard, Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word (on MSNBC in the US) on Monday evening read out a letter written by Donald Trump’s grandfather to the German government/soverign pleading/begging not to be deported from Germany(due if I recall correctly to him not having done his military service).
On the same programme they had in car camera footage of the father of a young child being snatched by ICE agents while taking the child to school because he was an undocumented alien, with the sound of the child sobbing in the background as her father was bundled into a van for instant deportation. Such is the barbarity of the situations we’ve decended into on both sides of the Atlantic.
The only bright spot here is this morning I placed a bet that Trump won’t last a year as president – the 25th Amendment will be invoked. I was right with Brexit and Trump’s election. And I’m pretty sure I’ve called this one too. Sadly I cannot say that May and the Tories won’t win the 2020 election, though I can say they will govern a country significantly poorer than now, and in many more ways than economically.
Bon chance
It would be nice if you were correct about that Ivan; let’s hope the useless lying charlatan gets his marching orders soon. As for the UK, who knows? I’ve just read Jolyon Maugham’s piece ‘can you hear the drums banging’ where he states that May and her Brexit cronies are preparing to leave the EU with no agreement, and blame it all on the EU, which I can well believe.
In other words, as far as this government is concerned, the Britnat Brexit jingoistic nutters are in charge. Which will only infuriate the Scots and Irish even more. So, will the UK even exist by 2020?
I have my doubts.
I too have my doubts on that
Especially when May uses the argument she uses against the EU to persuade the Scots toi stay with England et al. She really is so incompetent it’s staggering
Hi Richard.
Don’t you also hold a UK passport? I hope so as that would mean that you are not a foreigner. What a relief.
I can understand when you wonder why you are staying here in the UK. I’m sure there are many people asking the same question.
I do have a UK passport
But that is little comfort right now: it’s the UK government that is alienating me
Holding a UK passport isn’t enough.
I was born in Brazil and that makes me fit a House of Commons Library definition of ‘migrant’.
My sister, on the other hand, is a precious native.
Leaving technicalities aside, it was sad and will live long in my memory to hear my dad – English by every definition – say he woke up on 24th June feeling like he didn’t belong here.
Luckily, he’s just retired and can escape. Most other tolerant Englishmen are trapped.
Actually I’ve just remembered something about Scotland from my train-spotting days that is rather instructive. Racial and ethnic hatreds already exist there.
I remember visiting Glasgow St Rollox loco works in April in the mid 80’s.
The thing that surprised me most as the grafitti on the tower blocks around the works. It was basically pro-IRA/Celtic versus pro Rangers (Anglo-Scottish) in content. It was something that I was totally unprepared for and it felt as if I was in Belfast. Now I’ve remembered I can still see it on the grey tower blocks.
Until then I knew nothing of the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers supporters. But there does seem to be a powder keg in Scotland too that I hope no politican starts messing around with.
You’re right to raise this as an issue in post Brexit Britain and it’s almost certain that the Tories will use this as (yet another) excuse for spiteful discrimination.
Having said that, there is something of a tension in the apparently commonly held attitude that of course there’s nothing wrong with foreigners, but I’d rather not be one if that’s alright with you (a view that I have had to struggle with myself).
This was particularly evident in the Scottish Indyref, where we had a procession of the great and good bemoaning how they didn’t want their kids/family/friends/business chums to be foreigners. Of course our rabidly pro-union MSM were far too busy slinging whatever they could at the Scots to bother to ask ‘what’s your problem with foreigners?’. Consequently a chance was missed for a grown up discussion on what such feelings might entail and how much or how little such divisions eventually amount to.
I’m not holding my breath for a reasoned discussion this time either I’m afraid.
If circumstances meant that you HAD to leave the UK, and there were no issues with foreign languages or obtaining work, then which would be your first choice country to go to?
Denmark
You do realise that Denmark is probably MORE discriminating against non-Danes than the British state is against people deemed to be “non-Britons”?
Actually, it’s not so bad there for newcomers from English-speaking countries – as long as they’re of Anglo-Celtic stock. Far from it.
But for people of a non-white complexion, as well as those from poorer European countries, Denmark can be a pretty tough place to live.
Plus the far right has actually been the political referee for at least 15 years.
Here’s an example: https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/susi-meret-peter-hervik/pork-meatballs-denmark-s-latest-bulwark-against-migrants
I am
But I also answered honestly
Ed note:
I knew you’d come out as a neoliberal fundamentalist at some point
And you did in this comment
Which I have deleted as a result
It was your last
I really sbould complete the paperwork and sort out the Irish passport that I’m entitled to as a descendent of an Irishman.
It grants me tbe right to live and work throughout the EU, a right that I will lose in the near future.
There is a small but real possibility that Irish citizens will lose the right to live and work in Britain: but losing the right to work in a country that my employers and my work are leaving is simply adding legal compulsion to economic necessity.
For the avoidance of doubt: the expulsion of European citizens will cause such a severe contraction in the British economy that I will be forced overseas to seek work anyway.
If the hatred of foreigners extends to the expulsion the Irish residents of Britain – or merely making us unwelcome for our taint of ‘non-British’ – then the economic damage will be so severe that there will be no work; and everything of any economic value that we have here – houses, businesses, investments and pensions – will be worthless.
It is better to enter a prosperous country as a citizen, than as a migrant; and if we are made to feel like migrants here, why not be citizen elsewhere?
I agree: you may be forced overseas
And so mau I be
I lived and worked in France for 18 years. My children went to school there. For various reasons we all (separately) came back to live in England – for me, it was in 1998. My husband is French and has been working here since then. We are all bereft.
However, it, in your everyday life, you are beginning to feel alienated from the people around you because of the colour of your passport, come and live in Tottenham. It’s a wonderful mix of every nationality you can imagine. The people are strong, but long suffering and always ready to help.
There’s not much I can suggest to ease the sense of alienation from the Great British government (managed by the Great “British” press) though. They are so bad I can hardly read the news anymore for fear of finding new and uncharted depths to which they have plunged.
I lived in Wandsworth for 22 years and admit I loved it
I don’t regret moving out (it made doing this work possible), but the sheer vibrancy and mix of London is great
I am glad I work there
A fine, heartfelt piece Richard and one which has produced what might be your best strand – because the comments are heartfelt and full of sadness (rather than the usual heartfelt exasperation!). Is ‘elegiac’ the right word? …because we feel that maybe this IS the end, the passing of something.
My children, all grown now, my wife, her siblings and their children are all, through my mother-in-law entitled to Irish passports and will undoubtedly apply so as to keep their options open. Our closest friends – the husband a son of a Polish refugee who came here to fight the Nazis, and his wife, the daughter of a Sicilian are making similar plans. And as I wrote, the word came up. ‘Refugee’. People fleeing a harsh regime, feeling that their ‘difference’ has been noticed, remarked upon, feeling it’s time to leave. Dear God, that it should come to this in my country, in my lifetime.
And where, where is the voice of the Opposition? Where is Corbyn? Publishing his bloody tax return!
You nail another frustration – the total inability of politicians to target the big issues. They only address that which is petty – like gestures on tax returns
Two couples who are good friends find themselves in this situation, one UK/Australian and one UK/French. Both have lived here for years, married, raised children, worked and paid their taxes and both are now going through wrangles with a cold, bureaucratic Home Office. The one May ran…
Both are well educated, reasonably well off middle class, with supportive friends so much better able to deal with the situation than many. One of the wives has had to travel weekly from near Farnham (Surrey) to report in to a Home office reporting centre near Slough. She has a severely autistic child nearing the Home Office cut-off age of 18, at which she is no longer entitled as a mother to stay here to care for her. She is supposed to leave the country, when her daughter would need then to go into care.
I suspect that If I dug around I’d find other friends in the same situation. It is small consolation that the friends of my friends, regardless of politics are shocked and disgusted by what they are seeing and asking questions about what kind of Prime Minister and government we have in power. Whilst the extreme right and Mail/telegraph readers may be loving it, I just wonder whether as people start to see people they know in this situation, they will feel similarly disgusted
I understand that Theresa May promotes herself as a practising Christian. Its not any form of Christian that I recognise. Truly very bit as nasty as Thatcher on a bad day
From a Christian perspective it is impossible to reconcile this with the instruction to love your neighbour as yourself – which Thatcher also abused via the related tale (for those not familiar with the Gospels) of the Good Samaritan – which she cruelly misconstrued