If the Tories really wanted to ‘STOP THE BOATS’, they’ve had 14 years to find a solution seeing as Conservatives have been in power since 2010. As for Nigel Farage, it looks like he might finally get a UK parliamentary seat (EIGHTH time lucky) thanks to his focus on ‘othering’ (using race, religion or nationality to distinguish one group of people from another who you want to influence, by whipping up animosity towards the former).
So, what is the real situation? According to gov.uk our immigration system continues to offer support to asylum seekers and that “has included providing protection to more than 330,000 people over the last few years – including those fleeing Putin’s war in Ukraine, refugees from Afghanistan and our British Nationals Overseas Hong Kong route”.
A relatively small part of that 330,000 is made up of people arriving on small boats (just under 25,000 in 2023). And don’t forget – everyone arriving into the UK, by whatever means, is subject to UK immigration laws. Laws made by our own parliament, in which the Conservatives, as I write, still have a majority.
A click-bait problem
So what if there is a small percentage of people fleeing their homelands in a boat – who among us would not seek asylum from torture, rape, hunger and war? The real issue is the organised crime that surrounds it, namely the people who profit from this traffic by extorting money from desperate refugees willing to pay whatever they can to find a decent life.
In May 2024, it was reported that 8,278 people had so far arrived by small boat in the current year. There are no figures about how many of those people were granted leave to remain. Quite frankly, 8,000 extra in a country of over 67 million people does not really present a concern.
But it makes great click-bait and that’s why certain politicians whip up a storm about it, giving the impression we are being invaded by people who are – in reality – risking their lives to try to convince UK authorities that they should be granted leave to stay and work here.
It’s poor government
The real problems we in the UK are experiencing are the cost-of-living crisis, the state of the NHS, the economy, climate change, crime and housing. Each is partly a result of government choices. For example, Brexit – a political decision sold to the public by the Conservatives (its main cheerleader appeared to be Boris Johnson), pushed by UKIP and Farage (two of whose children have EU passports, unlike most of us), and propped up by Jeremy Corbyn – is one of the causes of the huge rise in the cost of living.
The crisis in the NHS has been exacerbated by the lack of sufficient funding from government and the sinister move towards private medical care, which also contributes to worse outcomes (and see Yorkshire Bylines, Lies, damned lies and political underfunding of the public sector). Significant – immediate – risks to health (as well as our environment) also come from river pollution, which directly impacts our wellbeing.
Despite such pressing problems, Farage appears to be running his party’s campaign in substantial part on immigration. In the past week, Rishi Sunak – as of today, still prime minister – has criticised Reform, “When you see Reform candidates and campaigners, seemingly using racist and misogynistic language and opinions seemingly without challenge, I think it tells you something about the culture within the Reform Party”.
Immigration works
If you want to reduce immigration, freedom of speech enables each of us to express that. But racism and misogyny are not within that remit – they emanate from hate. It was reported in 2022 that as part of a UK-India trade deal “thousands of Indian workers would be allowed into the UK”, which surely illustrates that immigration is not a real problem in this country and, economists point out, actually benefits the UK.
If one looks at the data, migrants usually enter the UK to work in areas where there are skills gaps, or a particular need for help – in, for example, health and social care jobs. Historically, the UK has long needed foreign workers to come and bolster the NHS.
Using immigration as the main element of a political campaign is also disingenuous, because any negative impact it may have on our lives results mainly from poor government decisions. In fact, the number of people born outside of the UK who are part of our workforce is increasing, but those workers contribute to the economy in taxes and other ways. And contrary to what we read in certain newspapers, not all migrants can claim benefits or access NHS for free (both have eligibility criteria).
Should UK quit the ECHR?
To make it easier to reduce immigration there have been calls – including from Farage – for the UK to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but apart from a desire to be more aligned with Russia than Europe, I cannot see why any knowledgeable person would advocate that.
References to the ECHR being a ‘foreign’ court, are designed to whip up anti-EU feeling and induce UK voters to support a disadvantageous position for themselves. Having previously written explaining the ECHR, an entity created in the aftermath of the Holocaust and strongly supported by Winston Churchill, the only additional points I shall make in this article are:
- The UK helped to create the ECHR and we have a judge sitting in the court;
- It is not a ‘foreign’ court – it is an international tribunal with judges from each member country;
- The ECHR protects each and every one of us from our government no matter who is the party in power;
- It is not part of the EU.
Quite simply, no government anywhere in the world can be completely trusted not to abuse the rights of its citizens – and that is why I shall always advocate for the ECHR. Further, I advocate for your right to vote for whomever you wish, even if it is Farage. Just please fact-check all politicians. Farage cannot help but mix up facts about the EU, since he spent so little time working there.
We need politicians who will put the public, not their party, first. Scapegoating ‘illegal immigrants’, and whipping up further anti-EU sentiment, simply distracts from the real issues. Tomorrow, let’s put that right!
