The Immigration Phalacy

 

If the article you can read here in the the New Statesman is correct the majority of Saturdays marchers were only interested in preventing Illegal Immigration and the article suggests that these same people felt this was the only reason we are in the state we are in.

I dont know what axe the New Statesman has to grind. I have always thought it was pro Tory. However the report does seem to highlight how ill informed the Unite The Kingdom grouping are and how they are filled with fear and loathing. 

Even the title Unite The Kingdom irritates me. That their version of bigotry, xenophobia and plain old ignorance is some sort of rallying cry we should all join and participate. 

I have more respect for the blood sucking tick I pulled off my cat this morning than I do for the likes of so called Tommy Robinson (Not his real name) and Katy Hopkins. These two individuals have produced some of the most hateful propaganda and I would personally think twice before becoming aligned with anything they had or wanted to associated with.

The Phalacy is that you can lay the ills of this nation down to a simple reason. That a mature and complex economy (one of the top 7 in the world) that is so complex and nuanced can be thrown so badly out of kilter by a small number of immigrants (by small I mean relatively small, the current asylum seeker population is 0.15% of the total population of this country) The Home office needs to use its noodle a bit more in where it houses asylum seekers and be a little bit more politically aware of where they are being placed. Some areas are just too insular and small minded and placing them in that environment is just asking for trouble.

The issue I find most disturbing is how immigration has hit the nerve of these people. Of all the issues facing this country this is one of but many. The facts are that it is not even a significant financial or social issue. This is how the holocaust started. The National Socialists used the Jewish population to coalesce a national consensus behind it that allowed it to fundamentally change the nature of the German State and led to World War 2 that in turn led to Germany being bombed back into the stone age, a mass refugee problem, genocide and dehumanisation on an industrial and pityless scale the likes of which I don't think human kind has ever experienced. And yet here we are loading the gun again only this time it is black and Muslim immigration. Once again, as a nation we are being led down a path where a complex problem is being "Solved" by commentators using a vulnerable group of people who are in fact nothing to do with what is "wrong" with this country.

So what are the the bigger issues? In no particular order, Trump and his tariffs, Brexit fallout, Russia/Ukraine (our reliance on the former for cheap energy), an ageing population (and declining birthrate) that is living longer but in bad health, obesity (especially in children). That is just a start. None of these have immigration as their cause.

Patriotism - The last refuge of a scoundrel.

It will be a cold day in hell before I vote for the Reform party. The term I have heard is Snake Oil Salesman. The phrase has its roots in 19th-century America, when traveling salesmen would sell "snake oil" as a cure for all sorts of ailments. These "snake oil salesmen" were often portrayed as charlatans who would use flashy presentations and testimonials to sell their bogus products.

The reason it has surrounded The Reform party is that all the news headlines are about telling the nation they can change things they can't. Like immigration/asylum seekers. There is nothing The Reform party can do to stop this. The only way that the party can carry out that plan is to withdraw from the Geneva convention on refugees. Even Russia and China are signatories. Is that who we want to be? 

The logical way to deal with the asylum seekers is to improve the the situations in which they have come. There has been a massive civil war in Syria for the last 15 years and what wasn't in civil war was being destroyed by extremists. Then we have Gaza. 

It is very simple - if you want to get rid of asylum improve their situations so that they don't need to be refugees.

The Reform party are an archetypal populist party. They have found a few ideas that garner support but no one seems to have noticed that if you scratch the surface you find a party of self interest for the wealthy and big business it is no friend to the working population. 

It is of concern to me that the people who support Reform fervently are basing it on a single issue whose importance is only in their mind. There are many issues that need to be addressed in this country from the economy to national defense and Asylum seekers are actually quite a small issue. 

There are 100,000 current asylum seekers. In a population of 70 million they reperesent less than 0.15% of the current population of this country. A man who was spouting at me last week was claiming it cost us the taxpayer £6 million pounds a day. It might do but that is small beer when you consider that the NHS burns that in wages in 15 minutes. Never mind the armed forces, the police, courts and criminal justice system. The list goes on. 

This country has bigger fish to fry. But my compatriots have focused on what is economically a small problem for this country. A physically small fraction of our population, certainly not at the heart of a crime wave. But based on this they are happy to pass the reins of power to a right wing party who want to see their own constituents rights eroded and empower our wealthy and entitled classes.

More concerning to me is that this is being exposed now on some social media posts. It is becoming common place that the media highlight the party's hypocrisy but it is falling on deaf ears 

Flags of our Fathers

 The Problem with Flags

There is a current trend here in the UK for the clandestine attachment of Union Jacks and the cross of St George flags on various public facilities - lamp posts mostly. I am getting lazy so I asked Gemini to write a 500 word rebuttal on the flag flying epidemic. Its not bad to be honest and although I didn't actually write it I agree with all its content. I think the last paragraph is the most interesting as this agenda is being driven by a political party whose only interest is self promotion and the gathering of power. A party who seek division and drive the wedge further in rather than trying to find a solution that would bring us all together. 

The Perils of Prescriptive Patriotism: A Rebuttal to Flag-Placing in the UK

The recent surge in flag-placing events across the United Kingdom is often framed as an uncomplicated expression of national pride. Proponents argue that the widespread display of the Union Flag or the Cross of St. George is a unifying act of patriotism, a simple and visible celebration of shared identity. However, this perspective overlooks the complex and often divisive symbolism of these emblems. Far from fostering a sense of cohesion, the aggressive and performative placement of flags risks alienating significant portions of the population, co-opts national symbols for partisan ends, and distracts from the more substantive acts required to build a genuinely unified society.

While the Union Flag is a historical symbol of the United Kingdom, its meaning is not, and has never been, universally benign. For many citizens, particularly those from a multicultural background or with ancestral ties to former colonies, the flag evokes a history of empire, colonialism, and conflict. The aggressive display of the flag can therefore feel less like an invitation to national unity and more like a territorial claim that excludes them. It is illogical to insist on a single, uniform symbol as a source of unity when that symbol carries a history of oppression for a large number of people it is meant to represent. An inclusive patriotism must be one that acknowledges a nuanced history, rather than one that forces a single, contested narrative through ubiquitous display.

Furthermore, the flag-placing movement has been widely and demonstrably co-opted for political purposes, particularly by groups with anti-immigrant and far-right agendas. When a national symbol becomes a staple of protests against asylum seekers or a signifier of a narrow political ideology, its meaning is warped. True patriotism is not the exclusive domain of any one political faction. It should be a commitment to the civic and democratic values of a nation, expressed through acts of community engagement, robust debate, and a shared responsibility for the well-being of all citizens. To equate patriotism with the physical act of flying a flag, especially one promoted by divisive figures, is to diminish the very concept of national loyalty to a mere political prop.

Finally, an overemphasis on symbolic gestures like flag-placing can distract from the real and pressing challenges facing the country. A healthy, unified nation is not defined by how many flags are flown from its lamp posts, but by the strength of its public services, the fairness of its economy, and the level of social cohesion in its communities. Focusing energy and resources on this contentious debate allows governments and the public to sidestep more difficult conversations about poverty, inequality, and institutional failures. The most powerful rebuttal to a divided nation is not a flag, but a tangible commitment to creating a better future for every single person within its borders.

Like I said not bad, not bad at all.

Women's rights

As a man, it is difficult to comment on women's rights issues. Many of these issues e.g. right to abortions will physically not affect a man directly. His fertility rights are not affected. A driving force behind feminism is that women's rights are inalienable and not in the gift of men to agree or disagree to. They just are.

For the record I agree with this principle. I say this not to validate the view but to give some idea of where my sympathies lie.

So I start this piece in trepidation  lest I overstep my boundaries 

Whilst the recent judgement does provide clarity from a legal viewpoint, I do feel for the trans population. All they are trying to be is normal and they will be discriminated against by the very people they hope to/have become

 

However I am more interested about what this does for feminism. If feminism is about equality one interpretation is that For Women Scotland do not see themselves as equals but in some sense special

 Has this harmed feminism in the long run? By claiming a reserved status and all the benefits that go with it are they, inadvertently, falling  into a trap where by they have proclaim that they are not equal at all?

Trumps Stock Market Avalanche

You will have seen the news about stock markets across the globe falling. It is not a good sign I will admit. But it is not the end of the world..yet. 

Trump is trying to turn 80 years of prosperity on  it's head for the sake of US Jobs.  You may think that is no bad thing. Protectionism is, however, recessionary and inflationary. 

Stuff in the US will cost more and even if it can be made in US it will cost more because that is why the work went abroad in the first place.

So hold on to your hats.

Stock markets don't like change. Well this sort of change at any rate. They like stability. It is just possible that the world economy will cope and find new markets or just cope with the old. 

We will have to wait and see. 

I dont have much faith in US politics however. 

Winston Churchill is famously quoted as saying 

"You can always expect the United States to do the right thing...but only after they have tried everything else"

Zelensky vs POTUS

President has just victim shamed one of the poorest, humblest and most abused European nations since Czechoslovakia in 1938. 

I dare you to call yourselves leaders of the free world ever again. 

Trump had just condoned the entire Russian campaign

What is next? Hold your heads in shame United States of America.

Your

Mark my words 

This is the day the US sold the free world down the river

Ukraine vs. US (Wasn't that supposed to be USSR?)

From the outset Europe were terrified of Trump in power again. Recent events surrounding the Ukraine have only served to justify that fear and double down on the idea of Trump representing the end of 80 years of peace and prosperity in western Europe. 

Perhaps We in Europe should view the last 80 years as evidence that US governments despised communism more than they cared for democracy. Abroad that is. So now communists don't exist (maybe) The US does not see the need to act as defender of last resort to western democracy in Europe. Since it only wanted to halt the march of communism rather than defend the right of Europeans to self determination and freedom of expression etc etc. 

Has Trump just sold Europe down the river? Putin has written of his preference to re absorb the Baltic States.  Does this mean that reaching for the Baltic is in the Kremlin mission plan? Maybe. Putin has released an essay talking of the illegitimate nature of sovereign states in the recent past. I cannot find websites to pieces about this however. There are significant Russian speaking communities in these states and it is thought the Kremlin can use their defence as an excuse to invade.

So where are we.

Well lets take a look in from a different perspective

Russia is largely advancing in on Ukraine. But at a cost. Throwing Russian people under the bus in the name of strategic victory is a concept well known in Russia. From Napoleon to Hitler the Kremlin has been more than willing to barricade Russian territory with the bodies of it's citizens. But something is beginning to give at the Kremlin. Perhaps it is the economic sanctions, perhaps it is the loss of life, perhaps both. However Russia is not so close to its knees that it will come cap in hand to the European powers asking for peace. I think it does want some form of peace because the "special operation" is dragging and enjoying mission creep.

My belief is that, no matter what the belligerence of the Ukraine government is, this war is taking an enormous toll on everything Ukrainian. Population, infrastructure  you name it. 

Whilst I support propping up the Kyiv government any sane human being must be asking themselves just what is it we are asking them to do? Europe and US are providing arms to help defend Kyiv but we must ask ourselves if that support is not part of the problem. I am not a Putin appeaser but Ukraine is by far taking the biggest brunt of this war and just maybe stopping the fighting whilst there is still some Ukraine left is no bad thing.

And Russia knows this. So it is still largely in a position of power. 

Trump has at least got the Russians to the negotiating table. An opinion of this is that Trump has offered Putin an off ramp, one which he is prepared to accept. It does not require him to about face or apologise. It saves face.

Let us hope this was Trumps plan all along. The ties with Europe are actually too strong so we can take it and still remain long term friends. Let us hope that Trump knows what he is doing and that what Russia ends up signing for is a lot less than they bargained for.

But at least they are talking.

The Trump administrations public demand for a deal on Ukrainian mineral wealth is, quite frankly despicable. We will negotiate for you and about you but only if you hand over the family jewels.

Time will tell