Given Mr Redwood has resigned, I thought I’d post what for me, was a very memorable BBC Any Questions appearance right back in November 2018 (clip from episode below).
It’s the only time I met him, and make up your mind on our exchange regarding Brexit. When listening, remember that we didn’t end up with a no deal, but something a bit worse than was on the table at this time. And we certainly have many more facts now!
More telling, however, was his insult, giving me permission to live in the UK (listen three-quarters through the clip).
It is this attitude that I believe has formed our hostile approach to immigration. Right-wing entitled politicians like Redwood “accept” people who they perceive are ‘fine’ and they allow them into their club as long as they also become xenophobes. We know who many of them are.
Thank you John for giving me your approval, but I’m not in the club.
I am however incredibly thankful for the opportunities the UK has offered me since I arrived as an immigrant in 1974. It felt quite hostile when our family first arrived, but it was a pleasure to see the progress made over several decades and our country becoming so much more open and inclusive. It has also been incredibly sad to have seen this reverse and become more hostile again since Brexit.
My real reason for positing this now, is that I hope after this General Election this July 4th, immigration is one of the topics we can tackle with much more honesty and compassion.
Well 1974 just five years after that I was tempted away from a sales job with Neff to join Gaggenau as they further expanded in the UK. A great company which furthered my appreciation of Europe and the importance of the UK’s involvement in the Common Market and ultimately the EU.
I am sure Mr Redwood is not going to modify his views on immigration anytime soon, he has been repeating them for what seems like many decades.
This General Election is indeed an opportunity to discuss what type and how much immigration that we are going to allow. The debate however should be more civilised and based on established facts. Some immigration will always be necessary where Britain has skills shortages. Establishing a salary level requirement seems counterintuitive when some of the sectors needing workers are not at the higher pay levels. It seems that for many decades we have been saying we need to train more Doctors and we never train enough. Once trained work in this Country has to be attractive otherwise they may take themselves off to the USA or Australia or the cruise ships. We can hardly complain of that when our Universities rightly attract many overseas students whose fees help keep domestic tuition fees from being even higher.
Unfortunately any debate on immigration is likely to be fuelled by the comments of some politicians who recognise that think stirring up division will get them elected.