We are Winning the Argument.
The vibes are changing fast, even if policy lags behind
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There’s a lot I could say about the UK Labour government’s big attempt, yesterday, to try and fix our country’s growing immigration crisis.
I could tell you how utterly bizarre it was to listen to a Labour prime minister, Keir Starmer, talk about about the importance of “regaining control” of the system and “lowering the overall numbers” given that this is the very same prime minister who, since coming to power last July, has decriminalised illegal migration into Britain, removed age checks on illegal migrants arriving on the small boats, given tax exemptions to foreign workers that are not given to their British counterparts, incentivised more migrants to come to Britain from India, removed the only serious deterrent for illegal migration (the Rwanda plan), expanded the use of private hotels and accommodation for illegal migrants, sent the number of small boat crossings to record highs, used British taxpayers’ money to outbid British people in favour of foreigners in the private housing market, and liberalised migration from Afghanistan.
I could also sit here and tell all all that is wrong and misleading in the Labour government’s plan for delivering on this attempted clampdown on immigration.
I could tell you Keir Starmer’s claim that his latest measures will slash net migration “by 50,000” is totally vacuous given that removing 50,000 visas is equivalent to only removing around 6% of the total number of visas issued, while these reductions will be more than replaced by the spiralling number of illegal migrants who are entering Britain on the small boats while flagrantly breaking our laws and sense of fairness.
I could also tell you, as I mentioned yesterday, that while Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper are promising they will “reduce net migration”, what government insiders mean by this is merely returning it to 525,000 a year —still 200,000 higher than what it was at the time of the vote for Brexit and considerably higher than the past.
I could tell you, as well, to look closely at the detail of Labour’s plan, which includes the rather ominous statement that a Labour government will allow a “limited pool” of UNHCR displaced refugees to come to Britain, which potentially could mean an as yet unspecified share of the 123 million refugees recognised worldwide.
I could tell you, as I have previously, that Labour’s claim it will make deporting foreign criminals easier by issuing new guidance on how to interpret Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is largely meaningless so long as Labour ducks reforming the far more important Article 3 of the ECHR and, indeed, avoids leaving the ECHR and radically reforming the Human Rights Act altogether.
I could also point to the fact, as I’ve done many times, that Starmer’s Labour still has no serious plan for stopping the boats in the Channel, which are now estimated to cost British taxpayers at least £15 billion over the next decade, and that Labour has no plan for how it intends to deport the estimated 1.2 million people who are already in Britain illegally, alongside the more than 10,000 foreign nationals in our prisons.
But you know what?
I’m not going to dwell on all that right now because, shock horror, I want to say something optimistic and positive about what we’ve just heard from Keir Starmer.
Yes, you heard that right.
And, no, I never thought I’d write those words either.
Because what we just heard from a Labour prime minister, yesterday, underlines a much deeper and far more important point about what is going on in British politics right now —we are winning the argument.
Yes, that’s right.
Those of us who think, on the basis of evidence like that which we discuss in this newsletter, that the extreme policy of mass uncontrolled immigration is undermining and weakening our economy, culture, rule of law, and wider society are now, very clearly, winning the argument in this country.
Just look at what we heard from Keir Starmer yesterday and what is contained in his government’s white paper that will now shape forthcoming policy.
An acceptance —as we’ve long argued— that mass immigration is weakening this country’s economic growth, has eroded productivity, living standards, and GDP-per-capita, and is also making the housing crisis worse.
An acceptance, rammed home by Keir Starmer himself, that the “one-nation experiment in open borders”—as we’ve argued— has inflicted “incalculable damage” on our country, putting public services under far too much pressure.
An acceptance, too, that big business, as we’ve pointed out, have become far too dependent on overseas workers and need to instead invest more seriously in training up British workers and advocating a principle of ‘national preference’.
An acceptance there are simply too many low-skill, low-wage workers in Britain who are hollowing out rather than strengthening the economy, and who were often given frankly absurd advantages by the Tories, including a 20% wage premium in some sectors that was not made available to British workers—which, again, is something we’ve highlighted for years when very few people were willing to do so.
An open acknowledgement, as we’ve also highlighted time and time again, that there is insufficient data and information on the impact of mass immigration on British society and that much of the existing data is “inadequate”.
An acceptance that the “Boriswave” of mass immigration following the Covid-19 pandemic has been disastrous for the country and that we now need to extend the right to claim Indefinite Leave to Remain because of the enormous financial cost to the British taxpayer that we wrote and warned about months ago.
And, lastly, an acceptance, too, that integration in modern Britain, because of mass immigration, is simply not working —that mass immigration, in the words of Starmer, “risks turning us into an island of strangers”, and that, for a start, too few people are able to speak English properly, which is again something we have pointed to time and time again in this newsletter, warning that the social contract is now breaking down.
Are Keir Starmer and Labour sincere when they point to all of this? I doubt it, not least given Starmer’s long history of saying one thing only to then do the exact opposite. And will Starmer and Labour seriously implement the kind of radical policies that will eventually be required to address all these problems? Again, I doubt it. Don’t worry, I’ve not suddenly morphed into a Starmer cheerleader.
But ask yourself a question.
When was the last time you saw a Labour prime minister, a Labour government, publicly accepting many of the core arguments against the failing policy of mass uncontrolled immigration like this?
Because at a deeper level, I think we are now witnessing something very profound. Something very important is happening in the political and public debate, symbolised by the events this week.
When it comes to the rhetoric, the arguments, the public mood, the intellectual underpinnings of the immigration debate —what some call “the vibes”—they are now firmly on the move, even if the exact detail of policy is moving far more slowly.
On both the Left and Right, among both aggressive Remainers, like Starmer, and diehard Brexiteers, like Nigel Farage, there is now a widespread, public acceptance that mass uncontrolled immigration is no longer working for Britain and we need to fundamentally change the direction of travel in this country.
There is a consensus that the “Boriswave” and Tory regime of 2010-2014 has inflicted enormous damage on the fabric of our national life, that the machinery of government now needs to be focused on tackling this disastrous legacy and ensuring it does not happen again, and that multiculturalism in its current form is simply not working.
This is, in other words, a line in the sand, a watershed moment, and an important one. Many of the arguments that were once confined to Substacks like this are now going mainstream. Labour will not end mass immigration but the pro-immigration fanatics and radicals who presided over the chaos and carnage of the last quarter-century, from the Treasury to the universities, are now firmly on the back foot and everybody can see it. The vibes, the evidence, and politics are now all rapidly moving against them, whether reflected in the studies we summarise in this newsletter, the historic results of the local elections last month, or the latest positioning of Starmer’s Labour.
Those of us who have been making the case against mass uncontrolled immigration and broken borders, in other words, are now, whisper it quietly, winning the argument. Slowly but surely, and thanks to your critical support, we are helping to pull the entire system back towards common sense and the average voter who has been watching what is happening to their country with a growing sense of anger and dismay. By taking on the failing consensus, by sharing counter-cultural evidence and information, by mobilising hundreds of thousands of people on social media, by being read by close to two million people on a good month, we are helping to cultivate and shape the climate in which the vibes are on the move and policy will soon follow.
So, let’s not stop pushing. Let’s not stop writing. Let’s not stop sharing. Let’s not stop campaigning. Let’s not stop informing the country about what is really going on.
Because make no mistake. Even if Keir Starmer and Labour will never, at the end of the day, lead this country to where we want it to be, the tide has now started to turn and rays of light are starting to shine through. So now, as always, it’s up to people like us —it’s up to you and me—to ensure that it stays this way and more of those rays of light comes bursting through the darkness.
We are winning the argument. And we should feel good about that today.
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Fantastic Matt……your persistence, along with others, has stuck a wedge in the door. It’s now no longer ‘unacceptable’ or ‘far right’ to push this issue and the key, as you say, is the acceptance that there is no economic benefit to immigration.The dam has burst (lots of metaphors here!). Starmer doesn’t believe a word he’s saying, of course (power by any means necessary) but he can be held to account now. Farage will create havens of illegal migrant free zones to set the example and everyone will want the same. Brilliant work….please don’t stop!
Yes, keep hammering away at them Matt. And start talking more about the lifetime wage-earning skill sets of the people who are leaving vs the lifetime wage-earning skill sets of the people who are coming in. Net migration figures are misleading on the damage being caused to the economy, let alone everything else. It is perfectly acceptable to talk about this aspect of net migration without being accused of the R word.