This was a hard read, I was in Birmingham city center yesterday. As a single young women I remember feeling so uneasy I just wanted to leave as soon as possible. May your grandparents rest in peace
Truly shocking Matt. However, I come from Leeds and I can see something very similar happening there too. The filth and rubbish on the streets makes it look like a third world country, there is no such thing as civic pride any more and there are places where I feel uneasy when walking around the city centre - in broad daylight never mind at night. I am very angry about this but there seems little that can be done lawfully. Maybe I just need to look after me and follow the wealthy to pastures new. I have no faith in any of our political parties - now including Reform UK. Just as bad as the rest.
I can empathise with you. I remember going to Leeds in the 1980's and 1990's and it was a thrilling day out for those of us travelling in from the surrounding areas. I hadn't been for around twenty years and I found parts of it enhanced by the growth of infrastructure centred around the business community whilst other parts of the city centre and surrounding areas were overrun with charity shops, kebab houses, taxi ranks and vape shops. Gangs of kids (mainly of immigrant stock) also wandered around and made for an intimidating atmosphere. Sadly, these areas of the city had developed the vibe of Bradford city centre, twenty five years ago.
Leeds City Centre is home to a couple of migrant hotels. The council has spent millions improving the city centre, only for the Home Office to dump hundreds of shiftless, rootless young men there with nothing to do but hang around all day. It's incredibly sad.
Everything you say is absolutely correct. You've nailed it, completely. No one can doubt what has caused the massive decline of cities like Birmingham. It's obvious. But yet. But yet, Tommy Robinson belongs in jail, eh?
And we Brits again being told to take a step back because as we in HUGE debt why is this even contemplated? Of course the ones asking, why would they worry about the debt, they obviously living a divided loyalty and who they care about.
Extract from a tweet. The runway they want us build is for the use of holidays back to there as they say 3 hours journey to present airport too far. There a photo of meeting mentioned in X and no whites to be seen, which is not an unkind comment but more a comment about Parliaments make up these days and the focus of many MPs away from the regular Brit of ethnicity, which means UK’s whole Government approach to matters changing. ie, the same as who is now a ‘local’, when 3 generations of a family living here and then births.
Tahir Ali MP →
@TahirAliMP This week, I attended a press conference ordained by Mohammed Yasin MP, where 20 cross-party British Parliamentarians requested for an
This is not just confined to the cities Matt, it’s spreading into large towns.
My town is becoming a literal dump, HMO’s springing up to house the “scattered ones” no longer taking up space in the 3 hotels constantly full.
Walking around town or any supermarket you don’t hear English spoken, men spit on the floor, cycle on the pavements and the smell of drugs permeates the air.
I’m constantly worried for my children and wonder where I can move to.
Totally get this. I'm always thinking where can I go. But unless you go deep into the countryside there'll always be ghettoisation nearby. i think abroad is the only option. I was recently in two big cities in Spain I didn't see a single Muslim nor non-Spanish person (apart from the obvious tourists). Why is it that they can do it. Why do we let everyone in?? Spain is very proud of its national culture. They would never give it up. They too had an empire and a past like ours but I bet you don't see them apologising for anything. I would rather live there than in a British city. It's utterly depressing.
The Spanish also had a King and Queen with the courage and guts to deport their Muslim population, lock, stock and barrel around 14 something or other. They were never overrun by Islam as we are likely to be.
I agree, so a question to you Matt - how will Reform's policies help with this? Net zero migration may help to stem the tide, but it does nothing to help the areas already ruined.
Worse, net zero still implies something like ~480,000 immigrants per year, see footnote 1. Given Birmingham's population is between 1 and 3 million, depending on whether you count the suburbs, this implies a new Birmingham's worth of immigrants in the first Reform parliament alone.
We should have zero immigration. The NHS needs more doctors? Remove the cap on the amount of our citizens who are allowed to train as doctors! Businesses claim they need more staff? They will have to pay more, to make the millions of economically inactive people want to work; or reduce their benefits to less than they can get by working, same difference. They could invest in better processes, machinery etc. to increase productivity, something everyone across the political spectrum agrees would be a good thing.
I very much believe this would go down well with the population, I'm sure you have seen on your own posts, and ReformUK's social media comment sections, that their recent turn to soft centrism is unpopular.
I don't understand why people keep saying reform have gone soft? Please explain more. And let's say they have, couldn't it be that they are trying to win more voters over. Their policy is crystal clear. Pause immigration apart from any essential roles and only then until we've had time to gain more of our own doctors etc. they are clear on the ECHR, trans madness, deportations of foreign criminals and blotting British people first. Where is the softness?
Tracy, you may have a very busy life and been unable to keep up with what is happening in and being said by Reform. Look around at YouTube channels - search for Paul Thorpe, The Lotus Eaters, Dan Wootton Outspoken, New Culture Forum, Andy the Gabby Cabbie and a host of others. Comments made by Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Mohammed Zia Yusuf. Look at their appalling treatment of Rupert Lowe and Ben Habib. Farage is not interested in doing any mass deportations. He is not worried by rapid demographic change in the UK, wants to keep Islam happy. He has lied about "Tommy Robinson" and insulted his hundreds of thousands of supporters (who are/were almost all Reform voters). Just do your research.
The online right has completely lost the plot. They are letting perfect be the enemy of good, and as Matt has said they are in a purity spiral where they are getting more and more hardline.
Unfortunately that will not win you a majority. Reform have the right strategy as they are polling ahead of or equal with the other parties and the trend is upwards. Once that gets over 30% you're in majority territory which is what's needed to change any of the dire issues affecting the country.
As June Slater has said, you need to treat Reform as a vehicle that's going in approximately the right direction. All the other parties are going in the opposite direction. Use Reform to get you to closer to where you want to go. If they don't go far enough then at least you will be a darn sight closer than you would have been otherwise.
Tracy they haven't "gone soft". Not one policy has been changed one iota. What has happened (as far as I can make out - and this is a purely personal opinion) is that a very tiny group of people whose beliefs are actually "far right" have infiltrated the ranks of Reform. These people are very visible on X and fb and look like they are a bigger group than they actually are. Matt Goodwin calls them the "online right".
I am very active in Reform. I am the Campaign & Fundraising Officer of my local branch. I just also happen to have been born in Australia, emigrated to the UK 20 years ago and I am a proud British citizen. This group of "online right" harrass me and tell me I should be deported, because I "have no right to live here", despite working, paying taxes, owning my home outright and never taking a penny in benefits. I have been called "foreign scum" despite being able to trace my family back before 1066 in Britain. Because a personal friend who is standing as a local councillor for Reform on May 1st was born in Bangladesh (yes he was brought up Muslim, no he's not radical, he actually runs a pub as his day job!) I have been called on the comments on this Substack a "Muslim cock-sucking traitor". Yes, that is a direct quote.
All Nigel Farage is doing, as far as I can see (again personal opinion), is trying to root these people out of Reform, so they're ramping up the lies.
Pamela, I'm so sorry to hear of your experience with these dreadful people who call you names - that's appalling! Of course you have a history of being British and I too know there are Muslims who are not radicals. I certainly don't agree with the people you describe. I also understand where you are in your thinking about Reform. I was absolutely thrilled when they started and have supported Nigel Farage for many years. But what I wrote above IS true, sadly. I quoted what he has been saying himself. You can actually see him saying it. It has all come as a big shock and I completely understand why many people either refuse to believe it or try to push it aside in the hope that it will "all come out in the wash". Some people say he is trying to win votes by saying he won't do any mass deportations and will then do them when he wins power. But that's both dishonest and unreliable. How can we trust him to do anything, if that's the case? What else would he be lying about? This is what Labour and the Con Party have been doing - promising to do (or not do) things and then doing the opposite when in power. As for the "online right" - well, Nigel Farage is "online" himself - is he not one of all of us who are both off and online? There's no distinction - we're all people who vote. The mainstream media are now corrupted and dying - they peddle propaganda - before you dismiss the alternative media, take a look at it. Incidentally, Nigel Farage's friend, Donald Trump, gives the "new media" an important place in his circle so it's odd that Nigel Farage seems to want a war with them. But it fits his need to control everything and everyone around him, I'm afraid. And this is not "on the fringe". He would like to dismiss us as a small group. The ACTUAL "far right" really are a small group - but that's not us. We are "ordinary people" (in inverted commas because I don't view anyone as "ordinary") and all kinds of people - and there are many thousands. We are sad about the way Reform has let us down but also angry. Ben and Rupert are the real deal and we support their hard work for the people.
Just one more thing - the people insulting you might be the ones that might have called for so-called "re-migration". I've never seen anyone calling for people who have lived legally and peacefully in the UK for many many years to be deported. I don't know if anyone HAS called for that. I'm in my late 70's and grew up with people from all kinds of countries coming and going, settling and leaving. It was never a big problem, except when some of them rioted and got involved in crime. But many more worked very hard and became valued members of local communities (and by that I mean communities of people who were mainly white working and middle class people). We British people have always been tolerant and welcoming. There may be a small number of hate-filled extremists but don't let Nigel Farage tell you that we who are reacting to his backtracking are any part of that.
I haven't suggested that. I have come to my own conclusions. I was a member of several fb groups that were described as "Rupert Lowe Supporters" groups. They were where the "remigration" stuff was posted. They were where people were suggesting I should be deported. People were also saying things like "foreign criminals should be deported and so should their families". I am not saying that Mr Lowe supports these people, but he's never criticised them either.
The fact is that a foreign national who breaks the law and is jailed for 1 year or more should be deported UNDER THE EXISTING LAW. Full stop. We are hamstrung by the ECHR and woke judges. Reform policy is to leave the ECHR. Again, that currently exists. But how the hell can you legally deport someone who has done absolutely nothing wrong because their brother, wife, parent or uncle did something illegal? And where do you draw the line? "Oh it's ok if they're Pakis. Or Muslims." Farage is right to say that you simply can't do that.
Imagine if my dual Aust/Brit citizen son went mad and drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians. We're both non-practicing Catholics. Are you going to say "Deport all Australian Catholics because they're obviously IRA sympathisers! Even deport his English stepfather!" Hopefully not, because that is just bizarre! But so is saying that the British born children of dual Pakistani/British gang rapists should be deported. And believe me, there are people within Reform who are calling for that.
The only call for relatives to be deported that I've seen has referred to the relatives of Pakistani rapists who KNEW ABOUT AND DIDN'T REPORT their crimes. And if there are so-called "supporters of Rupert Lowe" who are name-calling and behaving in a despicable way then I know that he and his genuine supporters would not support them. I also suspect that there are troublemakers stirring up anger and discord online. They don't represent the rest of us. My advice is to avoid those groups. Take a look at Rupert's own Facebook group instead.
I have indeed left, and please understand that I'm not "labelling" Rupert Lowe in any way. I am not criticising him. All I am saying is that whether you are aware of it or not, there are "supposed" Reform supporters out there who are in fact espousing very far right beliefs. There ARE people saying that Reform should be deporting the entire families of foreign criminals. There ARE people saying that people like me should be deported. Please believe me. Maybe not in the circles you move in, but you need to be aware of this. It's THESE people who are "tearing Reform apart". They are the problem, not Head Office.
I am a Reform branch officer, and like everyone who is any sort of official in the party (even a lowly branch committee member like me), I signed a document to say that I am not, and never have been, a member of any far right organisation. There is a list of about 6 groups, and the BNP and EDL were specifically mentioned. It is right that these people are removed from Reform, because they don't actually represent the party's policies.
Just look at lorry drivers 50 years ago they were at the top of blue collar earners. Not any more, whilst blue collar earnings have relatively declined.
It’s not just carrot but stick as well that is needed. We are all living longer, are children and grandchildren are taller than us but 4 or 5 million people are on sick benefits. Go Figure!
I'm glad you did this Matt, as you know I've asked you to go 'look'!!
I spent a lovely weekend in Birmingham in the mid nineties, my husband was working there over the weekend, and I was concerned at first. It was known for West Indians, Jamaicans etc. so I was a little apprehensive of walking around the centre on my own. I absolutely loved it, I never felt intimidated or worried about my safety at all. Everyone was really friendly and cheerful but then the demographics changed as with all our cities.
There has to be deportations and encouraged repatriations because, Matt, that looks like Pakistani with tarmac!!
Suzanne I worked in Birmingham roughly 2014 - 2018, and for 6 months I lived there Sun - Fri, instead of a 2 hour each way commute. During that entire period the decline was palpable. I never felt safe.
When I was spending my lunch hours in taxis going to look at flats to rent I met a lovely British born lad of Asian extraction who was a taxi driver. When I gave him the address he asked why I wanted to go there. When we arrived he took my money then he said to me "You won't be long in there. I'm going to stay here to make sure you're ok madam. I want to be sure you'll get back to the uni." I actually laughed at him.
The flat was straight out of a 3rd world hell-hole. I was less than 5 minutes and I got back into his taxi. He shook his head and said "Take my advice. Don't even think about this area. You're a white woman. You won't be safe. Madam, this is Birmingham." I said to him "But you're a British Asian yourself!" His answer was "Yes, that's why I know what it's like. For your own safety get a flat in the Jewellery Quarter."
Great article Matt, shocking but true. Staggering that this has happened across the country over the decades without even the whiff of a political mandate, and with our noses thoroughly rubbed in this 'enrichment' against our will at every turn; the complete demoralisation of the British people continues unabated, as it does for other peoples across all of Western Europe. Bad international actors at play, I'd say.
I'm of the opinion that this situation could be arrested and thrown into reverse. There is more than enough power amongst the people of these islands if it could be harnessed and if we would act with unity. There will of course need to be some kind of political vehicle to help us along the road to recovery, but it must be one that aligns with our will. Serious and direct questions will have to be answered and radical policies pursued if we are to reverse what has been the most radical of political policies of modern times; Mass Uncontrolled Immigration.
One thing I am certain of is, that whoever grasps the nettle to help steer the country back from the abyss must have a vision of Britain that aligns with the vision of the indigenous British people, who have been browbeaten and slandered into this unwelcome situation in the first place.
Perhaps the first question of any prospective leader should be "Are you concerned that the British people may become a minority in their own homeland?" The answer to this question must be on the lines of "Yes, I am deeply concerned, and I will not let that happen".
We ALL know. Just watch the Reform voter numbers fall as the truth dawns on all those people who are at the moment unaware. We'll do our utmost to make sure they find out.
The point is that it's not true. Reform have not changed their policies one iota. No-one has "gone soft on immigration". It's propaganda by a tiny far right group who believe that ALL immigrants should be deported. Including me.
I arrived in 2004 when my ex-husband was transferred in his job. He was the MD of a British firm in Australia, and became 2IC worldwide. We are both educated (him MBA, me PhD), high income earning professionals, white Anglo-Saxon, Christian, native English speakers from a Commonwealth country. I've worked, paid taxes, never taken a single penny in benefits. I'm a British citizen, now married to an Englishman. I own my own house outright. You tell me how that makes me "foreign scum" who "deserves to be deported". Because those who believe that are the ones telling lies about Reform policy.
I disagree with you that the call for deportations and repatriations is 'far right' and I disagree with you about Reform. Lowe was kicked out because he spoke about those very things. They have a Muslim Chairman and for the life in me I can not understand that.
Any person who has come to this country, worked, paid their way, contributed to our society, abided by our laws and not tried to eradicate our culture or impose theirs on us, is more than welcome and their are many of those such people. But there are many who do none of those things.
As an indigenous English woman this is what has been imposed on me and my people for decades, my people have been abused, gang raped, used as money slaves, constantly slated for having an opinion different to politicians, lied to, ignored when we voted, the list is endless. To want our country to resemble our country is NOT too much to ask for. The indigenous British have the right to live in their country, Britain!
I ask one thing of you and that is that you join with the indigenous British people to get our country back. You can then live in the real Britain as a British woman with the freedoms we all used to know and desperately want to return.
That is why I am a British citizen, and why I am the Campaigns Manager for my local Reform branch.
Why shouldn't Zia Yusuf be Chairman of Reform? He was born in Glasgow. He's British. He has British values. Just because he's Muslim doesn't mean he's "trying to take over" the UK. It doesn't mean he is a radical Islamist. A personal friend who is standing as a Reform councillor was born in Bangladesh and is a Muslim. Do you know what his day job is? He runs a pub. He'll pour you a beer and serve you a bacon butty. Manzur is furious that illegal immigrants who arrive on dinghies across the channel get the full welcome treatment that I certainly didn't get and neither did he. I have no problem with anyone's religion, I do have a problem with radical Islamism. They're very different things.
I am very aware of that but I also know they NEVER set themselves apart from Islam or being a Muslim. Reform to a huge majority of people are suppose to be their saviours, the ones taking back our country for us. Problem appears to be Farage has now stepped back from this and sacked Lowe for even mentioning it. The question now is 'what are Reform, what do they actually stand for and why?' From where I'm stood they stand almost in exactly the same place as the Conservatives.
We will. Nobody can blame them as people are now beyond desperate for change, and herein lies another problem; rushing headlong into the arms of yet another Saviour to make everything right.
I read a quote recently from high level Mason Albert Pike "Whenever the people require a hero, we will provide one" Truth is, it seems, that the worlds governance was hijacked a long time ago by those who realised how easy it was to take control. And that control has been passed down through each generation.
To break this Matrix like stranglehold will be to just say no.
Confront Starmer on these issues and you get….”Let me be clear …..” and then goes off at tangents, anything but addressing the huge government induced disaster… wasting our money in the process.
The only thing he was crystal clear about was when he agreed that blasphemy laws would be "good". What a sell out. All these politicians need to be sent to live in a place where 85% of the population is foreign/muslim/out if work/doesn't speak English. He'll love it right.
If you import a third world mentality what do you expect. As usual a brilliant analysis Matt but extremely depressing at the same time. Comments that Reform have blown it are exaggerated, in my view, as people shouldn’t get too hung up on RL’s outpourings. If you want to capture both Labour and Conservatives you need to be a little less vocal about issues like immigration and deteriorating cities like Birmingham. Wait and be patient, as once in power you can start to effect real change. Yap on about it now and you’ll never get over the line on election night.
Exactly Rob. The absolute truth is that Reform has not changed one single policy. At all. Farage might be a lot of things but he's not stupid. He knows that Reform needs to get the support of the ordinary "small c conservative" voter. You don't get that by being racist, supporting Tommy Robinson or trying to deport people like me who are in the UK legally, and just happen to have been born elsewhere.
Reform hasn't quite blown it, completely, but that Farage interview was inexplicable as it undoes so much of what Reform voters expected, especially those living in Birmingham.
What happened to Birmingham? The same as has/is happening to all of Britain's cities - gradual transformation into the Third World as part of UN Agenda 2030, which is a plan to level-up the world. The cause is not rocket science; if you import millions of poor, illiterate immigrants from differing cultures, who rely on income from the tax-payer to survive, then poverty beckons for almost everybody. If you wish to see the blue-print for this, look no further than South Africa where the masses live in ghettos and the Elite live in gated communities protected by armed guards.
If you are young, and white, and have the wherewithal, get out, because there will be no salvation; nobody is going to ride in and save us, the country is finished. Our debt has reached unmanageable proportions, nobody is doing any work because they are either lazy and unmotivated, or have realized that it is pointless, the police are a hopeless bunch of woke idiots who are incable of enforcing the law, and our politicians are all in the pay of the UN/WEF, dedicated to our destruction. There is no way out legally either, because Blair has ensured that any political party that attempts real change will be trussed-up in legal red tape for years. Will the last Anglo-Saxon to leave, please turn out the lights?
What happened to Birmingham? It has been invaded by third worlders and now has the same problems as you would expect in the countries of the third world. Sadly it's not confined to Birmingham, my Aunt and Uncle lived in Leicester, they proudly purchased their new home just after WW2, a lovely semi backing onto the local cricket ground of which my Uncle was a proud member until his death at the age of 94. By time my Aunt died 2 years later their white middle class street was completely inhabited by those from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, they had a Bangladeshi next door neighbour who never spoke a word to them despite both my Uncle and Aunt trying to forge a friendly relationship with them, they treated them both with distain. The Leicester of my youth where I used to regularly visit my Aunt and Uncle is gone and now completely unrecognisable. This is happening the length and breadth of the country with absolutely no end in sight as those that govern us are determined to wipe out our history, culture and possibly the people that created it. The future for your children will be unrecognisable from the country many of us were raised in, our politicians are utterly shameless.
Douglas Murray was spot-on in His book "The Slow Death of Europe". But we're committing suicide, and, yes, the demise of Christianity has played a crucial role.
As an ex-Black Country boy I'm not surprised but deeply saddened. My own home town around fifteen miles west of Brum is getting to be the same sort of mess. Pakistanis moved in next door to Mum and Dad about thirty years ago. The front garden was immediately paved over and they started a taxi service, so cars coming and going all hours. Three women in the house, none of whom work or are allowed to speak to anyone. An extension to the already extended kitchen at the back built without planning permission. The loft turned into a bedroom. When the local authority was informed they just granted the PP retrospectively - a few years before they refused the same permission to my Dad. The Unitarian chapel became a mosque. The once bustling High Street with grocers, chemists, jewellers, butchers is now nothing but curry houses and shops with everything piled into the pavement outside. Industry has all but disappeared.
Having read what Matt has to say I suggest no indigenous individual can fail to be very disturbed by his findings. And I suspect this situation is shared by many who have settled and fully integrated into their communities. It is almost certainly typical of many of not just our cities but towns as well. I have Leicester in mind where it was known to be an issue many years ago. Back then Muslim Ghettos were already known about. It derives from an Elite policy implemented by individuals who have simply have failed to think through the implications of what they are intending, and to plan accordingly. For example, it should be mandatory for immigrants who don't know our language and history to attend a course and be examined on what they have learnt. Non attendance or an exam failure should result in them being told to leave our country - immediately. And this must be insisted on and monitored.
I suspect we also have the National Church to blame for this situation who have promoted extreme tolerance towards immigrants, without giving any thought to the potential consequences of huge numbers of individuals from different countries being imposed on their local indigenous populations. Total unreality.
What is to be done ? For a start nobody who cannot speak our language and/or who lives in a Muslim Ghetto area should not be allowed a vote in local or General Elections. And postal voting for those who can speak our language should not be allowed unless they can prove they have successfully integrated in their locality. This would minimise and prevent manipulation of elections where Muslims are involved.
The churches are falling and the mosques are rising. We all need to rise as Christians to fight this, whether you’re religious or not, most of us have Christian values. Good against evil. Wow mi mother was right 😮
Importing the cultures of Islamic lands into UK is insane. Some areas could qualify as Little Gazas. The West no longer does God. Muslims do. Therefore they will prevail. It is as simple as that. Compared to this, Putin is a sideshow, all he has is cyber threats, propaganda and nobody on the inside. Islam, by contrast, is well established in the institutions of the British state and just waiiting for the right moment to take over completely- probably not long after Stamer's gang make criticism of Islam illegal. The Caliphate is coming.
This was a hard read, I was in Birmingham city center yesterday. As a single young women I remember feeling so uneasy I just wanted to leave as soon as possible. May your grandparents rest in peace
Truly shocking Matt. However, I come from Leeds and I can see something very similar happening there too. The filth and rubbish on the streets makes it look like a third world country, there is no such thing as civic pride any more and there are places where I feel uneasy when walking around the city centre - in broad daylight never mind at night. I am very angry about this but there seems little that can be done lawfully. Maybe I just need to look after me and follow the wealthy to pastures new. I have no faith in any of our political parties - now including Reform UK. Just as bad as the rest.
I can empathise with you. I remember going to Leeds in the 1980's and 1990's and it was a thrilling day out for those of us travelling in from the surrounding areas. I hadn't been for around twenty years and I found parts of it enhanced by the growth of infrastructure centred around the business community whilst other parts of the city centre and surrounding areas were overrun with charity shops, kebab houses, taxi ranks and vape shops. Gangs of kids (mainly of immigrant stock) also wandered around and made for an intimidating atmosphere. Sadly, these areas of the city had developed the vibe of Bradford city centre, twenty five years ago.
Leeds City Centre is home to a couple of migrant hotels. The council has spent millions improving the city centre, only for the Home Office to dump hundreds of shiftless, rootless young men there with nothing to do but hang around all day. It's incredibly sad.
Everything you say is absolutely correct. You've nailed it, completely. No one can doubt what has caused the massive decline of cities like Birmingham. It's obvious. But yet. But yet, Tommy Robinson belongs in jail, eh?
And we Brits again being told to take a step back because as we in HUGE debt why is this even contemplated? Of course the ones asking, why would they worry about the debt, they obviously living a divided loyalty and who they care about.
Extract from a tweet. The runway they want us build is for the use of holidays back to there as they say 3 hours journey to present airport too far. There a photo of meeting mentioned in X and no whites to be seen, which is not an unkind comment but more a comment about Parliaments make up these days and the focus of many MPs away from the regular Brit of ethnicity, which means UK’s whole Government approach to matters changing. ie, the same as who is now a ‘local’, when 3 generations of a family living here and then births.
Tahir Ali MP →
@TahirAliMP This week, I attended a press conference ordained by Mohammed Yasin MP, where 20 cross-party British Parliamentarians requested for an
international airport in Mirpur.
This is not just confined to the cities Matt, it’s spreading into large towns.
My town is becoming a literal dump, HMO’s springing up to house the “scattered ones” no longer taking up space in the 3 hotels constantly full.
Walking around town or any supermarket you don’t hear English spoken, men spit on the floor, cycle on the pavements and the smell of drugs permeates the air.
I’m constantly worried for my children and wonder where I can move to.
Totally get this. I'm always thinking where can I go. But unless you go deep into the countryside there'll always be ghettoisation nearby. i think abroad is the only option. I was recently in two big cities in Spain I didn't see a single Muslim nor non-Spanish person (apart from the obvious tourists). Why is it that they can do it. Why do we let everyone in?? Spain is very proud of its national culture. They would never give it up. They too had an empire and a past like ours but I bet you don't see them apologising for anything. I would rather live there than in a British city. It's utterly depressing.
The Spanish also had a King and Queen with the courage and guts to deport their Muslim population, lock, stock and barrel around 14 something or other. They were never overrun by Islam as we are likely to be.
💯
I agree, so a question to you Matt - how will Reform's policies help with this? Net zero migration may help to stem the tide, but it does nothing to help the areas already ruined.
Worse, net zero still implies something like ~480,000 immigrants per year, see footnote 1. Given Birmingham's population is between 1 and 3 million, depending on whether you count the suburbs, this implies a new Birmingham's worth of immigrants in the first Reform parliament alone.
We should have zero immigration. The NHS needs more doctors? Remove the cap on the amount of our citizens who are allowed to train as doctors! Businesses claim they need more staff? They will have to pay more, to make the millions of economically inactive people want to work; or reduce their benefits to less than they can get by working, same difference. They could invest in better processes, machinery etc. to increase productivity, something everyone across the political spectrum agrees would be a good thing.
I very much believe this would go down well with the population, I'm sure you have seen on your own posts, and ReformUK's social media comment sections, that their recent turn to soft centrism is unpopular.
1. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingjune2024
I don't understand why people keep saying reform have gone soft? Please explain more. And let's say they have, couldn't it be that they are trying to win more voters over. Their policy is crystal clear. Pause immigration apart from any essential roles and only then until we've had time to gain more of our own doctors etc. they are clear on the ECHR, trans madness, deportations of foreign criminals and blotting British people first. Where is the softness?
Tracy, you may have a very busy life and been unable to keep up with what is happening in and being said by Reform. Look around at YouTube channels - search for Paul Thorpe, The Lotus Eaters, Dan Wootton Outspoken, New Culture Forum, Andy the Gabby Cabbie and a host of others. Comments made by Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Mohammed Zia Yusuf. Look at their appalling treatment of Rupert Lowe and Ben Habib. Farage is not interested in doing any mass deportations. He is not worried by rapid demographic change in the UK, wants to keep Islam happy. He has lied about "Tommy Robinson" and insulted his hundreds of thousands of supporters (who are/were almost all Reform voters). Just do your research.
The online right has completely lost the plot. They are letting perfect be the enemy of good, and as Matt has said they are in a purity spiral where they are getting more and more hardline.
Unfortunately that will not win you a majority. Reform have the right strategy as they are polling ahead of or equal with the other parties and the trend is upwards. Once that gets over 30% you're in majority territory which is what's needed to change any of the dire issues affecting the country.
As June Slater has said, you need to treat Reform as a vehicle that's going in approximately the right direction. All the other parties are going in the opposite direction. Use Reform to get you to closer to where you want to go. If they don't go far enough then at least you will be a darn sight closer than you would have been otherwise.
Sorry, but that just isn't true.
Tracy they haven't "gone soft". Not one policy has been changed one iota. What has happened (as far as I can make out - and this is a purely personal opinion) is that a very tiny group of people whose beliefs are actually "far right" have infiltrated the ranks of Reform. These people are very visible on X and fb and look like they are a bigger group than they actually are. Matt Goodwin calls them the "online right".
I am very active in Reform. I am the Campaign & Fundraising Officer of my local branch. I just also happen to have been born in Australia, emigrated to the UK 20 years ago and I am a proud British citizen. This group of "online right" harrass me and tell me I should be deported, because I "have no right to live here", despite working, paying taxes, owning my home outright and never taking a penny in benefits. I have been called "foreign scum" despite being able to trace my family back before 1066 in Britain. Because a personal friend who is standing as a local councillor for Reform on May 1st was born in Bangladesh (yes he was brought up Muslim, no he's not radical, he actually runs a pub as his day job!) I have been called on the comments on this Substack a "Muslim cock-sucking traitor". Yes, that is a direct quote.
All Nigel Farage is doing, as far as I can see (again personal opinion), is trying to root these people out of Reform, so they're ramping up the lies.
Pamela, I'm so sorry to hear of your experience with these dreadful people who call you names - that's appalling! Of course you have a history of being British and I too know there are Muslims who are not radicals. I certainly don't agree with the people you describe. I also understand where you are in your thinking about Reform. I was absolutely thrilled when they started and have supported Nigel Farage for many years. But what I wrote above IS true, sadly. I quoted what he has been saying himself. You can actually see him saying it. It has all come as a big shock and I completely understand why many people either refuse to believe it or try to push it aside in the hope that it will "all come out in the wash". Some people say he is trying to win votes by saying he won't do any mass deportations and will then do them when he wins power. But that's both dishonest and unreliable. How can we trust him to do anything, if that's the case? What else would he be lying about? This is what Labour and the Con Party have been doing - promising to do (or not do) things and then doing the opposite when in power. As for the "online right" - well, Nigel Farage is "online" himself - is he not one of all of us who are both off and online? There's no distinction - we're all people who vote. The mainstream media are now corrupted and dying - they peddle propaganda - before you dismiss the alternative media, take a look at it. Incidentally, Nigel Farage's friend, Donald Trump, gives the "new media" an important place in his circle so it's odd that Nigel Farage seems to want a war with them. But it fits his need to control everything and everyone around him, I'm afraid. And this is not "on the fringe". He would like to dismiss us as a small group. The ACTUAL "far right" really are a small group - but that's not us. We are "ordinary people" (in inverted commas because I don't view anyone as "ordinary") and all kinds of people - and there are many thousands. We are sad about the way Reform has let us down but also angry. Ben and Rupert are the real deal and we support their hard work for the people.
Just one more thing - the people insulting you might be the ones that might have called for so-called "re-migration". I've never seen anyone calling for people who have lived legally and peacefully in the UK for many many years to be deported. I don't know if anyone HAS called for that. I'm in my late 70's and grew up with people from all kinds of countries coming and going, settling and leaving. It was never a big problem, except when some of them rioted and got involved in crime. But many more worked very hard and became valued members of local communities (and by that I mean communities of people who were mainly white working and middle class people). We British people have always been tolerant and welcoming. There may be a small number of hate-filled extremists but don't let Nigel Farage tell you that we who are reacting to his backtracking are any part of that.
I haven't suggested that. I have come to my own conclusions. I was a member of several fb groups that were described as "Rupert Lowe Supporters" groups. They were where the "remigration" stuff was posted. They were where people were suggesting I should be deported. People were also saying things like "foreign criminals should be deported and so should their families". I am not saying that Mr Lowe supports these people, but he's never criticised them either.
The fact is that a foreign national who breaks the law and is jailed for 1 year or more should be deported UNDER THE EXISTING LAW. Full stop. We are hamstrung by the ECHR and woke judges. Reform policy is to leave the ECHR. Again, that currently exists. But how the hell can you legally deport someone who has done absolutely nothing wrong because their brother, wife, parent or uncle did something illegal? And where do you draw the line? "Oh it's ok if they're Pakis. Or Muslims." Farage is right to say that you simply can't do that.
Imagine if my dual Aust/Brit citizen son went mad and drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians. We're both non-practicing Catholics. Are you going to say "Deport all Australian Catholics because they're obviously IRA sympathisers! Even deport his English stepfather!" Hopefully not, because that is just bizarre! But so is saying that the British born children of dual Pakistani/British gang rapists should be deported. And believe me, there are people within Reform who are calling for that.
The only call for relatives to be deported that I've seen has referred to the relatives of Pakistani rapists who KNEW ABOUT AND DIDN'T REPORT their crimes. And if there are so-called "supporters of Rupert Lowe" who are name-calling and behaving in a despicable way then I know that he and his genuine supporters would not support them. I also suspect that there are troublemakers stirring up anger and discord online. They don't represent the rest of us. My advice is to avoid those groups. Take a look at Rupert's own Facebook group instead.
Yes Sandra,
I have indeed left, and please understand that I'm not "labelling" Rupert Lowe in any way. I am not criticising him. All I am saying is that whether you are aware of it or not, there are "supposed" Reform supporters out there who are in fact espousing very far right beliefs. There ARE people saying that Reform should be deporting the entire families of foreign criminals. There ARE people saying that people like me should be deported. Please believe me. Maybe not in the circles you move in, but you need to be aware of this. It's THESE people who are "tearing Reform apart". They are the problem, not Head Office.
I am a Reform branch officer, and like everyone who is any sort of official in the party (even a lowly branch committee member like me), I signed a document to say that I am not, and never have been, a member of any far right organisation. There is a list of about 6 groups, and the BNP and EDL were specifically mentioned. It is right that these people are removed from Reform, because they don't actually represent the party's policies.
Totally agree British business must pay more.
Just look at lorry drivers 50 years ago they were at the top of blue collar earners. Not any more, whilst blue collar earnings have relatively declined.
It’s not just carrot but stick as well that is needed. We are all living longer, are children and grandchildren are taller than us but 4 or 5 million people are on sick benefits. Go Figure!
I'm glad you did this Matt, as you know I've asked you to go 'look'!!
I spent a lovely weekend in Birmingham in the mid nineties, my husband was working there over the weekend, and I was concerned at first. It was known for West Indians, Jamaicans etc. so I was a little apprehensive of walking around the centre on my own. I absolutely loved it, I never felt intimidated or worried about my safety at all. Everyone was really friendly and cheerful but then the demographics changed as with all our cities.
There has to be deportations and encouraged repatriations because, Matt, that looks like Pakistani with tarmac!!
Suzanne I worked in Birmingham roughly 2014 - 2018, and for 6 months I lived there Sun - Fri, instead of a 2 hour each way commute. During that entire period the decline was palpable. I never felt safe.
When I was spending my lunch hours in taxis going to look at flats to rent I met a lovely British born lad of Asian extraction who was a taxi driver. When I gave him the address he asked why I wanted to go there. When we arrived he took my money then he said to me "You won't be long in there. I'm going to stay here to make sure you're ok madam. I want to be sure you'll get back to the uni." I actually laughed at him.
The flat was straight out of a 3rd world hell-hole. I was less than 5 minutes and I got back into his taxi. He shook his head and said "Take my advice. Don't even think about this area. You're a white woman. You won't be safe. Madam, this is Birmingham." I said to him "But you're a British Asian yourself!" His answer was "Yes, that's why I know what it's like. For your own safety get a flat in the Jewellery Quarter."
It looks awful, I won’t be going there any time soon!
Great article Matt, shocking but true. Staggering that this has happened across the country over the decades without even the whiff of a political mandate, and with our noses thoroughly rubbed in this 'enrichment' against our will at every turn; the complete demoralisation of the British people continues unabated, as it does for other peoples across all of Western Europe. Bad international actors at play, I'd say.
I'm of the opinion that this situation could be arrested and thrown into reverse. There is more than enough power amongst the people of these islands if it could be harnessed and if we would act with unity. There will of course need to be some kind of political vehicle to help us along the road to recovery, but it must be one that aligns with our will. Serious and direct questions will have to be answered and radical policies pursued if we are to reverse what has been the most radical of political policies of modern times; Mass Uncontrolled Immigration.
One thing I am certain of is, that whoever grasps the nettle to help steer the country back from the abyss must have a vision of Britain that aligns with the vision of the indigenous British people, who have been browbeaten and slandered into this unwelcome situation in the first place.
Perhaps the first question of any prospective leader should be "Are you concerned that the British people may become a minority in their own homeland?" The answer to this question must be on the lines of "Yes, I am deeply concerned, and I will not let that happen".
Nigel has answered this question - no he is not concerned
Badger stop spreading lies. It just makes you look like an idiot.
I have to say I have found his answers from his own lips recently to be much more muted on the immigration issue than they used to be.
Why bother with reasoned argument when cheap personal abuse will do instead?
I know.
We ALL know. Just watch the Reform voter numbers fall as the truth dawns on all those people who are at the moment unaware. We'll do our utmost to make sure they find out.
The point is that it's not true. Reform have not changed their policies one iota. No-one has "gone soft on immigration". It's propaganda by a tiny far right group who believe that ALL immigrants should be deported. Including me.
I arrived in 2004 when my ex-husband was transferred in his job. He was the MD of a British firm in Australia, and became 2IC worldwide. We are both educated (him MBA, me PhD), high income earning professionals, white Anglo-Saxon, Christian, native English speakers from a Commonwealth country. I've worked, paid taxes, never taken a single penny in benefits. I'm a British citizen, now married to an Englishman. I own my own house outright. You tell me how that makes me "foreign scum" who "deserves to be deported". Because those who believe that are the ones telling lies about Reform policy.
I disagree with you that the call for deportations and repatriations is 'far right' and I disagree with you about Reform. Lowe was kicked out because he spoke about those very things. They have a Muslim Chairman and for the life in me I can not understand that.
Any person who has come to this country, worked, paid their way, contributed to our society, abided by our laws and not tried to eradicate our culture or impose theirs on us, is more than welcome and their are many of those such people. But there are many who do none of those things.
As an indigenous English woman this is what has been imposed on me and my people for decades, my people have been abused, gang raped, used as money slaves, constantly slated for having an opinion different to politicians, lied to, ignored when we voted, the list is endless. To want our country to resemble our country is NOT too much to ask for. The indigenous British have the right to live in their country, Britain!
I ask one thing of you and that is that you join with the indigenous British people to get our country back. You can then live in the real Britain as a British woman with the freedoms we all used to know and desperately want to return.
That is why I am a British citizen, and why I am the Campaigns Manager for my local Reform branch.
Why shouldn't Zia Yusuf be Chairman of Reform? He was born in Glasgow. He's British. He has British values. Just because he's Muslim doesn't mean he's "trying to take over" the UK. It doesn't mean he is a radical Islamist. A personal friend who is standing as a Reform councillor was born in Bangladesh and is a Muslim. Do you know what his day job is? He runs a pub. He'll pour you a beer and serve you a bacon butty. Manzur is furious that illegal immigrants who arrive on dinghies across the channel get the full welcome treatment that I certainly didn't get and neither did he. I have no problem with anyone's religion, I do have a problem with radical Islamism. They're very different things.
I am very aware of that but I also know they NEVER set themselves apart from Islam or being a Muslim. Reform to a huge majority of people are suppose to be their saviours, the ones taking back our country for us. Problem appears to be Farage has now stepped back from this and sacked Lowe for even mentioning it. The question now is 'what are Reform, what do they actually stand for and why?' From where I'm stood they stand almost in exactly the same place as the Conservatives.
We will. Nobody can blame them as people are now beyond desperate for change, and herein lies another problem; rushing headlong into the arms of yet another Saviour to make everything right.
I read a quote recently from high level Mason Albert Pike "Whenever the people require a hero, we will provide one" Truth is, it seems, that the worlds governance was hijacked a long time ago by those who realised how easy it was to take control. And that control has been passed down through each generation.
To break this Matrix like stranglehold will be to just say no.
Confront Starmer on these issues and you get….”Let me be clear …..” and then goes off at tangents, anything but addressing the huge government induced disaster… wasting our money in the process.
The only thing he was crystal clear about was when he agreed that blasphemy laws would be "good". What a sell out. All these politicians need to be sent to live in a place where 85% of the population is foreign/muslim/out if work/doesn't speak English. He'll love it right.
If you import a third world mentality what do you expect. As usual a brilliant analysis Matt but extremely depressing at the same time. Comments that Reform have blown it are exaggerated, in my view, as people shouldn’t get too hung up on RL’s outpourings. If you want to capture both Labour and Conservatives you need to be a little less vocal about issues like immigration and deteriorating cities like Birmingham. Wait and be patient, as once in power you can start to effect real change. Yap on about it now and you’ll never get over the line on election night.
Exactly Rob. The absolute truth is that Reform has not changed one single policy. At all. Farage might be a lot of things but he's not stupid. He knows that Reform needs to get the support of the ordinary "small c conservative" voter. You don't get that by being racist, supporting Tommy Robinson or trying to deport people like me who are in the UK legally, and just happen to have been born elsewhere.
Reform hasn't quite blown it, completely, but that Farage interview was inexplicable as it undoes so much of what Reform voters expected, especially those living in Birmingham.
I agree. Labour kept quiet about their intentions until they got in. We have to do whatever it takes to stop the rot while it may still be possible.
My late grandparents part of East Ham started to collapse in the 70s.
Anyone complaining then was called racist and the Middle Class didn't want to engage with the civilisation change happening.
What happened to Birmingham? The same as has/is happening to all of Britain's cities - gradual transformation into the Third World as part of UN Agenda 2030, which is a plan to level-up the world. The cause is not rocket science; if you import millions of poor, illiterate immigrants from differing cultures, who rely on income from the tax-payer to survive, then poverty beckons for almost everybody. If you wish to see the blue-print for this, look no further than South Africa where the masses live in ghettos and the Elite live in gated communities protected by armed guards.
If you are young, and white, and have the wherewithal, get out, because there will be no salvation; nobody is going to ride in and save us, the country is finished. Our debt has reached unmanageable proportions, nobody is doing any work because they are either lazy and unmotivated, or have realized that it is pointless, the police are a hopeless bunch of woke idiots who are incable of enforcing the law, and our politicians are all in the pay of the UN/WEF, dedicated to our destruction. There is no way out legally either, because Blair has ensured that any political party that attempts real change will be trussed-up in legal red tape for years. Will the last Anglo-Saxon to leave, please turn out the lights?
What happened to Birmingham? It has been invaded by third worlders and now has the same problems as you would expect in the countries of the third world. Sadly it's not confined to Birmingham, my Aunt and Uncle lived in Leicester, they proudly purchased their new home just after WW2, a lovely semi backing onto the local cricket ground of which my Uncle was a proud member until his death at the age of 94. By time my Aunt died 2 years later their white middle class street was completely inhabited by those from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, they had a Bangladeshi next door neighbour who never spoke a word to them despite both my Uncle and Aunt trying to forge a friendly relationship with them, they treated them both with distain. The Leicester of my youth where I used to regularly visit my Aunt and Uncle is gone and now completely unrecognisable. This is happening the length and breadth of the country with absolutely no end in sight as those that govern us are determined to wipe out our history, culture and possibly the people that created it. The future for your children will be unrecognisable from the country many of us were raised in, our politicians are utterly shameless.
Douglas Murray was spot-on in His book "The Slow Death of Europe". But we're committing suicide, and, yes, the demise of Christianity has played a crucial role.
As an ex-Black Country boy I'm not surprised but deeply saddened. My own home town around fifteen miles west of Brum is getting to be the same sort of mess. Pakistanis moved in next door to Mum and Dad about thirty years ago. The front garden was immediately paved over and they started a taxi service, so cars coming and going all hours. Three women in the house, none of whom work or are allowed to speak to anyone. An extension to the already extended kitchen at the back built without planning permission. The loft turned into a bedroom. When the local authority was informed they just granted the PP retrospectively - a few years before they refused the same permission to my Dad. The Unitarian chapel became a mosque. The once bustling High Street with grocers, chemists, jewellers, butchers is now nothing but curry houses and shops with everything piled into the pavement outside. Industry has all but disappeared.
Having read what Matt has to say I suggest no indigenous individual can fail to be very disturbed by his findings. And I suspect this situation is shared by many who have settled and fully integrated into their communities. It is almost certainly typical of many of not just our cities but towns as well. I have Leicester in mind where it was known to be an issue many years ago. Back then Muslim Ghettos were already known about. It derives from an Elite policy implemented by individuals who have simply have failed to think through the implications of what they are intending, and to plan accordingly. For example, it should be mandatory for immigrants who don't know our language and history to attend a course and be examined on what they have learnt. Non attendance or an exam failure should result in them being told to leave our country - immediately. And this must be insisted on and monitored.
I suspect we also have the National Church to blame for this situation who have promoted extreme tolerance towards immigrants, without giving any thought to the potential consequences of huge numbers of individuals from different countries being imposed on their local indigenous populations. Total unreality.
What is to be done ? For a start nobody who cannot speak our language and/or who lives in a Muslim Ghetto area should not be allowed a vote in local or General Elections. And postal voting for those who can speak our language should not be allowed unless they can prove they have successfully integrated in their locality. This would minimise and prevent manipulation of elections where Muslims are involved.
Stop all interpreter schemes, this is another “benefit” that does not benefit the people who are paying for it.
The churches are falling and the mosques are rising. We all need to rise as Christians to fight this, whether you’re religious or not, most of us have Christian values. Good against evil. Wow mi mother was right 😮
It would be a step in the right direction if we stopped giving planning permission to new mosques but of course 2TK would never allow that to happen.
Importing the cultures of Islamic lands into UK is insane. Some areas could qualify as Little Gazas. The West no longer does God. Muslims do. Therefore they will prevail. It is as simple as that. Compared to this, Putin is a sideshow, all he has is cyber threats, propaganda and nobody on the inside. Islam, by contrast, is well established in the institutions of the British state and just waiiting for the right moment to take over completely- probably not long after Stamer's gang make criticism of Islam illegal. The Caliphate is coming.