This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday as soon as it is released.
So, Mr. Brexit has returned. Nigel Farage is back in charge of Reform UK after a lengthy hiatus, succeeding Richard Tice. He is not only going to lead the party but also going to stand in Clacton – a seat once held by Douglas Carswell, who defected to UKIP from the Conservatives, resigned his seat, stood in the by-election and was returned as UKIP’s first elected MP.
According to Farage, it’s the “dullest’ and “most boring” election he’s ever seen. Few people would argue with him. His flash-flood arrival on the election stage has certainly invigorated a campaign laced with tedium and mediocrity, capped on Tuesday night by a vacuous TV debate replete with puerile jibes.
Mr. Farage has of course stood before (seven times) but we do believe he is going to do it this time. So his sudden decision to run wasn’t a shock, indeed, we saw it coming.
But this time around, his impact on a convulsing Conservative Party, led by a Prime Minister who has shown himself to be out of his depth, is what’s really grabbing attention. It’s all very well to grab a few headlines, with vows to “clamp down” on immigration or “to stop the boats” but where were the robust policies and long-term strategy? As ever, chickens do eventually come home to roost, as we warned would happen when the loose points-based system was being devised some six years ago.
Farage has put his finger on what is fuelling so much of the frustration and cynicism towards politicians. They are fed to the back teeth with promises made at election time only for them to be reneged upon once politicians are elected and and behind the iron gates of the Palace of Westminster. Yes, sky-high immigration – both legal and illegal is what’s aggravating prospective voters. They experience daily the immense strains on our public services, the housing market, national security and national unity.
Speaking to the press, Mr. Farage framed this as an “immigration election,” backed by recent polling data and the broken promises of successive Tory governments. As we at Migration Watch have said over so many years, we simply don’t have enough homes, enough infrastructure, or enough money to deal with the government’s policy of Infinity Migrants. Moreover, we’re losing a sense of who we are as a nation, and immigration is making everything worse – like pouring petrol on a fire or salt on an open, bloody wound.
A week earlier, Mr. Farage stirred controversy and attracted opprobrium from the usual quarters when he told Sir Trevor Phillips (who had himself made remarks along similar lines some years before) on Sky-News that a “growing number” of young Muslims in the UK don’t align with British values. He cited an April poll by the Henry Jackson Society showing only a quarter of Muslims believed Hamas had committed murder and rape in its October 7 attack on Israel. Other polls, not mentioned by Farage, reveal concerning attitudes among British Muslims about free speech, the Holocaust, Sharia law, and even sympathies with terrorists.
Farage argues that these issues are exacerbated by unchecked immigration. We agree. If you don’t have control of your borders, you don’t have control of population growth. And if you don’t have control of this, you don’t have control of your country. It’s as simple as that. You can’t ‘integrate’ people with a few strokes of the Whitehall pen. It takes years and it’s a two-way street. New arrivals must show willing and be ready to accept the ways and values of the country they or their parents have chosen to live in.
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday as soon as it is released.