Dear Editor,
In his article ‘My “Cocaine Bear” mistake’ (November en), Krish Kandiah insists that any doubts about immigration are negative and groundless. Why then, following the Palestinian protests, did Henry Kissinger, a Jewish refugee and quite experienced, say in an interview in Germany: ‘It was a grave mistake to let in so many people of a totally different culture and religion and concepts because it creates a pressure group inside each country that does that.’
Diversity is the mantra, but when we look abroad, we see diversity behind so many conflicts, the Balkans, the Middle East, etc. – so why import it?
Then again, was immigration fair on the working class who bore the brunt of it? It was their communities that were the most affected, not the ‘nicer areas’ where it was easy to feel progressive. And what does imported cheap labour do to wages? Nothing for inequality. With all the talk of levelling up, how do people in the poorer areas in the North, which en has drawn attention to, feel about the 700,000+ who came into the UK last year? What will it do to jobs, or to the young people desperately trying to afford a flat, let alone a house? And if AI is going to shred jobs, what then?
For the secularists, bringing in Hinduism, Islam, etc., was a boon since, as a religion is an identity, all religions must be treated equally, whatever their merits, and so Christianity was more easily marginalised.
Again, can anyone recall any political party manifesto promising ‘more immigration’ rather than less – and was there a referendum on such a major change?
Please note that this is not a criticism of immigrants, but of the whole process of immigration – a huge subject – which has been instigated and managed by a so-called liberal but delinquent political class, both of the economic right and the cultural left.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Cooper
By email
