https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/curbing-refugee-rights-no-solution-britains-problems

THE Labour Party delegation that visited Denmark recently came back with the sense that the Scandinavian country’s mix of an eroding social democratic welfare system combined with a “muscular” immigration policy was a perfect fit for contemporary Britain.

And, in the imagination of many Labour MPs — those equally afeard of their electorates and of the No 10 disciplinary culture — this will tackle their most pressing fear, that a combination of Labour (and Keir Starmer’s) unpopularity with the appeal of Nigel Farage’s latest vehicle will see them jobless.

The idea that appeasing those voters in the grip of the delusion that restricting the rights of refugees is the key to solving Britain’s immigration problems will claw back electoral credibility has induced a paralysis.

Even the dimmest knows that Labour’s problems are deeper than this but they think this surrender to a primitive nativism is a quick fix.

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This is dressed up in the usual self-flattering language that is standard when Labour politicians surrender before a reactionary idea.

Far from Britain having “a proud tradition of welcoming those fleeing danger,” our country has a long tradition of receiving them with reluctance and hostility. There is not a Jewish family that does not have tales of hostility to their families fleeing eastern Europe, and of Holocaust survivors refused settlement both here and in Palestine. Migrants fleeing the empire to fill jobs in Britain faced no less hostility and discrimination.

Where the lie is made explicit is in Mahmood’s framing of the issue, that our “generosity is drawing illegal migrants across the Channel.”

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See the original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/curbing-refugee-rights-no-solution-britains-problems