Jesus, we’re having another debate about migration. The new Labour government is having a … oh no, here comes that word again … crackdown on migration to this country. With a name like mine, which is hardly a common British name, maybe I should just shut up and mind my own business. Let’s face it: but for migration, in this case from Norway and the Netherlands, I would not be here at all. So, you would think that I’d be wholly in favour of migration, wouldn’t you? You’d be right.
I have no issue with people coming from abroad to work here. Our ageing population, of which I am a member, requires that unless we start to produce more and more home grown Brits, which is too late in my case, we need more people over here to fill the job vacancies and to pay the taxes and National Insurance in order to fund us, as well as all public services in general.
I am completely uninterested in where migrants come from, too. I don’t care about colour, I just see human beings. If people want to come over here, do jobs that need doing, pay the taxes we need to run the country and to fully integrate into our country, I don’t have a problem. Welcome to our country. Be an adopted Brit. But there is an important qualification to this which I feel I should be honest enough to mention.
Let’s cut straight to the chase. Many people do not like migration and migrants. And the main thing they fear is coloured migration, specifically migration from so-called ‘Muslim countries’. They come to Britain, they don’t integrate, preferring to stay within their own communities, living under their own Sharia law. They are not like ‘us’. And in a way I have concerns with some aspects of Muslim migration. Being a very simple person, I have a very simple solution to these concerns. Secularism.
The word secular means not having any connection with religion. That’s how I would like to see our country. People within a secular society are free to worship the Gods of their choice – there are plenty to choose from – but by the same token there should be no special privileges or rights for people of religion. There is one law for all people, everyone lives under it. And one’s religious superstitions should have no effect nor bearing on our lives. There would be no religious schools of any kind – and yes, that includes the many so-called Catholic schools – because school is a place to learn from the national curriculum and not be indoctrinated with religious brainwashing. There would be no cruel killing of animals, as with Kosher and Halal. There would be no exceptions to this, in the private and public sectors.
I do not see this as in any way controversial. Life would go on as now but everyone would be treated exactly the same, believer or atheist. And here’s the thing: anyone wanting to migrate to our country would know this at the time of their application to come here. No ifs, no buts, no exceptions. No one could arrive here and not understand we were a secular country. No one could say, “Well, I didn’t know this before I arrived. We’re a religious family and we want to send our children to religious schools.” Without trying to sound all Nigel Farage that is not possible with a secular country where everyone’s beliefs and non-beliefs are treated the same.
I have nothing against people who do religion. Some of my best friends etc etc. Some religions are – how shall we put it? – more hardline and oppressive than others and I would say unquestionably that Islam comes under these categories. But I don’t hate Muslims any more than I hate Christians for their worship for their particular version of religion. Live and let live, live your life as you so choose, pray to your own God, or none in the case of most of us, and we can all live happily ever after.
“Nothing to kill or die for,” sang John Lennon. “And no religion, too.” I share his ideal, although secularism would be a good start. And if you think I am saying, “If you don’t like it here in our secular country, there are plenty of countries in the world where religion is bound up with the constitution who would welcome you” then there might be an element of truth in that, although I would not quite put it in those terms.
As the great comedian Dave Allen once put it, “May your God go with you.” Like me, he was an atheist but he had a measure of respect for the devout. I’d say it to a person of faith, too, although I might add, “Keep him to yourself, though, eh?”
