Late last night, I spent time with one of those people Nigel Farage, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Rishi Sunak and every other far right loon in the land has been warning me about. A man whose kind so angered thousands of coked-up, pissed up knuckle-draggers and made them attack police officers and torch hotels full of men, women and children who are seeking asylum. He was an Afghan citizen who, 18 years ago, having escaped the murderous Taliban by the skin of his teeth, and arrived in Britain in the back of a lorry.
Speaking no English, his asylum claim was accepted and he set about learning the language as quickly as he could, all the time working all the hours God sent (or whoever it was sent them) and enrolling at the University of the West Of England UWE). Now, he is happily married and has three children, including five year old twins, works as a radiologist in a Bristol hospital. When he is not helping his wife to raise a family and working with people who have cancer, he drives a cab.
With so many job vacancies in Britain, and an understaffed NHS that has been ravaged by 14 years of neglect and underinvestment by the Conservative party we kicked out of office barely a month ago, I thought this guy was exactly the sort of person we needed. Helping to make sick people better, paying taxes and now driving a late night taxi to take me home. Where, exactly, is the problem?
He lives in what I shall call a ‘challenging’ area in the city and appears to love it. He came here for “a better life” – his words – and he has totally embraced his life in Bristol. His children speak English as their first language and, he says, enjoys the freedoms here that he could never enjoy in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Now forgive me if I appear to be a bit of a soggy, woke libtard, but I thought this man was exactly the sort of person we need today. Work hard, play by the rules, respect the culture of your new land and integrate with the community. That was my taxi driver last night.
The riots across the UK were a shameful moment in our recent history, but that doesn’t mean we should no longer talk about migration. And it’s not wrong of people to have concerns about the effects of migration, both negative and positive.
Most of us are not evenly vaguely concerned about colour and while some of us have concerns about certain religions, it should not be the big deal we think it might be. I see it as problematic that we just don’t have an honest debate about it. Governments of all persuasions seem afraid to talk about it and that, I fear, plays into the hands of those who like promote hatred and division.
Perhaps, we could trial the use of Citizens’ Assemblies? I am strongly opposed to the idea of having a referendum on anything because that is not how we do business in the UK. We elect people to carry out our wishes in parliament and if we don’t like what they do, we vote them out. But Citizens’ Assemblies offer something a bit different, the definition of what they do is this:
“A Citizens’ Assembly is a representative group of citizens who are selected at random from the population to learn about, deliberate upon, and make recommendations in relation to a particular issue or set of issues. It is still up to elected politicians whether or not to follow the assembly’s recommendations.”
One thing for sure, though, is carrying on as we are and hoping for the best. That is how we came about with the violent riots in recent weeks. By involving actual people, would we not blunt the hatred of the influencers of the far right? If people feel they have no say in the way our country is being run – and there is a powerful argument that says we live in an elective dictatorship whereby we elect a government that then does what the hell it likes – who can be surprised when things go wrong? I will not attempt to condone the thuggery of recent weeks – there is no excuse for any of it – but there is something wrong with our country when people see it as somehow acceptable to attack police officers and burn asylum seekers to death.
My new, albeit temporary, friend came here as an asylum seeker and I would describe him not as some kind of drain on the taxpayer, not someone bringing an alien culture, not someone visiting something bad upon us, just a bloke wanting to earn a crust to support his family and providing a vital public service and, currently, taking us from A to B.
He was a little bit scared last week as Britain seemed to be close to going up in flames. Today, following the peace gatherings, he is less so. So, in truth, am I. But let’s not stand still. Let’s talk about migration, honestly and openly. Heading off debate helps no one.
