Tommy Robinson

I've often wondered about this. I wouldn't be in favour of placing huge limits on immigration because I think we need some immigration to fill particular roles at current market rates.

So while I might disagree with it, I also know governments do lots of things I disagree with when they think they can win votes. Having an 'Australian style' immigration points system doesn't seem impossible, but no mainstream party seems to have any interest in doing it. They haven't even tried promising to do it and half-arsing it like they've done with housing for example.

Immigration just seems like something that governments have no interest in reducing without really making the case for why it's a good thing.

Can we have your source for "all Indians buying 100% of new stock houses" or is it just xenophobic hyperbole?

My dad lived in Luton in the 60s and 70s - it was always a crime ridden cesspit with this being exacerbated by de-industriaisation not immigration.

Wanting a proper immigration system is not racism .

Noticing that the population of a country had exploded due to immigration and there is a shortage of housing, school places etc due to increased population is not racism

Your only argument is scream racism and hope that works, its pathetic you cant actually make a rational argument to explain how the levels of immigration in the UK in the last 25 years have benefitted the average person there so you shout racism and hope it sticks .

Are all the black people who support reform, were at this rally want a proper immigration system are they racist aswell?

Once again with these nonsense accusations Wanting a proper immigration system is not racism , Wanting to keep population controlled so public services and infrastructure can cope is not racism

That's all your argument has because you can't admit the immigration system in the UK and europe as a whole has been basly handled and has had severe negative impacts so you just ignore it and cry racism , its pathetic.

Luton a nice town hahahahaha

It was always a kip.

Where did I say that wanting a proper immigration system is racist? Provide a link please. Otherwise, I have to say that you're lying.

It obviously isn't. It's the lie the right tells to cover its racism. The only thing that changes is that they've started abandoning the lie.

There is a well developed, ferocious cottage industry here that is utterly devoted to opposing any and all construction for any reason whatsoever.

What Britons want is sovereignty (a concept they can't define), perpetual growth, no building anything near anyone or anything, low immigration, a better NHS, lower/no taxes, free movement for themselves across Europe and a house that perpetually increases in value. A lot of them just don't like to see people with dark skin on their streets or on the telly. That's just fact. We all believe in controlled immigration but for some, it's just racism.

That list of things contains many mutually exclusive things and no politician sadly has the courage to point that out. Hence, we need to keep high immigration in order to bolster demand so that those house prices and pensions keep increasing in value.

This also creates a niche for grifters like Farage and Yaxley-Lennon. They don't care about infrastructure, the NHS or the challenges of an ageing population. They just want to line their pockets and spouting racist drivel is a great way to mask that behind "genuine concerns".

It does blow my mind that people here in the UK look at American Nazism and decide that they want to import that wholesale here.

It invalidates the entire question when immigrants are routinely dehumanised and people like Yaxley-Lennon become figures of adoration as we've seen in the past few days on this very thread. The point in this scenario isn't discussion, it's pushing a racist, white supremacist narrative. If you want serious discussion, this element must be removed or we end up with culture wars. You did say that in fairness. I'm just reiterating it.

I don't really want to go down the immigration discussion as there's a thread for that. I just want to say that I respectfully disagree. Research shows that the impact of immigration is mostly positive. For instance, many immigrants start businesses. Others prop up ailing communities and public sector bodies such as the NHS and the civil service. I can concede, however that there is some small impact on wages:

Are low-paid and high-paid workers affected differently?

Empirical research on the labour market effects of immigration in the UK has found negative effects on low-paid workers and positive effects on high-paid workers, but both effects are small. In other words, immigration is not one of the major factors that shape low-wage workers’ prospects in the labour market.

For example, a 2022 study found that immigration to the UK from 1994 to 2016 reduced the hourly wage of UK-born wage earners at the 5th percentile (i.e. the lowest earners in the labour market) by around half of one pence per year. The gains for top earners were also small: 1.7p per year for people at the 90th percentile of wage earners. Another study focusing on wage effects at the occupational level found that, in low-wage service sector jobs, a 1 percentage point rise in the share of migrants reduced average wages in that occupation by about 0.2%. These results are broadly similar to findings from other studies.

The Labour Market Effects of Immigration - Migration Observatory

It's a double-edged sword. Sure, you can stop immigration. Let's say wages rise. How do you pay for those public sector workers now with a smaller economy and a shrunk talent pool?

This is why serious discussion is impossible The nature of the internet is not one conducive to serious, nuanced, fact-based debate. Any time someone pushing far right nonsense is criticised or asked for evidence, they start spouting racist conspiracy drivel, claiming to be victims, making up nonsense, or all of these three.

I don't want to keep going on about immigration so you're welcome to have the final word here. I just wanted to make this point.

But now you're doing it. Calling them 'just f*cking racist' and expecting that to end the discussion is the other side of saying there are sharia courts and no-go zones for police, and expecting that to end the discussion.

So what if they're racist? They're on the same side as the people you refer to when you say 'most people agree there is a need to review immigration policies (in Ireland as well as the UK)'. If most people think immigration policies need review, then why does it never happen?

People give out about politicians creating policy just to win votes, but in this case the UK government is leaving the entire issue to Farage to win votes. And he is winning votes because the 'most people' think there should be a review of immigration.

So they rely on culture wars to play the non racists off agaisnt the racists to ensure there isn't a strong voice, and they don't have to do anything. And that's worked for decades but now people have started actually voting for farage because they're sick of government doing nothing about an issue they feel strongly about. Culture wars are the absolute worst for everybody

Isn't 25% of the population enough? Would any party have a mandate if 25% isn't enough?

Yeah calling a spade a spade is fine, but you're preaching to the converted and the deaf. I already know some of the people who want to reduce immigration are also racist. So what's the point in going on about it? It's not the main point. It's the culture war sideshow.

Not in the UK with our First Past The Post system. In Ireland, that party might be a coalition partner. The UK does not have PR.

The thread is about Yaxley-Lennon. That's the topic. That's why I'm "going on about it".

I don't think Farage even wants the immigration numbers to be lower. I think he wants to do to the UK what Trump did to the US. I think he'll just gut the state for his rich donors, strip away women's rights and push for a UK ICE. We need immigration to prop up demand because UK deaths now outnumber UK births. The racists will get their pound of flesh and the can will get kicked further down the road.

We got a taste of this with Suella Braverman. Here's her response to a Holocaust survivor after being called out on her rhetoric:

Holocaust survivor shames Suella Braverman

It's ultimately about cruelty and suffering, not about bringing the number down.

I just looked at the OP of this thread.

Anything come of Stephen's accusation that a brown man sexually assaulted his daughter and that was why he gave the man a beating?