To feel like I'm not sure where I sit politically anymore, and to worry about it.

So the crime is totally down to the immigrants? Do you mean recent immigrants or people whose families arrives within thee last 80 years? Did your children make friends with any immigrants in their school?

Some cultures don’t seem to assimilate. The treatment of Jess Philips by some of her constituents was terrifying. If the numbers change so those communities are the majority then vote in their candidates who enter parliament then what? I don’t want my daughters living under sharia law.

I used to think this too but I’m sorry I just don’t agree anymore. Is it racist to miss and want the U.K. to be how it used to be? I don’t know - but I feel racist even thinking it. Villages have just been joined together with ugly new housing developments everywhere to cope with the need for more houses. Many city centres are now unrecognisable. The city I am from used to be proudly and beautifully multicultural but it’s now neither of those things. It’s a hole.

I agree. We're importing poverty unfortunately.
I come from immigrant parents who came here in the 60's. My grandparents were orphan refugees who's parents were killed in the Armenian genocide early 1900's. Grandad orphaned went to Palestine when it was a country that Christians and Muslims lived together in relative peace. Grandmother was adopted in Jordan. Armenian born in Turkey but Christian although she had many Muslim ways. She was adopted by the dressmaker of the wife of King Hussain at the time. At some point grandad went to Jordan. Probably tensions were brewing between Muslims and Christians. Those days religions had to be stated on passports so identifying religions of individuals was easy. Making it easier for them to be persecuted. Having thought they were saved I suppose just to be uprooted again. Grandad went to Jordan where he met my grandmother. Both were in their late teens by then. Hence life must have been good to some extent. Relatively as everything is relative. They married and had three kids there. My mum was the youngest born in 1946 who sadly passed away in 2024 at 77. I think the period she was born was around the Arab spring. These were Palestinans who once got bigger in numbers in Jordan wanted to take over and make it a Muslim country. My history is not read up on. Just going by my family history so fact check by all means. Anyway, when my mother was 12 years old the whole family moved to Cyprus when the British were there trying to keep the peace between the Turkish and Greeks as the Greeks in Cyprus have also had many slaughtered. Turkish wanted their land back apparently going back to the Ottoman Empire. I know this is really long but there's no quick way say it. Hope you haven't lost the plot :-) So after my grandparents and family were there for 6years, by then my mum was 18 years old. They immigrated here. They were not what you would call educated so struggled to get by here. My mum married an Armenian man who was 20years older. He was an Armenian Cypriot. I suppose he was also an orphan from the Armenian genocide who ended up here looking for a better life no doubt.i never asked because my mum divorced him after 6years. By the time I was 8 my mum remarried an English man. We had a terrible childhood with him as our dad. Grew up in abject poverty on the rough side of town. All nations in London is where I grew up. I've seen what poverty does to people. Ultimately now, I think we're full in this country. Western families are having less children while immigrants legal and illegal especially of certain religions are very family oriented. Language is a big barrier too. My nan was here for nearly 20years and hardly spoke a word of English. I'm torn between empathy and practicalities. The tragedy is people come here for a better life and for those from war torn countries its better than the fate that they might have had but its still a poor life. In the next 10years it's estimated that there will be 20 million more people in this country. How can this be sustained. Also there won't be enough water for everyone as the resoviours are low already. Water will have to be rationed, along with everything else. We're already in a housing crisis. It was Tony Blair who opened the borders. Keir Starmer took Tony Blair's government to court to give illegal immigrants the right to claim benefits and won under the human rights laws. The Conservative's couldn't really do much about that one tbh. I dread the future for the younger generations in this country. Especially these born and bred here. We've got to stop over sentimentalising and think of our kids futures in my opinion. I'm voting reform. Not because I'm racist but because they are the only party that will have a fair immigration system point driven like it was before no matter where in the world you come from. The subject of illegal immigration is something else. And should be even tougher.
We're letting our bleeding hearts stop us from thinking with our heads and the future of our kids. Saying all of that, no government can deliver everything it sets out to. They are always in between a rock and a hard place. Although I do think Labour is to be trusted the least. I'm grateful to be born here, as are many children of immigrants but the younger generations of a certain demographic have been brain washed and have so much hatred for the country they were born in. They're just waiting to be enough in numbers so they can have an uprising. Religion does have a big role to play in it for them. This will become an Islamic country one day. Same as many other countries which grew in numbers and everyone had to convert. I pray I don't live to see it 🙏

I share your feelings @Lookuptotheskies but from the perspective of someone that has voted Conservative as many times as they voted Labour.

I want good public services, protection for the sick, disabled, great education and preventative healthcare and enabling people to work. Benefits should be a genuine safety net for those that need them but not an easy option out for those that can’t be arsed.

I don’t support millions off work with untreated mental health conditions, high immigration, chucking endless money at a broken NHS. I think the NHS should only cater for essentials, we can’t afford for it to cover absolutely everything for everyone which means hard choices on things like fertility. People should have access to a dentist and excellent cancer care. No-one “needs” a baby funded by public services.

I am proudly gender critical and hate having to hide it at work because I work in HE which is full of woke wankery.

I do want us to properly fund defence. I do want them to “stop the boats” but I also want people who are genuinely persecuted to be safe. I just don’t think the thousands of unvetted men that have passed through many safe countries before arriving here are.

I think if you come to any country to live (and that incudes Brits that go to Spain!) should fully integrate. If you want to live like they do in Aghanistan, go to Afghanistan - don’t try to recreate it in England. I work in Leicester and it’s absolutely horrifying seeing how women and girls are treated for “cultual reasons”. I deal with students at risk of FGM, family violence and forced marriage every bloody week at work and it is creating an absolute rage in me that we are allowing it.

I don’t get anything from Labour or the Conservatives that gives me any confidence whatsoever. I don’t think I’d vote Reform but maybe I would if it meant some actual change. But I also want us to do far more, much quicker to prioritise the environment, all the mainstream parties are just paying lip service to it and are heavily influenced by the fossil fuel industry.

I think my views are pretty centrist and I want a genuinely caring and compassionate society. But that does mean saying No sometimes and I feel like the left are on another planet where we need to say Yes to
bloody everything.

Politically homeless for sure. If there was an election tomorrow I’m at a loss as to how I’d vote.

I would say your views are probably representative of most women (and men).

What you have described is a very common viewpoint, compassionate, caring, but concerned about obvious issues that are easy to see anywhere.

Nothing to feel ashamed about, Politics doesn't need to be extreme, and you don't need to let any side make you feel guilty.

I can see those on the more left side demonizing you for your views on immigration...

I can see those on the more right side demonizing you for your views on benefits...

So what? You know what you think, and any honest person has a mix of views, and is unlikely to fit 100% into a perfect political box. So don't let them feel guilt you into expressing or voting for things you don't like.

The quality of life in this country has massively fallen but that has nothing to do with immigration.

I think if you read the manifesto of the party you support, there will be things in it you agree with, and things you don’t. I am a dyed in the wool Conservative (seems a rarity on these pages) but that doesn’t mean I think everything they have done is right by a long way! And it doesn’t mean, either, that I might not vote for another party in the future. People’s ideas change - and a lot of politics on both sides comes down to the art of the possible.

The thing is a lot of the issues you describe happened under a right wing government

I would say no right-minded intelligent individual ever agreed with 100% of a specific party and 0% of everybody else. Surely it’s always been a case of I agree with this policy of this party and this policy of this other party and then looking at the specific party leadership to aid deciding what is more important to me at the time of voting. I have in my time voted conservative, labour, green and liberal.

I think this is just part of growing up. You develop a more nuanced and independent outlook rather than blind party loyalty. Every political party has factions and individual MPs and they don’t all have exactly the same opinion on everything, and neither do voters. You’ll never find a political party where every single MP thinks exactly the same as you do about every single issue.

I’ve actually stopped voting for the party which most closely aligns to my views because they will never win where I live, so I actually vote to keep the party I dislike the most out.

It’s a benefit of maturity, IMO, to understand that pragmatism outweighs idealism.

I'll always be left wing liberal and no party has ever been left enough for me since John Smith died. I've voted Labour, Lib Dem and Green and will never, ever vote Conservative or Reform.

Yes. Same here and these potential tax rises ahead will be the straw that breaks the camels back for me

I was born in the uk and visit yearly.
I visited in June and was horrified… the centre of the Northern City I visit was over -run with homeless people in tents and aggressive beggars. Family members have witnessed knife crime.
I know homelessness is a complex issue but the extent was appalling.
I am also left wing.
I think many years of austerity has damaged Britain.
The aggressive beggars and the homeless people were overwhelmingly white and British.
I love the UK but I am not sure that the UK can come back from this.
I watched a Chanel 4 documentary about shoplifting and phone snatching. The police don’t want to even deal with it. It’s appalling.
I think the UK needs to spend much much more on policing.
The appalling cost of housing must play a part as well as population increases.
I also think there is huge government indifference to the North of the uk.

I feel the same way. I have always identified as a Labour Party supporter but now I feel a bit lost.

however, I am not British (although I have lived here for a long time) and I am starting to think there are some fundamental flaws with U.K. society and policies that have led to where we are.

e.g. an NHS where everything is free - great idea, but not when some people are having appointments every week - not necessarily because they need them, but because they can.

e.g. no social contract - so people want benefits etc from the state but don’t want the state to tell them what to do - which means we all have to tolerate rubbish being dumped everywhere, pavements smeared with dog shit, noise pollution, etc.

I've washed my hands of the lot of them. Self serving for the most part.

I am curious about why people feel guilty about thinking that immigration can be a problem?

Surely there is a huge gap between understanding how many newcomers affect the economy, and having a personal problem with people? We don't expect to be able to swan off to Japan and work and live and vote, do we?

Or is it just seeing tha crime seems in some cases to be driven by immigration? That's not really new though, police forces have been aware for many years that organised crime is mainly controlled by ethnically defined groups.

I live overseas so am an immigrant myself. I recently travelled back to visit and was appalled at the state of my home city. Every time I go home it seems worse.

I recognise everything you have said and also feel guilty and wrong.

I also agree re women's rights but don't feel guilty about that at all.

I totally get what you’re saying. I consider myself to be politically in the centre and accept that there are good and bad things on both the right and the left. The left good, right bad thing is just playground politics. Ultimately, I think you need to look at who is leading the party. While I haven’t ever voted Tory, I do think that that Kemi is a thousand times better leader than Keir. I’ve also not voted Labour in years as they keep coming up with weak leaders. They don’t appear to have anyone strong enough to lead.

I think some of the accepted narratives simply aren’t true.

For example, left wing pro-immigration, right wing anti-immigration. It’s simply not true and never has been. Lots of left wing people dislike too much immigration, it’s often their jobs that are impacted and is associated with keeping wages low, a very classic non worker position. Right wing people are often in favour, especially of legal migration, for the reasons above (money) it’s generally large employers driving it and even people like Farage admit they’d have as much and maybe more in skilled positions.

Don't feel you’re not left wing just because you feel there’s too much immigration, it’s just
not true and wanting control of your own borders makes no one a racist.

However the increasingly extreme positions seemingly on both the left and right these days are leaving most of us without a political home as far as I can see.

Immigrants and crime need to be separated. Crime involves illegal behaviours and those responsible for illegal behaviours need to be dealt with and to feel consequences. The Liberal left must learn to deal with those behaviours and to stop hesitating lest racial tensions emerge. A crime is a crime regardless of who commits it.

Completely agree. And I hate when people say " well the suffragettes fought for women to vote, so you should vote " I just feel like no, they fought for our CHOICE to vote. I now have a choice.
Not to be bullied or Guilt tripped into voting. Isn't that just as suffocating as not voting?
How can we vote when all our options are fools

You're probably right. I would actually be happy to pay more directly to my local council to be spent on trying to address local issues, but not to be frittered away by central government.