To hope that Boris’s brush with death has made him and his party change their views on immigrants

[Tellmetruth4]

I’m very glad Boris looks set to make a full recovery from this terrible virus. However, I’m hoping his near miss has made him appreciate immigrants more.

To be fair he was pro immigration when he was Mayor of London but ever since he jumped on the Leave ship he’s aligned himself with the likes of Rees-Mogg who would like to see immigrants returned to their ‘ancestral homes’.

During his hospital stay, he would, without a shadow of a doubt, have been looked after by white British and BAME doctors, nurses, cleaning and catering staff. It would have taken a team from around the globe to keep him alive and keep him going until discharge.

Will this make him realise that immigrants aren’t just political fodder to win favour from bigots?

We’ve allowed bigots to drive so much of the agenda over these few years that I barely recognise this as the same country which hosted the fantastic and welcoming London Olympics in 2012. It is such and angry country (remember the Question Time audience in Yorkshire just before the referendum?) and immigrants and their descendants are always scapegoated when the real issue was always austerity.

I’m not a lefty and don’t agree with open borders or freedom of movement, as I believe immigration needs to be properly managed and potential immigrants properly checked before they enter, we should not be importing rapists and Neo-Nazis. However, I want to see the legal immigrants who have already made this country their home and have usually given more than they have taken out, given some respect. Not ‘tolerated’ but treated like any white Brit as opposed to invaders with a nefarious agendas.

I want Boris to stand on the steps of Downing Street following discharge and signal a new tone and attitude towards all of the people of the U.K. regardless of where they or their parents/grandparents came from or what they look like. It would do so much for unity and would make so many 2/3rd generations feel like they have a genuine stake in this country.

AIBU to believe his illness will be a catalyst for a new more positive conversation around immigrants?

I wish...

To be fair he was pro immigration when he was Mayor of London but ever since he jumped on the Leave ship he’s aligned himself with the likes of Rees-Mogg who would like to see immigrants returned to their ‘ancestral homes’.

Really? That must be why he assigned two of the four great offices of state in the UK to BAME MPs, and the third to the son of a refugee.

He hasn't "aligned himself with the likes of Rees Mogg".

The Conservative Party is a broad church, just as the Labour Party is. The Labour Party has Blairites and Corbynites, as well as many other shades of political philosophy in-between.

The Conservatives have One Nation Tories (on the left of the party) and Thatcherites (on the right) with many other shades of political philosophy in-between.

Boris Johnson is a One Nation Tory. He has no issue at all with immigration. That won't change.

I forgot to add in my OP, that hopefully they would have also noted the high number of immigrant health care professionals who have lost their lives whilst helping the U.K. fight this virus. Some had even come back from retirement to put themselves in danger.

“””I want to see the legal immigrants who have already made this country their home and have usually given more than they have taken out, given some respect. Not ‘tolerated’ but treated like any white Brit as opposed to invaders with a nefarious agendas. “”””

You don’t need a prime minister to do this, anyone can.

Hmm, Chancellor ......Home Secretary ....... Doesn’t quite fit your narrative , does it ?

There are only so many lessons one can learn from one hospital stay

If the PM makes a strong stand it can help set the tone for the rest of the country.

Also the BAME cabinet members were picked because they were willing to be even more anti immigrant than many of the strongest white Brexiteers.

Rishi Sunak is anti-immigration??? Since when?

Boris Johnson has a long established history of advocating that illegal migrants who have lived peaceably in this country for many years should be offered amnesty, and he was one of the first to call for EU citizens to be given assurances about their welcome here.

And he is, himself, descended from immigrants, and don't forget the Foreign Secretary is the son of a Jewish refugee.

I do realise that none of that fits your narrative.

Truth. So inconvenient.

Boris said himself that (paraphrasing) the immigrants have treated Britain as their home for far too long.

And the lovely and very much BAME Priti Patel has delightful views on immigration.

Wrong target. Let's that subsections of the electorate (from all backgrounds, and in the past supporting labour as well as conservatives) will emerge with a new appreciation of immigrants and their contributions to british society.

To be honest not much is being said about the contributions that immigrants make to this crisis. Haven't heard much from the mainstream media.

For the general outlook to change, a lot more positive coverage of immigrants would be needed.

It is lucky that the countries that provide all these BAME doctors, nurses and support staff have got so many excess medical personnel they can afford to be without!

Why is it that the Philippines, Nigeria etc can produce such a glut of doctors and doctors and the U.K. cannot?

Why is it that the Philippines, Nigeria etc can produce such a glut of doctors and doctors and the U.K. cannot?

I'm guessing that the problem is that the supply of UK-made doctors is completely controlled by the state, rather than market forces, and wherever the state has complete control of an area of the economy, they are likely to get things wrong.

Perhaps the NHS should train twice as many junior doctors as it thinks it needs, then it won't have to import doctors when it gets things wrong. The "oversupply" of doctors can be accommodated by reducing hours, creating slack in the system, which means you can cope with variations in demand, such as winter flu, COVID etc, any rarely have to use expensive locum staff.

(Given the hours some junior doctors are alleged to work, I'm not convinced that doubling their numbers would result in an oversupply.)

I hope so.

A Damascene conversion

A brush with death and being treated by a range of people in the NHS, seeing how valuable key workers are, immigrants are etc might have an effect on him, no matter what he says publically.

I wonder what effect it will have on Brexit?

It's the twats in his party that he sucked up to that may shut the fuck up after this. No Tory here but just as Labour was briefly (not briefly enough) in the grip of unconscionable twats, so the Tories have been .
For what it's worth, the NHS was built on immigrant staff. It's why I am here. My mum came to this country to work in the NHS in the late 1940s.

How utterly absurd.
There will always be immigration to the UK, and there will be after brexit. Just in a different way for tighter reasons.

Like most other countries around the world.

The other things the coronavirus crisis has highlighted is too much reliance on other nations. We need to be reasonably self reliant going forward.

medical education is quite expensive in UK.

Johnson is an immigrant of mixed heritage, as was his second wife. His first wife was born in the UK but has an Italian parent. He has given all three of the great offices of state to second generation immigrants from ethnic minorities. I have no time for him as a leader or a human being, but I don’t think that he has a personal problem with immigrants and hence he’s unlikely to have a Damascene conversion on policy issues.

To be fair most of the worst stuff was down to Theresa May.

@Tellmetruth4
It's a pity that the truth is only in your user name not your posts

I also hope the NHS gets the comprehensive reorganisation it needs (with aligned funding)