To think Starmer is utterly reprehensible

[Thegreyhound]

I know everyone will disagree, that’s ok- But I just have to say that Starmer today seems to have sunk lower than I ever believed he would with his incendiary ‘island of strangers’ and ‘incalculable damage’ rhetoric.
I find it particularly shocking because he has calculated this and decided it’s worth it to throw immigrants under the bus and essentially give all the ground in the debate to Farage, Tommy Robinson and Enoch Powell types.
Policy can be altered without making statements that are designed to impact race relations and make life even more difficult for people who are just trying to get along and make a living here.
Starmer is vile. This country does indeed feel like an island of strangers these days but the strangers are not the immigrants :(

Yes, Birmingham and Bradford being presented as wonderful places to live. Horse shit.

Exactly

Lol

To say we have a “handful of immigrants” is completely blind to the facts. Net migration since Covid has been 3 million! That’s the equivalent of the entire population of Wales arriving in 4 years.

Managed immigration can enrich and improve a country, and I’m proud of how tolerant we’ve been as a country in accepting and assimilating those from overseas, but limitless millions will destroy us a country, particularly when they are from very different cultures and there is no effort to assimilate, creating ghettos.

Spot on! This is the kind of strain on services that we don’t need.

Come here as a skilled worker by all means but don’t bring a large extended family who refuse to learn any English and basically live in their own little enclave and not integrate into British society.

I’m beginning to wonder if Labour talk the talk but have no intention of walking the walk.
Why didn’t they put caps of visa numbers? Just say it’s max 300k per year.

I think it is illegal immigration they need to focus on. It is easy to get into this country and not return. It is easy to work in the black market, there isn’t enough enforcement.

He has no choice but to do this or he will lose the next election. Do you want Reform to win?

I don't think Labour will see off Reform by trying to be more Reform. They need to point out the flaws in Reform and be more Labour. Labour, if they aren't careful will have two barriers to votes or support, they aren't going to lure away potential Reform voters by being Reform lite and they risk alienating Labour voters who perceive them as doing quite a lot of things that aren't "labourey", winter fuel, PIP, immigration. I dont think KS is reprehensible, I think he's trying to widen the appeal of Labour but going about it the wrong way.

It’s the first sensible thing Starmer has said since he came into power.

At my granddaughters school, over half of the kids in her class can’t speak english - how much of the schools resources go on these kids?

Our A&E is constantly full of people who can’t speak English

but let’s not forget this isn’t Starmer speaking - it’s Farage. Starmer is simply parroting him.

We need ID cards and checks on cash businesses.
We need immigration of highly qualified and educated net young contributors and we need temporary construction workers. The Government know exactly what we need. How it is phrased and then misrepresented in the press is a separate matter.

The people of this country don't want anymore immigration.

We don't have to give a reasoning or argument for that either.

We just don't want it anymore.

As I said in the OP I think the language he used was reprehensible. ‘Island of strangers’ is a direct echo of Enoch Powell and will embolden racists.

I think he is reprehensible to give ground to reform and amplify their views by giving them credence.

I don’t think the collapse in infrastructure and the cost of living crisis is caused by migration.

I think Starmer could have led his government to tackle migration WITHOUT using dog whistle terms. He absolutely did use the phrase island of strangers, it has been all over the news and is in the transcript of his speech. It was deliberate and therefore reprehensible.

@Barney16 - no they are taking the centre right ground as that is where the next election will be won. The establishment won’t vote Reform. They need to get the Centre Tories and Lib Dem voters primarily. No sane person will vote Reform with their lack of track record when push comes to shove. They need to do this now before a whole lot of establishment join Reform and give them more credibility. It’s absolutely the right thing to do.

Reform have already won

I mean I think he is attempting to address these things to avoid us being governed (or not) by a party like Reform. Which I personally absolutely do not want! The future will be very bleak for everyone should that happen. It’s already dire for most people with unprecedented levels of inequality and no clear way back from that; and definitely no way back from that with a right wing nutter at the helm doing nothing but lining their own pockets and spouting outrageous soundbites. I think you sound ignorant tbh.

Well I said London is "seemingly" unsafe. There's no evidence to suggest that it's less safe than it previously was. In fact you're more likely to be the victim of a crime in the rest of England and Wales than in London.

To say we have a “handful of immigrants” is completely blind to the facts. Net migration since Covid has been 3 million! That’s the equivalent of the entire population of Wales arriving in 4 years.

Goodness - that is shockingly high. I understand why people want to come here and give their families a better life, but at the same time, I simply don’t believe we as a country have the resources to cope with that number of people coming to live here in such a short space of time, and quality of life therefore declines for everyone. Services are stretched to the limit as it is and no wonder.

I’m a Londoner and whilst I love my diverse city, I do worry about the impact of recent immigration on housing. There are just too many people to accommodate without building millions more homes - and I don’t want to see tons more houses built on London’s green belt, as Sadiq Khan announced this week. It’s impossible to take the government’s climate goals seriously when at the same time, they want to destroy hundreds of thousands of acres of nature for building roads and houses.

The flipside is that where I am, we have an influx of unscrupulous landlords vying to buy homes on local streets (thereby pushing up property prices), then immediately converting them into HMOs and packing poorer people into tiny rooms.

Both scenarios are unacceptable IMO - but both issues could also be resolved (or at least, greatly eased) by reducing immigration.

Interesting that his language was perfectly fine when he was colourful about white people heated up about the Southport scumbag killer's cultural heritage.

Am baffled by the huge translator costs. If I chose to live in a non English speaking country I wouldn’t expect the state there to fund a translator for me?! Blows my mind.

From what I've seen though, it's the Conservatives who have mostly lost ground to Reform, not Labour? And Labour are losing their voters because they're being too Tory/following Reform rhetoric?

Also, I'm sorry but WHY are people acting like Reform won a general election or something? They still have less seats/MPs than the greens/lib Dems and yet the amount of coverage they get is making them out to have all the power? They did better than they should in some local elections, but have 4 years before a GE and we all know how much in fighting goes on within the party and what a shambles they are. They've lost 9 councillors already for various reasons.

I'm baffled as to why Labour are trying to copy their narrative to be honest because from what I can see all they're doing is pissing off their own voters. People who would vote Reform almost certainly wouldn't vote Labour anyway.

I do feel unsafe in my part of London late at night, if I’m walking home by myself. But I don’t think that’s anything to do with immigration. More that the Tories closed our local police station and we no longer have a visible policing presence.

Now he’s got a lot of people to talk about cities being overrun etc and dropped it’s a ‘dog whistle’ / ‘culture war’ not ending the crossings may well bite him.

Vacuous probably isn’t the right term. More empty vessel and hypocritical.

Have you not been looking at the polls and the results of the last election? Voters are deserting Labour to the left and the right. They won’t gain back Bristol by mimicking reform and they won’t win back Gt Yarmouth because why would you vote Labour (reform lite) when you could vote actual reform?
if all that Starmer is doing is banging on negatively about immigration and using dodgy language then he will hand reform the election on a plate.

You can see why Reform are doing so well. I really do think some live in a bubble about Reform's popularity. The biggest laugh is that Reform are seen as the biggest threat to this country.