Being anti-Brexit and no fan of Boris Johnson or recent Labour leaders, yours truly has become a bit of a Cassandra of late. But I’m still a professional optimist with a passion, reinforced by 30 years in politics and policymaking, to build rather than to block, and to constantly seek out new sources of inspiration. And I have just found a big one: the wave of immigration from Hong Kong, now in the tens of thousands and soon possibly in the hundreds of thousands, which could be a powerhouse of growth and liberal optimism for Britain hereafter.      First, the numbers. In Ma ..read more

At least 27 people drowned in the Channel this week attempting to reach the United Kingdom. I say “at least,” because it is hard to count the bodies after they drift away in the darkness. And we do not know how many others attempted the same crossing from a different beach. Until 2018, it was very rare for refugees to cross the Channel in small boats. With increased security measures making entry by lorry harder and harder, a few tried it and found it worked. With no palpable response from the British or French governments beyond harsh words, others followed in their wakes ..read more

The milkshake eludes McDonald’s, the chickens have flown from Nando’s. Britain, looking winter-ward, grovels. In a campaign of epistolary persuasion worthy of Jane Austen, the British government has written to almost a million HGV drivers in the wake of Brexit and Covid-related restrictions, asking that they return to an industry gasping for labour power. Temporary visas have been made available to over 5,000 European lorry drivers and a similar number of poultry workers, declaring that while we may have been cruel, while our environment may have been hostile, we miss our drivers desperately a ..read more

Brilliant politics; terrible economics. For a prime minister and his government to ride high in the polls when their party has been in power for 11 years, when petrol is scarce, food rots in the ground, supermarket shelves have large gaps, gas prices are rocketing and Christmas is threatened—that’s some achievement.  Today, at the Conservative conference, Boris Johnson set out to build on his curious popularity by offering his vision for Britain’s future, which at its core links the restriction of immigration to his levelling up, high-skills agenda. In truth, Johnson’s policies will not b ..read more

No one knows how many EU citizens live in the United Kingdom. We do not have the population register or ID card system in this country that would tell us. EU citizens have never, until now, been required to register in any way. At the time of the Brexit referendum, an estimate of three million resident EU citizens was doing the rounds. So far, there have already been over five million applications under the EU Settlement Scheme, which enables EU citizens to apply to remain lawfully in the United Kingdom after the deadline of 30th June 2021. However many apply, we know that some will not. One o ..read more

On a crisp morning in February, I headed to London’s Chinatown. It was the first day of Chinese New Year, and festive lanterns had been strung up to mark the occasion. Beneath the red and green arched gate at the entrance on Gerrard Street, a red banner announced Kung Hei Fat Choy (a New Year greeting) in golden lettering. I remembered walking here with my mother a few years earlier. The streets were bursting with people and chatter. We went into one heaving restaurant after another looking for a table, before resorting to an upmarket option we thought we’d ruled out. But this morning few pede ..read more

There is a case to be made that Tony Blair and his Home Office were the architects of Brexit. It’s an argument that stems from the choices made around the 2004 entry to the EU of the “accession eight” (A8)—the Union’s new Eastern European members. Unlike the overwhelming majority of established EU states, the UK did not introduce any initial restrictions on the right to live and work in the country for citizens of the A8 nations—the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. We treated their citizens like other EU nationals from the off. The Home Offic ..read more

Scores of young Turkish men in sober suits move towards the train that will take them to Germany, while their wives and mothers cry on the platform. A few days earlier, these hopefuls had been bare-chested as their teeth and bodies were checked by German doctors to ensure they were strong enough for the physical work awaiting them. Those that pass the test feel immense pride: “I am Yılmaz Atalay from Çorum!” announces one, gazing wide-eyed into the camera in footage originally shot by Turkish state television.  Atalay was among the first Gastarbeiter, or guest workers, to leave a poor par ..read more

Twenty years ago, 21-year-old Mohammed Ayaz was trying to get to the UK. Initially, he’d travelled from Dadahara, northwest Pakistan, to Dubai to work as a labourer. But he ended up being exploited. His salary wasn’t what he’d been promised and there wasn’t enough to start paying off the debt he’d racked up in flights, agent and visa fees—it barely covered his food.    So Mohammed decided to move to the UK. He travelled to Bahrain, headed for the airport and early one morning, broke through security and stowed away in the undercarriage of a plane. “He always spoke about going to work ..read more

The Brexit deal finalised at the end of last year went to the wire over fishing rights. But it was another issue that spurred the modern Eurosceptic movement. Between 2001 and 2016, increasing numbers of voters named immigration as the most important issue facing the country: the figure peaked at 56 per cent in September 2015. From 2012 to 2016 one could hardly watch TV news without a vox pop on immigration from a regional English town. Immigration was the key driver of the Ukip “purple wave” and then the Brexit vote, linking directly to the “take back control” slogan. It was also captured in ..read more