Labour has learned nothing from Tory mistakes on migration
JVL Introduction
Perspectives on the General Election (27)
Zoe Gardner, a campaigner for the rights of all migrants and refugees, assess the Party manifestoes.
There is a very real danger of the far right making the running on this issue in the next parliament and the way the debate is framed has already moved substantially in their direction.
Labour’s response comes out as woefully inadequate, assessed here as 3 out of 10 on both the humanity of its polices and on their workability.
But, says Zoe Gardner, it is not too late. There is much to learn from proposals in other party manifestoes – Lib Dem, SNP and Green – with their pragmatic and humane alternatives, out of which we can campaign for an alternative agenda to that currently on offer.
RK (h/t RJ)
This article was originally published by OpenDemocracy on Thu 27 Jun 2024. Read the original here.
Labour has learned nothing from Tory mistakes on migration
Greens, SNP and Lib Dems all propose largely decent immigration policies. Labour should read them
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I always want to know whether James Cook had the right paperwork when he bounced off a few Pacific Islands and pitched up in Australia. As for Messrs. Rhodes and Livingstone, before their legendary collision in darkest Africa, I am not at all confident that they had permissions to extract diamonds or litter the place with Christian tracts that suggested that the locals were destined to serve the visitors.
And as for “disrupting the people traffickers’ business plan” – which language presumably seeks to makes hostility to immigration a philanthropic endeavour – I would counterpose cross-channel ferries, which, “The Herald of Free Enterprise” excepted, have a pretty good safety record.
How long before the Labour Party concludes its conferences with a rousing rendition of “Rule Britannia”?