Happy New Year! Is Immigration the Problem?

Generated by Gemini 3 Nano Banana from my instructions

The Problem is Not Immigration, it's a lack of British Values

What is making the British population angry and driving support for the extreme right, is repeatedly seeing foreign looking people committing criminal acts and mis-behaving. 

The four fundamental British values promoted in the UK national curriculum are:

Democracy

The Rule of Law

Individual Liberty, and 

Mutual Respect and Tolerance

Schools are required to promote these values, which are seen as underpinning what it means to be a citizen in a modern and diverse Britain. 

Democracy

This includes respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic process. 

The Rule of Law

This involves respecting the laws that underpin society and understanding the difference between right and wrong. 

Individual Liberty

This means encouraging children to make their own decisions, understanding their individual rights and responsibilities, and respecting the liberties of others, all within the law.

Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs

This involves an understanding and knowledge of world cultures, faiths, and beliefs. It also means accepting that people with different faiths or no faith should be tolerated and not face discrimination.

If everyone adhered to these values, we would all be living together in loving harmony. Unfortunately there has always been a criminal and an anti-social element in our society. And in recent years the media have highlighted acts of terror which have clearly been committed by immigrants or people of foreign heritage who have not adopted British Values. Most recently, I am thinking of the Manchester synagogue attack, but unfortunately this was not the worst.

Recent terror attacks include:

• Manchester Synagogue attack killing 2 people by Jihad Al-Shamie in October 2025
• Southport Murder of 3 girls at a Taylor Swift themed dance workshop by Axel Rudakubana in July 2024
• Conservative MP Sir David Amess stabbed to death by an Islamic State sympathizer in October 2021
• Westminster Bridge Attack: Khalid Masood drove a car into pedestrians and stabbed a police officer, killing 5 people in March 2017
• London Bridge & Borough Market Attack killing 8 people by Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba  in June 2017 
• Manchester Arena bombing (Ariana Grande Concert) killing 23 poeple by Salman and Hashem Abedi in May 2017

This is by no means an exhaustive list unfortunately but in most of these cases the murderers are influenced and/or acting for extremist Islamist networks including Al Qaeda and ISIS. There is also a string of planned attacks that have been foiled by the police.

I think it would be extraordinary if the British population did not want to take more extreme measures to stop these people entering our country. Even those who were born here clearly did not embrace our culture and values and sought to destroy us.

Yes the authorities fail to call out the facts for fear of upsetting Muslim communities and creating division. And I don't see the Muslim leaders doing sufficient to stamp out extremism in their communities. We need to talk in facts and not hide or obscure the truth. We don't see attacks from other faith communities do we? British Hindus, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists live together in relative harmony. So do most Muslims but unfortunately the repeated terror attacks are dividing our society and pushing the country towards the far right.  

My wish for 2026 is that this stops and that we can recover our tolerance, mutual respect and democracy that has served us well for so long. And that everyone remembers that it's Immigration that has made this country great. More about that soon.

Quotes for the Month

"Political questions are far too serious to be left to the politicians."
Hannah Arendt

"What is worng with people is that they are vulnerable to stupid ideas and philosophies of hate"

Daniel Finkelstein commenting on the Bondi Beach terrorist attack that killed 15 Jewish people celebrating Chanukkah.