Donate SIGN UP

Hold The Front Page, The Left Admit They Got It Wrong.

Avatar Image
anotheoldgit | 09:37 Sat 23rd Mar 2013 | News
30 Answers
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297776/SATURDAY-ESSAY-Why-Left-epic-mistake-immigration.html

/// I am now convinced that public opinion is right and Britain has had too much immigration too quickly. ///

/// For 30 years, the Left has blinded itself with sentiment about diversity. But we got it wrong. ///

Do any Left-leaning liberals such as the author of this essay, agree with his sentiments on immigration?
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 20 of 30rss feed

1 2 Next Last

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by anotheoldgit. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
AOG - Didn't think it would be long before you spotted this. ;-)
Nope
As it was always their intention to rid the country of its "whiteness" how can they complain at something theyve actually succeeded in achieving.
There should be a crime for calling a person a racist. From what we know now they were doing it in the best interests of the country and if only we had heeded their warnings before it was too late. The horse has now bolted!
Who the heck is David Goodhart? And when did he come to respresent the left?

In his intro he claims to be a Hampstead Liberal, hardly the left. They went into the election firmly on the centre ground of politics. On someone or a newspaper on the extreme right would regard the Liverals as the left.

It is just some hack with a book to sell getting free publicity in a national newspaper by changing his views to pander to little englanders.

Nothing to see here, move along.
I'm not sure this counts as 'the left' admitting they got it wrong, more some bloke telling the left they got it wrong (which they are probably quite used to by now).

It's a strange headline for the story anyway as the content discusses immigration since the 1950, and specifically mentions the issues of immigration and integration that occurred in the 80s during the conservative administration.

A debate on the subject would be best had without resort to finger pointing (on both sides of the political spectrum) as this just entrenches views and appears to move people to the extremes of the argument.
David Goodhart is the Director of the Demos Think Tank.
Labour decided to fill the country up with benefit tourists so they would get their votes. The thing that's wrong with this influx is that this small country is being gradually concreted over. We are full!! Britain is smaller than 11 US states. 40 if you just include England.
Question Author
Gromit

/// Who the heck is David Goodhart? ///

He happens to be the Editor of this magazine,

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/author/david-goodhart/
And when did he come to respresent the left? ///

/// And when did he come to respresent the left? ///

The Lefftie BBC thinks so.

/// Is this man the left's Enoch Powell? ///

/// If old trainers and corduroy is anything to go by, David Goodhart doesn't look like the most dangerous man on the British left. But there are plenty of people who think he is. ///

By the way Gromit I hate to bring this up, but before you highlight others incorrect use of apostrophes, wouldn't it be wise to first brush up on your spelling?
This is silly. One man, who has never been particularly left-wing (he calls himself a "Left-leaning ‘Hampstead’ liberal") makes a claim, and this is translated into "The Left admit they got it wrong".

I bet if a "Right-leaning ‘Hampstead’ liberal" made some claim, you wouldn't headline it "The Right admit they got it wrong".
"The Leftie BBC think so " - Where has that come from? I for one can never recall this guy being used as a mouthpiece for "The Left" on the BBC....

And when he says this
"Among Left-leaning ‘Hampstead’ liberals like me, there has long been what you might call a ‘discrimination assumption’ when it comes to the highly charged issue of immigration.
Our instinctive reaction has been that Britain is a relentlessly racist country bent on thwarting the lives of ethnic minorities, that the only decent policy is to throw open our doors to all and that those with doubts about how we run our multi-racial society are guilty of prejudice."

He certainly is not speaking for me.

"New Labour" made a massive mistake when they underestimated the numbers of immigrants from eastern europe, back in the late 90s. Of course, the CBI were champions of this immigration as well - hardly a bastion of the left - because such an influx gave them a source of cheap labour, which they could use to push wages down.

They were wrong to deny the impact of such immigration on local communities, and the strain on the infrastructure. It was also wrong - and this is in my personal opinion - to spend as much time and money and resource as they have in catering to all the different languages etc, just as they have been wrong in pussyfooting around religious sensibilities ( from all religions), when it comes to what girls are taught, or about how science is taught, and all that kind of thing.

But I have never thought the average Briton was relentlessly racist, or that we should not have some sort of control over who comes into the country.I just dislike seeing a stereotypical view of an individual being made on the grounds of their race or religion or gender or sexual orientation, for that matter....
Question Author
Gromit

Bad choice of Avatar, that blue image doesn't go with your political thinking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_(magazine)

The magazine prizes independence over ideology and its articles and authors span the political spectrum.

Just like the Daily Mail then!

Question Author
LazyGun

/// "The Leftie BBC think so " - Where has that come from? I for one can never recall this guy being used as a mouthpiece for "The Left" on the
BBC.... ///

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3652679.stm

Must agree with the rest of your post though, except of course for this piece,

/// Of course, the CBI were champions of this immigration as well - hardly a bastion of the left - because such an influx gave them a source of cheap labour, which they could use to push wages down. ///

Whereas as you say the CBI had every reason to rejoice at the high numbers of potential cheap labour candidates coming into the country, they had no hand in allowing them in.
But they certainly encouraged the practice, AoG. Big business just loved the influx of cheap labour. I seem to remember many times seeing the then director generals of the CBI Adair Turner and Digby Jones on TV defending the principle...
same author presumably, this article, makes interesting reading, is he changing his tune?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/17/christopher-caldwell-immigration-islam
That blue image as you call it is 'Iggle Piggle'. The Nye Bevan of his generation.
Question Author
Gromit

Couldn't be the 'Tattooed Rocker' could we?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-504192/Revealed-CBeebies-Igglepiggle-really-tattooed-rocker-Liverpool.html

That will teach me not to watch the more senior programmes, when I should be watching kid's programmes.

Incidentally I put 'Senior' instead of 'Adult' so as not to cause any confusion.

I also notice that your best friend is Upsy Daisy.
the author appears to write for any number of publications, including the Guardian,
Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6TBAedCxss&feature=youtube_gdata_player

1 to 20 of 30rss feed

1 2 Next Last

Do you know the answer?

Hold The Front Page, The Left Admit They Got It Wrong.

Answer Question >>

Related Questions

Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.