Why I am proud to be British

At the Conservative Party conference, the Home Secretary Theresa May made a speech concerning immigration, which claimed to endorse humanity for those who need our help and being tough on those who abuse it. What the speech actually did was reiterate a continued diet of rhetoric and fear-mongering designed to blame minority groups. This has of course happened frequently for quite a long time now, but on this occasion the true intentions were so blatant that it has resulted in an outcry so large that even the Daily Telegraph (commonly referred to as the Torygraph) has criticised Mrs May's stance.

There are many articles clarifying exactly what is wrong with the speech, but the one that I have found the most well-written and informative is this one from the popular political blog Another Angry Voice. I have enjoyed reading AAV's articles for some time, but I feel that Tom has really excelled himself with this one. There are many, many points excellent points raised, quite a lot of which related to things that I was already aware of, but also a few that really opened my eyes to exactly how ludicrous May has made herself look.

I strongly encourage anyone to read the AAV article as Tom sums up the situation a lot better than I can, but for anyone who doesn't have time, I'll just summarise the key points:

• Theresa May is making exactly the same promises that she made when the Conservatives were first elected in 2010, and since then the number of immigrants into this country has actually gone up, not down.
• The remarks claimed to be 'facts' have actually been proven to be wrong by an independent analysis funded by Mrs May's own party.
• The draconian immigration laws which are endorsed here actually cause just as much, if not more, trouble to British nationals as they do to anyone else, with examples including - but not limited to: the amount of healthcare required by an ageing population (which we are, especially given that this very same Government are cutting child benefits for third children onwards); British duel heritage children having their families broken up by one of their parents not being allowed in the UK; the burden to the economy caused by targeting foreign students, who can potentially bring talent and skills to this country; potential issues for British nationals living in other states, given that these states may feel no incentive to allow British nationals access to things such as Tax Credits and sick pay if their nationals are not entitled to such things in the UK.
• Despite May's claims of being humane to those who need help, many smaller countries have done considerably more to help refugees than we have, and their Governments weren't even responsible for the situations that drove those people out of their countries in the first place.

Tom said a lot more than this, but I'm not here to just repeat his article. I thought it was worth mentioning because I think it is exceptional and I encourage everyone to read it.

Personally, I find it really curious how many of my friends, even some very intelligent people, say, 'I'm happy with immigrants who actually contribute something, but not with those ones who just come over here to claim our services and give nothing back'. It is quite evident to me that these people have spent very little time with anyone who has come to this country from abroad, as this line could be taken almost in its entirety from our mainstream media, which is always controlled by the Government at the time.

I am really not an economist, so the AAV post will give you much better commentary on that perspective than I can, but a lot of people consider this to have a distinctly social point as well, and I feel that I probably have a more realistic viewpoint on that side of the debate. The reason for this is that I have spent most of my life with foreign nationals. I grew up living with a multitude of students hailing from many different parts of the globe, both in the EU and outside, and I went to a secondary school in Bristol where at times, I was actually the ethnic minority in my classes (and that didn't bother me at all). A lot of people seem to have this perception that having large groups of foreign nationals over here (I refuse to use the term 'migrants') causes a great deal of corruption to British values, but I have never quite understood what these 'values' actually are.

I can honestly say that I have never met anyone from another culture who has objected to Christmas or Remembrance Day. I have met a lot more British people who have objected to the existence of mosques. But there also seem to be a lot of things that have been brought over by other cultures that no one seems to have a problem with. Curry houses, for example. Curry is a traditional Indian dish, yet it is so commonplace in the UK that it may as well be considered British by this point. My point is that culture adapts and develops over time. I remember seeing an old sitcom called Love Thy Neighbour, about a white couple with black neighbours next door and the white man's struggle with anything remotely foreign, such as eating mangoes. This sitcom was broadcast in the 1970s, which really hits home the fact that we seem to be stuck in the culture of our time whatever the era. If this is an issue so old that there was satire about it twenty years before I was born, I really don't understand why we're still talking about it.

The only social point anyone makes concerning negatives of immigration is the fact that some people live in communities together and never attempt to integrate themselves or learn the language. That is an important point and one that I think needs to be tackled. But what I would say is: when we constantly scapegoat these people for every problem in society (they somehow appear to be both stealing our jobs and being lazy and taking all our benefits) can you blame them? If I felt that unwelcome, I probably would do the same.

My understanding of Britain is that we're a country that is really proud of its culture, and the really special thing about it is that our culture incorporates the cultures of numerous different peoples and nations. I consider us to be a country of people who are willing to adapt and develop with time, and refuse to get left behind or dragged back to the Dark Ages. It can be argued that this is a rather idealistic understanding of this country, given what Theresa May has said, but I believe that culture is something greater than what is wanted by those in power at any one time. It goes deeper than that, it goes into the territory of how people think and learn. I very much hope that in the fullnesses of time, the majority of people will come to realise how wrong this 'us and them' perception is, but in the meantime, I am content in the knowledge that I myself grew up in a world that taught me that diversity is equal to security, and prejudice is ignorant and foolish. So long as there are still people in the UK believing that, there is hope.

That is why I am proud to be British.