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This week’s chart (with the help of my data journalist colleague Amy Borrett) points to something that should trouble both the Labour and Conservative parties about the political narrative they have allowed to grow up around migration.
It shows via online mentions how the ‘stop the boats’ slogan used by successive Tory governments — and emblazoned on the prime ministerial lectern at different points — has come to the fore in public discourse amid the recent protests.
Posts including the term ‘stop the boats’ have become markedly more negative in recent weeks, according to an analysis of a range of platforms by social media management platform Hootsuite. It found that there were almost five times as many negative as neutral posts at the start of August, compared to an average of two to one since the start of the year.
The fact that rioters attacking mosques and trying to burn asylum seekers out of hotels can be heard chanting ‘stop the boats’ should give all politicians serious pause for thought about how simplistic narratives on immigration have been taken into the mainstream.
The UK, like a lot of post-industrial advanced economies, faces deep structural problems that lead to rising inequalities and, in the last parliament, falling living standards. It is easy to see why economic failure and decaying public services make people angry.
What is unforgivable is that politicians, who would describe themselves as mainstream, have pandered to the Farragist, far-right narrative that immigrants and asylum seekers are responsible for these problems, because, factually speaking, they are not.
Migrants are not a burden on the NHS, they are net contributors to the health service; they do not commit crime at higher rates than native populations; and they do not suppress wages or job opportunities for local people.
Thus far Starmer has been courageous and uncompromising in confronting the rioters, giving no quarter to the idea that in some ways their actions are justified or understandable.
But real courage, particularly in the face of the rising electoral fortunes of Reform UK, would be to openly challenge these fallacies about the effects of migration on UK economy and society — something that both Labour and Conservative politicians have consistently failed to do over recent decades.
The State of Britain is edited by Harvey Nriapia today. Premium subscribers can sign up here to have it delivered straight to their inbox every Thursday afternoon. Or you can take out a Premium subscription here. Read earlier editions of the newsletter here.
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Publish date : 2024-08-08 07:00:00
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