[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... armer-cuts

Diane Abbott. I didn't at all like the speech but she didn't hear Starmer say this because he didn't.

“I was very disturbed to hear Keir Starmer on the subject of immigration. He talked about closing the book on a squalid chapter for our politics – immigrants represent a squalid chapter. He talked about how he thought immigration has done incalculable damage to this green and pleasant land, which, of course, is nonsense – immigrants built this land. And, finally, he said we risk becoming an island of strangers.

“I thought that was a fundamentally racist thing to say. It is contrary to Britain’s history. My parents came to this country in the 50s. They were not strangers. They helped to build this country. I think Keir Starmer is quite wrong to say that the way that you beat Reform is to copy Reform.”

As an aside, I wonder how much stuff like "immigrants built this land" helps Reform. Like quite a few families, we've done some family history. You can go back quite far into the 19th Century very easily. I don't recall coming across a single ancestor who wasn't from Gloucestershire or one of the counties next to it, and I don't think this is would be uncommon. Obviously, for people living in eg Manchester, it would be very different, with a huge amount of Irish ancestry among the white population, and virtually all the non-white population.

If you're at all Reform inclined, I think you hear things like this as a put down of your identity. It's kind of illogical too that if you're going to (absolutely rightly) take the view that Britons born abroad are Britons, just the like native ones, to be emphasizing (often fairly remote) immigration with native white Britons. See how you get silly comments about the Royal Family being "German". If that's so, Ian Wright is Jamaican.

I think "helped to buld this country" is a much better way of putting it.

[davidjay]

She's not stupid so she must see the damage she causes every time she opens her mouth on this subject. I wish she'd go join Jezza's mob.

[mattomac]

Did he actually say any of this? Must have completely passed me by. I remember that quote that was taken out of the context.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He didn't say any of that, but there was lots to object to. The squalid chapter was the Tories getting elected by attacking immigration then increasing it massively. And, he could have added, giving way to the house prices lobby so that not enough homes were built.