David Cameron: 'Immigration speech'

What he might have said.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, ponder the next time you go to the doctors, or worse still if you’re forced to go to the hospital. Take a look around at the many Black and minority ethnic (BME) doctors whose expertise literally saves lives, or the thousands of BME nurses, who, in spite of being regularly abused, nurse a nation back to health.

All of these individuals are a significant part of our, under pressure, under resourced, National Health Service. They help keep it running. Many of these individuals were not born in this country, nevertheless, their work ethic and dedication should be applauded by all of us.

Spare a thought for the thousands of office cleaners and road sweepers, who scrub our streets and clean our offices, starting their working day at 5am, even before many of us have had our breakfast.  All of this they do come rain or shine, often on minimum wages. The majority of these workers, especially in big cities, were probably not born here too, but without them our towns and cities simply couldn’t function as smoothly as they do.

Getting the immigration balance right is always a challenge: during the economic boom, when we witnessed unprecedented growth for over a decade, there was plenty of work for everyone. In fact, we encouraged workers from within the European Union to take up labour intensive jobs on our farms that local people often felt were beneath them.

The hotel industry and the building trade too flourished with new projects across the country. Again many Eastern Europeans proved good workers offering keenly priced services. But those boom days are over, and what is important now, during these hard economic times, is that we do not engage in the political blame game that ‘kicks around immigrants’, and sows the seeds of fear and distrust in a bid to gain short term political capital. That’s just morally wrong.

We can have an honest debate about immigration. First, we should recognise that the majority of immigration to this country comes from the EU, which we as a member state cannot control. 

Second, the immigration debate will always be a negative election issue if we politicians, helped by a pernicious section of the media, continue to stir up resentment and distrust of others. Britain had a ten year housing boom, which in no small measure was fuelled by the very large numbers of of East Europeans renting in the ‘buy-to-let’ market.

And in regards to the numbers of asylum seekers, they are presently at their lowest level for a long time. To be also clear, when families of settled migrants come here the vast majority,  unlike the majority of  Brits in Spain, are keen to learn the language and integrate. That’s what people, particularly the young do when seeking opportunities.

Furthermore, many who migrate to this country would like the opportunity to positively and financially contribute to a place they could call home. Even if this home is only temporary.  

We should tell anyone who will listen, that this country clearly does not have an open door immigration policy. Far from it.  But we are a nation that will not stoop to sow fear and hatred of others like some European counties shamefully do.

Here in the UK we are proud we do things in a different way.'

David Cameron  AKA Simon Woolley