News Comment
Theresa May’s manifesto has once again made immigration a key issue to retain Conservative power in the United Kingdom.
The Conservative manifesto claims immigration is too fast and too high and it is difficult to build a cohesive society. Annual net migration last recorded at 273,000 “immigration to Britain is still too high.”
For the first time since Hitler’s Nazi party a political agenda is being driven based on intolerance towards economic migrants. It has has become a major force in mainstream politics and it joins the ranks of other anti-immigrant movements and parties in France and throughout Europe.
The anti-immigrant agenda is a typical agenda for nationalist parties that feed of fear in the absence of the perceived threat of ‘other’ non-national groupings taking over the nation. Built upon fear, such political movements rise to power in times of crisis and sell cheap and easy solutions that are popular with the majority.
Post Brexit Europe has inspired anti immigrant sentiment, with Marie Le Pen making huge advances in French politics and other European fascist elements making waves across the EU. In America, Donald Trump’s rhetoric about ‘building wall’s and banning Muslims from specific countries has added fuel to a fire, which Europe has struggled to contain for decades.
Democracy has no safeguard against such movements. The greater the fear, the more extreme are the solutions. The western world has become a fertile ground for more of this type of nationalist democracy.
Britain and other western democracies portray itself as the best political model for the rest of the world to adopt. In reality it is based on hate and intolerance, using the natural process of immigration as a cause of it’s inability to cater for the basic needs and wants of society.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
“O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” {Al Hujurat: 13}
News Article: Tory general election manifesto: key points and analysis
Theresa May has grasped her opportunity to impose her “mainstream” brand of Conservatism on the 2017 Tory manifesto with both hands. Her approach is symbolised by the scrapping of key commitments made by David Cameron, among them the “tax lock” ruling out future increases, and the triple lock protecting the value of state pensions.
The manifesto confirms the expected key pledges to get immigration below 100,000, the Ed Miliband-style cap on energy prices and the commitment that “Brexit means Brexit”.
But among the untrailed items are an £8bn “real terms” boost over five years to the NHS and £4bn extra for schools – although free primary school lunches will be replaced by free breakfasts.
May identifies the “five great challenges” facing post-Brexit Britain as: maintaining economic growth; ensuring a smooth and orderly Brexit and staying a united nation; building a new “great meritocracy”; coping with an ageing society while being fair to the young; and harnessing the power of fast-changing technology while maintaining security and privacy.
Immigration
The manifesto confirms that the target of reducing net migration from its current 273,000 to below 100,000 will remain. Students will remain part of the target. The government will continue to bear down on non-EU migration by increasing earnings thresholds for family migration, introducing tougher visa rules for students, doubling the immigration skills charge to £2,000 a year for each skilled worker recruited, and increasing the NHS charges they pay. A significant number of visas will be set aside for strategically important sectors, such as digital technology.