First published 4 September 2009
Recently blogger Left Outside noted, in his entry on Dan Hannan’s praise for Enoch Powell, that:
Discussing immigration is difficult in this country, often it descends into one side calling the other racists. Or more commonly, a writer beginning a piece by stating that it is no longer possible to discuss immigration in this country, without being accused of being a racist. I don’t think that this is a particularly healthy way to conduct debate.
Not healthy indeed. But who is lagging behind? Dialogue on asylum, immigration, migration is very important, but little is said by the left on the subject other than to denigrate the position taken by the BNP.
But to leave a void instead of valid ideas, leaves the issue in the court of the far right and does nothing to counter the argument that the leftist attitude towards migration is anything other than mere contrarianism. (Continue)
