Guts and Drive

My very is that you should always give due to where due is do and that even if politically disagree with what the person believes in general. That is why I find I am agreeing with the views of John Major, the Mr Grey that followed Iron Lady's years that I feel did so much damage to Britain in the 1980's. Of course not many will remember him as Prime Mister, it was rather forgettable at the time. He was just dull and boring, hence why Labour won in 1997.

Anyway, I'm not going to write about his time as Prime Minster but instead something he said that a lot of Conservatives and other parties on the right of politics could do with listening too. It was some of the things he said recently on immigration to this country and his views on the subject which I find myself agreeing with despite we come from completely different sides of politics.  These views are completely at odds with isolationist parties like the UK Independence party and the blame the foreigners brigade in the country that are a disgrace to our nation.

On the BBC Radio 4 programme Reflections, which as broadcast yesterday,  John Major was talking about his time as a young man when he lived in Brixton. He said that "There was a different social value placed on immigration. I saw immigration at very close quarters in the 1950s."  Before going to qualify this by saying "They shared my house. They were my neighbours. I played with them as boys. I didn't see people who had come here just to benefit from our social system. I saw people with guts and the drive to travel halfway across the world in many cases to better themselves and their families." And finished off by saying "And I think that is a very Conservative instinct.".

It is appalling to think that Conservative party has been recently promoting the idea that people just come here to live off benefits, use our health service or get a council house. It is all done on the fears back of rising numbers of people from Bulgaria and Romania arriving in the UK that many people seem to have based on stories from the right wing tabloid press. When the truth is they are hardly going to able to travel all that way if that are that poor that they need to use Britain's benefit system in a country with such a high cost of living. The fact is these people come to Britain work here and better themselves as John Major observed from his childhood. 

What is more, we need them to do the jobs that we don't train people for in the UK, the skilled jobs that that once made our manufacturing industry one of the best in the world. Further to this, we need them to work in the health service at all levels, from nurses to doctors because we don't train enough of our own population. Then they are also the skilled tradesman that you need when the toilet is blocked or your electrics cut out, since the education of the young indigenous population is underfunded in the UK when it comes to the trades, and without these people nobody would be there when you need that toilet sorting out.

These people aren't on the whole freeloaders they have "guts and drive" and that is why they have come here. You don't leave your homeland for nothing and family just to claim benefits, you leave it because you want to work and better yourself. For once John Major got it right. If you missed the programme you can catch up on the BBC website, although I'm not sure how long will be available for.