It was with great surprise that I received a text from my son on Tuesday telling me that Michael Gove had told the world I was supporting the leave campaign. This simply is not true. While I had done an interview about a month ago about the effects on English football players if we were to leave the EU (most likely it would benefit our football), I had made it clear to a campaign representative that I would not be supporting their cause. While I think a British exit might help football players, I don’t think it would necessarily help the rest of the country. I never expected to hear from them again. But then Gove raised the subject, and I feel I have to set the record straight.
I hadn’t even felt that strongly about it previously – that’s why I hadn’t made it public knowledge that I was supporting remain. I’m a normal person, a layman, so when they’re talking about the economic arguments on either side it’s hard to follow. When 90% of analysts are saying we’re better off in, but the other side say that isn’t true, it’s hard to be sure what to believe. So my reasons for supporting remain are probably different from those of many others: immigration. And I don’t believe this is an issue that the leave campaign should be based on.
Leave is preying on people’s fears, telling the same story we’ve heard over the years about black people from Africa and the Caribbean coming to steal our jobs. Now we hear the same thing about Poles. If leave wanted to say that companies are paying migrants less than British workers, and so allowing them to take our jobs, then it should be looking at raising the minimum wage – not stopping migrants entering the country. The problem has nothing to do with the Polish workers – it is an issue about our labour laws. Yet leave maintains its focus on immigration.
Mass migration and the refugee crisis is one of the biggest problems facing the world. In this country we assume that everyone just wants to come to the UK – but it’s an issue in Germany, Greece, Sweden, all across the EU. Why should we be the first to turn our backs on the problem? We have to think not only about what would happen to those unfortunate people, but to the rest of the planet too. What kind of example would we be setting? We should be the first to help disadvantaged people. What would happen if other countries decided to follow our example?
Britain has always told the world that being British is about the humanity, compassion and moral fortitude that we have. All great things that we are supposed to have spread across the world. A leave vote now says that we don’t really care about anyone else, we don’t care what happens to the European Union. Why should the Germans be able to show more compassion than we do?
Leave says it doesn’t want to stop immigration entirely – it only wants people who can help us, who have the qualifications and skills that we need. But what about the other people who are displaced or disenfranchised? Don’t we have a responsibility to help them too, especially when they are fleeing countries whose problems we have helped to create, such as Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq? We cannot just wash our hands of the situation. We are the first on the frontline to go into countries to liberate people in the name of freedom – that’s what we’ve claimed. And now, all of a sudden, they need our help and we turn them away. Yet the rest of Europe stands ready to help. Why are we the first to jump ship?
And when politicians talk about welcoming different, more skilled immigrants – who are they talking about anyway? If there were thousands of blond-haired, blue-eyed Americans landing at Dover, seeking refuge, I think many of us would be straight down there to help. So many groups of people, whether they be from Africa or the Middle East, have been demonised and dehumanised because they don’t look like us. I’m not accusing anyone of being racist. I’m black, I was born in Jamaica, but this affects me too. I know I would feel more empathy with that boat of white American refugees than I do with the thousands fleeing Syria. It’s because of what we have all been told and the environment that we live in. I don’t look like a white American any more than I do a Syrian – but I was brought up in a society that has taught me to empathise more with them.
There might be strong arguments to say we should leave Europe for our sovereignty – because Germany or France are bullying us and have more of a say in the EU than we do. Perhaps we would even be better off as a nation if we left. And maybe I could have supported a vote to leave if that were the case being made. But that’s not what the campaign chooses to look at. It focuses on immigration, which can only lead me to think that those other arguments don’t hold enough strength to support an out vote.
They talk about what makes Britain great. How we are morally right, the people who will do the right thing. Well that should be helping others in need, setting an example to the world – not running away at the first sign of trouble.