British General Election

I have experienced many UK General Elections. In many of them one of the two major protagonists are delusional but it is a rare occasion when both major political parties -Tory and Labour - become delusional.

Both of these parties have committed themselves to negotiating with the EU to obtain something that we have already got, which is free trade for goods and services and free movement of capital. You couldn't make this up; for the first time in history two prospective governments are going to negotiate to get something which we have already got. What the prospective governments don't want is free movement of people. It is not possible to have completely free movement of goods, services and capital without free movement of people. The rest of the EU recognises this but the UK just cannot accept it. Hence the irony implicit in negotiating for something we have already got.

We are going to lose access to the single market with all the difficulties that implies. The EU will also take the opportunity to grab our best businesses and most skillful people. For them no deal will be better than a bad deal.

Western economies are modelled on a kind of Ponzi Scheme; more and more young people need to be born to support the ageing population. The UK is in the position where the birth rate, of the indigenous population, does not keep up with the death rate. As more and more people reach retirement age we need more and more young people to both look after and pay for the aged. Without immigration the younger people in the population will be faced with working longer hours and paying more taxes to support retired people.  Without immigration the country will eventually go broke. Immigration cannot and will not be stopped; the new workers will have to come from somewhere. The alternative solution of remodelling our economic system to be self sustaining without population growth is decades away.

We are faced with the possibility of crashing out of the EU but still having to import hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to bolster our economy. Immigration is a fact of life. It is also a fact of life that we could lose all of the benefits of being in the EU without being able to substantially reduce immigration. Seventeen million people out of a total electorate of Forty Six million people voted for this delusion. There is a fair chance that even more people will vote for this delusion by choosing to vote for both main parties.

Has the thought not crossed your mind that politicians are being disingenuous about immigration policy and that they are pulling the wool over your eyes?

If we are not careful the penny will only drop, after we have left the EU, that we have made an enormous mistake. But, by then, it will be too late to turn the clock back.

Vote carefully with both eyes open.