On the Tory Cult of Personality and its Consequences

Badenoch will need to denounce Boris

Britain has been subject to an open borders experiment. This happened by design, not by accident. Brexit was used as an excuse to turn Britain into a one nation experiment in open borders.

Before I’m investigated by Hope Not Hate and accused of spreading conspiracy theories, these are the words of Keir Starmer.

It might seem like a curious attack line from an immigration-friendly prime minister, leading an immigration-friendly party, but there is a good reason behind the strategy.

I think ‘design’ is too strong a word to describe the chaotic, lazy, short-term thinking that pervaded the Boris Johnson administration. It was a result largely of inertia, short-term economic considerations, and a pervasive but thinly-held worldview that immigration is inevitable and good. The ‘Boriswave’ came about because it suited the Treasury, filling labour shortages without the need to raise wages, although it is also true that elite social cues played a part; Johnson, in particular, wanted to be lauded by Financial Times journalists and gain the respect and kudos of his social equals, for whom nationalism is anathema.