Alphen,
Netherlands. 4 February. Socrates once
wrote, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. Last week in Washington I met the usual coterie
of impressive, high-level men and women some of whom I have the honour to call
friends. However, the one truly
inspirational figure was a humble cab driver who drove me from my central DC
hotel back to Dulles Airport.
This honourable
gentleman is a Somali-American who left his native Somalia amidst chaos and
carnage twenty-three years ago. He spoke
no other language than his local dialect and was faced with a fearful choice –
stay and die, or leave in fear. As he escaped
he had no idea when or where he would see his family again, if at all. Many died, some made it out.
He is a
proud man. He went first to Germany and
then the Netherlands, Britain and finally to the US. Today this honourable gentleman does not only
himself great credit but also reminds one that the US still has the capacity to
take the huddled masses that built a great country; something too many Americans
too easily forget in these days of decadent decline and faux failure.
My short
but inspirational trip came against the background of more suppressed reality emerging
from the twilight of failed government.
In London last week a leaked Home Office report (interior ministry)
highlighted the massive fraud being committed by EU migrants against the
British people with criminal gangs systematically trafficking people into the
country and then fraudulently claiming benefits.
In one case
more than 1000 children were trafficked into Britain by a Romanian gang and
forced to steal, beg, and commit benefit fraud.
In another case 230 Polish drug addicts and people suffering from mental
health problems were “lured” to Britain and tricked into opening bank accounts to
fraudulently claim benefits. The leaked
report concludes, “It is clear that criminal gangs exploit the free movement
rights of EU citizens in order to facilitate fraud against the UK benefits
system”.
The
Romanian Prime Minister recently accused concerned Britons of racism. Sir, it is not the Romanian or Bulgarian
people that concern thinking British people but Romanian and Bulgarian
criminals who represent a clear and present danger to an already teetering British
society.
This week
launching a new report the European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia
Malmstroem described the level of fraud in the EU as “breathtaking”. The EU Anti-Corruption Report says fraud
costs me the law-abiding European taxpayer some €120bn per annum or twice the
annual British defence budget. As a
freelancer struggling to find work I find that figure and the people that steal
from me obscene. However, as the fate of
the British report testified rather than deal with the problem governments prefer
to hide the fact in plain sight. It is
no wonder the EU and politicians are today held in such contempt.
Eleanor
Roosevelt once wrote, “Do one thing every day that scares you”. As an analyst it would be easy for me to
steer clear of the Big I – immigration.
However, it is a matter of the utmost strategic gravity – changing,
reinforcing and undermining societies at one and the same time. As such the consequences of hyper-immigration
must be examined analytically.
Equally,
analysis must also be informed by humanity as no-one is any better or worse than
anyone else. We are all the victims and
the beneficiaries of circumstance. Yes, many
of our countries have been changed beyond belief in the past twenty years and
without our permission. Yes, we have the
right to hold governments and the EU to account for their appalling refusal to
recognise the very real social and cultural impacts that hyper-immigration has
generated. Equally, we all of us have a
duty to treat each individual with the respect they deserve irrespective of
from whence they come.
Today, this
honourable gentleman owns his own car and company in DC which he uses to ferry
people like me around Washington. With great pride he told me that in his
twenty-one years in the US he had never taken a benefit check. He had done whatever it took to find work and
build a life so that he, his family and his community can contribute to modern
America.
The balance
all western governments must strike between social cohesion and openness is a devilishly
difficult one. Behind the justified
headlines about the negative impact of immigration are many honourable people
who come to our respective countries and do indeed enrich our societies and
economies. All and any of us who are
rightly concerned about the dark side of hyper-immigration must do so always with
that reality in mind.
Socrates
might also have written that all lives are worthy of examination in order to make
one’s own worth living.
Thank you, sir.
It was an honour and privilege to meet you.
Julian Lindley-French
