David Harding-Price

By David Harding-Price davidhardingprice

Immigrants are bad for Great Britain, so we are told by a number of different groups. But as a Celt, a true redhead, I could argue that most people reading this article are the sons and daughter of immigrants. Consequently, you are all bad for me and my Celtic brothers and sisters.

If you are of Saxon origin then your ancestors were immigrants between the 5th and 15th century. In fact, in Gaelic tongues the word for English comes from the Latin “Saxones” [Sassenach – Scottish Gaelic, Sasanach – Irish Gaelic and Saeson – Welsh]. If you are of Norman origin then your arrival in England started in 1066. Add in the Vikings in the 800AD and the Romans from 43AD, and it is clear that immigrants have made up English society for almost two millennia.

So why are we raising the question now? Without the Mauritanians, Philippinos and Irish, our mental health services in the 1960s and 1970s would have collapsed. Without the people from the Caribbean, our bus services and nursing service would have come to halt in the 1950s. Without the Eastern Europeans, our food would not be picked in the fields in the 2010s. I imagine most readers will approve of all of these immigrants because they are inputting into society.

So of who is it that people disapprove? Is it the health tourists who come to abuse our world-renowned National Health Service? Is it the Europeans who come to draw funds from our generous social security? Alternatively, is it those who come to abuse our hospitality? I imagine the last group are at the top of the list and it these people that result in the hard working immigrants getting a bad name.

I totally agree if someone comes to Great Britain expecting handouts or taking over the patch of a British “Big Issue” seller, then that is wrong. Their country should support them and they should stay there and be cared for by their government. Just because Britain has developed a benefits system that cares for its indigenous people does not mean the world and his wife can benefit from it.

However, as a modern country, we benefit from the knowledge, skills and labour that people bring. They come to assimilate rather than take over, if we let them. I remember some years ago being at a mandatory diversity training session in the NHS, where the trainer was telling an audience consisting of a range of races and cultures, including some white British, that we should tolerate the immigrants’ customs.

After about half an hour of the session, a small middle aged coloured lady stood up and told the trainer she was talking rubbish and she (the coloured lady) had come to Britain to work, eat fish and chips and watch football, not force her Caribbean culture on the British. She continued if someone wanted to learn about West Indian cooking then go and live in the Caribbean. She walked out of the training session, followed by most of the non-whites in the room and they went to the pub across the road and carried on the diversity training there. How do I know that? Well, I joined them in the pub and learnt more about diversity and their desires than I would have if I had stayed in the training session.

It is too easy for some people to say all immigrants are bad for us. But, what about the two thirds of the premier league players who are non-British players? Many of the doctors and increasing nurses in the NHS are from abroad because successive governments have cut training places and so we have to recruit from outside Great Britain. Wherever you look in Britain today immigrants are working, often because the indigenous population will not take the jobs.

Surely we should be saying if you have something to offer Great Britain come and provide it, but if you come just for the handout then Britain cannot be the place for you. Tolerance is based on both sides recognising what the other has to offer. Tolerance will never exist if one side thinks that they can come and take from the other.

David is a retired NHS nurse, but is currently the Royal College of Nursing’s Council Member for the East Midlands and is Honorary Treasurer of the RCN. David was also a Lib Dem MP candidate for Lincoln in the past. He has two grown up children and enjoys photography and swimming in his spare time.

By David Harding-Price davidhardingprice

Edmund Burke is reported to have said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”, though it is in all probability a misquotation from John Stuart Mill. Nevertheless, whether it was Burke or Mill who said it the truth is that if people do nothing then evil will triumph.

Many of us are affected by three groups: 1) organisations that are governed by elected boards, 2) companies that run the businesses which provide for us every day have elected boards and 3) politicians; be they local or national; elected on a regular cycle. Yet when it comes to the time for the people to choose who will represent them increasingly we are seeing the number of people using their power to vote diminish.

Whether that is going once a year to vote at a polling station in local or national government elections or completing a ballot paper that falls through your letter box the number of people exercising their right to have a say is decreasing. At the same time we are increasingly hearing individuals and groups complaining that the people who are elected to represent them and not looking after them.

I have long believed that it is our duty as members of society to vote but I recognise that some people do not like any of the candidates on offer. However, that should not preclude you from collecting your ballot paper and writing “none of the above” on it. Whilst no one can make you vote they can and should require you to collect your ballot paper. I believe that if as a member of society you do not make the effort to collect your ballot paper then you forfeit your right to make a claim on the state, be that benefits or tax allowances. It takes on average 15 minutes to collect your ballot paper and cast your vote. Most people pass their polling station at some point during the annual Election Day.

For those who receive ballot papers through their letterbox to not mark the paper in some way is even less defensible. If an organisation or company has gone to the cost of send you your ballot paper I believe it is your duty as a member to complete that ballot paper. Even if it is with “none of the above”. The five minutes it would take to complete it and drop it in the post box the next time you went to the shops is an inconsequential moment of time in your life but can have a massive effect on your life and the lives of other.

Edmund Burke did say “All government indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act is founded on compromise and barter”. How can anyone know what compromise they should be considering if people have not made their views known via the ballot box?

Going back to my original sentence “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” by not voting the good men are doing nothing. The evil that will triumph can range from the privatisation of the NHS to the loss of local libraries or from the rise in the cost of food to the overcrowding on trains.

Jeff Parker’s 2008cartoon in Florida Today has a big sign which says “Don’t vote – don’t complain” with a clerk sitting at a registration desk below it. If you decide not to vote then you have forfeited your right to complain when those who are elected do things you do not like or worse still those who are trying to support you are unable to do so because you failed to vote.

David is a retired NHS nurse, but is currently the Royal College of Nursing’s Council Member for the East Midlands and is Honorary Treasurer of the RCN. David was also a Lib Dem MP candidate for Lincoln in the past. He has two grown up children and enjoys photography and swimming in his spare time.