Sir Roger Gale
Member of Parliament for Herne Bay and Sandwich (including West Thanet)
 

The issue of the moment appears to be trans-Channel illegal immigration in small craft. 

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The Member of Parliament for Dover, Charlie Elphicke, has not only a right but a clear duty to address a matter that is of immediate and real importance to his constituents and that has unavoidable humanitarian implications also. That others more peripheral to East Kent genuinely share Charlie`s expressed concerns or are playing to the gallery and engaging in populist political posturing is a moot point.

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Whether a real or synthetic concern is arguable but it is certain that in the coming year the broader subject of immigration from both mainland Europe and from further afield is one that is going to have to receive serious consideration  

The cross-channel trafficking in which handfuls of pitiful families are persuaded to part with money that they do not have, to pledge themselves to modern slavery and to risk their lives in small inflatable boats in the hope of a “better life” in the United Kingdom is not new.  I recall attending a meeting in London in the 1970s when the then Member of Parliament for Hastings, Ken Warren, raised the issue of illegal immigrants arriving in his constituency in small craft. In a group of islands with hundreds of miles of unprotected and unpoliced coastline it is hardly surprising that those with the money and the determination to enter Britain illegally will, with the help of criminals who are prepared to aid and abet them for hard cash, continue to do so. 

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There is a genuine discussion to be had between a Ministry of Defence whose Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson, has said that the armed forces stand ready to intervene, as we have done in the Mediterranean, if required, and a Home Office whose Immigration Minister, Caroline Noakes, has warned of the potential `dinner gong` effect of patrol boats that, by rescuing those in mid-Channel and at risk, may actually and perversely increase the numbers of those trying to cross. Part of that answer has to lie, certainly in increased negotiation and co-operation with a France whose President is himself under political siege. If the immediate problem is to be resolved it will have to be done at source and not in the middle of La Manche. 

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Looking at the bigger picture here are of course those, sometimes supporters of minor, irrelevant and unpleasant political parties, who simply say that “there are too many bloody foreigners in the Country” and who wish to return to the `Golden Age` of the 1950s. (That `Golden Age` experienced rickets, double pneumonia, tuberculosis, polio, food shortages, slum housing and massive unemployment of course but those are inconvenient blots on the rose-coloured glasses of nostalgia).  Others, happily a majority of those who have real doubts about the open-door policy that Mr. Blair and Mr. Straw ushered in in 1997, recognise that while Great Britain needs imported labour and talent we are also a relatively small island – in land mass less than half the size of France – and that there is a limit to the space and services that are available to accommodate incomers, whether legal or otherwise. 

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And there`s the rub.  It will be no good the die-hard xenophobes complaining, when lying in a hospital bed in East Kent, that there are staff shortages if we have closed the door to the very people who keep our medical services running.  And that does not mean just the Doctors and Consultants and those `earning more than £30,000 per year` cited by the Home Secretary. It means, also, the semi and unskilled staff that do the dirty jobs, that clean the sluices, that wash the floors and launder the bed linen and prepare the food and do all the jobs that those who complain that `they are taking our employment` are not prepared or willing to do themselves. Remove the immigrant labour, at every level, from the QEQM hospital or the Kent and Canterbury or the William Harvey and they will close. 

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The same also applies to those very many working in the hospitality, catering, caring, and transport and other businesses and on the land. Without a supply of people prepared to undertake tasks that an ageing domestic population cannot or will not do and our Country will come to a grinding halt.  So while recognising that immigration has to be legal, moderate and regulated let me caution: just before we fan the populist flames of the fascism that is re-emerging in Hungary, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, the Balkan States,  Italy, Greece,  Germany and France could we pause and reflect upon what the word `crisis` means and apply a degree of common sense and traditional British decency and compassion  to what is not just a humanitarian issue but one that it is also in our national interest to resolve intelligently. 

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The coming year will bring many challenges and opportunities. I wish you peace and health and if possible happiness throughout its days.

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