Cable said that the PM should have talked about "the very positive contribution that a lot of people coming in from outside the EU make to our country's economy". Funny, I thought that this section of the speech did that rather well.
Our country has benefited immeasurably from immigration. Go into any hospital and you'll find people from Uganda, India and Pakistan who are caring for our sick and vulnerable.David Cameron is right in one of the other points that he made in the speech, we cannot ignore an issue which is a very real concern for many people, from a range of races and backgrounds, and we mustn't write off those people as racists just for having those concerns.
Go into schools and universities and you'll find teachers from all over the world, inspiring our young people. Go to almost any high street in the country and you'll find entrepreneurs from overseas who are not just adding to the local economy but playing a part in local life.
Charities, financial services, fashion, food, music - all these sectors are what they are because of immigration.
So yes, immigrants make a huge contribution to Britain. We recognise that - and we welcome it.
If mainstream parties are not seen to be thinking and talking about immigration and its positive and negative effects then we shouldn't be surprised if some of them run into the arms of extremists.
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"I've read the whole speech and I cannot find any language that would inflame any reasonable person."
And no doubt so did Vince, but in your blog you choose to quote selectively merely to rebut one of Cable's points, and gladly skip over all the other inflammatory rubbish. Confirmation bias is the term it goes by and the public is very attuned to how politicians deploy it day in day out. Nobody's fooled.
Richard,
I'm happy for you to post any elements of the speech which you feel are inflammatory.
Cable made one specific criticism and I highlighted a specific element which I feel addresses that criticism.
Most of the speech was the standard reasonable and measured tone that Cameron uses when discussing immigration and ethnicity. There is one paragraph that, taken out of context (which it will be), does not match the careful language used in the rest of the speech.
…but social pressures too.
Because real communities aren't just collections of public service users living in the same space.
Real communities are bound by common experiences forged by friendship and conversation knitted together by all the rituals of the neighbourhood, from the school run to the chat down the pub.
And these bonds can take time. So real integration takes time.
With talk of 'rituals of the neighbourhood' and 'real communities' Cameron is speaking to some to the right of the mainstream Conservative Party. This section paints the picture of immigrants as 'public service users' rather than contributors to the greater society (which he recognises in other parts of the speech), 'living in the same space' forcing us into overcrowded conditions, people you don't see 'down the pub' (some don't even drink because their religion forbids it - how can they be British), and certainly not brought up for generations in the 'rituals of the neighbourhood'.
This is a sad view of both immigrants, who do not fit in, and of Britain, a local country for local people.
It is only one part of his speech, but he deliberately left it in with all the coded language used by people who don't like foreigners.
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