It seems to me that our membership of the EU does one thing above all else: It diminishes us.
As a nation and as a society - as people who are by instinct generous, welcoming, tolerant and who, above all, have a sense of fairness and are concerned about the genuinely needy.
It diminishes us because without being able to control our borders we no longer have the ability to decide who comes to live here: Genuine refugees, in genuine need are shifted down the pecking order in favour of those who are better equipped to play the system and who are able to shout louder for their EU-given 'rights' and 'entitlements'.
And because we're in the EU we cannot exert this much-needed (thanks to Frau Merkel) control over our borders which means we cannot plan to provide the services - schools, hospitals, housing - that will be required to meet the needs of the population. How can we possibly do this when we have no idea what the population will be? And particularly when the numbers are increasing by hundreds of thousands every year, which puts severe strain on the services required by existing and new members of our society.
And because we cannot control the numbers, we have been reduced (diminished) into trying to make this country as mean as possible, as unwelcoming as possible in a futile attempt to stem the tide of immigration that is overwhelming some parts of the country.
We should be helping refugees - we should perhaps be taking many more than we are now - but because there are so many economic migrants flooding into the country, our ability to identify and help the genuinely needy is being diminished. Essentially because of our membership of the EU.
Yes it is ludicrous that we offer free healthcare to non-UK citizens, people who have not made any contribution to the NHS. We don't, as far as I am aware enjoy free healthcare when we travel abroad - we need to have medical insurance to pay for treatment we might need in other EU countries. Why is this not applied in the UK?
My elderly Canadian aunt recently visited us in the UK and managed to break her leg whilst here. She was fully insured and able to pay for her treatment but it simply never came up. She was treated for free by the NHS. Why?
And why are foreign students allowed to study here and then leave the country without paying for their education? I'm all for us having foreign students at UK universities - they are a source of pride to the country - but why are so many allowed to get away without paying? Their bills are ultimately picked up by the taxpayer - the Universities still get their money.
A benefits system that allows foreign workers to claim child benefit here when their kids are living back in Hungary, or Poland etc., is also mad, as is a system where able-bodied, economic migrants can get a home and benefits from day one when millions of existing Brits remain on the waiting list. But these issues need to be fixed in a way which is fair and equitable. They should not be being used as a means (the only tool in the box) of trying to dissuade people from wanting to come and live here.
We should instead be controlling our borders and deciding who comes to live here, based on their refugee status and need or, for others, based on their skills and the contribution they will be able to make to our ongoing prosperity. And when they meet the criteria that we control and agree and accept as a democratic society, and when they become British citizens, we should offer them the same generosity in terms of a welfare safety net which is designed to help until they find work, that is afforded to all other British citizens.
That is how we are as a nation. It is where we have come from, how we have built a successful society and economy. By being generous and rewarding endeavour; not by being a mean, small-minded negative country.
And it might also be worth remembering that there is a difference between genuine refugees and 'illegal' economic migrants, that the Dublin Convention calls for refugees to seek refuge in the first safe country and that we already give more per capita in foreign aid, in aid to Syrian refugees in place and more in charitable aid than any other major country on earth.
I'm not saying 'open the gates' like Merkel: I am saying close the gates, control the borders and then. when that has been successfully and firmly achieved, we can quietly open the smaller door in the castle gate and bring in those people who are in genuine need and who we want to join us because they have the right attitudes and values to become British, just like all of us other migrants and refugees did in the past.
Thanks for reading.
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