Tell and tell again but never listen

Another weird piece from the Guardian -

It’s that time again in the political cycle, where some of the finest leftwing political minds in the country come together to scope out a coherent, principled and sellable policy on immigration, and roundly fail. As part of her Labour leadership campaign, Lisa Nandy, one of the brightest and least entitled Labour politicians of her generation, managed to pull off a remarkable feat – she made a pro-immigration position sound craven...

This fear of looking weak is why the opportunity to take on the Conservative party, and the right in general, by presenting a clear counter-narrative is missed again and again. There is already someone “listening” to people on immigration, already a party that has achieved the job of not making people feel irrational or racist for having anti-immigration views. Labour’s task is not to provide more of the same, but to spell out clearly the colossal trick that the right has played on the country, in taking the despair that should be directed at austerity, the gutting of the NHS, the corporatisation and dehumanisation of the state, and saying clearly that immigration has nothing to do with it.

Clearly immigration can be a problem if it is not managed in some pragmatic way which voters understand and generally favour. Acknowledging this politically is how democracy is supposed to work. There are caveats and limitations to immigration because there have to be and this is so glaringly obvious that even Guardian folk might be expected to see it. Apparently not.

Not really relevant but I'll admit to smiling at the political cycle, where some some of the finest leftwing political minds in the country come together. Not in the Guardian they don't.

I hope.