That Starmer fella...

Migration is part of our national story - always has been, always will be. And the Labour Party will never diminish the contribution it makes to the economy, to public services, to your businesses and our communities

This bit?

Yeah that's a fair point - he definitely could go further. But loads of people are making out as if it is him linking the two, rather than them already being linked (rightly or wrongly) and it then being a case of his views on each.

Completely agree with what @amey said above

I will vote labour but I am allowed to say that he is wrong. And he is wrong.

When Nigel Farage starts cheering Labour's immigration policy, I think it's time to take the blinkers off and admit Labour might have got it wrong this time.

https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/uk-news/keir-starmer-immigration-labour-nigel-farage-b2230805.html

Isn't Farage praising the dog whistle side of the policy rather than the actual substance of the policy?

He's whistling his massive collection of whistles alongside it, you really don't want that massive cunt agreeing with anything you're doing in anyway, and you shouldn't have to pander to arseholes or racists, but I do really want the Tories to fuck off.

Let's be honest, if Starmer says Labour aren't going to limit immigration, open the borders, etc or even just ducks the question every time then Labour aren't going to win an election.

Unfortunately true. A whole lot of people believe that they can't get a doctor's appointment, surgery or a school place because of immigrants. Even if Starmer put a lot of effort into explaining why this is bullshit, the Daily Mail isn't going to support him with that messaging.

Shitty but that's where we are.

Good, at least we are in agreement.

Seems like we had record immigration number, still no growth.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/24/uk-net-migration-figures-record-ons

Also a good ref link: https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/why-has-non-eu-migration-to-the-uk-risen/

Apparently 277,000 of that 500k are international students.

they have restarted post study work visa

Hasn't anybody told them the Uk education system is not fit for purpose?

Will be interesting to see how that changes things. Up until 2020, 83%+ of students returnes to their home country after graduating. Wonder if that's going to go down a lot?

I don't know, Sandhurst seems to churn out some people with high titles.

When’s he going to do some work!? He’s obsessed with footy.

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"Lads, I'm busy watching the World Cup. Pick another one of my campaign pledges and tell a right-wing newspaper I'm now doing the opposite."

Done.

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I do understand why Starmer feels as though he can't discuss Brexit but it's beginning to look increasingly counterproductive. If Labour's pitch to the electorate is competence - and I think that's a strong pitch - that means he has to be competent at setting the tone. And I think now is a great time to set that tone.

He has to say that now, can you imagine the total shit storm that would be awoken in the right wing press and the tories if he said anything else. it would totally galvanise them against Labour.

It would be dumb because they couldn’t even in act it in the next parliament anyway. The EU won’t even talk about it until it’s a settled issue in the country, that means to Tory’s being on board too and they will be, they just need to out of power for the next 10 years first.

Much as I love to take Starmer's side on this stuff because I do understand the logic, this freedom of movement statement has particularly wound me up. Upon reflection, losing our freedom of movement has had a fairly big personal impact on me and my family which explains why its a political position that winds me up even if I do understand the reasoning.

Easy to assign lower priorities to stuff that doesn't personally affect you I suppose. Will try to be mindful of that.

Upon reflection, losing our freedom of movement has had a fairly big personal impact on me and my family

Yeah, but in no way is Starmer responsible for that. If he came out now in favour of freedom of movement it would actively delay it and make it less likely to happen. in reality this is a 20 year road back to the singlemarket.

I’m trying to ignore what Labour say on stuff like immigration and brexit and focus on the policies which are more positive than their rhetoric in interviews.

“A Swiss deal simply wouldn’t work for Britain. We’ll have a stronger trading relationship and we’ll reduce red tape for British business – but freedom of movement is a red line for me. It was part of the deal of being in the EU but since we left I’ve been clear it won’t come back under my government.”

okay which one of you is going to tell me that I am wrong this time?

.

What's so frustrating is the whole thing is so utterly undefinable, because bar not being an EU member, there is no concensus on what our relationship should look like. A Swiss deal is problematic because the EU doesn't like it (and probably wouldn't give us), and it goes back to the rule-taker issue that being a non-member entails.

From a strategy pov I'd guess Starmer's thought process is something along the lines of;

1. Someone in no11 has briefed on the possibility of a Swiss style deal, so get the shit rags to slag this government off and give me a bit of non-negative coverage.
   
2. Non-Tories will probably see the cynicism behind this chat / understand why I don't want to go there.
   
3. You force this government to acknowledge that freedom of movement is a positive thjng and start building a news cycle and discourse around the topic.
   
   

Given recent polling I think he might be being over cautious. Or even worse be missing public sentiment on this. But I can absolutely see why you'd leave the problem to the current government to navigate.