Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

We have heard little about the facts and analysis supporting staying or going  since this campaign began. Instead there is an endless refrain from both sides complaining about  some person somewhere  expressing a preference for the opposite view, when they are supposed to be impartial. This advances the cause of neither, while at the same time offering little practical information to enable undecided voters to make up their minds.

A referendum is not the same as an election when a contest takes place to establish who shall have a mandate to govern. A referendum is a national conversation to arrive at a conclusion about the future of the country. There are two sides, but there are not two opposing sides. Either option may work in the long term, but in different ways and with different advantages. Moreover in the short term one option may create more uncertainties and greater risks to national prosperity than the other.

What people need is hard facts, cool analysis, well argued opinions and measured judgements. Then they can themselves weigh up how they wish to vote. It is the duty of bankers, ministers, lawyers and business to expose the issues in their field of expertise. Some will highlight this and others that. But everybody engages because the outcome will affect us all. There will be no winning side in the party political sense.

So grumbling about apparent leanings this way and that are both pointless and unnecessary. They seem to come from Leave more than Remain. It is from Leave we still wait to hear of a single hard fact of what exactly their proposition offers. Nostalgic references to sovereignty and emotional acclamations of the Great in Britishness are simply not enough.

Harsh though this is, closing the borders and stopping the flow of migrants is an essential first step in helping those in need to find refuge, for to continue as before will eventually cause so much public anxiety and backlash that serious damage will be done the whole structure of Europe, asylum, human rights and decency.

When agreements were signed for the granting of political asylum, nobody imagined they would ever be dealing with more than dozens here and there, perhaps in a crisis hundreds and in extreme conditions thousands. But millions was not on the agenda. And the reason for that is the inability of any country to absorb huge numbers without significant planning and public consensus. The more so if there are language and cultural issues involved as well. This is not be be right wing or uncaring. It is in fact to care to plan and prepare, and as soon as the drift of rudderless boats began across the Mediterranean towards Italy form Libya, preparations should have begun, worst case scenarios tested, agreements should have been reached and resources supplied to make the resettlement of the victims of wars the West has either started or stoked, a coherent and effective process.

As it is the whole situation is within a whisker of getting entirely out of control with terrible human consequences. There must be assessment, acceptance or rejection, transport and placement into a welcoming environment, operated with the smooth efficiency which the West is supposed to have as its hallmark when dealing with souls in need. We are far from that situation at the moments with millions on the move, thousands massed at border fences and anger among host populations rising. This becoming as big a political failure as the wars which drive it. It started as a problem, became a crisis and  has begun to turn nasty. It must not be allowed to turn ugly.

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