Masked protesters aren't the answer - but all views must be heard on small boat crossings

The mood of the UK has turned ugly over small boat crossings bringing people to the UK to claim asylum here - despite the number of arrivals being at its lowest point in years. According to theBBC, 'A total of 16,513 people [were recorded as having] arrived in the UK in small boats in the year to 1 September - which is 43 per cent lower than the same period the previous year. 'UK net migrationhas meanwhile dropped to its lowest leveloutside of the Covid pandemic since 2012.' But a change in tactics by the orchestrators of people-smuggling operations means more people are travelling further - in so-called 'super-dinghies' - in order to avoid detection. This has led to two major protests over the weekend. On Saturday, 'hundreds of protesters, dressed in black and wearing face coverings,blocked roads near the Port of Doverand were heard chanting "stop the boats".' And on Sunday night, 'Hundreds of protesters gathered in Portsmouth… after around 140 migrants arrived in a single dinghy that had crossed the English Channel. 'In the second major anti-migrant protest of the weekend, police faced off with demonstrators as they blocked roads in an effort to stop the people who had arrived on the boat from leaving the city.' The boat had been launched from the Bay of Seine, 170 miles from Calais - the usual embarkation-point for such vessels. The protesters have been labelled as far-right activists, and the fact that the scene was livestreamed by Daniel Thomas, an associate of English Defence League poster-boy Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (better known by his pseudonym Tommy Robinson), supports this. This latest development suggests more than that UK citizens are now willing to don balaclavas and face masks, and take to violence to stop foreigners from gaining a foothold here. It suggests that there is a more damaging rift between the people of this country ourselves. I was talking to a man about the migration situation on Saturday. He admitted he's right-wing and said most other people wouldn't give him the time of day but would vilify him as a racist, because he's worried about the character of the UK being changed by people coming in. He added that he supports legal immigration. I said I belong to the centre-left, but I have to acknowledge that a lot of people have the same concern, and if all views aren't taken into account, how are we going to come to a solution that is acceptable to as many people as possible? There are two quite different questions here - not just one. The first is, what should the UK do about migration and asylum? The second: what sort of language and behaviour is acceptable when discussing it? Someone can be genuinely worried about the scale or character of migration, believe that immigration has changed aspects of their community, or think the government has lost control of the border without being a racist, as I acknowledged. Dismissing every such concern as racism is both unfair and politically counterproductive. It also creates exactly the grievance my acquaintance described -the feeling that certain opinions cannot be expressed honestly. But that doesn't mean every argument made in the name of 'concern about immigration' is reasonable, nor that people who use racist or dehumanising rhetoric should be protected. There is a perfectly legitimate political question about why 140 people were able to make such a long crossing from the Bay of Seine, why smugglers are apparently adapting their methods, how asylum claims should be processed, and what happens to people whose claims are accepted or rejected. But blocking coaches containing people who have just arrived, confronting police and attempting to prevent them being transported for processing is a different matter. The government can acknowledge legitimate public anxiety about migration while condemning intimidation and disorder. Recorded migration is plummeting - so it seems the Labour government is doing something right. At the same time, the individual arrival numbers can produce extraordinarily dramatic events. Those things are not mutually exclusive. But it is important to recognise that politics based entirely on individual dramatic incidents can give people a very different impression of the overall trend. The concern about the UK's 'character' is entirely legitimate, but is ultimately a political and cultural question, not merely a statistical one. But that's where the question of who gets a say comes in. If people who hold right-wing views, such as thatnoforeigners should be allowed to come here, genuinely believe that nobody will listen to them except politicians and activists who reinforce their existing worldview, then the political centre of gravity moves away from constructive discussion and extremism may increase. People don't necessarily become more extreme because someone disagreed with them, but they can become more extreme if they think everyone outside their own political tribe is unwilling even to hear them. That's why I said my interlocutor didn't have to agree with me - but if we couldn't at least talk aboutthe issue, we have no chance of finding a solution. I'm not saying every opinion is equally valid; the fact is simply that democratic politics requires people to be able to articulate concerns without being automatically morally disqualified for having them. So I am led to believe you can oppose the boats without vilifying migrants; you can defend migrants without pretending that uncontrolled migration raises no legitimate questions; and you can condemn far-right disorder without pretending everyone who wants lower immigration is far-right. Is anybody onmyside? This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share Independent journalism doesn't fund itself – but somebody has to hold power to account. That's what I do here, every day. If you value this kind of reporting, please support it: Start a paid subscription to The Whip Line for full access to everything I write – or, if you prefer, make a one-off or regular donation athttps://Ko-fi.com/VoxPolitical Independent news survives only when readers like you keep it alive.