Ugh. I'm glad you're trying to think about this stuff, but if your diagnosis of Britain begins with "it's too woke", then you're starting off on the wrong foot. You know how you pointed out that Britain's institutions aren't positive towards young people? An MP writing to criticise rap performances is pretty emblematic of that negativity.
Please focus your attention away from the culture wars and to the substantive stuff later in your essay.
Interesting you bemoan our falling fertility rate and labour’s cancellation of the two child benefit. Surely young couples today need incentives to rally the birth rate? They can’t afford rent let alone a baby. Struggling couples aren’t going to make the best parents - they’ll be stressed out and pass that stress to their kids leading to more mental health problems. If politicians don’t bolster young British couples now, the UK will become a land of asylum seekers
I said British couples as an inclusive term for all settled brits. He suggested it was becoming an island full of immigrants/asylum seekers. I’m using his terms. You don’t know me so stop projecting your negative views on me
Less than 5% of immigration is asylum seekers. Anyway, I'm not sure how happy Neil will be about "young British couples" having children when he bemoans British-born children of being a different ethnicity. By suggesting you have to be white to be British, you only make more young people feel the UK is racist.
Just spitballing here from the other side of the Ocean…
1. Require every able bodied person to work after a reasonable temporary transition period.
2. Stop all illegal immigration and forcibly deport every person in UK that doesn’t belong.
3. Deport any person/family of a legal immigrant living off public funds.
4. Require 100% of immigrants to speak fluent English and have either a college degree and/or a job offer. Then triple the taxes on that person and their employer to fund pensions and welfare programs for native Brits.
5. Change taxes so that singles and those with one child fund their own pensions and retirement. Basically, not having 2 or more kids needs to be both socially and economically painful.
6. Drop the green energy insanity and drill and import low cost energy.
7. Create special economic zones with minimal regulation (other than allowing immigrants) to attract and create new entrepreneurial talent.
These steps, and others like them would be extremely painful. However, I would suggest the alternative will be incomparably worse. From this side of the Atlantic, I can’t imagine the UK avoiding either complete collapse or civil war in the very near future. And I am an optimist.
? If they can’t deport them, then most of the other points still apply. Point is that the UK needs to get serious about reform and soon, or whoever crawls out of the rubble will do it for them.
As a side note, Europe should have figured out ways to get immigrants from Central America decades ago (instead of people from the Mideast). They make much better immigrants.
Firstly, very few immigrants in the UK are from the Middle East. Secondly, the USA is literally deporting immigrants from Central Asia. Thirdly, British citizens are all equal, so the other points about immigrants don't apply.
I don’t agree with the entirety, but there is a lot of reasonable analysis here, particularly on the impacts of demographics. I guess the question is, do you have clear policy proposals that would make a difference? I think most would agree that it would be a good thing for more people to find fulfilling work and homes, a positive feeling about our country and the future, and both *want* to have families and feel able to do so - but what are the changes you’d propose to encourage that to happen?
A depressing article that makes some valid points. However, I think it misses a big one: how the sky high costs of energy are crippling the UKs economy. There is no chance of re-industrialisation until energy costs come down.
Good article. I believe the key problem can be summed up in two paragraphs.
For 150+ years every generation lived with the knowledge that overall the world was improving for them and thus their children and grandchildren. While there were always huge challenges, world wars, famines, pandemics, economic ups and downs, the overall feeling was that "my children and their children will live in a better world".
This is no longer the case. Young people have been brainwashed into the belief that there is so much wrong with them, the world, their country, the environment, etc.... that the future can only be an even worse version of today.
No wonder they have very few children, feel like they can't be bothered to work, and struggle to have the hope in the future required to be entrepreneurial.
Unfortunately I don't see a solution, if anyone knows of books that describe a way forward then I'd be curious to read them.
Obsessing over ethnicity and you’re surprised young people think the UK is racist?
Anyway, are you also going to show the stats that young white British are more likely to be NEETs than other young ethnic groups after they finish school?
UK-born: “45% of the white British are in professional and managerial jobs compared with around 60% for Chinese and Hindu Indians, 55% for Sikh Indians and 51% for black Africans” according to David Goodhart's research
“In 2021, 51% of junior doctors and 41% of consultants were non-White (excluding those with unknown ethnicity). This compares with 20% of the English working-age population.”
University entry rates: “biggest increase in the entry rate was for black people, from 21.6% to 50.6% the smallest increase was for white people, from 21.8% to 32.2%”
The UK is the only European country where second-generation immigrants outperform natives in education.
That’s not to mention 100% language proficiency.
This is why young people by and large don’t like Conservatives or Reform (a grand combined total of 20% of the youth vote according to YouGov). The racism is frankly disgusting.
The UK is actually the best country in Europe in integration of native-born racial minorities. No other European country compares when it comes to education, employment, language proficiency and national identity.
These were good arguments a decade ago. But the rate of demographic change since 2019 is on a different level, mass immigration from poor countries with very different cultures. It's fine to quote a 2014 study that says positive things about second generation immigrants, but this isn't 2014 any more. When Britain was largely ethnically homogenous, we could convince ourselves that we were a civic nation based on any nonsense we liked as 'British values'. It just didn't matter. But that is less and less true: look at those protests against Israel we have had since the Oct 7 massacre, you may not like the term hate marches, but that is what many of us see. I am increasingly pessimistic about the future of this country. Is there any limit on immigration that you would agree with? Or is the future Yookay aesthetics all the way?
It's not just 2014, it's data going all the way up to 2025. Plus, many parts of the UK were already quite ethnically diverse in 2014.
Anyway, most immigration before 2010 was non-EU (averaging 300k a year) primarily Africa and Asia, then it was mostly EU until 2016 (averaging 300k a year) and then it back to being mostly non-EU (averaging 200k a year until 2021).
So, "mass immigration from poor countries with very different cultures" was already happening.
The "protests against Israel" were, nationally, were also attended in large part by white British people.
Anyway, my comment has nothing to do with "limit on immigration", it was about UK-born minorities.
Moreover, the fact that young people are choosing Greens and Liberal Democrats (including young white British people who think similarly of immigration as young non-white-British people) actually makes me optimistic. We should rejoin the EU as it was supported by most people under 40, the actual future of this country.
In general, this seems like Boomer angst at a changing country. Not only that, but it was Boomers who voted in the Conservatives who tripled immigration after 2019, and voted for Brexit which lead to a switch from EU to non-EU migration.
oh please don’t do the ok boomer thing here, I’m embarrassed for you. You’re not in the West Wing and nor am I. Brexit was a vote for lower immigration and we got a massive increase. I don’t care about austerity I’m a single issue voter, lower immigration.
Brexit was a stupid vote that ruined the economy and increased immigration. I'm embarrassed for you that you think your ideas are relevant to the future of this country. We don't want your Conservative-Reform nonsense. We are turning to the Liberal Democrats and Greens because it is best for the country and we will rejoin the EU once you're less electorally relevant (likely by 2040). Stop dragging us down.
The obvious point to make is the first two problems don't compound each other. The second helps mitigate the first. Now we can argue about the exact make up of immigration, and of course it has been unusually high over the past four years,(it has now halved from peak). But surely it simply has to be the case that in order to avoid the dire consequences of an aging society - given no country has found a policy route to boosting birth rates - we need a reasonable level of annual legal migration? A fair bit higher than the historical average, because of the demographics.
Japan and Korea have visa upped numbers from a historically low base. Italy, even under Meloni, is upping numbers. It seems to me the right here just want to ignore this trade off, or pretend it can be resolved through pro-natalist policies.
You make some good economic arguments and shed light on some very interesting and useful statistics. Unfortunately you undermine your arguments through a few of your other points.
Firstly you discuss the percentage of white British children in schools and link this to culture. What does ethnicity have to do with culture? This is a weak argument.
Secondly, your discussion on slavery sounds poorly informed and unbalanced, and you dismiss it too easily. Far too little of slavery is taught in schools. Perhaps this would create a more balanced sentiment.
Overall this was a good article but I hope you reflect on these points.
No. Conservatives signed the Hindu Manifesto and Reform have kicked out Rupert Lowe for being too right-wing. In the meantime, the youth are turning to Greens (25%) while Reform remain unpopular among young people (8%) according to YouGov.
Gosh what a gloomy article! Let us celebrate that people are living longer, that we live in a country with one of the largest economies in the world, a country that people will risk their lives to get into.
Yes, the country and the world is changing - it always has.
No, I mean they'll be a continuation. Nigel Farage is a Thatcherite, and Peter Hitchens was right to call Reform UK a "Thatcher tribute band". When you consider "net zero migration" under her premiership, it was averaging net 50k non-EU migration, net 0k EU migration and net -50k British migration every year. When Nigel Farage says he'd be a conservative in the 1990s, he means it.
Ugh. I'm glad you're trying to think about this stuff, but if your diagnosis of Britain begins with "it's too woke", then you're starting off on the wrong foot. You know how you pointed out that Britain's institutions aren't positive towards young people? An MP writing to criticise rap performances is pretty emblematic of that negativity.
Please focus your attention away from the culture wars and to the substantive stuff later in your essay.
This is really very good, Neil. Feel very grateful to have you as a friend of the podcast.
Interesting you bemoan our falling fertility rate and labour’s cancellation of the two child benefit. Surely young couples today need incentives to rally the birth rate? They can’t afford rent let alone a baby. Struggling couples aren’t going to make the best parents - they’ll be stressed out and pass that stress to their kids leading to more mental health problems. If politicians don’t bolster young British couples now, the UK will become a land of asylum seekers
I said British couples as an inclusive term for all settled brits. He suggested it was becoming an island full of immigrants/asylum seekers. I’m using his terms. You don’t know me so stop projecting your negative views on me
Less than 5% of immigration is asylum seekers. Anyway, I'm not sure how happy Neil will be about "young British couples" having children when he bemoans British-born children of being a different ethnicity. By suggesting you have to be white to be British, you only make more young people feel the UK is racist.
Just spitballing here from the other side of the Ocean…
1. Require every able bodied person to work after a reasonable temporary transition period.
2. Stop all illegal immigration and forcibly deport every person in UK that doesn’t belong.
3. Deport any person/family of a legal immigrant living off public funds.
4. Require 100% of immigrants to speak fluent English and have either a college degree and/or a job offer. Then triple the taxes on that person and their employer to fund pensions and welfare programs for native Brits.
5. Change taxes so that singles and those with one child fund their own pensions and retirement. Basically, not having 2 or more kids needs to be both socially and economically painful.
6. Drop the green energy insanity and drill and import low cost energy.
7. Create special economic zones with minimal regulation (other than allowing immigrants) to attract and create new entrepreneurial talent.
These steps, and others like them would be extremely painful. However, I would suggest the alternative will be incomparably worse. From this side of the Atlantic, I can’t imagine the UK avoiding either complete collapse or civil war in the very near future. And I am an optimist.
You forget that most of the "immigrants" and their descendants in the article are British citizens.
? If they can’t deport them, then most of the other points still apply. Point is that the UK needs to get serious about reform and soon, or whoever crawls out of the rubble will do it for them.
As a side note, Europe should have figured out ways to get immigrants from Central America decades ago (instead of people from the Mideast). They make much better immigrants.
Firstly, very few immigrants in the UK are from the Middle East. Secondly, the USA is literally deporting immigrants from Central Asia. Thirdly, British citizens are all equal, so the other points about immigrants don't apply.
I believe the point is to incentivize work and not being on the dole from government. That, quit incentivizing not working.
I'm legitimately surprised this was written by an MP.
It's heartening to know there are people that actually care about the bigger issues.
I don’t agree with the entirety, but there is a lot of reasonable analysis here, particularly on the impacts of demographics. I guess the question is, do you have clear policy proposals that would make a difference? I think most would agree that it would be a good thing for more people to find fulfilling work and homes, a positive feeling about our country and the future, and both *want* to have families and feel able to do so - but what are the changes you’d propose to encourage that to happen?
A depressing article that makes some valid points. However, I think it misses a big one: how the sky high costs of energy are crippling the UKs economy. There is no chance of re-industrialisation until energy costs come down.
Good article. I believe the key problem can be summed up in two paragraphs.
For 150+ years every generation lived with the knowledge that overall the world was improving for them and thus their children and grandchildren. While there were always huge challenges, world wars, famines, pandemics, economic ups and downs, the overall feeling was that "my children and their children will live in a better world".
This is no longer the case. Young people have been brainwashed into the belief that there is so much wrong with them, the world, their country, the environment, etc.... that the future can only be an even worse version of today.
No wonder they have very few children, feel like they can't be bothered to work, and struggle to have the hope in the future required to be entrepreneurial.
Unfortunately I don't see a solution, if anyone knows of books that describe a way forward then I'd be curious to read them.
This is a book mate ! Not a comment
I disagree with you
We can turn this country around by stopping all benefits to foreigners and stop free housing.
They will self deport !!!!!’
Yes we will have problems but we will cope and rebuild our economy; it’s a busted flush !!
With more housing it will be easier to start a family!!!!
It’s bloody simple!’
Living std have dropped due to mass migration!!!!’
Do the maths!!!
Can you do the research to realise Covid was real?
Why don’t you????!!
The vax is the killer
Wow.
Obsessing over ethnicity and you’re surprised young people think the UK is racist?
Anyway, are you also going to show the stats that young white British are more likely to be NEETs than other young ethnic groups after they finish school?
https://social-mobility.data.gov.uk/intermediate_outcomes/routes_into_work_(16_to_29_years)/destinations_following_the_end_of_compulsory_full-time_education
UK-born: “45% of the white British are in professional and managerial jobs compared with around 60% for Chinese and Hindu Indians, 55% for Sikh Indians and 51% for black Africans” according to David Goodhart's research
“In 2021, 51% of junior doctors and 41% of consultants were non-White (excluding those with unknown ethnicity). This compares with 20% of the English working-age population.”
University entry rates: “biggest increase in the entry rate was for black people, from 21.6% to 50.6% the smallest increase was for white people, from 21.8% to 32.2%”
Also, nearly 100% of British-born minorities identify as British: https://ibb.co/ks5zkVnX
Social mobility is highest in London, especially diverse parts with lots of social housing, like Tower Hamlets.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/15/london-dominates-englands-social-mobility-league-with-top-20-places
The UK is the only European country where second-generation immigrants outperform natives in education.
That’s not to mention 100% language proficiency.
This is why young people by and large don’t like Conservatives or Reform (a grand combined total of 20% of the youth vote according to YouGov). The racism is frankly disgusting.
The UK is actually the best country in Europe in integration of native-born racial minorities. No other European country compares when it comes to education, employment, language proficiency and national identity.
These were good arguments a decade ago. But the rate of demographic change since 2019 is on a different level, mass immigration from poor countries with very different cultures. It's fine to quote a 2014 study that says positive things about second generation immigrants, but this isn't 2014 any more. When Britain was largely ethnically homogenous, we could convince ourselves that we were a civic nation based on any nonsense we liked as 'British values'. It just didn't matter. But that is less and less true: look at those protests against Israel we have had since the Oct 7 massacre, you may not like the term hate marches, but that is what many of us see. I am increasingly pessimistic about the future of this country. Is there any limit on immigration that you would agree with? Or is the future Yookay aesthetics all the way?
It's not just 2014, it's data going all the way up to 2025. Plus, many parts of the UK were already quite ethnically diverse in 2014.
Anyway, most immigration before 2010 was non-EU (averaging 300k a year) primarily Africa and Asia, then it was mostly EU until 2016 (averaging 300k a year) and then it back to being mostly non-EU (averaging 200k a year until 2021).
https://ibb.co/MDzqW6fb
So, "mass immigration from poor countries with very different cultures" was already happening.
The "protests against Israel" were, nationally, were also attended in large part by white British people.
Anyway, my comment has nothing to do with "limit on immigration", it was about UK-born minorities.
Moreover, the fact that young people are choosing Greens and Liberal Democrats (including young white British people who think similarly of immigration as young non-white-British people) actually makes me optimistic. We should rejoin the EU as it was supported by most people under 40, the actual future of this country.
https://unherd.com/newsroom/is-immigration-really-making-britons-more-left-wing/
In general, this seems like Boomer angst at a changing country. Not only that, but it was Boomers who voted in the Conservatives who tripled immigration after 2019, and voted for Brexit which lead to a switch from EU to non-EU migration.
Yes, so you're a fan of the Yookay.
Yes, you're a fan of Brexit and austerity which lead to that phenomenon. Okay, Boomer.
oh please don’t do the ok boomer thing here, I’m embarrassed for you. You’re not in the West Wing and nor am I. Brexit was a vote for lower immigration and we got a massive increase. I don’t care about austerity I’m a single issue voter, lower immigration.
Brexit was a stupid vote that ruined the economy and increased immigration. I'm embarrassed for you that you think your ideas are relevant to the future of this country. We don't want your Conservative-Reform nonsense. We are turning to the Liberal Democrats and Greens because it is best for the country and we will rejoin the EU once you're less electorally relevant (likely by 2040). Stop dragging us down.
The obvious point to make is the first two problems don't compound each other. The second helps mitigate the first. Now we can argue about the exact make up of immigration, and of course it has been unusually high over the past four years,(it has now halved from peak). But surely it simply has to be the case that in order to avoid the dire consequences of an aging society - given no country has found a policy route to boosting birth rates - we need a reasonable level of annual legal migration? A fair bit higher than the historical average, because of the demographics.
Japan and Korea have visa upped numbers from a historically low base. Italy, even under Meloni, is upping numbers. It seems to me the right here just want to ignore this trade off, or pretend it can be resolved through pro-natalist policies.
You make some good economic arguments and shed light on some very interesting and useful statistics. Unfortunately you undermine your arguments through a few of your other points.
Firstly you discuss the percentage of white British children in schools and link this to culture. What does ethnicity have to do with culture? This is a weak argument.
Secondly, your discussion on slavery sounds poorly informed and unbalanced, and you dismiss it too easily. Far too little of slavery is taught in schools. Perhaps this would create a more balanced sentiment.
Overall this was a good article but I hope you reflect on these points.
Ethnicity has everything to do with culture (see the Rotherham grooming gangs for further details).
As to slavery: the degree of flagellation is both unnecessary and self defeating.
Spoken like a true white nationalist, congrats.
Why complement the man ?
I take that as a compliment - thank you!
Absolutely brilliant work Neil. Thank you. 🙏
Remigration. Let's start talking about it in parliament not just on the Internet. It is the only way forward.
No
Yes.
No. Conservatives signed the Hindu Manifesto and Reform have kicked out Rupert Lowe for being too right-wing. In the meantime, the youth are turning to Greens (25%) while Reform remain unpopular among young people (8%) according to YouGov.
Gosh what a gloomy article! Let us celebrate that people are living longer, that we live in a country with one of the largest economies in the world, a country that people will risk their lives to get into.
Yes, the country and the world is changing - it always has.
Spot the boomer
Boomers are the ones voting for Conservatives and Reform
Reform is the only sensible alternative to the blob/ uniparty
Ah yes, Tories 2.0
If you mean inheritors to the most successful political franchise in history then yes absolutely
No, I mean they'll be a continuation. Nigel Farage is a Thatcherite, and Peter Hitchens was right to call Reform UK a "Thatcher tribute band". When you consider "net zero migration" under her premiership, it was averaging net 50k non-EU migration, net 0k EU migration and net -50k British migration every year. When Nigel Farage says he'd be a conservative in the 1990s, he means it.
Not all of us are quite so addled.