Writing in the summer months should be light-hearted, tackling subjects like the size of the marrows in the annual Village Fete, one’s recollections of, or lack of, attendance at one of the many festivals, either musical or book-related, or even, if you’re of a certain age or persuasion, at one of the many summer Scouts Camps. The 16th World Scout Jamboree Parade was held this year in the Portuguese city of Porto. Or, of course, of one’s memories of taking part in the 2025 Fastnet Race.
Recently two pieces in The Times prompted this postcard, inevitably a little more serious than posting a selfie on Instagram of you and your friends at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (1st – 25th August). One was the personal view of the United Kingdom by author Lionel Shriver who has moved abroad and the other The Sunday Times’ survey of 2,113 British adults (excluding Northern Ireland), carried out by More in Common between 22nd and 24th July.
It’s fashionable at the moment to be critical of Britain, not where it stands in the world, but of the mess that our society, you and me, us, are perceived to be in.
I remember reading Lionel Shriver’s 2003 book ‘We Need to Tak About Kevin’, a fictional story of a school massacre in the United States, written from the first-person perspective of the teenage killer’s mother. It was Shriver’s seventh novel, won the 2005 Orange prize and was made into a film in 2011. I have read a number of Shriver’s other novels; some I’ve liked and some I’ve found hard going.
Lionel Shriver’s piece started: “An American based in the UK for 36 years, in 2023 I absconded to Portugal (She’s aged 68). So how dismal does Britain look from a distance? I’m still emotionally and politically enmeshed in British affairs. But my personal fate is no longer joined at the hip with the increasingly distressing fate of the UK.” Nice huh! Diving straight in!
The easy target for anyone concerns the levels of immigration, legal and illegal, and the way the state meets its humanitarian obligations. The current Labour Government won last year’s General Election with a promise to ‘stop the small boats’; so far, they have failed miserably! This tide of humanity, mainly but not exclusively single men aged 18-30, has been washing up on the Kent shore for some years, increasing year-on-year; so far this year 28,000 have made the crossing. Every shade of the political spectrum claims to have an answer, but so far the stream continues unabated.
Shriver continues:
“Small boats and sky-high legal immigration will continue to wreak demographic havoc. This change is permanent. Millions of immigrants from clashing traditions will bring only more of their friends and families.”
If you look at the projected demographic changes in European countries and the shifting burden of increasing pension provision onto a smaller workforce, most show their populations in decline; apart from Britain, due to net immigration! The trick will be to assimilate these immigrants into our society and no one seems to be very creative in this respect. We haven’t insisted, for instance, on immigrants learning English within a few years, as a prerequisite of citizenship; in some towns there are enclaves of people who arrived in the latter half of the last century, still unable to speak the language. Across the North Sea, potential Danish immigrants have to have proof of a certain income level, proficiency in speaking Danish, passing a citizenship test and integrating into society. This policy, introduced last year, has slowed the flow of potential immigrants to a trickle.
From the Times survey for ‘More in Common’, when asked the main reasons people crossed the Channel in small boats to get to the UK, voters agreed the government needs to crack down on the UK’s black market for labour and welfare payments. According to the poll, 54 per cent believed the most likely reason people came was to access the UK’s welfare system. This was followed by claims it was easier to gain asylum in the UK than elsewhere (49 per cent) and because they were fleeing conflict in other countries (37 per cent).
In one focus group, Peter, a dockyard manager from Plymouth, described Britain as a “soft touch” because as “soon as [migrants] land on our shores, they’re entitled to healthcare, food and a roof over their head. There won’t be many countries in the European nation[s] that will offer them that. I think we need to harden our borders and take advice maybe from America or Australia, which I appreciate. Seems harsh, but the country is on its knees.” He speaks for the silent majority.
Shriver followed up with: “Supposedly, a leading “British value” is “fair play”. So let’s talk about fairness. Amid an ever-escalating housing shortage, itself powered by mass immigration, your government uses your money to provide a free water-taxi service to your shores and to put up low-skilled, overwhelmingly male foreign citizens in four-star hotels. No one’s putting locals in free hotels.”
This sort of popularist comment is swallowed by the unquestioning masses. It’s recognised, for instance, that successive governments have failed to ensure sufficient houses are built to meet national demand; the current immigration crisis has simply exacerbated an already bad situation. Until their asylum application is processed, it’s perceived that these immigrants might make our streets unsafe. But, as Fraser Nelson says: “It chimes with what a great many Brits now believe. Poll after poll finds the public convinced that crime is getting far worse. The reality is different; NHS hospital data shows knife assaults last year fell to a 25-year low, with the number treated for violent assault close to half what it was in 2000. Crime surveys agree. By such measures our streets have seldom, if ever, been safer.”
I am as concerned as Shriver is when she writes: “Ten million working-age inhabitants are on benefits. Almost half of universal credit recipients need neither work nor look for work, and over a million are foreign-born.” If I understand it correctly, you can apply for benefits online, with no face-to-face meeting. Self-diagnosis? Absolute nonsense. A quick way to reduce this ridiculous figure would be to have face-to-face reviews; those who genuinely need support can be identified from those who are gaming the system.
Fraser Nation gives a final perspective. ‘Perhaps the ultimate sign of national confidence is the migration figures: not so much the arrivals, but the departures. Last year, just 77,000 Brits emigrated, the lowest since records began. Among those who remain, I like to think, are some who share my deeply unpopular belief: that in spite of our problems, this is an amazing country. And that now, more than ever, there is no better place in the world to call home.’
Richard 5th September 2025
Hove
PS Shriver makes the point that Portugal has an immigration backlog of over 400,000 cases.
PPS Jeremy Clackson’s column in last weekend’s Sunday Times was titled: ‘Britain is awful. But here’s why you shouldn’t leave.’ This made me smile: ‘Then there’s the problem of Europe’s unpredictability. One minute Portugal has the welcome mat out for Brits who wish to escape from the menace of Keir Starmer, but then they change their minds.’
PPPS The queue at Passport Control Lisbon Airport yesterday morning was enormous; 55 minutes? Almost Third World!!
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