Should anyone, to left or right, be in any doubt as to how hostile the current UK government is towards potential immigrants, check out this online test of knowledge of ‘Life in the UK’ https://lifeintheuktests.co.uk/life-in-the-uk-test/ and try doing it yourself.
Quite apart from the blatant neo-imperialist and pro-monarchy bias that pervades the test, it is obviously designed primarily to ensure that most candidates fail or (better) to deter them from even trying.
I was born in the UK and lived there for thirty years and like to think that I am fairly knowledgeable regarding its history and culture. I scored 20 out of 24 on this test. The pass mark is 18. God help you huddled masses if don’t know your ‘crown dependencies’ from your ‘overseas territories’!
Seriously. This test is shamefully and shamelessly ideological and racist and fundamentally flawed and unfair.
Anyone who still harbors a soft spot for Theresa May and feels sympathy for her in the self-inflicted Brexit pickle she now finds herself in would do well to remember that, as Home Secretary, she oversaw and entrenched this harsh immigration policy for six years. And those of you on the hand-wringing left who still pine for the ‘third way’ of Tony Blair should remember that it was Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett who first proposed introducing such a barrier to immigration in the paranoid aftermath of 9/11. Shame on both sides.
Globalization, which is the only viable way forward, cannot work unless freedom of trade and the international flow of capital are matched by an equal freedom regarding the global flow of labor and movement of people. Either you embrace both sides of the globalization equation and push both forwards with equal zest or you reject both and retreat like troglodytes into your heavily-armed protectionist caves.
The lop-sided middle way has brought us only to the bitter impasse we are all living through today. It is time for politicians on the liberal left to stop fudging the issue and hedging their bets and to be brutally honest about where they and we really stand.
Poetry, Politics and Language 
I fully appreciate that you are entitled to your opinion, but you clearly have no idea what life is like in the UK for every day people – call us working class if you so wish. People who struggle to find work, cannot feed their families or find somewhere affordable to live.
A population who are overlooked in preference for those new to the country.
No one doubts the need for immigration and the benefits this can bring to another county, but what has been ignored by many governments is the impact on the current population, overall sustainability and the willingness for people moving to another country, be it the United Kingdom, America or The Middle East to live according to the laws, language and culture of their new home.
Respect is a two way thing; lets see a little more of it across the world.
This mostly didn’t make sense to me.
My focus in this post was on a specific test, which, as a teacher of English who works with individuals wishing to study, work and live in the UK, I was deeply shocked by. I totally agree that both New Labour and Conservative governments have failed working class people in the UK and I understand their plight. However, it makes no sense to blame immigrants for this. Immigrants make up a vital part of the British working class and always have done.
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