Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
It's quite funny how immigration went from being the single biggest topic in the pre Referendum debate to the subject which no one really wanted to talk about once the No vote was secured. It goes back to that Will Self quote about not everyone who voted Leave being a racist, but all racists voted Leave which Mark Francois had so much trouble understanding. The votes of such people were courted by the likes of Farage in particular and Clive Lewis is not wrong in saying that, but I hope these quotes were not used in the contect of his leadership bid, because I feel Labour needs to move on from Brexit now.
I can't speak for the other 17 million people who voted to leave in the referendum but I am not a racist unless by that you include anyone who would like to see no further immigrants coming to the UK unless they have a pre-existing, verifiable job offer, based on a points system, so that we take in those who will be able to make a positive contribution, be they fruit pickers, brain surgeons, bus drivers or whatever else we need. The exception would be refugees from war-torn places like Syria with a cap on numbers as agreed within the U.N. like the VPRS scheme whereby each country pledges to take a set number over a period of time.

However I must add that, for me, that was a secondary reason for voting leave. The main reason by a country mile was the bloated, fat-cat, gravy train, inefficient, corrupt, bottomless money pit that the EU has become. Oh yes, the EU "generously" gives grants for infrastructure projects i.e some of our money back for projects which they approve! I am old enough to remember the Common Market and that worked well, but the pendulum has swung too far the other way now and as reform appears to be impossible, it's time to say goodbye I'm afraid.