Increasingly obvious that concern over immigration is entirely tied to small boat numbers. Falls in legal migration making zero difference to the narrative.
Replies
It is probably tied to news media stories about it too, both direct reports and the platforming of the "legitimate concerns" rather than the violence at anti-immigrant protests.
aug 23, 2025, 7:07 am • 1 0 • view
PLEASE tell Farridge supporters
aug 23, 2025, 8:10 am • 0 0 • view
You assume people believe the Home Office figures on legal migration. It is widely distrusted. Even if they are accurate many will not believe them.
aug 23, 2025, 7:51 am • 1 0 • view
Just so we’re clear, “stop the boats” *really* means “no brown people ever under any circumstance” If Labour did the impossible & the crossings stopped tomorrow, do you think these people would stop??
aug 23, 2025, 7:01 am • 22 0 • view
No, they would not stop. They will force people to leave. Once that’s done, they will start with trade unionists, with members of other political parties, then they will start a war, probably against Ireland in the first phase. Does it sound familiar?
aug 23, 2025, 10:02 am • 3 0 • view
The whole "small boats" hysteria is media driven The preoccupation of a few cranks
aug 23, 2025, 7:03 am • 14 0 • view
Not entirely. The three main political parties are obsessed with small boats. It's a vicious circle.
aug 23, 2025, 7:19 am • 2 0 • view
Well, sure it's a bit of a feedback loop but I think the driver is the ridiculous media ecosystem This is also true of the States top There is a common denominator
aug 23, 2025, 7:24 am • 4 0 • view
It is clearly an issue that voters care about- if you look on social media that normal people use (e.g Facebook groups, TikTok, insta) it is everywhere- BBC radio runs bulletins on it every hour
aug 23, 2025, 7:53 am • 1 0 • view
I think it is easy for people like us to think that if Labour didn’t say anything then people would not care- but the U.K. is a country that has long held reactionary views on migration and this issue is really designed in a worse possible way to annoy voters
aug 23, 2025, 7:54 am • 0 0 • view
Unless the BBC change their narrative, we're all going to endure this tale for eternity. It's just so so tiresome.
aug 23, 2025, 12:35 pm • 0 0 • view
You’re too charitable - the media knows this distinction, and could easily provide some balance, but choose not to because they want right wingers returned to office.
aug 23, 2025, 7:05 am • 2 0 • view
Isn’t it much more likely that it correlates with media attention, given that polling shows most people have an astonishingly poor grasp of the numbers?
aug 23, 2025, 7:06 am • 9 0 • view
Corrected for you: Increasingly obvious that concern over immigration is entirely tied to media-confected outrage and blind hatred.
aug 24, 2025, 6:10 am • 2 0 • view
Public broadcasters and the media have failed at their core role of informing the public of the correct facts. bsky.app/profile/sund...
aug 23, 2025, 7:30 am • 1 0 • view
Isn't that because those leading the 'concern' about immigration don't want to actually talk about the significant increases in official immigration post Brexit since 2020?
aug 23, 2025, 7:02 am • 1 0 • view
If it's wasn't small boats it'd be something else with that small but very vocal crowd, guaranteed
aug 23, 2025, 8:43 am • 1 0 • view
I think we can all work out what it is they really don't like.
aug 23, 2025, 12:36 pm • 1 0 • view
It could be that or it could be that it's detached from reality and is driven by something else.
aug 23, 2025, 8:08 am • 1 0 • view
Immigration has fallen but it is still high and the public are still seeing the effects of immigration being over million arrivals for years
aug 23, 2025, 7:47 am • 0 0 • view
Constantly headlines in the news. And the protestors turning up at hotels draped in England flags… very obvious what they are.
aug 23, 2025, 7:17 am • 2 0 • view
At this point that its got to be worth trying increasing the number of safe and legal routes. This would almost certainly reduce the numbers arriving on small boats and remove the visuals that the press love.
aug 23, 2025, 7:08 am • 4 0 • view
It’s even more increasingly obvious that “concern” is being whipped up by media hysteria, and further fuelled by the inflamatory words and behaviour of Farage, Jenrick et al. And the government running scared isn’t helping one bit.
aug 23, 2025, 9:45 am • 1 0 • view
It has nothing to do with any numbers to be clear. It’s due to the major parties legitimising people’s latent racism with their “legitimate concerns” nonsense.
aug 23, 2025, 7:26 am • 4 1 • view
The "concerned" would have no idea of the numbers.
aug 23, 2025, 7:17 am • 1 0 • view
Disagree. Concern over immigration is entirely tied to prominence of immigration-related scare stories in the media. Correlation of latter with numbers of small boats or any other quantifiable phenomenon is uncertain and variable.
aug 23, 2025, 8:04 am • 2 1 • view
1,000 interviewed face to face in their own homes . Random choice ….near neighbours ? Scattered few across UK ?
aug 23, 2025, 7:07 am • 1 0 • view
That’s because of the media and Labour’s poor communications.
aug 23, 2025, 7:00 am • 4 0 • view
This has been entirely manufactured. Even the BBC will introduce a piece about overall immigration numbers with footage of small boats in the channel… 🤬
aug 23, 2025, 7:00 am • 7 0 • view
Not sure why I expect any better from the BBC to be honest!
aug 23, 2025, 7:01 am • 3 0 • view
I no longer do. Seriously now looking at withholding license fee.
aug 23, 2025, 7:40 am • 2 0 • view
As I said multiple times, but polling expert James Johnson said otherwise
aug 23, 2025, 8:40 am • 0 0 • view
A more depressing possibility is that it’s tied to the existing diversity of the UK population.
aug 23, 2025, 7:16 am • 3 0 • view
I’m not sure. Would a corresponding fall in small boat numbers make a difference? I doubt it.
aug 23, 2025, 7:58 am • 0 0 • view
Increasingly difficult to understand why Starmer doesn’t refute the narrative that all migrants are bad. He could take a leaf out of Corbyn’s book and speak about humanity.
aug 23, 2025, 7:06 am • 1 0 • view
That suggests that Starmer has some sort of ability to change the debate or mood but if he did we’d not be here. It’s pretty difficult with small boats because any gov needs to show it has control of borders - and being unable to do so is not a good look generally.
aug 23, 2025, 7:43 am • 0 0 • view
It isn't even tied to small boat *numbers*. Nobody who is getting their knickers in a knot about small boats is paying the slightest attention to actual data. They are only paying attention to perception, vibes, and whatever the right wing media tell them to be angry about.
aug 23, 2025, 7:27 am • 6 0 • view
Unfortunately that has worked extremely well for the right wing in recent years – relentless negative emotional bias that overwhelms considered, rational thought
aug 23, 2025, 9:08 pm • 1 0 • view
While I would agree that if small boats crossings stopped tomorrow the issue would clearly diminish, it’s also true that the 2024 net figures are substantially higher than even recent the historical average.
aug 23, 2025, 7:15 am • 2 0 • view
It wouldn’t be inconsistent for someone who is upset at net migration going to 800k from 200k to say 400k is still too high.
aug 23, 2025, 7:15 am • 1 0 • view
Yes but concern is going up and the numbers are falling. It doesn't make sense to be more concerned about 400k net migration than 900k.
aug 23, 2025, 7:20 am • 2 0 • view
I think that’s a plausible reading, but alternatively you could say “the real concern is that it didn’t jump to 900k and then fall back to 200k or less. It’s still running at way above average and maybe this is the long term trend”
aug 23, 2025, 7:26 am • 1 0 • view
That is a level of sophistication I can't say I've noticed in focus groups and survey returns.
aug 23, 2025, 7:32 am • 2 0 • view
But the majority of people think that overall net migration has risen over the past year - hardly anyone thinks that it has fallen. bsky.app/profile/sund...
aug 23, 2025, 9:54 am • 1 0 • view
I suspect if small boats went away, the concern level would drop but would settle higher than it was before.
aug 23, 2025, 7:26 am • 1 0 • view
As I say, small boats are clearly the most salient aspect and that isn’t surprising, people really don’t like the idea that the gov can’t control the border.
aug 23, 2025, 7:18 am • 1 0 • view
Plus the “asylum hotels” discourse
aug 23, 2025, 9:45 am • 1 0 • view
The issue has been caused solely by the media on optics rather than the substantive issue. Then Reform and some Tories get on the band wagon for cheap political reasons.
aug 23, 2025, 7:14 am • 1 0 • view
Challenge is that because "legal" migration is nett still very, very high historically & mainly non EU & compounding - no one sees or feels a change. Therefore I suspect not much political capital is gained. However suspect if it wasn't coming down there would be further political capital loss.
aug 23, 2025, 8:14 am • 1 0 • view
Concern over immigration has zero to do with any numbers. It's based on emotion, not data.
aug 23, 2025, 10:27 am • 2 0 • view
The more sensible Reform people I speak to will say it’s only illegal immigration they care about and they’ve no issues with those working or studying. But then the sensible Brexit people I spoke to said it was about sovereignty so…
aug 23, 2025, 8:47 am • 0 0 • view
But I guarantee that if Labour stopped all small boat arrivals, but regular migration went up, the media would then fixate on it and the public would follow their lead Labour halved net migration to 431,000, those figures includes small boat crossings and it's barely mentioned in the press
aug 23, 2025, 7:19 am • 3 2 • view
The concern is so great because almost all of the mass audience media have consistently failed to report the issue in a balanced way, but have instead set or followed the rightwing narrative.
aug 23, 2025, 7:22 am • 1 0 • view
Be interesting to see polling to see how many people know about the big falls in legal migration. It has not got much coverage compare with small boats coverage which feels never ending.
aug 23, 2025, 7:04 am • 2 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/sund...
aug 23, 2025, 9:55 am • 0 0 • view
It's tied to media reporting of small boats. The majority of people think that illegal immigration via small boats makes up most of immigration to the country. The real figure is about 5%.
aug 23, 2025, 7:05 am • 7 0 • view
A handy conflation for those who want 'illegal' immigration to be top of the agenda all the time
aug 23, 2025, 9:06 pm • 0 0 • view
I do wonder if the govt should permit asylum applications from overseas or have a system of allowing legal routes to claim asylum here (for political reasons as much as safety and fairness). Would reduce small boat crossings and introduce a sense of order / fairness even if asylum numbers go up
aug 23, 2025, 7:55 am • 0 0 • view
So the obsession with numbers is bollocks. What this is really about is racism led by Far Right fascists.
aug 23, 2025, 11:54 pm • 0 0 • view