For example, in the 1950s people would have been appalled by the idea of mass immigration. In 2023, it is at the root of many of the UK's most significant problems: the housing crisis, the collapsing NHS, the destruction of the high trust society, the shattering of British identity into dozens of cultural enclaves.
There is no honourable way to undo the mass immigration that has already happened. However, we can radically reduce it.
At the current immigration rate, it is simply impossible for the rate of cultural integration to keep pace with the the rate of influx. At vastly reduced rates of immigration, our society would have space amd time to forge a new British identity.
We have made choices that have proven themselves destructive, but it's not too late to revisit those mistakes, and then build anew from the ashes of the current decade.
Refugee laws were written a hundred years ago when there were frequent wars in Europe that would displace non-combattent women and children. They didn't have much option to go far beyond a neighbouring country and would likely go back home after the war was over.
Our current system of laws requires us to host any refugee or immigrant from anywhere in the world on a permanent basis.
There is no way this is sustainable economically, and much less so culturally.
The government could fix this instantly, but they choose not to.
1) Massively build out social housing
2) Stop tax incentives, part ownership and other house buying incentives
3) Tax empty houses like in Switzerland, Germany etc etc
4) Crackdown on use of house purchases for money laundering by Saudi princes, Russian oligarchs, corrupt Chinese Communist Party officials, South American drug cartel bosses etc etc
The sub-replacement birthrate is a reason Britain sucks in immigrants like a vacuum cleaner. The English don't make babies, and when they do, they murder them in the womb. The immigration is the only thing stopping Britain turning into one big ghost town.
A huge segment of the migrant flow comes with basically no skills, and is immediately dependant of the welfare system. The migration we are currently experiencing is a net negative for the UK
Even just having reached adulthood and attained secondary-school level education makes you a capable worker that the country they migrate to has had to do nothing to support until that point. Any small amount of extra investment to ensure they learn the language and obtain employable-skills on top of that is virtually always going to pay off.
(*) including my Dad, who came here as a 10 pound pom!