“Strangers on an island” - a personal reflection

Keir Starmer suggested this week that migration levels were causing us to become “strangers on an island”. My personal experience is somewhat different.

I was born in 1970 in Cardiff. The infants and junior schools I went to – Roath Park - had a healthy contingent of Pakistanis, Ugandan refugees, Italians and Poles. No Yugoslavs – for some reason they went to the neighbouring school.

In Year 3 my best mate “S” was Pakistani. We didn’t think anything of it. Later in junior school “G” used to scare the life out of me by telling me about getting caned in madrassa. We were still all friends.

When I went up to Howardian comprehensive there was an even more significant number of Pakistanis. I got on with them, they got on with me.

About 2 months into year 7 a new phenomenon arrived on our school grounds in the form of the “Anti Paki League” – skinheads who enjoyed beating people up, and found racism to be a wonderful excuse for indulging in their hobby.

And they did, they beat the Pakistani boys up – until they fought back with the aid of their elder brothers, quite spectacularly.

By that time “G” was so desperate to have an acceptable identity to cling to he’d decided that he was a Rasta and wore red, black and green sweatbands to prove it.

That didn’t last long. All except one or two decided that they’d had enough of white boys. It didn’t matter that the “Anti Paki League”also dished out several beatings to me.

Who frankly could blame them? They’d been put in their box, so we could stay very much out of it thanks.

Meeting them on the streets years later and saying “Hello” would get “What do you want?” back at me.

I didn’t and don’t blame them.

This is how we become strangers in a strange land – by picking on people for difference until they decide that OK – if that’s what you want, we’ll just be all the way different, and hang out solely with people who look and act like us. That’s how you produce disintegration – I’ve seen it.

That’s what I’d say to Sir Keir if I had the chance.*

*To write everything I think about this would take a week, so this is purely personal rather than an academic response.