I guess the hate crime epidemic that gripped Britain after Brexit hasn’t put that many people off, with new figures showing net migration of 273,000 in the three months to September 2016. That represents a decline of 49,000, of which 12,000 is due to an increase in eastern Europeans heading home (39,000, as opposed to 27,000 the previous year), which I imagine is less to do with any hostile atmosphere in Britain than the booming economy in Poland. No doubt that’s the way it will be presented, though – ‘Poles fleeing the Brexit terror’.
In my view, the Government is doing a lot of things wrong at the moment, chiefly its refusal to unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU citizens; I’d also invest a lot more in improving Brand Britain by making the country a friendlier place for visitors (also, increase the amount of time children have to be taught foreign language in school).
But the theory that Brexit transformed Britain from a multicultural paradise to a hate-state seem vastly exaggerated.
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