Head North and The Case for Open Borders
I discuss the books I read this month - from Andy Burnham & Steve Rotherham’s 'Head North' to John Washington’s 'The Case for Open Borders'.
I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of Green Party MP Caroline Lucas’s upcoming book Another England, which will be released on the 18th of April. I have always been interested in Lucas, the first and only Green Party MP. With the current lack of proportional representation, and her stepping down at the next election, she may be the only Green MP for quite some time. So she’s certainly an interesting political case study.
In Another England, Lucas makes the case that progressives, rather than shy away from talking about ‘Englishness’ due to fear of being portrayed as the typical bald headed, overweight pub goer with racist tendencies, we need to portray an image of, as the title suggests, another England. An England that welcomes the vulnerable with open arms, doesn’t shy away from talking about the darkness in our history and champions bold progressive policies to improve people's lives and stave off the climate disaster.
Whilst I agree with the basic premise that the left, or anyone for that matter, shouldn’t feel ashamed to be English just because some racists like to wave the St George’s flag, I did find the book to be somewhat underdeveloped. At times it reads as if instead of focusing on the parts of English history that are currently broadly focused on, we should instead focus on the parts of English history that Lucas prefers.
Now, I’ll be the first to agree that it is important we talk more about, and learn more at school about, say the darkness of colonialism and England’s role in the slave trade. But I feel as if Lucas, instead of focusing on this, spends too much time referencing old English literature to portray parts of English history she prefers we’d talk about.
Listen, this could be entirely unfair. I could well have misinterpreted what she was trying to do. I do agree that the left shouldn’t be afraid of talking about Englishness. But maybe I thought that’d go without saying. I did also find Lucas’s talk about further devolution and of a potential future ‘Kingdom of England’, after Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland leave the United Kingdom interesting. I feel as if the book is at its strongest when talking about issues like this. I also think it’s an interesting approach to take, to look back at lots of English literature to try and help paint this portrait of this ‘other’ England the left should present.
That being said, although I enjoyed reading the book, and I don't disagree with its broader message - for me, Lucas doesn’t quite stick the landing.
Another book that I found more appealing was Andy Burnham (Mayor of Greater Manchester) and Steve Rotherham’s (Mayor of the Liverpool City Region) Head North. Part autobiography, part manifesto for bursting the Westminster bubble and spreading investment and opportunity more equally across the nation, the book makes a well reasoned and thoughtful, yet interesting and engaging case. It’s no secret that investment and resources are vastly concentrated in London and the South East and Burnham and Rotherham make a very compelling case for a more just distribution of resources, investment and opportunity. You shouldn’t have to move down South to get by.
Not only is the case compelling and the argument hard to disagree with - the book also shines when Burnham and Rotherham detail their respective and equally interesting political careers so far - from getting to Parliament and in Burnham’s case rising to lead governmental departments - to deciding to walk away from Westminster to build something new. A new way of doing politics. Although I enjoyed the book in its entirety, Burnhams recounting of his response to the Manchester Arena terror attack of 2017, which happened just two weeks into his term highlights the power of a mayor to lead its region through indescribably difficult times. Rotherham also made a very convincing case for the need to build more social housing. Sure, it's an ambitious, wide-reaching book - but it more than pulls it off.
But parking the brilliant Head North aside - really I think it's one of the best books I've read for a while - one thing Lucas discusses in Another England, the need to treat immigrants with more humanity, is a central tenet of John Washington’s The Case for Open Borders.
Whilst the book was interesting and helped me see the issue of immigration from a different perspective I’m not entirely sure the tenets Washington discusses are particularly applicable, especially in a country as small as the UK. Sure, the US is gigantic and could theoretically take in a substantially higher percentage of immigrants. But I’m not entirely sure the same applies in the UK, a nation with a noticeably higher population density than the US, or even Germany or France.
Nonetheless, I do appreciate Washington’s case and certainly agree it is important that states treat refugees with decency and compassion and take in as many fleeing war torn countries as they possibly can. Especially in the context of a weak, rudderless and unelected PM in Sunak pouring never ending amounts of cash down the drain to try and send a handful of people to Rwanda.
Furthermore, although the mistreatment of some migrants that Washington highlights is shocking - I am not sure it makes open borders a moral imperative. I'm not sure scrapping borders would really be much of a silver bullet, at least not in nations with relatively high population density. Sure, you may be removing some problems, but could you not be creating others?
Nonetheless, I find Washington’s point interesting that it's wrong to deny someone the right to immigrate to a country which you were lucky enough to be born in - but through no doing of your own. Like who are we to deny someone else the right to live in the UK - something that we have by and large acquired through no doing of our own? I also found it interesting to learn that the average migrant actually boosts the economy and adds more than they take. I think this fact is ignored or silenced by certain elements in the mainstream media.
In conclusion, here are three books I enjoyed reading. Head North was particularly interesting and is certainly the standout of the three. I would recommend it to anyone. That being said the other two were still certainly worthwhile reads. If anything they opened my mind to some different and interesting perspectives. And at the end of the day - that is the key to a good bit of non-fiction.
Thanks to the respective publishers for the review copies. Another England will be released on April 18. Head North and The Case for Open Borders are available now.
I've found Sam Harris' thoughts on immigration to be the best description of the problem in general. Like you say in your second to last paragraph, we're all lucky to have been born here in the US or any developed country (for those of us who were) and who are we to keep other people out? But at a certain point it's kind of a "life raft" situation where we can only absorb so many problems from the surrounding world before it starts to hurt us. There are also other topics that affect how many people we can admit, such as the housing shortages in general.
In the most extreme case of totally open borders, Sam argues in the first clip below that basically the general well-being of people in the US would drop to basically the "average" level of the world's problems because anyone living in a country with slightly worse living conditions would want to immigrate here until there's not much difference between the issues they're fleeing and the quality of life in the US. I personally find this fairly compelling
It's also sort of similar to the Peter Singer version of effective altruism where you give everything away and are living like a poor nomad because your money could be spent saving lives. I think this isn't actually the best or most sustainable way to help humanity in the long run. Another analogy is put your own oxygen mask on first in the plane before you help others
The second clip has a few other of Sam's thoughts. He's spoken more completely on this topic on his podcast, but I can't remember which episodes and I can't find them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0xMdm4_-dM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDL6JIkdqyU
Hey Cody hope you're well.
Thanks for your thoughts as ever. I must admit to writing the piece with a UK centric view. I read Washington describe how the entire global population could fit in Texas - and especially when he paired it with how immigrants add more to economies than they take, thought larger nations like the US could and perhaps should take in more immigrants. That being said - I haven't studied the effects of mass migration enough to speak with a greater level of authority - so maybe it would impact the quality of life of residents? On that I am unsure. Thanks again for your thoughts - always good to hear your perspective.