Il candidato riformista alle elezioni si rifiuta di rinnegare l’affermazione secondo cui le persone nate nel Regno Unito non sono necessariamente britanniche

I mean, objectively it is true. My son was born in the UK, but because I only had pre-settled status he didn’t get a British passport so he isn’t British despite being born in the UK.

My sister was born in Hong Kong. Guess what? She isn’t Chinese. 

I’m reminded of the Big Lebowski line of ‘you’re not wrong, you’re just an asshole’.

Are there a minority of people who are born in the UK, move to other countries, spend their lives there, have no real ties or cultural links to the UK other than a piece of paper? Yes, but a lot of them are the sons of diplomats, business people, army kids, that most people don’t have a problem putting British on their Wikipedia page.

Are there people born in the UK to radicalised parents who reject the UK, everything that it stands for, and raise them in such a manner that they have not integrated into wider society in a meaningful way? Also yes, but they are often still integrated into a more insular religious or ethnic community here in the UK, often a lot more than their ‘native’ counterparts.

Are there rich people pretending to be non-domiciled in the UK for tax purposes, avoiding the equal financial responsibilities while securing all of the benefits of being British? Also yes. They are often doing a lot more damage than lots of people who just want to be left alone. Can we start stripping some of their citizenship first?

Now, the obvious question then becomes, who decides? The courts keep making really stupid decisions on citizenship and migration, so I have no real hope they will come to their senses and deliver anything viable. The Home Office are almost comically incompetent to the point I genuinely remain amazed the building hasn’t burned down yet. As for the non-doms, they have access to the richest and most powerful lawyers, I think they are likely to win that one.

So, where do we end up? How do we, collectively, in a fair and impartial manner that is scalable, look into the souls of our citizens and accurately determine whether they are actually British or not?

Let’s pretend you can for a second, I can guarantee you a couple of things. The first is that you are going to inevitably end up inadvertently targeting a lot of Jews, and that rarely ends well for anyone involved. The second is that you will create an industry to manufacture the appearance of Britishness. Each non-Dom will end up doing the equivalent of bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award to achieve the minimum viable Britishness.

Finally, the people who are going to be most disproportionately affected are the disabled, particularly the neurodiverse. It happens every single time this sort of thing happens, the people who don’t understand the questions and the forms are going to get hit the hardest, while the gregarious, the scammers, the bullshit merchants will be fine.

So, if that is how it will inevitably end, why is he bringing it up?