IT IS all very well Andy Burnham pledging to be relentless in tackling small boat crossings but unless he convinces the electorate as a whole that he has a coherent approach to the migratory flows of people in and out of our country – and manages to detach discussion of migration from the poisonous atmosphere which so pollutes politics in this country – then he will simply end up weaponising an issue which the Tories, Reform UK and the further reaches of fascism own as their unique selling point.

The simply fact is that developed modern capitalist economies are unable to fully educate and train their indigenous workforces for the modern world or free themselves from dependency on significant levels of immigration from less developed countries whose own functioning is impaired by what amounts to licensed robbery of their skilled personnel.

The small boat crossings are simply the consequence of us being an island. When the border is the beach migrants and refugees, who would not risk such dangerous expedients unless the alternative is more frightening, have little choice but to risk a watery grave. Crossing the French border carries less risk but is it not odd that the people who come to Britain are largely English speaking and/or from former British possessions or in the sphere of British imperialism while French-speaking migrants and people from the French colonies in Africa prefer to stay that side of the channel.

Spain welcomes Latin American migrants and Portugal Brazilians. The marks of imperialist conquest are all over the phenomena of mass migration which itself is driven exactly by the patterns of unequal development which centuries of colonial exploitation have left the world.

Fighting the fascist ideas which surf on the tide of immigration ignorance is not simply a moral question for workers and our trade unions but is a basic question of our own class interest.

If we allow workers to be divided they will always be defeated.

Now is the time for a strong drive to deal with migration as a question of our common class interests. Workers of the world unite is an empty slogan if solidarity extends on to workers in faraway places.

Andy Burnham had better do something significant about the many young people neither in education, training or work and compel employers to restore skills training for whole generations.

And he would be better off making the point that small boat crossings are just small fraction of immigration into this country and that the media fuss, scare mongering headlines and  ill-informed frenzy about immigration is never directed in a rational discourse about the reality of the immigration system — which functions on the basis that the overwhelming majority of migrant workers arriving here come with official visas at the request of, or in, response to demands by employers — but serves to frame the question in terms that give the fascist fringe an opening.

Our economy is so skewed to service and low paid work that viable careers for many young workers are lacking.  High-value work depends on a continuous demand from capital intensive manufacturing, science and research and high quality public services.

These kinds of issues are critical if Burnham is to make a real; change in the way the vast mass of working people think about politics.

Pandering to prejudice without tackling the substantive structural problems of our economy will confine Labour to the margins.

It really is time for a new politics of hope based on challenging the rampant individualism, consumerism and prejudices that late capitalism has as its value system.

Where our economy needs migrant workers we should welcome them as our class sisters and brothers.

And refugees are welcome.