Thread by @GoodwinMJ

Further to my earlier tweet on the good news that so many EU nationals are (a) applying to remain in UK and that (b) vast majority are doing so here is the official government release (bit.ly/39g2OkH) and here is the link to the official data (bit.ly/2Ssqn2V)

What I'm (clearly) increasingly struggling with on Twitter is a specific strand of thought, often found on the left, that ignores anything positive in favour of catastrophising

For 4 years we've been told the UK is racist & can't wait to kick everybody out. Just. Not. True.

In any society there will be administrative blunders & ugly extremism. But I've been struck by total refusal of many to highlight positive shifts

Prejudice? Down
Immigration concern? Down
Attitudes? More positive
& given scale of task gvt doing ok job processing apps to remain

Concern about immigration has been declining

Prejudice has been consistently declining since the 1980s - share of people who would mind if a relative married someone from a different ethnic group

Source:
blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/featured/2014/…

Almost all of the 'gold standard' surveys suggest that British opposition to immigration has been softening over the years

The number of people saying immigration is the most important issue facing Britain has fallen off a cliff

Since the 2016 referendum, which many have argued led to an "explosion of racism" in Britain, actually after the referendum the British have become more positive about the economic effects of immigration

And also more supportive of allowing EU workers

According to the very well respected University of Oxford Migration Observatory: "There is evidence from multiple sources showing that attitudes have softened in recent years". You can read the whole briefing here -> migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/brie…

I just log on Twitter every day and hear endlessly about this god-awful society that does not like anybody who isn't British and then I look at the data and see things like this

As well as research which suggests that Brits are more positive than many of their EU neighbours e.g. the YouGov-Cambridge study, which you can read here
weforum.org/agenda/2019/05…

This is not to say -at all- that there are not still challenges. But it is to say that -at least from where I'm standing- there are a lot of people on this platform who have become completely disconnected from the evidence. It's important that we note the good stuff too.