Several bits of news or information came into my hearing or reading yesterday that all relate to the importance of our nation and our need to discuss and debate matters such as a freedom of movement and open borders. I write as someone who was born and brought up in a community that sits comfortably between Liverpool and Southport. Many of my childhood friends and relatives still live in that area. I on the other hand at the age of 18 travelled down South to a town that at the time was far from glamorous or fashionable. However I have spent 40 years here and so I have spent most of my life here. I am pleased to say that both areas are still open and inviting towards people from outside the area. Both areas are very vibrant and dynamic, or at least that is how they seem to me. Across our nation there are many locations like Brighton and Hove or Crosby that are open and accessible to people irrespective of their identity and origins and they benefit enormously from such attitudes. However there are also places not far from where I live now, where some of the most recent visitors attempt to shut off the drawbridge that they came over in recent months and years. In some cases the barrier relates to the building of new homes in places that look very lovely. The challenge in some of these places is that unless the new homes are built, families of existing residents from that community will be forced to move out and travel to places much further away. The supply of new homes for the families and indeed other new residents will increase the prospect of transport or health provision. This may not seem important to the newcomers, some of whom have other residences elsewhere and have the transport needed to move around and can go to their private doctors or hospitals when they need such provision. There are also places which culturally are a great deal more closed off than either Brighton or Crosby. Some of these communities are in desperate need of a wider perspective as well as the skills and expertise that incoming people could provide. However as Jolyon Jenkins in the Radio 4 programme yesterday called Slice: Politics and Personality suggested it may be that some communities have a closed culture due to disasters that took place centuries ago such as plagues where the drawbridge to the community was closed for fear of visitors bringing in illness or other problems. If this is the case it seems vital that work is carried out in these communities for people to be made aware of the benefits of a more open and accessible community. Although my town of origin is an open place, there are many families that have never moved away. That can be much more of a characteristic in places where the drawbridge has been closed and so the barrier for people coming in can also prevent others from leaving. No one should be forced to move, but equally being pressured into remaining may prevent these people from finding new opportunities for them and their families. I know I have gained enormously from coming to Sussex, although of course there are always costs to leaving and travelling a long way from the place where many of my family members still live.

Along with the Radio 4 programme referred to, there was also the news from Italy and Spain as a ship carrying nearly 700 refugees was turned away from Italy by the new Government. Because it came from Libya it is clear that there is nowhere safe for it to go apart from a European nation. Following a message from a friend of mine on facebook I have signed this petition for us to call on Italy not to turn ships away, although I have mixed feelings about the text as I can understand Italies sense of isolation when other nations in the EU such as our own refuse to allow people to cross the borders so we fail to share the impact of the movement of people across a land mass where our bombs and missiles are part of the causes for people to flee from where they were born. I am fortunate in that I have the freedom to travel back to Crosby whenever I wish and can afford to do so. There are no bombs being dropped on my place of origin or place of residence. However these refugees carry with them many skills and expertise as well as the mental and physical scars of war.

Finally following yesterdays very disturbing ‘debates’ in Parliament, this morning one of the speeches that is circulating is from Caroline Flint. The text includes the following:

I say to my hon. Friend… that many people from the black and minority ethnic community voted leave and are also concerned about free movement. To move forward, we cannot just cobble together ideas as in the EEA amendment. There has to be an end to freedom of movement, just as my right hon. and learned Friend … has suggested, and after that we can decide what sort of migration we want in the future. Those of my constituents who voted leave have been insulted, day in and day out, by comments made in the place and outside. They are not against all migration, but they want a sense that we can turn the tap on and off when we choose to do so. They also want us to answer the questions: “Why hasn’t Britain got the workforce it needs, why has social mobility stopped, why do we ​train fewer doctors than Holland or Ireland, and why are these jobs dominated by those in the middle and upper classes so we don’t get a look in?”

It is clearly important that our nation should have had a debate about migration before or after the referendum with a view to it shaping the decision then taken by Parliament. Waiting till we leave the EU before holding the debate is like closing the stable door after the herd of horses has slowly exited. However it seems deeply concerning that someone who was part of the Government prior to 2010 is unable to explain to her constituents what level of commitment training professionals takes in any nation and perhaps far more importantly that doctors jobs are not dominated by middle and upper classes, beyond the extent to which education in certain deprived communities is far more limited than in communities that have less deprivation in evidence.