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We Don't Want "the Best and Brightest", either

Alistair McConnachie

The "best and brightest" phrase is used to encourage us to support legal immigration, but it is just another euphemism to justify endless mass immigration forevermore. After all, there are hundreds of millions of "best and bright" people in the rest of the world and there always will be, says Alistair McConnachie.


 

On Wednesday 29 January 2025, The Times ran a report telling us that "The population is forecast to rise from 67.6 million to 72.5 million by 2032, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which said that net migration was likely to account entirely for the growth." (1)

 

It stated:

 

Although post-Brexit changes to visa regulations led to a sharp drop in the number of European Union migrants, new rules have led to an influx from India, Nigeria and Pakistan, often to fill health and social care vacancies.

                Any reduction in migration means economic trade-offs. The Resolution Foundation think tank estimates that the population growth projected by the ONS will bring 400,000 more people into the workforce and boost GDP by about 0.3 per cent –  £12 billion a year – by the end of the 2020s.

 

To clarify, this means that at current projections, from 2025, around 1.43 million people will enter the UK per year in the next 7 years, and will have delivered, by 2029, an estimated GDP percentage growth of one third of one per cent!

 

Are we meant to be rejoicing at this absurd news?

 

The Times editorial attempted to justify this information. (2)

 

It started by painting a gloomy picture. It told us that the UK cannot rely on "the fertility of its current population to supply the workers of the future". That outlook would be "bleak". It would also be "nigh on impossible to reverse" the "decline" in its birth rates.

 

After having suitably panicked us, it assured us that there was a solution: "If this country is to match the dynamism of the United States it must be prepared to harvest talent from abroad."

 

Therefore: "Britain can become a truly vibrant economy if it is prepared to throw open its doors to the brightest and the best."

 

This is a popular phrase, mainly because it sounds a lot better than attracting "the Dimmest and the Worst".

 

It's a phrase we've heard for a while, and it's a phrase we're going to hear a lot more of!

 

Other similar phrases encourage us to attract "the elite human capital", and "the super smart people". Apparently, they're needed if we are "to win".

 

The rhetoric sounds appealing. It conjures up the idea of highly qualified "saviours" landing on our shores to miraculously elevate us onto some sort of "next level".

 

It's all just ridiculous rhetoric!

 

A business might "win", for example, in the short-term, by being able to pay lower wages. But that won't improve the Income per Head of the average British citizen! Immigration tends to lower Income per Head. (3)

 

Here's the reality of the phrase.


6 REASONS WHY WE DO NOT WANT the "BEST and BRIGHTEST"

1. "Best and Brightest" is Relative to the Job at Hand

The phrase makes us think that it will be someone else who is going to be challenged by a "best and bright" person moving in to do some sort of super high-level job which only the specially gifted are able to perform. It makes us think that this is a competition for jobs at some kind of "elite" level, which doesn't really concern us.

 

Well, that's not the case!

 

"Best" just means "best fitted" for the job at hand – which can be any job – whether menial or professional.


The phrase applies to all jobs, whether you are collecting trollies at the supermarket, or performing heart surgery.

 

And here's the thing about that.

 

2. There's Always Going to be Someone "Better and Brighter" than You

Imagine you go for a job in your little town. Maybe you might be "the best" and "the brightest" for that job in your little town. For example, maybe you are the only applicant, or you live closest, or you can survive on the low wages, or by any other metric that makes you "the best" in the eyes of the employer.

 

However, if that job is effectively open to the rest of the world, then there are potentially hundreds of millions of people in the rest of the world who will be "better" at it, and "brighter" at it, than you!


And if they are moving into your local town, then your chances of getting that job are much diminished.

 

And in fairness, they shouldn't get it...because you were the first in line, and you were the "best" at it, and you were the "brightest" at it…until they showed up!

 

Long story short. We don't want the "best and the brightest" because there are endless millions of them too!

 

There are hundreds of millions of people who are "better" at things than you and I. There are hundreds of millions who are "brighter" than you and I. But that doesn't mean that they should come here.

 

Let them stay in their own countries and be the "best and brightest" there!

 

3. Our Country is Not an Employment Agency, or a Welfare Office for the Rest of the World

Britons shouldn't have to compete with the whole world for jobs, housing and public services, inside Britain itself!

 

4. The Phrase is Insulting and Demoralising to the native British

It directly implies that the British are not the best or the brightest at anything.

 

It entrenches the idea that it is foreigners who are "better and brighter" at everything.

 

It encourages the idea that endless mass immigration is a good and necessary thing because we're so useless.

 

It should be called out for the insult that it is!

 

5. It Justifies a form of Extractive Capitalism, and this is a Moral Issue

According to Google: "Extractive capitalism is the practice of extracting natural resources for profit, often without regard for the environment or local communities."

 

"The best and brightest" phrase justifies extractive capitalism.

 

Instead of removing their physical resources, we're removing their human capital. Rather than looting countries of their mineral resources, we're looting countries of their people!

 

The Times editorial literally spelled it out for us. We must "be prepared to harvest talent from abroad."

 

Instead, how about this for an idea...

 

How about trying to find ways to ensure the "best and brightest" are able to improve and upgrade their own countries.

 

"The best and brightest" and all those "high-skilled immigrants", should stay in their own country and use their skills and "bright mind" to make it "better" so the rest of their population doesn't have to move to the UK!

 

A brain drain from their countries is only going to make their national domestic situation worse.

 

Extracting their "elite human capital" ("harvesting talent from abroad"), will simply store up problems in these foreign countries in future, which will likely make immigration from there even greater!

 

And you know what? We can help them instead.

 

6. We can Help them Improve their Countries. We can Go There. They don't have to Come Here

It makes more logical sense for some of the talented people from developed countries to go to the less developed countries, on a temporary basis, in order to help them to grow there, rather than have them come here!

 

Surely the developing world needs all the "talent", and "best and brightest" people it can get too.

 

That's the moral position to adopt.

 

The movement of traffic at the moment is actually upside-down.

 

THE JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS IS RISING "GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT"

As we never tire of saying (4), endless mass immigration is justified by the Holy Grail of modern economics which is "growth" as measured by the GDP figure rising year on year.

 

This is a meaningless measurement for us, as individuals.

 

As individuals, we are concerned about our "Income per Head" rising. We are not obsessed by economic measurements in newspapers which bear no positive financial relationship to our real lives.


We are concerned by negative physical consequences in our real lives. For example, ten million more people coming into the UK in the next 7 years, frankly sounds like hell!

 

Yet we're meant to celebrate because, on paper, the GDP figure will have risen by one third of one per cent by 2029?

 

Frankly, we have to blow this whole gaff wide open.

 

All this abstract GDP nonsense should just be chucked out, and be gone with the wind because, here's the thing.

 

THIS IS OUR HOME!

Ultimately, what the leader writers in The Times, and others, are doing is looking at things as if the UK is merely some kind of business; some kind of global corporation which exists for them and their chums to extract money out of.

 

We assert that Britain is not just a marketplace for the world and its wealthy.


Britain is not a business.


Britain is not just a balance sheet.

 

It is our nation and our home.

 

It is our nation which is built on shared history, culture and identity.

 

It is our home, where we want to live in safety, and stability and peace.

 

At the end of the day, we don't want our country changed out of all recognition, regardless of whether it is allegedly good or bad for "GDP"; regardless of whether 10 million people in the next 7 years will move the GDP growth percentage up one third of one per cent!

 

Our economy is here to serve us. We are not here to serve the economy. The economy doesn't define us. We define the economy.


Our country doesn't exist to provide better lives for foreigners. It exists to provide better lives for our fellow citizens.

 

It doesn't make any sense to import millions of foreigners just so that we can compete with foreign countries!

 

Anyway, if a new population of millions is imported into Britain, is it the same "Britain" which benefits, or is it a completely different kind of "Britain"?

 

And don't be fooled by their claims that "We need immigrants to do the jobs that Britons won't do." Make no mistake: If Britons were to start doing all the jobs instead, then newspapers – in their endless service of the perpetual interests of capital – would just switch to new themes such as "Oh, but there are plenty of jobs to go round now" or "there are so many vacancies that we need more immigrants to fill them." (5)

 

The point of all their rhetoric is simply to promote endless mass immigration.

 

THINGS WE CAN DO

1. Don't be Fooled by the Rhetoric!

 

2. Skill Up the indigenous British Population

It is an indictment of our government if we really do not have the skills necessary to keep our society functioning!

 

We should be able to provide the necessary skills and professional mix to meet all our needs, without poaching the lifeblood of poorer, less developed countries.

 

Perhaps we need a government department which can foresee skills shortages, and make the necessary adjustments in the training facilities in the UK; specially to structure the education system so that more people leave further education with meaningful skills, instead of useless degrees.

 

3. Support Employers and Employees

We want to find ways to encourage young people to train for these areas of employment. Employers should be given subsidies to encourage apprenticeships.

 

TO CONCLUDE

The bottom line is that "the best and the brightest", and all variations on the theme, are just euphemisms used to justify mass immigration, from which nobody benefits other than an elite business class who have enough money to steer the economic direction of nations through their influence upon politicians and economists, and the legacy media which serves them.   

 

It's just another phrase to bamboozle us in order to try to get us to accept a never-ending flow of people into the country from abroad.

 

It's just another way to justify endless mass immigration forevermore.

 

REFERENCES

1. Tom Ball and Matt Dathan, "Migration staggeringly high but cap isn't the answer, insists No 10", The Times, 29-1-25 at p4.

 

2. Editorial, "Picking Winners", The Times, 29-1-25, at p23.


3. Alistair McConnachie, "Economy has Nothing to Show for Mass Immigration", 22-10-24.

 

4. Alistair McConnachie, "SNP and Swinney Betray Scottish Students", 23-1-25.


5. Alistair McConnachie, "Immigration Creates a Demand for Even More Immigration", 22-8-24.


For more articles on this subject see our Territorial Sovereignty: Article Index


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