Estimated reading time: 2 minute(s)
Spoiler: Yes
A couple of weeks back I saw someone on social media claiming that everyone agrees immigration is the biggest issue among the UK public.
This week, Matt Goodwin repeated the same line on Question Time (BBC, 30th October), citing “polls” as unquestionable fact. He even pointed out that he’s been involved in polling, just to rubber-stamp his supposed authority.
This isn’t the first time it’s been said on Question Time. Last time, I pointed to a poll that showed what people were personally worried about vs what they thought everyone else was worried about. If everyone is personally worried about other issues, like the NHS and the Economy, then it stands to reason that immigration is NOT the concern of the vast majority, despite what people are telling you. Here’s that graphic again:
Now this week we see another poll that shows that locally, the majority of people put the cost of living as their primary concern, followed by the economy, crime, housing, and jobs. But nationally, immigration jumped to the second biggest issue.
So what’s causing this disconnect between how people feel about their everyday lives vs what they believe is the biggest concern nationally? Which one reflects Britain, and which reflects the headlines?
People don’t wake up one morning and collectively decide an issue is a national crisis if they’re not seeing the issue first-hand locally. Instead, they get told, repeatedly, that an issue is a national crisis. And if you hear something often enough, you stop questioning whether it’s actually true. That’s what is happening with immigration.
Meanwhile, issues people are struggling with every single day, rising rent, collapsing NHS, get treated like background noise, with no time to discuss them. Instead, commentators like Matt Goodwin will be quick to blame it all on immigration, despite various studies and data saying otherwise.
Interesting, isn’t it?
Who benefits when your attention is diverted from questioning real causes of the cost of living crisis, and pointed instead at ordinary people just looking to survive?
If everyone is personally worried about everything except immigration…then the panic about immigration isn’t coming from the people. It’s coming from the people talking at the people.
Once you see that pattern, you have to start asking questions:
- Who keeps pushing this narrative?
- What are they trying to stop us noticing?
- Why do they need us to believe everyone else thinks this way?
When I shared this poll on X before, I explained it by giving a few examples of how our brains make us easy to manipulate. It’s why I don’t blame ordinary people for repeating what they’ve been told; the problem is the people who know how to exploit those shortcuts.
The same psychological tricks that make you buy toothpaste you don’t need are used to steer your politics. Campaigns know exactly how to make you feel like everyone else thinks a certain way, and that you should too.
I’m going to break down how those tactics work in an upcoming post. Keep an eye out, because once you learn the techniques, you’ll start seeing how often they’re used on us.