Why Civic Nationalists are Losing the Immigration Debate

02/01/2026 33 min Episodio 69
Why Civic Nationalists are Losing the Immigration Debate

Listen "Why Civic Nationalists are Losing the Immigration Debate"

Episode Synopsis

New YouGov polling shows 36% of the public think you have to be born in Britain to be British; and that 71% of Reform voters agree that having native ancestry is "a prerequisite for someone to be truly British", and 59% see Britain as "an ethnic, not a civic, community."
This coincides with calls for Egyptian revolutionary Alaa Abd el-Fattah to be stripped of British citizenship, revealing that having a British passport is not enough to be British; and a contentious debate between Andrew Gold and ethnonationalist Steve Laws.
It's clear that civic nationalism is losing the immigration debate. But what will take its place?
If civic nationalists set a dichotomy where we either have to surrender to demographic extinction or deport every last immigrant and their offspring, then, out of desperation, people will support indiscriminate deportations. 
People want security: for their people, their culture, their country, and their children. These are reasonable requests. If you cannot offer that, they will side with someone who will, no matter how harsh or unreasonable they are prepared to be. And the worse things get, the more people will be prepared to do that.
Andrew's debate with Steve Laws: https://youtu.be/GSuXaBpGlA4
Carl's response: https://youtu.be/7i5LoL-xB4o
Watch this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zP0vpWdlsYI
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