This morning, sitting in a local coffee shop using the Wi-Fi, I caught a glance of the iPad of the guy in front of me. It triggered a thought about migration. Strange that an image of a screen can set such thoughts in motion. I was thinking; what an interconnected world. How did we manage before talking to people half way across the world was just as easy as talking to someone across the street? Now there’s a multitude life styles possible because communication is so easy.
Anyway I apologise for catching a glimpse of that iPad. A video conversation was on going and it was night where the other person was staying. It reminded me of the conversations I’ve had with people whilst travelling across the globe. It’s always better to keep in touch with loved ones.
Migration is the biggest issue for some people when it comes to the EU referendum vote. It struck me that a key enabler to migration was not just transport but the INTERNET. The ability to connect with family and friends whilst hundreds of miles away is so important and so liberating.
Those who want to keep people away from migrating to the UK will have to shut down the INTERNET as well as building walls and pilling on layers of bureaucracy. All the arguments that can be made for a threat from the movement of people can be made for global communications too. A vision of the UK as a huge gated community with ridged government controls on movement and communication is scary. It’s what communist countries did and still do. It looks like the LEAVE campaigners want to go down that same road. Its clear, the lives of ordinary Britons will not be pleasant if they win the vote.
John Vincent 