RSA/LBC 97.3 Debate - Can we ever have a grown-up debate about immigration?

23rd May 2011; 20:00

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RSA/LBC 97.3 Debate

Immigration is clearly an important public issue and people want to have a national conversation about it as fears grow about the stability of the welfare state and the jobs market.

However public and political discourse on the issue is often polarised, with competing and confusing statistics coupled with often lurid media headlines, leaving the public feeling let down by all mainstream political parties.

Is it possible to have a dispassionate, rational and evidence-based debate about the economic and cultural benefits of immigration and the distributional and social issues that it can bring up?

Has this polarisation led to progressives feeling it is politic to neglect white working class communities for fear of stoking up extremist parties such as the English Defence League? Or does the current weakness of the BNP reflect the fact that the UK can conduct a debate about immigration without aiding extremist parties? Is immigration a class issue?

How can our politicians get to a point where they feel comfortable enough to stop using immigration as a political football and, instead, conduct a rational debate that does seek to answer people's concerns?

Speakers to include: Margaret Hodge, Labour MP for Barking; Peter Lilly, Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden; Matthew Taylor, chief executive, RSA and Robert Winder, author of Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain.

Chair: James O'Brien, presenter, LBC 97.3, London's Biggest Conversation

The event will be broadcast live from the RSA Great Room on LBC 97.3FM – ‘London’s Biggest Conversation’.

Suggested hashtag for Twitter users: #rsalbc

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