Boris at it again

Boris Johnson is the supposedly "conservative" Lord Mayor of London. He is, in fact, typically right-liberal in his politics and has described himself as a libertarian.

Right-liberals often believe that we fulfil ourselves by being self-made in the free market and this means that:

i) they have a positive view of the free movement of labour along market lines

and

ii) they think that economic migrants, who take the initiative to improve themselves economically by migrating to a wealthier country, are an ideal group - more so than the native citizens

Therefore, right-liberals are often committed to high levels of migration. So it's not surprising that Boris Johnson has come out with this:

London will fall like the Greek city of Sparta if it turns away immigrants like the ancient militaristic regime which "kicked people out", Boris Johnson has said.

David Cameron's pledge to bring down immigration into the tens of thousands was a "policy failure" and should never have been attempted, the Mayor said.

"Look at Athens and Sparta," Johnson told the Telegraph. "Athens was an open city and Sparta kicked people out. Go and look at the ruins of Athens and Sparta now and ask which of the two cities made the greatest contribution to civilisation. Look at the greatness of the American economy."

Again, typically for a right-liberal Boris wants open borders combined with assimilation:

But Johnson said that efforts to celebrate and promote multiculturalism had meant many migrant communities had not felt the need to integrate. "I want to see people proud of Britain, we have to insist on that. We went through a long period of cultural laissez-faire, where we didn't understand that they want to speak English."

Interesting that Johnson wants people to be proud of Britain and yet he doesn't think the British can run a city by themselves but need constant waves of foreign migration to keep things going.

Nor is becoming yet another globalised, multicultural city likely to improve London's contribution to civilisation. Cities like London and Paris once had a culture and heritage of their own which gave them a unique character and charm. But if these places instead become globalised centres of finance dedicated to economic matters alone, then what is to distinguish them from all other such centres scattered around the globe?

(Johnson also appears to be wrong when it comes to the history of Athens and Sparta. In fact it was the famous Athenian leader Pericles who changed the law on citizenship to require that citizens had both an Athenian father and mother. Sparta had no such law.)