It was an email to my office which convinced me that what I thought might be an interesting idea is actually much needed.
It said: “All I’m asking for is a direction to march in, as I am in fact a refugee seeking asylum from a tyrannical, fascist administration which is utterly destroying the nation I once loved and protected. The feeling of turning my back on the democracy I swore an oath to defend feels much more as though I’m ending a long relationship with someone I still love, but am unable to live with anymore. America has broken our hearts and reconciliation is more fantastic than a Rudyard Kipling book.”
Even though I have been elected for 8 years now, sometimes I can still be taken aback by the reaction to something I have said. This time it was a motion to our Scottish Party Conference in which I had suggested that we offer skilled US workers a visa route to enable them to live and work in the UK.
The news, astonishingly, made it across the Atlantic and my inbox rapidly filled with messages from those in America who no longer wished to live under Trump.
They wanted to feel safe, and contribute to a country currently much more in line with their values than they feel that one they were born to is becoming. Around 200 of them at the last count.
Some just wanted to thank me, as if no one had been thinking of them until now. Some laid out their CVs to prove they would be worthy of applying. Such strength of feeling.
And for me, the guilt in the fact that it’s not an entirely altruistic suggestion. Many Americans have something we need if we are to pull ourselves out of this economic stagnation.
We need to bolster various sectors – technological, AI, pharmaceutical – in fact research in just about every sector of the economy. Instead of setting up here and then being taken over by a US company or shifting stateside, we could encourage people with the right skills to come here. And stay.
In Edinburgh for example, we have a growing space sector. The University of Edinburgh is to host the country’s supercomputer, which will be central to the future developments in so many areas.
In truth, it’s not one idea but a confluence of two factors influencing our time. The first is that opportunity to attract the know-how vital to our recovery, but ironically, it would not have opened up but for the other. The election of a President of the United States whose every action seems counterintuitive for the democracy we have long regarded as our special ally.
We have all seen the news lately, seen the unnecessary loss and violence created by Trump’s immigration policy. And then there are the incidents which don’t make it to the news here: 1042 anti LGBTQ+ incidents across 47 states and Washington DC in 2025 (according to the ALERT Desk, GLAAD’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Extremism Reporting Tracker).
I am a solutions person, and I saw an opportunity. Not just saying yes, there is a problem, but actually coming up with an idea that was beneficial, and mutually beneficial to both sides of the pond.
I also have to be honest and say that for me, this is also about creating a positive case for immigration. To look up and out and say that for our country to be successful, we might need to encourage people to travel here from beyond our shores.
Not because I am doing this country down, but because that is just reality. These are migrants that we need as much, perhaps more, than they want a new life. By offering opportunities to those who want to escape the US, we create potential for our own economy.
Our Government seems not to see it and feels instead that what we offer just now is enough. Ironically, striving to do better, creating opportunities, is what gave birth to the American dream. For many in the US, that has become a nightmare, but we could turn that around.
