| dc.description.abstract | This thesis will investigate whether British immigration discourse has gone in a circle for the last 20 years. Following on from that, it will also attempt to determine whether the government’s discourse and policy on immigration is heavily influenced by the other two powerful players, the media and the people. To do this, I will examine three speeches that are based solely on immigration from different times in this 20-year period. The first speech is by then Labour prime minister Tony Blair in April 2005, the second is by Conservative home secretary Theresa May in 2015 shortly before she became prime minister, while the third is by Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson in April 2022. I will apply the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to these speeches. The way I will do this is to determine if the first speech and the third speech promote a similar ideology, whereas the second speech has a completely different one. The aim will be to establish that both the first and third speeches have a discourse that both promotes ‘good’ immigrants yet denigrates ‘bad’ immigrants, while the second speech would contrast to this with a very negative outlook on immigration. Along the way, I will also attempt to show that these three speeches and, subsequently the government’s immigration discourse have been influenced by the other two players. | |
