The ugliness growing in British socirty atm is sickening to watch. I just have to keep reminding myself that despite appearances it is just the 20% of truly racist xenophobes that have always been here getting louder.
It’s true. I’m English but spent 57 of my 85 years in the U.S., married to a Hispanic American. I witnessed racism there, and now that I’m back in the U.K., I’m told, by my brothers, that almost everyone they know is racist (we live in a rural medium-sized town). Had we moved back to the U.K. when the Iraq War broke out, my husband would have been considered one of those brown foreign people.
Also I have a South Asian sister-in-law, two nieces and a teenage grandniece who, during a recent demonstration in London, heard people yell at her mother “go back home Paki b…h”. I was horrified when I heard this. It should absolutely be condemned. The hypocrisy of those people is beyond comprehension—they riot when one non-white person commits a crime but never when another white person does. They make me sick!
The reference to what it means to be a foreign national has such strong echoes of Brexshite and consequences for EU nationals... I too would be classified as foreign-born, despite my very expensive British passport, and would be placed onto a different benefit structure... But it's not just a different structure. It's exposing oneself to being considered different and thus to othering and all the nasty stuff that comes with that. Yep, some immigrants are deemed better than others, until they're not, until they get rejected and metaphorically (to start with) thrown out with the latest xenophobic hatred of the day pile of rubbish.
As for Andy B., I only have lukewarm hope in him. He needs to firmly set his sail to fair, and progressive, and decent, not in the end do more of the current same.
PS: A pic of Carlos the hotel cat would be much appreciated. Meow!
You mention plenty of problems on the horizon but possibly you were writing at the time we learnt that Israel has no intention of allowing the US and Iran to pursue Peace. They intend to stay in Lebanon killing people and the war will carry on. Some suggest Trump is powerless to stop them because Israel has the dirt on Trump via their late agent Epstein. It sounds all too likely. Meanwhile the plot to get Reform in power is steaming ahead maybe without Farage but somebody like Jenrick as the new PM; Farage can’t be arsed to do it and knows he hasn’t the skills to do it. (I too would like to see a photo of the hotel cat)
On the point of the 'no foreigners in social housing' policy, this raises all kinds of issues, including issues relating to devolved powers, so this might be an England-only policy.
Given how little social housing there is and the existing allocation rules, it is likely that the people affected by this policy are part of a mixed family, are pensioners, have got disabled family members and have lived in the local authority for years. They are also likely to have lived in their accommodation for years.
It is clear that no-one in Reform has done any kind of analysis of how many people would be affected by this policy and what the likely outcomes would be.
It is actually worth putting this policy through the next few steps, I am no expert in administrative procedures but even I can see some issues:
Starting with the obvious, the information gap - local authorities are unlikely to have information on the nationality status of all the social housing tenants or their family members. If the planned policy is just intended for the actual tenant leaseholder, then affected families might look to switching the tenancy into the name of a person who holds UK nationality. This will result in upset for the families involved and administrative efforts for the landlords but it will not create any change.
If the policy is covering all members of a family, then you will instantaneously create a huge upset in the rental market. In the three months following the law coming into effect, many many people (likely millions) will be needing to find private sector accommodation. It is likely that they will be needing to apply for housing benefit, overwhelming relevant authorities with a deluge of applications. If the legislation says that the families are not entitled to housing benefit, then this creates even more problems, because the only accommodation they could pay for is likely to be completely unsuitable for the affected people, creating instant (child) welfare issues, which the local authority is required to address. The likely effect is that the local authority will move people into temporary accommodation (eg bed&breakfasts) which is not only of worse quality but also considerably more expensive. Or another option could be that the children would be taken into foster care because the family was living in totally unsuitable living conditions.
Clearly this is just a slogan, slapped down to influence the public discussion (and the by-election), but we should not let get Reform/Restore get away with it, they should be asked for additional detail on how they see their policy actually working.
I wish I felt hopeful about Burnham, but he's said he's embracing Mahmood's immigration policies. Meanwhile it's not just the riots, but the micro-aggressions or more than micro that the whole thing enables.
Lowe is creepily dangerous-he’s all over the Save Europe Act campaign, promoting a Europe-wide “remigration” agenda. Restore Britain came from nowhere to take Great Yarmouth-almost as a field trial for mobilising voters for the general elections.
Sorry to use a holiday metaphor Bear but the captain has switched on the fasten seatbelt sign.
Coupled with the court decision today & the recent riots, if I were you I’d apply for asylum in Spain! Having said that, I hope you had a fur cut before you went out there!!
The ugliness growing in British socirty atm is sickening to watch. I just have to keep reminding myself that despite appearances it is just the 20% of truly racist xenophobes that have always been here getting louder.
It’s true. I’m English but spent 57 of my 85 years in the U.S., married to a Hispanic American. I witnessed racism there, and now that I’m back in the U.K., I’m told, by my brothers, that almost everyone they know is racist (we live in a rural medium-sized town). Had we moved back to the U.K. when the Iraq War broke out, my husband would have been considered one of those brown foreign people.
Also I have a South Asian sister-in-law, two nieces and a teenage grandniece who, during a recent demonstration in London, heard people yell at her mother “go back home Paki b…h”. I was horrified when I heard this. It should absolutely be condemned. The hypocrisy of those people is beyond comprehension—they riot when one non-white person commits a crime but never when another white person does. They make me sick!
The reference to what it means to be a foreign national has such strong echoes of Brexshite and consequences for EU nationals... I too would be classified as foreign-born, despite my very expensive British passport, and would be placed onto a different benefit structure... But it's not just a different structure. It's exposing oneself to being considered different and thus to othering and all the nasty stuff that comes with that. Yep, some immigrants are deemed better than others, until they're not, until they get rejected and metaphorically (to start with) thrown out with the latest xenophobic hatred of the day pile of rubbish.
As for Andy B., I only have lukewarm hope in him. He needs to firmly set his sail to fair, and progressive, and decent, not in the end do more of the current same.
PS: A pic of Carlos the hotel cat would be much appreciated. Meow!
You mention plenty of problems on the horizon but possibly you were writing at the time we learnt that Israel has no intention of allowing the US and Iran to pursue Peace. They intend to stay in Lebanon killing people and the war will carry on. Some suggest Trump is powerless to stop them because Israel has the dirt on Trump via their late agent Epstein. It sounds all too likely. Meanwhile the plot to get Reform in power is steaming ahead maybe without Farage but somebody like Jenrick as the new PM; Farage can’t be arsed to do it and knows he hasn’t the skills to do it. (I too would like to see a photo of the hotel cat)
On the point of the 'no foreigners in social housing' policy, this raises all kinds of issues, including issues relating to devolved powers, so this might be an England-only policy.
Given how little social housing there is and the existing allocation rules, it is likely that the people affected by this policy are part of a mixed family, are pensioners, have got disabled family members and have lived in the local authority for years. They are also likely to have lived in their accommodation for years.
It is clear that no-one in Reform has done any kind of analysis of how many people would be affected by this policy and what the likely outcomes would be.
It is actually worth putting this policy through the next few steps, I am no expert in administrative procedures but even I can see some issues:
Starting with the obvious, the information gap - local authorities are unlikely to have information on the nationality status of all the social housing tenants or their family members. If the planned policy is just intended for the actual tenant leaseholder, then affected families might look to switching the tenancy into the name of a person who holds UK nationality. This will result in upset for the families involved and administrative efforts for the landlords but it will not create any change.
If the policy is covering all members of a family, then you will instantaneously create a huge upset in the rental market. In the three months following the law coming into effect, many many people (likely millions) will be needing to find private sector accommodation. It is likely that they will be needing to apply for housing benefit, overwhelming relevant authorities with a deluge of applications. If the legislation says that the families are not entitled to housing benefit, then this creates even more problems, because the only accommodation they could pay for is likely to be completely unsuitable for the affected people, creating instant (child) welfare issues, which the local authority is required to address. The likely effect is that the local authority will move people into temporary accommodation (eg bed&breakfasts) which is not only of worse quality but also considerably more expensive. Or another option could be that the children would be taken into foster care because the family was living in totally unsuitable living conditions.
Clearly this is just a slogan, slapped down to influence the public discussion (and the by-election), but we should not let get Reform/Restore get away with it, they should be asked for additional detail on how they see their policy actually working.
I wish I felt hopeful about Burnham, but he's said he's embracing Mahmood's immigration policies. Meanwhile it's not just the riots, but the micro-aggressions or more than micro that the whole thing enables.
Glad to hear you've enjoyed your break. I despair of some people but am hopeful that the decent people far out weigh the rotten.
Lowe is creepily dangerous-he’s all over the Save Europe Act campaign, promoting a Europe-wide “remigration” agenda. Restore Britain came from nowhere to take Great Yarmouth-almost as a field trial for mobilising voters for the general elections.
Sorry to use a holiday metaphor Bear but the captain has switched on the fasten seatbelt sign.
Coupled with the court decision today & the recent riots, if I were you I’d apply for asylum in Spain! Having said that, I hope you had a fur cut before you went out there!!