Daily Mail Racism Shame

What a difference a few weeks makes. Last month, the Mail was standing shoulder to shoulder in support of the Windrush Generation and their suffering at the hands of a newly hostile Home Office. “Windrush Outrage … Rudd faces call to quit as she’s forced to admit Caribbean migrants to Britain could have been kicked out by mistake … FIASCO THAT SHAMES BRITAIN” thundered the front page headline.

What's so f***ing wrong with kicking foreigns, c***?!?!?

Now has come a screeching 180-degree U-Turn as the opportunity to kick the Labour Party takes precedence over all else, which is the Dacre Doggies’ prime motivation. “LABOUR’S FREE FOR ALL ON MIGRANTS … They’d shut two detention centres, axe migration targets and force Home Office to prove person is here illegally” was today’s judgmental blast. But there was a problem here.

And that is that proving a person is here illegally is what lies at the nub of the Windrush scandal. But that was not the point: the Mail’s objective was to put the boot in to the Labour leadership, and especially Jeremy Corbyn and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, but not because she’s black, oh no.

“Diane Abbott said she would close two main detention centres, axe migration targets and force officials to prove suspects were in Britain without permission … The shadow home secretary also vowed to scrap the requirement for bosses and landlords to carry out checks on a worker or tenant’s right to be in the country … Miss [!] Abbott said it was Jeremy Corbyn’s ambition to ‘reframe’ public debate on the issue. The Labour leader later tweeted his support for her speech”. Never mind Windrush, someone’s soft on Foreigns!

Diane Abbott - the real target of the Mail U-Turn

The Tories have gleefully joined in, seemingly unaware that this implicates them in the most rank of hypocrisies. So in addition to the usual rent-a-quote Tories like Andrew Bridgen - does he ever do anything apart from hand out intolerant soundbites? - readers get a quote from Sajid Javid, who sniped “Labour’s plans would demolish policies - under successive governments - that are vital for tackling illegal immigration”.

It was left to Ms Abbott, not given the opportunity to set the record straight by the Mail, to bring a semblance of reality to proceedings. “Typical. My speech was mainly on tackling Windrush scandal. But Mail talks about illegal immigration. Once again, Windrush generation aren't illegal immigrants”. And there was another unanswered question.

“Government still refusing to answer basic question: How many of the Windrush generation have been wrongly detained?”. Javid has conceded that 63 British citizens may have been wrongly deported - how many more were illegally expelled from their own country? How many thousands were rounded up and detained? How many lost jobs, homes, freedom because of the approach Ms Abbott is seeking to reform?

Instead, the Mail has reverted to type, playing to its overwhelmingly white and highly conservative base, drumming into its readers the necessity to throw out anyone who looks sort of foreign and then ask questions later. And we know where that leads.

But the Dacre Doggies aren’t racist, oh no. Like heck they’re not.