How will Farage and Ms Patel be judged? As if they have the ability to care.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet6
Sunday, 9 August 2020
The Sick Exploitation Of Migrant Hatred
Has someone at the Home Office been re-watching You Only Live Twice? The language coming out of that department on the subject of migrants crossing the channel could have come straight from an over-acting Donald Pleasence, who memorably told Sean Connery’s 007 “My crater guns can ann-i-hil-ate a small army - you can watch it all on TV”.
There may not be anyone with a white cat on their lap at the HO, but the language is, if anything, rather more sinister, as Simon Jones of the BBC has noted. “The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has appointed former National Crime Agency executive Dan O'Mahoney as the UK's Clandestine Channel Threat Commander. He will work to make the Channel route 'unviable' for small boat crossings”.
Or maybe it’s Robert Shaw in The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three? “Your crossing has been made unviable, Command Centre”. So why is Ms Patel, who is claimed to be Home Secretary, behaving in this way? Simples. Whether or not she acts tough, she must be seem to be acting tough, which for the right-wing press is far more important.
And she is being forced into playing this game by the same person whose nagging bigotry fooled Young Dave into holding the Brexit referendum he thought he would win. Step forward Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, and his dog-whistling prejudice, exemplified by “EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE: These were the coaches being loaded up in Dover today. Coming to a hotel near you?” Cooee doggies!
Look at those brown people! They’re FOREIGN! They may be Scary Muslims™! Maybe they don’t speak English! They don’t go down the Rub-A-Dub of a weekend and get Elephant’s Trunk And Mozart! They’re getting a FREE COACH RIDE! They’ll get put up in a hotel FOR FREE! They’re getting something you’re not! And you’re paying for it!
Later, the language of bigotry and hatred was ratcheted up a little, as Mr Thirsty dog-whistled once more. “EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE OF BEACH LANDING BY MIGRANTS Shocking invasion on the Kent Coast taken this morning”. It’s an INVASION! Remember, if the Nazis had done this, WE’D ALL BE SPEAKING GERMAN BY NOW!
He was at it again this morning. “Another 150 into Dover yesterday. Hot air and bluster is all we get from the government. They don't have a plan and so the humiliation will continue”. It’s a HUMILIATION! So Priti Patel admits the weakness of her position, by going along with Farage. And dishes out her own serving of sinister language.
Meanwhile, Lev Taylor mused “British people love to talk about saving Jews from the Nazis. Do you imagine they were flown in by benevolent aircraft? They came in the bowels of boats, on crowded trains, walked for miles across mountains. They were turned away at ports, put in prisons, called invaders … You have a choice. You can be like the people that helped the Jews escape Nazis, or you can be like the people who made them run”.
And he added this coda, which all those God-fearing Tories might wish to read and inwardly digest: “Take the option that you will feel comfortable telling your grandchildren about. Know that you will one day answer before God”.
How will Farage and Ms Patel be judged? As if they have the ability to care.
Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet6
How will Farage and Ms Patel be judged? As if they have the ability to care.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet6
I was always of the belief that you claim asylum in the first safe country you reached; it wasn't a matter of choice. It seems to be these days.
ReplyDeleteYou might not like it, Tim, but something HAS to be done for THEIR safety AND OURS.
With this bunch of inept & corrupt fucking morons running the show and wasting £££hundreds of millions on PPE that's not up to scratch, we can barely afford to have dwindling resources spent on those who aren't our own.
There's no housing for them, there's no work happening, people are becoming skinter and pretty soon when this shower turn off the tap (And they're already making noises about people 'enjoying' being furloughed, with surreptitious 'striver and skiver' undertones) people are gonna become resentful - with or without falange's and pathetic's (I wonder how her parents got to the UK via Uganda?) rhetoric, and their attentions are gonna turn to these asylum seekers - and we both know it won't be in a good way. Prejudice exists at all levels in society. Like it or lump it, it's inherent.
Best deal with the issue at source before it becomes a bigger issue later on.
So how is controlling our own borders going Nige? I don't remember you telling us we'd be demanding the French control them.
ReplyDelete@ 13:41.
ReplyDeleteWrong.
It doesn't need to be like this. It really doesn't.
This has only become an "issue" because it's MADE an "issue" by the kind of disgusting media propaganda we've seen over the last week or so, particularly from the BBC - an organisation now nothing more than a far right propaganda vomit.
Other European nations take in much, much greater numbers of refugees than we do. It's truly sickening to see the xenophobic racist depths this country has fallen to in its rush to blame victims. What's left of our culture is rotting away before our eyes, not because of refugees but because of the poison pumped into it every day by cowardly propaganda clerks.
Yes, we have dreadful domestic socioeconomic problems too. But theses aren't created by refugees. They're created by a thoroughly corrupt and evil home-grown political system which now seeks a version of 21st century feudalism. Sort that out, restore human decency, establish genuine democracy, and we wouldn't even be debating the "practicality" of accepting refugees FROM CONDITIONS WE CREATED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
How much further do we have to fall before the reaction isn't against desperate people but against those who deliberately cause such tragic disruption and then lie about it? How many tiny pathetic bundles like little Aylan Kurdi have to be washed up on a tide far from home?
Ask yourself - How has this country gone so coldly and near-collectively insane?
@Toffee
ReplyDeleteIncorrect. The UN Refugee Convention does not make this requirement of refugees, and UK case law supports this interpretation. Refugees can legitimately make a claim for asylum in the UK after passing through other “safe” countries.
https://fullfact.org/immigration/refugees-first-safe-country/
The Toffee said:
ReplyDelete"Best deal with the issue at source before it becomes a bigger issue later on."
I agree. So Lets stop invading their countries and then walking away from the mess we help cause, for a start then.
At last some common sense on here, something has indeed to be done and should have been done months back.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders if the powers that be would have quietly ignored it if Farage hadn't brought it up. Like anything a bit difficult they probably would.
And surely Border Force are an irrelevance and should be disbanded. The RNLI can deal with those that need rescuing and the others that get ashore can fend for themselves like I had to when I left home.
That's appeasement, Toffee. Don't give in to people like Farage over anything; that's how we got the brexit crap.
ReplyDeleteNiggle Fartarse is nothing but a sad racist Alan Partridge sitting on the dole trying to find something to do with all his free time since he got fired/didn't have his contract renewed from/at LBC. Sadly the UK gov is full of alt-reich neo-fash brexiters in the mould of Garage.
ReplyDelete#Tory government acting unlawfully again
ReplyDeleteThis is not a government its a criminal enterprise
making us the laughing stock of the world
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/uk-deploying-navy-prevent-people-seeking-asylum-would-be-unlawful-reckless-and?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&utm_content=news
"Hot air and bluster is all we get from the government. They don't have a plan and so the humiliation will continue”.
ReplyDeleteIs this the same Tory Party and Tory Govt you decided to fight a less than half-arsed campaign against in 2019 Nigel? Why did you and the Brexit Party (Ltd) contest every seat if they were so damn inept and clueless? You still pocketed the £100 fee from your gullible Brexit Party (Ltd) candidates though, didn't you? Even though there were no seats for them to contest.
Are they given the designer trainers and smartphones when they arrive or do they bring them with them?
ReplyDeleteCertainly more than many pensioners have after a lifetime of paying taxes.
You forgot the flat screen TV. Not that you can get any other sort these days.
Delete@18:27
ReplyDeleteIf they've got it so good, swap lives.
@ Anonymous 1827
ReplyDeleteI’m sure pensioners have more than a phone and one pair of shoes. They’re likely to be living in a mortgage free house for starters. Car, indexed annuity, Generous state pension on top.
Smartphone contract - £20 a month. Cheaper than a landline or relying on phone booths. And, you know, staying in touch with people is pretty much vital.
ReplyDeletePensioner poverty and the personal possessions of migrants are not in any way connected.
I've just taken some supper over to the middle-aged gent who spends every night in the porch of some closed offices. He's not an alcoholic, not on drugs, just homeless and jobless. He'd be happy with just a 3 star hotel and wouldn't mind sharing!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @18:27
ReplyDeleteI am a pensioner who has paid a lifetime of taxes. I wouldn't begrudge a refugee a pair of designer trainers and a smartphone, but I know damn well all they get - if they aren't sent straight back to France is a measly thirty quids worth of food vouchers.
The "they are getting something for nothing off the back of our pensioners" is a tired racist trope. PS. Have you ever asked yourself why the UK pension is one of the lowest in Europe? I'm pretty sure that isn't the fault of some unfortunate refugees.
@21:57
ReplyDeleteSince it's so easy to claim asylum, take him down to Dover, and then go out in a dinghy till you're picked up. You're welcome.
Ha ha, that's exactly what we talked about doing! I take him a paper.
ReplyDeleteSeriously why isn't he getting a free hotel room and meals, anybody give a good reason why he shouldn't get what illegal entrants get?
ReplyDelete"why isn't he getting a free hotel room and meals"?
ReplyDeleteBecause he's a figment of your imagination.
£20 a month for a smartphone a small sum!?!
ReplyDeleteTime for pensioners to grab some of those dinghies off the beaches and sail up the Thames in protest, they certainly cannot afford to buy them!
@3:12
ReplyDeleteWe'll need to bomb them and starve first:
"the 120 people who were intercepted in the Channel on 4 August came from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan and Yemen. Of these countries, two were invaded in recent history by a coalition that included the UK; one has been pushed into famine by a Saudi-led bombardment using British weapons and military expertise; one is in a prolonged conflict with Israel, which like Saudi Arabia is a UK ally; and the others, most of which are former British colonies, are places where there is long-term, well-documented persecution of particular ethnic and social groups."