I’m not a Corbyn fan but he is saying something important here
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Another good point -
In a briefing paper for MPs, Church’s Mission and Public Affairs Council wrote that the government’s pledge to stop the boats fails to recognise “human dignity”.
The bishops added in a submission to the House of Commons’ Home Affairs committee: "The increasing securitisation makes the routes by sea riskier, and the profits for traffickers correspondingly higher.
“Far from creating deterrence, the UK’s approach is creating a boom market for criminal enterprises.”
The whole ‘send them to Rwanda’ plan is yet another Tory capitalist scheme.
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And a total waste of taxpayer’s money, especially when
they are refusing to pay highly trained people the salaries they deserve.
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I realise that my personal views on immigrants may not be the majority one, but
What has happened to UK? Or, was it always this xenophobic and callous towards the plight of others (non-British)? The whole Rwanda deportation proposal is inhuman and shameful. A country whose national anthem begins with the word ‘God’ has ought to be demonstrating a lot more Christian charity. Surely?
I truly believe that bleating “But we cannot just let everyone in!”, apart from amazingly selfish, is completely ignoring that this is a finite globe we are all living on. We have long enjoyed living in nations on the half of this earth tirelessly contributing a large part to the current climate deterioration, through endless consumption, exploitation and mismanagement of the world’s riches. Did, or does, anyone really believe the UK can build a metaphorical wall high enough to keep all newcomers out? Are we not all humankind?
As the world physically deteriorates, what is now but a trickle will become a massive flood. Time to stop living in denial and prepare.
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This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
All latter-day John of Gaunt alikes.
I have to say I’m team Donne not team Shakespeare when it comes to islands and what to make of them.
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Not convinced you need the last two words there.
Yes, I think we have been xenophobic for a very long time, “Love Thy Neighbour” and “'til death do us part” were comedies (or at least satire) but the views at which they poked fun were very real.
In fact I think it goes back to Empire at least - intertwined with feelings of “inherent” superiority.
TBH Britain feels like a far less xenophobic place than it did 40 or 50 years ago. As for ‘empire’, that’s not really present any more except in a very few, generally older people.
I suppose there is day to day xenophobia - which does feel less marked, mainly because young people are far less likely to see the colour of someone’s skin, or their accent as an issue vs what you might call institutional xenophobia as expressed by the government rhetoric and a small right wing mnority which seems to be calling the shots - the gain on that seems to be turned up to 11.
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Actually it’s not just the xenophobia, it’s the pettiness and vindictiveness of it all
Meanwhile another example of this vile government’s shamelessness.
Because trashing wildlife for the sake of farmed fish or farmed then driven game makes perfect sense doesn’t it. Triple DDTs all round 
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Xenophobia including social class as well, it is evident in the UK that a smart person doing something bad is an unfortunate victim who has been led astray and must be pitied even if they get a rap on the knuckles, and if it is an unsmart person they are just a bad egg, shiftless and probably congenitally criminal.
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I saw this earlier. It looks like a typical computer-says-no jobsworth situation, and as you say extremely petty. To get a different outcome would probably have required initiative and imagination on the part of the person looking through applications, and that may well have been trained out of them.
Simple, it has been governed for the last 13 years by a party that has lurched further to the right and tolerated by a lazy and apathetic electorate.
I don’t expect massive change when Labour are in power but hopefully the nastiness and pettiness will quickly disappear.
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Especially when they are looking smart at Annabel’s.
I know some highly educated and intelligent people who wouldn’t cross the road to help someone who fell off a bike. Literally. Mean is just mean.
I’m afraid today much of life in Britain is egocentrism personified. Educated and mean or thick and mean, all ruling the waves together.
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Reprieve, but the beeb should not have to be involved first.
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I’ve not visited the UK for several years and have no reason to go there again, but the impression received from afar through the media is that Tory politicians are far more hostile to immigration in a general sense than are most traditional Tory voters.
I wonder if some of them feel forced to conform and don’t see it as a hill worth dying on. Our local MP had a Ukrainian family living in their house for an extended period.
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Maybe it would be better for all if they just died (and Trump, and Putin, and Orban, and Erdogan - etc)
Lot of Oxford commas in that list!
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Some yes, the majority no and this is matched by the electorate. Most people in the UK aren’t fixated on immigration, their main concerns are the state of the NHS and the economy.
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