DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

http://i.imgur.com/mA77C5Z.jpg?1

that's the tories in at the next election in then!!!

p_P

i'm glad we're going to stop illegal immigrants accessing services they are not entitled to. that sounds like a good thing. making illegal stuff more illegal is great!

this is the real effect of UKIP on political discourse playing out IMO- an even more competitive Dutch Auction to see who can be the biggest rightwing hardman. Very depressing.

let's be real, britain: it's us (white ppl) and them (brownskins). some of them are ILLEGALS. which team are you on? #sendthemback

Immigration Bill would:
- stop illegal immigrants accessing services they are not entitled to
- deport foreign national offenders except in extraordinary circumstances
- help reduce complexity of immigration law
- obtain individual building meter data

Slightly illegal, illegal, very illegal

sensible policies for a better Britain

the fucking bigoted cynicism of these cunts absolutely defies belief, and to think they'd pander to this idiot mentality for their own gain. fucking BASTARDS.

makes me pine for the halcyon days when Michael Howard was the loveable face of the Home Office.

this is basically sink their boats then build them new boats let them drown

It's interesting that Boris Johnson is basically disassociating himself from Tory policy on immigration. This stuff has proved to be a lot less popular than anticipated in the past but there's zero doubt that Miliband will be ramping up the hardman schtick as well.

I honestly don't think British people are that racist, on the whole. They know they're being fucked over by someone and the Tories are wagering that they'll be fooled into blaming immigrants rather than the people actually responsible. Could go either way.

makes me pine for the halcyon days when Michael Howard was the loveable face of the Home Office.

Or John Reid. Not that the Labour Party are much better.

They know they're being fucked over by someone and the Tories are wagering that they'll be fooled into blaming immigrants rather than the people actually responsible.

... public sector workers, people on benefits et al

I honestly don't think British people are that racist, on the whole. They know they're being fucked over by someone and the Tories are wagering that they'll be fooled into blaming immigrants rather than the people actually responsible. Could go either way.

this is otm. that labour aren't making any attempt to point out that the emperor is naked is v depressing,

David Goodhart will be along shortly to explain why it's time for left liberals to stop ignoring the concerns of ordinary citizens and engage in a sensible dialogue about sending the buggers back

Jonathan Portes takes down Goodhart good & proper here:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n12/jonathan-portes/an-exercise-in-scapegoating

ah no there is some kind of dialogue that needs to happen i just don't feel like any of the participants are speaking in good faith

how do you address the fears of people who believe immigration is costing people jobs although virtually everything they own is manufactured overseas?

look on the bright side though?

if you're a legal immigrant/native/illegal native you get to keep accessing services you're not entitled to!

Did they ever get around to doing those adverts telling Bulgarians and Romanians that Britain is a terrible place to live?

Worth remembering as a backdrop to this that the UKBA will be reporting much more directly to the Home Sec and will probably get even more politicised as things go forward.

ladies and gentlemen, lord freud (again)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/lord-freud-food-banks

I honestly don't think British people are that racist, on the whole.

tbqh i do think they are racist

There are definitely deep strains of prejudice that run through sections of British society, and structurally - in terms of the economics, politics, education, etc - the deck is stacked against migrants and the children of migrants (both directly through racism and indirectly through class issues) but i think the UK is generally more tolerant than a lot of other European countries and a heck of a lot less racist than you'd think from reading the papers and listening to politicians.

The Tories went in hard on immigration issues for years and realised it wasn't really the vote-winner they thought it would be. The rise of UKIP as a protest party, and the attempt to shift the blame for decreasing quality of life onto marginal groups, means they're giving it another go but i'm not sure it'll work this time either.

the UK is generally ... a heck of a lot less racist than you'd think from reading the papers and listening to politicians.

this. i mean, a) 'british people', like any nation's populace, aren't a very homogenous lot, and summing them up as a mass is a fool's game, and b) prejudice and bigotry are being amplified and compounded for very real and obvious political gain here, and to just say 'british people are racist' is, if anything, helping those who would like the british people to be racist. i'd say a large majority of the country is disgusted by the EDL, though the way the media amplifies it you'd not realise.

I mean possibly this is massively naive but i know a hell of a lot more non-racists and anti-racists than i do racists, and i am related to some proper fucking racists.

the UK is generally more tolerant than a lot of other European countries and a heck of a lot less racist than you'd think from reading the papers and listening to politicians.

True but isn't make me feel much better about this shithole tbh

Yeah it's damning with faint praise really. Depressing how naive I was as a wide-eyed teenager in the 90s thinking racism was soon going to be a thing of the past, I thought things were changing back then but seems like there's been a plateau in attitudes since. Or at least it seems like in vague terms of "how racist is UK" 70s >> 80s >> 90s == 00s == 10s, I'd hesitate to say it's MORE racist now than the 90s. This is just my perspective which as I'm white btw is likely to be wrong anyway.

I mean possibly this is massively naive but i know a hell of a lot more non-racists and anti-racists than i do racists, and i am related to some proper fucking racists.

i know a lot of anti-racists and non-racists but, like, i live in london and i socialise primarily among a particular group of nice middle-class left-wing fairly academic types, and i am insulated from many of my fellow british people by things like geography and affinity and tendency. Also, as a white person in the UK, there is a hell of a lot of racism i just don't notice.

tbqh there are many "anti-racist" people in my life who i would not describe as "non-racists".

There's a lot of barely conscious racism in the UK and quite a bit of overt racism towards certain groups but on the whole I'd say Britain *is* a much less racist country than eg most of the rest of Europe.

We're lucky in London because anyone who objects overtly to multicultural life can be directed at a history of 2000 years of multiculturalism here.

I always thought racism would just die off when, eventually, there weren't any racists left, and I was a lot more optimistic about that before 9/11 and the phenomenon of whiny-ass white people being deranged about how 'entitled' [insert name of black/Asian celebrity or politician] is, and how they need to pore over their accomplishments and confer legitimacy on those achievements, as if the world were waiting for some LMC schlub's verdict on somebody who's spent their whole life making sure they're twice as good as the next person, to ameliorate the effects of racism.

i thought how racist you are/aren't just depends on how much money there is to go round

^ oversimplifying it a bit obvs

and "you" obv means "your government representing you"

"Them europeans are much more racist than we are"

(i kid but still)

http://i.imgur.com/YvsJ4Z5.jpg

       MAGNA                   CARTA                  HOLY                           GRAIL

thought it was the new Mumford and Sons

"England and Scotland, eh Dave? No Surrender big man!"

Eeeek, who are those smarmy IT salesmen?

who's the dude poking his head out the back

Just passed a bloke in the street wearing a fedora, asking people to sign a petition for an in/out referendum on Europe.
A FEDORA, ppl.

the true sign of the devil/a virgin PUA

http://news.sky.com/story/1112895/fallon-to-unveil-2-5bn-royal-mail-flotation

FUCK OFF

http://www.rssenews.org.uk/2013/07/rss-commission-new-research-into-public-perceptions-of-statistics/

there it is.

Such a depressing study.

How do people reach the conclusion that 15% of girls under 16 get pregnant every year? That's not just a bit misguided or whatever, it's deeply stupid.

politicians and the media strongly imply it, as with most of those things on that shopping list :-(

i'm not sure things in britain are worse than elsewhere, or that this is news. it's just it seems understanding that study feels like a necessary prerequisite for understanding british politics.

the big gulf is in ppl's perceptions of how things are going in their own locale vs. nationally. everyone thinks the rest of the country has gone to the dogs. cf. ilx's own real britain thread

not sure that Real England thread is about going to the dogs, ogmor - more finding the things that are sometimes passed over, deliberately ignored or vocally despised that feel central to character of England. admittedly like many threads in which nakh participates heavilu has a slightly "mornington crescent" feeling to its central or governing notions, which is all to the good and opens up the peripheral or relevantly tangential.