To think this is why Reform will win the next election “Epping hotel asylum seeker mistakenly released”

Interesting. I suspect it will up the ante by fermenting more discontent in a new demographic. Typically, the wealthier have benefitted most from immigration: it means cheap services (plumbers, cleaners, childcare, etc), a great choice of cuisine and does not impact on their ability to access shared resources, as it may in a deprived community. I suspect there will be limited tolerance for any anti-social behaviour of the type that has been reported following the use of a military base in James Cleverly’s constituency in Essex iirc.

I think this is excellent news. I've long argued that the problem with housing asylum seekers is that the load hasn't been spread evenly. The poorest areas with the poorest resources have been leaned on heavily; it was always going to lead to discontent. More affluent areas MUST take their fair share. This will help turn the temperature down on the whole debate.

I don´t think the poster meant to pay them that kind of salary...
Also I don´t think the work needed on railways is unskilled...

Trouble with infrastructure work is that those workers now command ridiculously high wages so the cost is ruinous - as we've seen with HS2. Unskilled labourers on £1k per day freelance rates for example.

One of the party complained that she didn’t like seeing black faces in adverts, I’m horrified, is this their true M.O?

I think what she was (very clumsily) trying to say was that the number of POC - and specifically mixed families - in advertisements seemed disproportionate in a population that is 83% white British, and that these families didn’t accurately represent many people’s lives outside the M25.

We are a mixed race family living quite a considerable distance from the M25 so the advertising probably goes over my head a little. But our rural area is apparently 95% white British and so the demographic is wildly different to (say) Newham, Islington or even most of Birmingham, and it might well seem incongruous in that context. I have also noticed that every old dear wheeled out to advertise funerals, stairlifts or life insurance is white, almost without exception.

I do think it’s important to be able to discuss these issues and make observations respectfully without defaulting to either invective or accusations of racism. If everything is racist, then nothing is racist - this is sadly not a lesson that Labour seems willing or able to learn.

The earlier article that stated he didn’t arrive in a small boat was misinformation?

The earlier article that stated he didn’t arrive in a small boat was misinformation?

Crowborough isn’t liberal. It’s try blue Tory. Hardly ‘elite’ either. Just wealthy, mostly older people.

Confirmed. Asylum seeker, granted leave to remain.

Confirmed. Asylum seeker, granted leave to remain.

Apparently he’s an Afghan national, but he did not arrive on a small boat (ie we don’t know whether he’s an asylum seeker, but the way it’s written suggests not).

I agree, but what can he do? All of the potential solutions - Rwanda, hostile environment tactics, ECHR withdrawal or reform - are antithetical to him (and to most Labour MP's). Labour was not elected because the nation's politics swung left, or because their policies were especially popular, but because people rightly felt that the Tories did not deserve to win.

Starmer seems to have no idea how to address his unpopularity, so he's dabbling in a few crowd-pleasers (like the plans discussed on this thread) whilst his MP's and cabinet colleagues seem duty-bound to hobble those efforts at every turn.

Meanwhile, there has been no improvement in the quality or integrity of government - Angela Rayner's tax affairs, Tulip Siddiqi embroiled in fraud allegations, that housing minister who section 21'ed her tenants and then hiked the rent, Haigh's resignation after pleading guilty to fraud years previously. I have no desire for a Reform government, but even I can appreciate that the two main parties have run out of road, largely because of their own incompetence and lack of integrity.

Well we'll certainly see if the liberal elite will put their money where their mouth is...

What makes you say that the left base their views on emotions and the right in facts? What facts are the left ignoring?

Was he an asylum seeker? I don't think the media have said have they?

I don't think they will because such murders will be explained away as isolated and that the vast majority of migrants don't murder and that you are clearly far right and racist for pointing this out.

And lastly maybe having innocent dog walkers being stabbed to death is a price worth paying for showing "compassion " to refugees and not having Reform in power.

You see the problem you are having is that the left base their views on emotion and the right base their views on facts. Pointing out facts to a person that has already formed their opinion on emotion is never going to change their minds.

Reform might win because the asylum seekers keep murdering people.
Like the dog walker in Uxbridge stabbed to death by an Afghan National yesterday. 2 others, including a child, stabbed.

I don't think they will because such murders will be explained away as isolated and that the vast majority of migrants don't murder and that you are clearly far right and racist for pointing this out.

And lastly maybe having innocent dog walkers being stabbed to death is a price worth paying for showing "compassion " to refugees and not having Reform in power.

You see the problem you are having is that the left base their views on emotion and the right base their views on facts. Pointing out facts to a person that has already formed their opinion on emotion is never going to change their minds.

Reform might win because the asylum seekers keep murdering people.
Like the dog walker in Uxbridge stabbed to death by an Afghan National yesterday. 2 others, including a child, stabbed.

I don't know what's going to happen. I'm extremely worried about what Reform would do to abortion rights, workers' rights, disability allowances, the NHS, etc. I also worry that if Reform were elected, racists would start to see themselves as the majority and feel emboldened to harass BAME people.

But I also don't see how the UK's current approach can continue. We've already reached the stage where a fun run organised by a London mosque has brazenly banned women. Young girls are being sexually harassed by asylum seekers on their way to school. The Casey Report showed decades of institutional denial about the racial aspect of grooming gangs. After the Manchester Arena bombing, a security guard testified that he was suspicious of the bomber, but he was afraid to approach him in case he got called racist.

I'm angry that this situation has been allowed to spiral out of control and create this false dichotomy. We shouldn't be in a position where we're having to choose between two extremes. I feel as though the people in charge have abdicated their responsibilities over the last few decades.

If Starmer really has given up on decreasing crossings that decision will likely cost him the next GE.