To think the anti-immigrations have BEEN "heard"?

[dropoutin]

I posted something like this on one of the riot threads but it ws locked soon after.

Is anyone else getting really bored of people justifying racism, terror, violence and destruction by insisting how important it is that those who imagine asylum seekers are responsible for the country's problem are "heard".

Little reminder: It's exactly that particular obsession that led to the Brexit referendum in 2016, and the most radical - and destructive - political change of recent times.

There were several years in which the country barely discussed anything else. Farage and Johnson got to tell you in great detail how the reason you're poor is because of the black family down the road. And you got the choice of believing them, or not. You even got to make Johnson PM so he could "get Brexit done" and "level up" your community.

You've been taken for a ride. Asylum seekers rriving irregularly (via small boats etc) make up less than 5% of total immigration, which is coming down after peaking in 2022 (partly due to the Ukraine war, and other factors). Neither Tories nor Labour are going to radically reduce immigration because anyone having to ACTUALLY run the country can see that doing so will exacerbate the demographic time-bomb, reduce economic activity and decimate the NHS. You're poor because of 14 years of Conservative economic policy, not because of anyone's skin colour or passport.

Meanwhile: How many of us get to have a national referendum tailored around our favourite policy hobbyhorse? When is my referendum on industrial relations? On housing and land ownership? On the House of Lords? When do I get to be "heard"? Being heard doesn't mean everyone has to agree with you, or that you get to go out and beat up brown people because things aren't working out the way you imagined they would.

It's not that you haven't been heard. It's just that you were wrong.

These are my views and I'd like them to be heard. In fact I'd like a referendum on them all.

We need immigration. There are literally not enough young people born here to do all the work that needs done.

Immigrants want to be here and are motivated to make a better life.
Stuffing people indiscriminately into hotels and barges because you won't pay to process them and deport undesirables is crazy.

Not allowing people to work is madness.

Making it impossible to enter the country legally as a brown refugee or asylum seeker = small boats.

Not to mention the plight of Afghan refugees who were promised safety by the UK and US and are now denied it.

Ukraine and Hong Kong nationals have been the biggest groups of immigrants in the past few years.

Rapists come in all shapes and colours but are all men, by definition. Should we riot because: men ?

I'm sick of well off white people retiring to houses in the country and using up all our resources and housing. They should go back where they came from and stop saying things like" I love it here it's just like the 1950s" 🤬

I agree, the rioters who are destabilising the country are causing huge costs, both short and long term.

The actions of the rioters will cause real harm, the costs and ramifications of their actions are awful for the whole country, but will be felt the most in the areas where the riots actually happen.

This.

I’d like to watch one of these “no one wants the boats” people face-to-face with an asylum seeker, and see if they have the balls to say anything to their face. I think they would crumble.

Yes they have been heard, much of what they say is wrong.
Nobody bothers to explain to them why they are wrong. Just threats of harsher sentences and a standing army to crush them.
If it were Muslims there would be meetings with community leaders, invitations to address this or that Council. A bishop would be drafted in.
White working class NOTHING we don't really deserve to have an opinion.

I honestly think that anyone who looks at the issue of small boats and thinks ‘how do we keep these people out of this country’ instead of ‘how do we keep these people safe‘ is suffering from such a monstrous and cataclysmic lack of empathy that there’s little hope for their humanity.

You are one of a silent majority who are angry but don't go out rioting but want the government to stop attacking pensioners and to either provide a stronger infrastructure of schools, hospitals, prisons, GP's surgeries, NHS dentists or stop mass immigration that the country can't cope with the number of citizens already here. After many years of Tory rule I think people expected more of Labour but instead they are in 5 minutes and taking money away from pensioners some of whom only have their state pension to live on so £3 a week over PC.

I don’t condone the violence, but I also think it was an inevitable result of ignoring the views and concerns of large numbers of people.
I am what I suppose would be called a ‘light brown’ person and from an immigrant background.
I am VERY concerned by the threats to equality that fundamental religions propose and I’m thinking specifically radical Islam. I want to be able to voice concerns about the carrying of machetes and county lines.
I want to be able to have discussions about this without being called racist, because the UK is my home and I’m seeing it changed by large sectors of populations that seem to hate it and don’t wish to integrate. I want to ask why Imams aren’t publicly asking for more integration and equality for women.

How about face to face with a trafficker who profits and uses women and children along the way? All kinds of hideous actions which I won’t describe

You can have a system that does not use them

This is a really sad but true point. Some very deprived areas will have to bear the costs and innocent people and businesses will suffer.

It not only covers damage, but lost business, lost tourism, impact on the pound, extra police and their risk, court cases and incarceration

Head in the same is madness imo if we really do stick on the international be careful foreign travel advice

There is also the risk of no insurance cover

I wasn't going to post as can't be arsed getting the inevitable backlash.
But it isn't racist to question who we are letting into the country, how we are going to pay for them all and to debate how they will integrate into the UK and their morals and views which are as we have seen, not compatible with UK values.
I live near a hotel which has housed migrants and there has been endless trouble. Sorry if that doesn't fit your narrative but various incidents involving young girls feeling threatened as they walk by as well as incidents involving migrants hanging around schools.

I think on MN there is a high middle class demographic . You have to accept that some people's lived experiences are different from your own and to stop throwing the word bigot and racist around as all it does is shut down important conversations that need to be had.

Keeping them safe would mean they wouldn't in the first place be on tiny thin inflatable boats in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world as they have fallen for the lies of the traffickers.

@WillimNot what you experienced was dreadful. That consultant refusing to see you without your husband should be disciplined. When we wanted an issue sorting out in France we paid for our own interpreter. This country should follow suit and charge people the going rate if they wish to use this service. The NHS is a medical service not an interpretation service.

Cam anyone who said "immigrants need to respect the UK culture" please tell me what that means/looks like in practice?

I hear it a lot but i couldnt define uk culture and I'm English.

Also means that the Tories closed all safe and legal routes so the lies so the traffickers is all they have to go on. That's why turning the asylum seekers away would have no impact.

I think a few really important and relevant things would be one law for everyone and everyone equal under the law, tolerance for all forms of sexuality and equal rights for women.

I don't think legal routes have been closed. They just aren't very efficient.

All legal routes are not closed down but what are you suggesting?

Do you mean a list of countries where we allow a number in - Is it capped?

I look forward to the day this happens

The irony is that most settled immigrants don't want illegal immigrants or the type of immigrants who are causing trouble here either. They're impacted by the same issues as the rest of the population because resources are limited for everyone, they make things difficult when everyone is tarred with the same brush plus there's a bit of "well I/my parents did everything the right way so why can't you?" at play too.
They could actually come together if illegal immigration was the genuine concern but it just seems to be racists against all immigrants or mainly against Muslims.

I don't think we are that bad! Not as bad as some countries. I haven't heard of gays being thrown off a roof.

Does that mean we can deport some of these rioting terrorists since they don’t respect these cultural ideals either?

We aren't all middle class.

I'm working class living on a below average income in one of the most deprived areas in the uk with high migrant populations and lots of asylum seekers in temporary housing. I can't get a doctor's appointment unless it's an emergency, and don't even think about dentists. Schools are underfunded, hospitals are struggling, there's not enough money to go around at the local council.

I can still find some empathy for what brought those people to the uk and recognise that it's the government that caused all of those problems, not immigrants.

I stay away from right wing media, maybe that's why.

I'm not sure that was the question. But yes good idea.

There are many reasons to say that immigration is "stupid" if we want to play childish games.

Immigration is stupid because it harms social cohesion.

Immigration is stupid because it has allowed mass immigration of unskilled labour.

Immigration is stupid because it creates housing shortages and increases the need for more public services.

Immigration is stupid because it allows crime syndicates to operate here.

Immigration is stupid because it decreases government incentive to train up the population because we poach workers from elsewhere.

And so on...