To be increasung concerned about Restore Britain.

[NoisyHiker]

I know many people don't like Owen Jones, but I found this article deeply disturbing.

I am a child of immigrants, and my children are mixed race. So things like this are really starting to worry me.

I completely understand why people are angry at the current rate and quality of immigration (my own family are also disgruntled with it). But Restore want to deport even those who have citizenship.

And I am genuinely concerned that things are going to get worse than Farage if the government don't get a grip on this.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/10/restore-britain-right-politics-white-supremacist

@ByGraptharsHammer my DB, DSIL and cousins all feel this way. They live in Rochdale mostly. Everyone I know who feels like this lives in a town blighted by foreign criminal gangs: rape gangs, country lines etc.

Of course you are not being unreasonable

Racism has always been an issue, I believe since Brexit racist people have felt they can be more open and vocal

Politicians did not take Farage seriously enough for a long time, he doesn't just attract racists he has also attracted stupid people who believe in his straight talking common sense stick and also those who have for a long time felt left behind. I do not believe everyone that votes for Reform are racist but they are willing to ignore Reform is led by a racist leader.

Its not unique to Reform voters the overlooking prejudice and division caused by a party leader but they are the party that is the biggest threat to UK politics

What seems clearer is Restore supporters aren’t simply opposed to illegal immigrants,
but legal immigrants and black and brown Britons too. I am sure that a Restore government would seek ways to forcibly remove non-white Britons from Britain and their supporters would be all for that.

Which is a bonkers policy. What of they have jobs but pay is so low they require UC top ups. Or if they are injured or have been here 30+ years?

Such as?

This is long, sorry but it's something I really care about...

County lines isn't just foreign criminal gangs. In some places it is a particular group running the street stuff and over the 2000s that started to be British-Pakistanis in some areas because during the Afghanistan war heroin became very cheap and poured through the pourous border into Pakistan and people with existing links to the region were best placed to take advantage of this. But that's only in some areas and for some types of drugs. In Scotland it's mostly white, Scottish crime families. In other parts of the UK it's British gangs with a mix of ethnicities including black/white. Sometimes it's Albanians. In NI it's split between Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries.

They all have links to foreign crime because it comes into the country from other places but at a higher level (not the visible street level) its different people. In the NorthWest the people on top are white British for example regardless of the lower levels.
The kids drawn into the county lines are usually from lower incomes and often a care background. In the North-East that might look like white children because of it's demographic makeup and history. In other places they might be young black children. They are all being exploited. They are also all being let down by the system.

But the people taking the drugs (especially the cocaine) are ordinary British people. The ones wringing their hands about crime/foreign gangs and then taking some cocaine on a night out are a big part of the fucking problem. No children would be being drawn into county lines if people weren't buying drugs. The continued blind eye to this is a culpability problem. This includes politicians and includes right wing politicians.

The problem is any suggestion of improving outcomes for children/intervening to get them out of that life annoys people because it's either seen as soft on yobs. Or it's handouts to the lazy etc etc. Yes there is ridiculous overspend in the care sector but that goes to private companies. When it suites working class children are innocent victims. But the same press/politicians will portray them as a feckless underclass on another day.

CSE is linked to this because often children drawn into transporting drugs or gangs are sexually exploited. And vice versa. Drug related crime always seems to link into the trafficking of children/vulnerable for sex as another revenue stream. Whilst 40% of grooming gangs in recent times were Asian (meaning South Asians were massively overrepresented compared to their size in the population) 60% Percent weren't. And historically it's been different groups (white gangs, black gangs etc) and the police turning a blind eye or viewing the children as consenting criminals. In some cases they were involved in the corruption.

Im not trying to argue that people shouldn't be angry at the Asian grooming gangs because of all the other people doing bad stuff. Part of the reason some people ignored it was a fear of encouraging racism. But in the case of the police/authorities it was mostly complicity and a long standing attitude towards working class children and children in care. Just focusing only on the race though pretty much ensures that none of the other problems will be fixed. And none of the difficult conversations had. Because even if every South Asian in the UK had disappeared in the year 2000 other people would have moved into the vacuum they left and been doing the exact same thing. And if people are only angry at foreign sex offenders and accepting of white ones then that means the problem will never get fixed. And I'm worried that's starting to happen to be honest especially as people become more tribal/polarised they become more likely to not deal with bad behaviour from people in their own groups.

So I can completely understand why someone in the NE would be voting Reform. I don't think they are bad people for doing so. But it still worries me a lot because I think the way they operate will make things worse, not better. Especially when dealing with county lines, child poverty and CSE.

Meant to add to my post that Restore voters will take away from Reform voters which isn't a bad thing the less support Reform get the better

but such openly racist far right parties have never done well in the uk, the lazy stupid racist fuckers usually can't be arsed to vote I can not see that changing

@Persephonia1966 the rape gangs are everywhere across Yorkshire and Lancs and the lies from the police and politicians, and protection rapists have been given has destroyed communities and caused this issue.

The British middle classes hatred of the white working class proletariat, especially Northerners is so deeply entrenched it is disturbing imo. DS moved to London recently and even well warned was unprepared for the endless constant hatred and abuse directed at him and his heritage.

Imagine a senior solicitor telling an Indian or Sudanese trainee his home is a 'shit hole', his community 'squalid' and 'depressing' this has repeatedly been said to my son.

We live in rural Yorkshire, by some margin the most spectacularly beautiful part of the country imo. Endless Japanese and Chinese visitors photographing 'gods own country'. But to the BBC and the labour party we are villains, baddies, and we need punishment. And we ought to be grateful. Fuck that.

I can imagine. It was a constructed narrative though.

The entirety of the 2000s was taken up with narrative around "chavs" and jokes about white working class slags etc. meanwhile you had TV shows like benefits streets demonising post industrial regions as filled with drug addicted lazy scroungers. Of course scroungers and lazy people exist. But everyone was tarred with the same brush, and the reasons for high levels of unemployment or despair (deindustrialisation) weren't really of interest. And although I know what you mean about posh people in London, A lot of ordinary people including in the North were also happy to accept the narrative that people on benefits were scum. Mostly because the tabloids told them to. Hoodies, and Chavs were something to fear. Teenage pregnancy was seen as a huge social problem but it was blamed on the pregnant teenagers. Even if they were 14 they were slags not children. No-one wanted a home for looked after children opening on their road. . "Chavy" 14 year olds were a threat, not vulnerable children.
Meanwhile in London "it's grim up North" was a stereotype. The nice bits of the North were ignored by people who either joked about it being a shithole (with no context of the reasons for the deprivation) or people who viewed it only on terms of sympathy. Ignoring that there are many areas that aren't deprived and are beautiful.

The irony is, when the financial crash happened it was the banks, based in London, who became the UKs biggest welfare recipients ever. And went straight back to giving out massive bonuses to their staff a short while after while the country paid back the massive debt incurred and again large parts of the media focussed on people on benefits as the source of the countries woes.

It wasn't just the racial element that caused the grooming gangs to be ignored. And I don't think the establishment wanted to destroy the northern working class. Rather it was a mixture of not understanding/caring and needing a scapegoat for the economic problems in the country that were caused by neo liberalism and later the bank bailout. What worries me is that amongst the anti-migrant rhetoric (which obviously appeals to anyone affected by the Asian grooming gangs for obvious understandable reasons). There is a lot of rhetoric around people on benefits etc that is ten times worse than it was before and it's coming from Farage/Lowe. It's not that I think people should be on benefits rather than working. But there is far less money and resources available to struggling people than 30 years ago not more. Working class white girls were victimised by white men before as well. If they are still othered, and the police corruption and social neglect isn't fixed they will continue to be neglected. All Farage cares about is encouraging different groups to attack each other. I don't have a problem with lowering migration. But I think the stuff it comes with will make it harder to help the most vulnerable children IMO.

What the North and the NorthEast need in particular is more investment and economic help. And the police need investment but also a deep look at possible corruption and mysogynist/classist attitudes.

My understanding is that Restore hasn't specifically mentioned colour or race when discussing the kind of immigrants, legal or otherwise, that they would wish to deport.

They were talking about people who will not work, integrate, or learn English, who are rapists and violent, who are members of criminal gangs, those who want to illegally impose their own laws and cultures within ghettoes, those who despise the West and are here to disrupt or terrorise, who think of women as property, those who “marry” children, or who sexually assault girls in gangs.

I don't see anything racist in any of these aspirations.
If anything, it's about the cultures or religions that are incompatible with our way of life, and which, in my view, should not be permitted to impose themselves.

I am a member of a minority religion myself, which I practise without demanding any special concessions, or rocking up outside churches or mosques to perform my rituals and piss off the congregations.

I don't see anything to worry immigrants who have come to this country to integrate and contribute, and who are welcome additions.

(I could never support the death penalty, however. Although a lot of people now seem to, not necessarily those from the right)

Err? Most London teens are looking North now for uni and life because they cannot afford London or the SE. And many think there is far more fun to be had in Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester etc. So I think it is possible the tech boom is coming to the North. You just need to rich oldies in London/SE to finance it and invest in it. It can happen with the right will.
Assume you are happy to have the young talent from the SE or not?

Restore are full of shit. According to Government statistics only 70% of current working age population identifies as White British. That is 30% is not. They won’t be able to send many home!

I don’t think that’s a specific to white working class people. I think a lot of Londoners look down on anything outside of Londoner. I have for tonnes of comments about my home
town being a “shit hole” too.

They are going to try - believe me.

I admire your faith but I really don’t
share it.

The political question at hand is to what extent is the immigration that has already happened "locked in"?

Increasing numbers of people are not happy to accept that the changes we've seen particularly in the last 5-10 years but up to the last 30 are permanent.

The longer you wait, the more harsh the treatment will seem. It's a scale from not giving a form of leave in the first place (visa, ILR, citizenship) to stripping ones already given. If you can do the former in time, you don't need to do the latter (with the corresponding impact to people's personal lives).

ILR has already been given to the first wave of post-Brexit arrivals; the peak of the "Boriswave" (2022-23) will be eligible in a year or so.

People who are currently moderate on this issue ("I don't support stripping rights, but we should be more cautious about giving them out") are likely to become harsher as the numbers increase. Because that's what's required to not "lock it in".

Well I am in London so I am not one bit worried about Restore. It seems to me looking around that almost 50% are dual national or born abroad etc so there is no way Restore can send half of London anywhere. So never going to happen.

They were talking about people who will not work, integrate, or learn English, who are rapists and violent, who are members of criminal gangs, those who want to illegally impose their own laws and cultures within ghettoes, those who despise the West and are here to disrupt or terrorise, who think of women as property, those who “marry” children, or who sexually assault girls in gangs.

This is exactly what the Republicans said about Trump's terror regime before it started arresting innocent people left right and centre. It never stops at 'criminals' and a lot of the behaviour you describe is subjective.

It is no different to saying I am not panicking about Polanski getting in and allowing everyone from all over the world to get on a flight and settle here permanently. He may say he advocates for open borders, but we all know, that if Green got in by some miracle, that would never happen either.

I don't think they will manage to either.
But if they come in with targets (a million must go apparently though presumably the actual target might be less) that's a worse case scenario because it basically incentives going after the low hanging fruit. Eg people who are following the rules and therefore easy to pick up. actual criminals, people that really don't want to go home will be much harder to locate. As will people who aren't paying into the system. So you punish the good, enable the bad and enable the growth of additional criminal economies. This is true for all parties that set these sort of targets. This is what is happening in America. It's not an imaginary scenario. The criminal gangs are all fine. Ordinary people are in ICE custody.

And whether they do this or not, people will be left disappointed. Because as you say they can't deport every ethnic minority in London. But some people definitely want that. And people that only want criminals deported will be disappointed their lovely neighbour and their deaf child were sent home but the vape shop is still open. So people will become more disillusioned, potentially pushed further right, potentially more riots or people taking the law into their own hands. And the UK will lose any investment opportunities from abroad because it will look like a failed state.

I don't have a problem with deporting serious criminals for example. But you don't need targets for that you need policies.

Hopefully with a tighter grip on uncontrolled immigration and an ever increasing welfare bill.

Yes. This is what Restore are proposing.
I do not agree with all their points... but many of them.
If you don't/won't work, don't speak the language., don't integrate and take from the system... why the actual fuck should we have to support them???
This also goes for our native work-shy scroungers.
They do however support positive immigration and the right to bring a foreign spouse into the country.
Its not about skin colour.