One man and the 'immigrants go home' advertisement.

[NicholasTeakozy]

Pukkah Punjabi asks the Home Office to pay for his taxi from Harrow to Willesden. What an enterprising chap! :o

[Forgetfulmog]

Of course not filee

[NicholasTeakozy]

The people these mobile billboards are aimed at are those who are tempted to vote UKIP or any of the other racist parties. You can tell it's appalling when even Nigel Farage calls them nasty. Also, read to the bottom of the article I posted in the OP where he says it brought back to him how his parents must have felt when confronted by racists.

It's just typical 'nasty party' divide & rule bollocks. Again.

[filee777]

Then how is the billboard racist? It's telling people to 'go home' which seems to be the issue, like the words 'go home' have become a racist slur.

Had I called the children another racist slur I would most certainly be racist, so how is this any different?

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

TheFallenNinja By default an illegal immigrant would be of a different race, they cannot be anything but, it's not racist though

That's not true at all. A white American/ Australian etc. (nationalities chosen at random on the basis of being non EU countries with large white populations) who has overstayed their tourist/ study visa and is now hanging about indefinitely doing cash in hand bar work is also an illegal immigrant... There are more of those about than you think... At least there were when I lived in London a dozen years ago! Strangely people are very indulgent of that type of illegal immigrant...

[Chubfuddler]

Phrases can be racist by connotation. Would you suggest a black person sits at the back of the bus? I mean those words aren't racist or offensive on their literal meaning. It's by usage and association.

[Forgetfulmog]

Taken from the link posted by the op:

"So when the government today tells illegal immigrants to "go home", the phrase is not an abstract one: it is rooted in the popular fascism of that period, a fascism we were forced to challenge in order that we could say "we are here to stay".

Does that answer your question Filee?

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

I think people haven't clicked on the link to the article:

"As a child in the 1970s with migrant parents I remember how "go home" was shouted at us in the streets and graffitied on walls. One of my earliest memories is of the panic I felt when hearing my parents discussing in hushed tones whether we would indeed have to "go home" as we watched the National Front march on TV. So when the government today tells illegal immigrants to "go home", the phrase is not an abstract one: it is rooted in the popular fascism of that period, a fascism we were forced to challenge in order that we could say "we are here to stay".

That is why when these vans appear on the streets of Brent, where I have lived most of my life, I believe they should be questioned and opposed. We cannot allow them to promote fear and division in our communities, to make us suspicious of our neighbours."

[filee777]

Not really, I can't see how the term 'go home' which is used frequently (especially in the school holidays) has now become racist.

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Sorry, cross posts with Forgetfulmog

[MurderOfGoths]

Love it

I do wonder what they think they are going to achieve with this? I mean correct me if I'm wrong but illegal immigrants didn't get here by accident, they know they are illegal, a billboard isn't going to make them think "oh shit, maybe I shouldn't be here!"

[Forgetfulmog]

Filee, how do you not get it?!

It's all to do with context, "go home" in you example is obviously not racist as you're not bringing the child's nationality or race into it.

If you had said to the children "Go home to India" (or something like that) then that would be racist & have negative connotations

[Chubfuddler]

I don't believe that you can't see the connotations here filee.

[TheSmallPrint]

Can I just say, she's a woman. And I found it very funny.

[Chubfuddler]

You found what very funny?

[TheFallenNinja]

I read the whole article which is why I can confidently say the the author is talking rubbish.

I want to live in a country that is so hard in illegal immigrants that the only way to consider coming here is legally and honestly.

There are no people sitting in the camps around Calais thinking they'd better not stow away to get here because of the contents of some billboard.

We have mechanisms to enable people to come here legally, why aren't they using them?

[filee777]

But it doesn't say 'go home' to India, it says 'go home' which could be to a variety of places with a variety of cultures.

[MurderOfGoths]

filee You've never heard of phrases having negative connotations due to previous use then?

[filee777]

Oh I have definitely heard phrases that have a racist connotation, 'go home' is used by pretty much everyone at some point though.

If it had racial connetations it would have been racist when I shouted it at the kids in the cemetery.

[Forgetfulmog]

Filee I give up.

[MurderOfGoths]

Ok, when you yelled "go home" at the kids in the cemetery were you telling them that they weren't native and so didn't belong?

[MelanieCheeks]

I'm with MurderofGoths here - what is actually going to be achieved by these billboards?

Someone who's here illegally already has a fairly lax approach to the law. Can't see their actions being changed much by a mobile billboard, regardless of what it says.

[MurderOfGoths]

I knew an illegal immigrant, he was aware of the law, but didn't seem to think it affected him. I suspect that if he's still here he's laughing at these billboards.

[filee777]

Well, they aren't native and, by being here illegally they DON'T belong (the illegal immigrants, not the kids)

[somebloke123]

The billboards are pathetic. There are a number of people to blame for uncontrolled immigration. The immigrants themselves are not among them.

With illegal immigrants maybe it's somewhat different but if they are just desperately trying to better themselves it's understandable.

Under the Blair government the doors were flung right open (and there's little we can do about immigration from within the EU anyway). The then Downing Street advisor Andrew Neather has since gone on record as saying the policy was a deliberate ploy to change the demographics of the country and "rub the right's nose in diversity".