The Tory Party, rather disgustingly, has made anti-immigrant bigotry a key part of its platform. They believe the UK should withdraw from 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees: rather than taking people in on the basis of how much they’re being persecuted, we should set refugee quotas and not let anyone in once they’re filled.
That isn’t the really bad thing. The really bad thing is that a sizeable proportion of Brits [*] say they agree with Mr Howard’s policy. So either a sizeable proportion of Brits are dumbasses who believe any old bollocks they read in the press, or they’re Nazi bigots. I’m hoping it’s the former, although this is still far from undepressing.
Update: here is further evidence for the former.
[*] The link goes to a poll data analysis rather than an individual’s opinion; I have no idea what Anthony Wells’s personal views are, although I hope they’re not in line with his party’s.
John – I’ve added a bit to the post about a MORI poll from 2000 that suggests that people are "dumbasses who believe any old bollocks they read in the press". While I haven’t put in the post, the same poll showed that people though asylum seekers recieved £113 a week from the Government.
Worrying thoughly, there was another question in the YouGov/Mail on Sunday poll that showed 49% of people DISAGREED that "Asylum seekers who are genuinely fleeing persecution should be made welcome in Britain, even if they have arrived here illegally." I hope people disagreed with it because of the illegality bit, and I’d like to imagine that, had the question just been "Asylum seekers who are genuinely fleeing persecution should be made welcome in Britain" nearly everyone would have agreed. It might be the triumph of hope over experience though.
Asylum seekers get £113 a week! People are so DUMB. Everyone knows they get at least £250…
And a car and free driving lessons and satellite TV and a butler.
I can’t believe that my brother believes those kind of lies. We nearly came to blows during Christmas.
Have you seen the Nick Cohen column in today’s standard? It’s appalling. It’s all sort of "well, the Tories are terrible gutter politicians for doing this but … you can’t blame the white working class, can you? Coming over here, taking our jobs … and the bloody Muslims don’t exactly make any effort to fit in, do they? I mean I’m not a racist, guv, but …"
They don’t really believe in quotas – they’re electioneering. The quota will be high. It’s there as a deterrent. It may be appalling populism, but it’s no worse than most New Lab propaganda is.
D2: Does that continue: "I mean I’m not a racist, guv, but solidarity with Jews and homosexuals is a luxury we can’t afford."
The obvious solution is New Labour’s quietly abandoned plan to ‘hold’, (concentrate), ‘asylum seekers’, (Gypsies, Muslims, Jews, money grabbing bastards, or foreigners for short), in ‘secure facilities’, (camps).