Day 220, Immigration, numbskulls, unsubstantiated, ranty miscellany, tower

If you're first instinct when things go wrong is to look for someone or something to blame then the immigration debate will be right up your street.  Actually the word 'debate' is giving these discussions far more intellectual merit than they deserve.  What we are usually served up with on (insert whichever TV programme is your favourite: Question Time, Leaders Debates, etc, oh for fucks sake not another one of these bozo TV programmes, etc, etc), is an exposition of the points of view of people that can't see beyond the end of their noses.

The arguments that immigration brings huge benefit to this country, not just financial but that alone is immense, are compelling.  Yet we rarely hear anything beyond, "they nicked my job, why don't they piss off", ok, I paraphrased there but only slightly.

It is true that people are concerned that because of the recent economic difficulties then they could end up in worse circumstances.  The concern has been preyed on and stoked up by the politics of the right, it has been noted that these points resonate with a lot of people, or at least the sort of people that make a lot of noise.  This has set up a feedback loop which includes political parties, those that aren't as far to the right as the kippers, and they have decided to make a pitch for this area of political landscape.  We live in a country where the majority of the media is controlled by people that are also happy with this type of argument, after all, they've been fucking us over for years, stealing voicemails, supporting the interest of big business over the public, spinning these things as more important, passing the buck, pointing the finger of blame.  Any argument that tries to point out the facts is swamped by the braying voice of a Farage or the acres of newsprint from millionaire or billionaire press barons.  And anyone raising the voice of an opposing view is painted as though out of touch with reality.

The immigration debate (honestly, do we have to call it that) has focussed and polarised opinion.  It appears easy to understand.  It appeals to self-interest.  It is understood in a very clear cut way, and the right has successfully used it to for divisive purposes, to distract from the real failures caused by the financial crisis and Osborne's dumbass austerity policies.  Another area where the facts point out the lie.

Imagine this building as the prow of a great ocean liner cutting a clean slice through the centre of your tiny rowing boat.  The two sides bob on for a moment and then sink beneath the waves.

This immigration debate serves no purpose but to divide us and distract us.

The subtext of racism in the immigration debate may be denied, but the number of times people say "I'm not racist but" reveals where those people know they are coming from.  I remember as a 13 year old in the late 1970s telling NF skinheads to fuck off when they tried handing me their racist publications on Piccadilly Station approach in Manchester.  I may only be (slightly) less inarticulate about this subject now but it makes me equally as angry as I was then to now see these views being given credibility purely because they are rephrased using language that makes them appear 'reasonable' rather than 'extremist' when being espoused by shaven headed thugs.  These views should be exposed for what they are.

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