Tuesday, March 14, 2023
And now back to the real issues
It is true, important as the principle of free speech is, the real issue behind Gary Lineker's controversial tweet was the damage caused and the sheer inhumanity behind, the UK Governments illegal and racist immigration bill.
The Guardian reports on the view of one former Home Office adviser and one time Conservative campaigner, Nimco Ali that Suella Braverman should consider her position for putting forward “cruel and heartless” immigration policies that discriminate against war refugees of colour.
They quote Ms Ali, who in December left her job as an adviser on violence against women, as saying that the home secretary was “the wrong person not just for the Conservative party but for the country”:
A child refugee from Somaliland, Ali said the government’s failure to widen routes open to Ukrainians to other refugees appeared to be “racist” and “painful”.
Her words came as the government faced opposition from MPs across the House of Commons as it attempted to push the illegal migration bill through parliament on Monday. After a bad-tempered four-hour debate, a Labour amendment to block the bill was defeated by 312 votes to 250 during its second reading.
In a damning intervention during the debate, Theresa May criticised Braverman’s plan, warning that “anybody who thinks that this bill will deal with the issue of illegal migration once and for all is wrong”.
The bill says that refugees who arrive in the UK without prior permission will be detained for 28 days and that asylum claims will be deemed “inadmissible” whatever the individual’s circumstances.
They will be removed either to their own country or a “safe third country”, such as Rwanda, if that is not possible.
Ali, who came to the UK 32 years ago with her family, said they would have been criminalised if they had arrived under the planned legislation.
“The bill that Suella Braverman has put forward means that anyone like me who escapes from war and comes to the UK to claim asylum is a criminal.
“The focus from Suella is on criminalising the victims, not the perpetrators of trafficking. Women who are trafficked should be seen as victims, but under this law, people who are trafficked would be criminalised,” she said.
Ali said that the plans to send people to Rwanda posed difficult questions for her while she was a Home Office adviser, but “at least there was due process”.
“As a former refugee of colour, if we can provide generous help to Ukrainians escaping war then I think we need to look at ensuring that we also provide routes to anyone escaping conflicts,” she said.
“If we can find room for a white child but not a black child, who are coming here in similar circumstances, it is racist. It is really painful if we believe that people can seek refuge if they come from Europe but not elsewhere.
“If we can provide safe and legal routes for Ukrainians, we should do it for other people as well,” she said.
Ali, who campaigned for the Conservative party in 2019, said Sunak would not win the next election with Braverman as his home secretary.
“He is in danger of losing younger people, floating voters and undecided millennials.
“Suella Braverman wants the government to look tough but it will instead make us look cruel and heartless which I don’t think the PM is.
“I have a problem with her language. I believe that blaming lefty lawyers when they are challenging the law is dangerous. When she spoke about her dream of seeing a plane take off to Rwanda, it lacked compassion and understanding.”
There is still a debate to be had as to whether the government's language is reminiscent of that used in Germany in the 1930s, but for those of us who grew up in the 1970s, the echoes of the language used by the National Front are all too evident.
The Guardian reports on the view of one former Home Office adviser and one time Conservative campaigner, Nimco Ali that Suella Braverman should consider her position for putting forward “cruel and heartless” immigration policies that discriminate against war refugees of colour.
They quote Ms Ali, who in December left her job as an adviser on violence against women, as saying that the home secretary was “the wrong person not just for the Conservative party but for the country”:
A child refugee from Somaliland, Ali said the government’s failure to widen routes open to Ukrainians to other refugees appeared to be “racist” and “painful”.
Her words came as the government faced opposition from MPs across the House of Commons as it attempted to push the illegal migration bill through parliament on Monday. After a bad-tempered four-hour debate, a Labour amendment to block the bill was defeated by 312 votes to 250 during its second reading.
In a damning intervention during the debate, Theresa May criticised Braverman’s plan, warning that “anybody who thinks that this bill will deal with the issue of illegal migration once and for all is wrong”.
The bill says that refugees who arrive in the UK without prior permission will be detained for 28 days and that asylum claims will be deemed “inadmissible” whatever the individual’s circumstances.
They will be removed either to their own country or a “safe third country”, such as Rwanda, if that is not possible.
Ali, who came to the UK 32 years ago with her family, said they would have been criminalised if they had arrived under the planned legislation.
“The bill that Suella Braverman has put forward means that anyone like me who escapes from war and comes to the UK to claim asylum is a criminal.
“The focus from Suella is on criminalising the victims, not the perpetrators of trafficking. Women who are trafficked should be seen as victims, but under this law, people who are trafficked would be criminalised,” she said.
Ali said that the plans to send people to Rwanda posed difficult questions for her while she was a Home Office adviser, but “at least there was due process”.
“As a former refugee of colour, if we can provide generous help to Ukrainians escaping war then I think we need to look at ensuring that we also provide routes to anyone escaping conflicts,” she said.
“If we can find room for a white child but not a black child, who are coming here in similar circumstances, it is racist. It is really painful if we believe that people can seek refuge if they come from Europe but not elsewhere.
“If we can provide safe and legal routes for Ukrainians, we should do it for other people as well,” she said.
Ali, who campaigned for the Conservative party in 2019, said Sunak would not win the next election with Braverman as his home secretary.
“He is in danger of losing younger people, floating voters and undecided millennials.
“Suella Braverman wants the government to look tough but it will instead make us look cruel and heartless which I don’t think the PM is.
“I have a problem with her language. I believe that blaming lefty lawyers when they are challenging the law is dangerous. When she spoke about her dream of seeing a plane take off to Rwanda, it lacked compassion and understanding.”
There is still a debate to be had as to whether the government's language is reminiscent of that used in Germany in the 1930s, but for those of us who grew up in the 1970s, the echoes of the language used by the National Front are all too evident.
