Nigel Farage has put great focus on illegal immigration, and has moulded many of Reform UK’s policies around it.
Farage portrayed a situation that struck a chord with many in the UK, and that was needed as he dropped all interest in chasing a good Brexit deal for the country.
Like many of their manifesto items, they are beginning to soften, particularly with Farage now saying mass deportation of illegal immigrants not being possible. Typically they come in hard in a manifesto area, it spikes interest, then Reform UK backs away. That’s not just a Farage thing, Richard Tice followed that approach around Covid.
- Both the Conservatives and Labour have done little to tackle immigration, that is evident by the numbers arriving.
- Uncontrolled immigration is a problem, but how it ranks amongst the many other problems in the country needs more understanding.
- Migration could be being used to divide, control, and deflect from other issues.
- Immigration provides an easy muse to Reform, and a much needed hook to their campaign.
People have a range of views on immigration from providing benefit to the country to it being damaging – but that isn’t what this article is about. Some of the facts around migration have become lost to politics.
People now feel more empowered to go on an online attack towards people that appear to not come from this country. You can see that for yourself with the casual racism that you can see being dished out online.
As an example, TikTok, with a video that I looked at was showing a situation on some stepping stones, where an Asian looking lady was trying to cross (holding a dog), and there was a holdup.
Many of the comments were around her going back to her own country, around the dog obviously being lunch, and what else would you expect. While there is never a justification for racism, this kind of casual racism is perhaps more damaging than the more overt racism. You can find similar comments littered throughout social media.
Casual racism is more connectable-to than overt racism, where people can more see the wrong, and dismiss it. The use of entertainment platforms with this sort of messaging is a route to connect to people that are expecting to be entertained, or have open minds. So you are not as much viewing with pre-set ideas in what to expect, and deflect the negatives – your barriers are down.
But perhaps Reform UK have just happened upon a useful marketing hook, given that previous governments hadn’t tackled this issue. That gave a ready base of followers for that approach, given the developed frustration that the public had developed or been helped to develop by politics and media.
How much of a genuine issue to the country is immigration ?
That is a huge question, and much bigger than this as a news item, or even journalism.
There is research that shows the overall cost to the country, in areas such as paid benefits, housing, health care. But there is also a cost with increase crime, and British people that dutifully paid their taxes losing out, or playing 2nd place to immigrants – but that is likely nothing you haven’t already read.
But has there been a manufactured situation to overly develop anger towards immigrants, and create divides within the country ? Labour hasn’t just not been tackling immigration, it has mocked the public to their faces in the packages that now incentives people to come to this country.
So that action, without even any Labour window dressing of tackling migration has fed the support for change, and Reform UK has been the only party offering that change.
What does the country need going forward ?
We are likely to see a continued softening from Reform UK in their approach to migration, or riddles around what their policies really are.
We need to stop the situation where race attitudes seem to be drifting back to the 70’s. But things quickly change as can be seen with the “Be kind” message around Caroline Flack, that briefly struck a chord, but people quickly moved on from that as an approach.
But we need a sensible debate and sensible action from the country around migration. What I mean by that is we all need to understand the facts more, and to not be led by politicians for our understanding.
The trouble with even just saying that it will prompt, comments around being left wing, or this article has been mean to Farage or Reform UK, or that having a debate around it is right wing as it is settled matter.
People should challenge themselves first before they reach to challenge others.
We need a political party in power that will place appropriate measures to appropriately control immigration, but will also do that in a way that unites, rather than divides, the country.
Immigration and race shouldn’t be used as a tool to control people.
admin