CGF:
Just to pick up on Hillary's question about why are Doveridgians so
anti-immigrants. Having lived just up the road in Canterbury, and knowing a
few people from this much-maligned town, I would say firstly, that most
people who live there aren't especially anti-immigrants. Again this is a
mis-representation in the press.
Secondly, I suspect that most of the small number of people who did (or
perhaps still do) have a problem with the town's 'visitors' were people from
the 'poorer' estates who were probably 'poor' because they spent a
significant proportion of their money on beer, fags etc, or just couldn't be
bothered to seek a life outside the benefit system. Immigrant-bashing,
whether it be verbal or physical, in this case, is an expression of their
identity - "We're 'British', we're 'poor', and we don't like you coming over
here and taking 'our' money!", which also reflects the 'get drunk, have a
fight' culture which seems to be sweeping the country on Friday / Saturday
nights at the moment. These factors are the same which appear to have paid a
significant part in the kind of thuggery we have seen recently in Brussels
and Charleroi was. I would argue that in essence, immigrant-bashing and
hooliganism by 'England supporters' are in fact just two sides of the same
coin.
Finally on this point, the thought that these immigrants are 'taking our
money' is partly due to government policy, which in many cases, particularly
for those who are given short term permits to stay, actually prohibits them
from seeking any form of employment, therefore keeping them on benefits at a
cost to the nation whilst they are here. Those that do seek jobs (either
illegally or not) will often end up in very low paid jobs that British
people don't want anyway, often illegally-low paid jobs. Dover is a good
source of 'employees' for the fruit & vegetable picking/packing industry,
which was criticised in last night's Panorama (see also web page below). So
next time you pick up your cheap pack of pre-washed mixed salad at
Sainsbury's, you can have a good guess at who is benefiting from the low
wages forced by supermarket pricing.
http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk%5Fpolitics/newsid%5F795000/795440.
stm
What we need therefore, is a government policy which allows immigrants to
seek employment, and also provides proper enforcement of the minimum wage
and health and safety regulations. To confine them to a life on benefits or
'illegal' employment is creating a problem which need not exist.
A couple of points to finish on: Firstly, looking at recent events
(hooliganism in Belgium, racist attacks in Wiltshire, Edinburgh & other
places, anti-immigrant speeches from William Hague et al, etc etc), are we
becoming a nation of racist thugs? Perhaps as Paul Treanor suggests we
already are in a non-violent sense, racists, just by virtue of the
protectionism of our lifestyles, and this is now merely starting to find
forms of violent expression? What of those of us who claim not to be racist
(this is usually a pretext of callers on radio phone-ins "I'm not a racist,
but...") and maybe even live righteous lives, but just accept other people's
intolerance as their own business (this is where moral relativism really
comes to grief: should we be tolerant of other people's intolerance?).
A commentator (I forget who) on Hitler said that the rise and popularity of
Nazism that lead to the mass extermination of Jews and others, didn't occur
because Germans were intrinsically nasty or full of hatred, or even agreed
with what Nazism stood for. It occurred because of the indifference of the
German people who couldn't be bothered to challenge what was happening
around them.
We therefore have a moral responsibility not to be indifferent.
__________________________________________________________________
Tony Jarvis - [log in to unmask]
School of Earth Sciences and Geography
Keele University, Keele, Staffs, ST5 5BG.
Tel: 01782 583095 Fax: 01782 715261
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