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#ukpol

noam@libranet.de
Noam writes

#UKpol #immigration

A good read from Nesrine Malik on the recent #racist riots in the #UK. Excerpt:

After the riots, Keir Starmer should tell us the truth about our country. The violence exposed racist, anti-immigration narratives based on lies. Yet there has been a gaping hole where the counter-argument should be.What he should say is that immigration is not “out of control”. That we do, in fact, have control of our borders, and that the vast majority who come to the country are allowed in after meeting an extremely high visa threshold.

He will not say this, because the illusion that immigration is something that a government can fully “control”, that is not subject to economic dynamics and the needs of public infrastructure, is important to maintain.

What he should say is that those who are not allowed or invited in constitute a tiny fraction of overall immigration. That asylum seekers are not merely an administrative processing concern, but a human rights one. That the UK has obligations, and moreover, values and convictions, that necessitate looking fairly and humanely upon the resettlement needs of those fleeing war, persecution and the devastation of their countries.

He will not, because, well, it feels like heresy just to have typed the above. ... an almost total failure by the media and politicians to humanise asylum seekers, makes pointing out their needs and real numbers forbidden.

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drnoam@diasp.org
Noam Bergman

In the extensive #BBC coverage of local #elections in the #UK, I’ve seen and heard not a single reference to local issues or how local councils performed. It is all interpreted only as an indication of popularity of national politics.

I understand the connection to national politics, and I’m not asking this to be denied. However, this is both bad journalism and biased coverage. It’s bad journalism as it ignores a large part of what local elections are about, and fails to hold local government to account on anything they do.

It’s biased as it projects national issues on local elections, and supports the main national parties, with no value given to smaller parties, local parties and independent candidates, who might pay an important role locally. In effect, the BBC is encouraging people to vote according to national issues, not local.

#ukpol #media

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