Village of the Brexit Damned

In this article I aim to demonstrate that Rishi Sunak’s plan to ‘stop the boats’ is a busted flush, morally, legally and practically. Before Brexit the phenomenon of small boats was hardly an issue. I contend that the issue of small boats has been manufactured as a "WMD" (Weapon of Mass Distraction) from other more important issues facing the nation. See also "Who moved my Overton Window" for more on mass manipulation by politicians and the populist media.

Numbers

The actual numbers of legal and illegal migrants coming to Britain is out of synch with the various proclamations made by Sunak, Braverman et al. The vast majority of people coming to this country are legal migrants, a fact which is conveniently overlooked by politicians and people with feeble minds. I have written on this before using this algorithm I developed to address immigration. Our Government would rather not look at it.

I can only assume that Sunak continues to gaslight the nation in order to pray at the altar of Brexit for the right-wing factions in the Tory / UKIP / Brexit party. Especially the voices of Braverman, Badenoch, Farage, Tice, Anderson, Baker, and the so called ‘Five Families’, now 10 competing factions of the Tory party. The Five Families is a reference to the mafia, designed to install shock and awe into one nation Tories. The narrative of racism and xenophobia used by Braverman has its linguistic roots in 1930s Nazi Germany, for example ‘swarms of migrants’ and ‘take back control’.

The Rwanda scheme is thought to only be capable of taking 500 migrants and estimates also suggest that it may be just 100. Yet there is a backlog of 100 000 migrants currently. One does not need to be Carol Vorderman to spot the chasm in the numbers here. Additionally, the Home Office estimates the cost of sending one migrant to Rwanda to be nearly ￡170 000. 500 x ￡170 000 - I will leave Carol to do the math.

Whilst people complain of migrants in hotels, this scheme will cost the earth for no benefit, especially when one considers that most people coming here are legal and can therefore work and contribute to the economy. Clearly there is no proportionality in this scheme. Even if the bill passes in House of Commons, it will likely fall over at the implementation stage.

Drama reaches the heart

Logic makes little impact on people committed to the illusion of Brexit benefits and so I sometimes resort to approaches that bypass our heads to reach our hearts. I wrote this piece of music and made this film about the plight of migrants and our Government’s inhumane response to them. The film contains challenging images about Brexit Britain’s slow drift towards a fascist state. I make no apology for this. Art and satire must reflect reality. The professional images in this video are by a noted anti-Brexit artist, Mr James Rowland, with the ‘garage / steampunk’ style graphics made by me on PowerPoint. How many more must die before decency is restored to our politics?

The 1950’s Sci Fi film ‘Village of the Damned’ provided a form of sad inspiration for this piece, in so far as the idea that the Tory party now sees itself as a master race who must survive at all costs. History repeats itself too often if we let it …. Let’s not.

Recalibrating the statistics

James Cleverly, MP for Braintree recently lied about immigration numbers. In June 2023 Sunak promised to abolish the backlog. Yesterday Cleverly said that there was a ‘process’ for clearing the backlog, and some new language was introduced i.e. ‘legacy claims’. Basically this was some quite clever sleight of hand trickery to reframe the targets so that Sunak could later on say that he had met his promise on Rwanda. Nigel Farage then complained that the review had found more than 50 000 asylum seekers were legally entitled to be here. Clearly this is a sign of the system working rather than Farage’s pound shop racist view of things. Cleverly also ‘forgot’ to mention that the Home Office had ‘lost’ 17 000 asylum seekers from the system. Losing 17 migrants might be considered to be an accident, but 17 000 is plain careless? Additionally, he forgot to mention that 100 000 asylum seekers have joined the queue in the interim. All in all, a total pack of lies. Here is a good analysis of Cleverly’s lying. Check?Georgina’s Channel 4 fact check article?in full. James Cracknell's reflections are on point here:

Conclusion

Don’t be fooled by the gaslighting. There are better ways to deal with immigration. Watch Sophy Ridge’s interview with Nick Ferrari and Gina Miller for some insights into better ways to address complex problems.

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