Does Gurkha Victory Represent a Turning Point on Immigration?

Perhaps the only thing more surprising than the Government’s recent defeat is the unanimous support for the Gurkhas in our Press.

A Gurkha

Even the Daily Mail has started a campaign of sorts arguing that the Gurkhas be given the right to stay.

This is the same Daily May of Mail Watch and Daily Quail fame. Websites which have been set up with the aim of discussing and outing the paper’s reactionary and bigoted stance on immigration. As the Daily Quali points out far better than I can that “despite a long running campaign to highlight the horrors of foreign people coming over here” the Mail seems to have changed its tune.

The support from the Independent and Guardian are both welcome and little surprising. What makes me ask if this is a turning point is the attitude of the Tabloid Press. The Mail have not been alone.

Luckily it seems the discussion of the Gurkas has not taken place within the realms of our poisoned immigration discourse. They are “our lads” fighting for this country. They deserve Justice because they have done as they were told and fought our stupid wars. I do not intend to denigrate the Gurkhas but their need is no more pressing than the millions of refugees out there that desperately need out help.

From a solely Realpolitik point of view I can understand Phil Woolas and our present Government’s position on the Gurkhas. As despicable, hateful, racist, cheap and unfair last week’s ruling was it was exactly the sort of despicable, hateful, racist, cheap and unfair policy that they have been following for the last decade in response to the hateful outpouring of the right wing press and in an attempt to out do the Xenophobia of the Tory Party.

From 1994 to 2009 we have had 5 Acts pass through Parliament, each more restrictive than the last. Sometimes the bogey men are Asylum Seekers, sometimes Illegal Immigrants, sometimes Polish Plumbers but more often than not the Acts were a reaction to a visceral opposition to some unidentifiable “other.” In this atmosphere the idea that a Policy of allowing Gurkhas the right to remain would seem naturally foolish.

The argument that Gurkhas are in a totally different category to previous immigrants is at best misguided and at worse intentionally misleading. The premeire enemy of modern times has been the Asylum Seeker. In reaction to the frenzy whipped up by the tabloid press we have deported people to Zimbabwe, to Afghanistan, to Iraq, to Iran, to Pakistan and to Nigeria to be tortured, murdered and raped.The Gurkhas are not the only ones who desperately need our help.

After this battle for the rights of our Gurkhas will the right wing press join the good fight for a fairer world? Have they realised the error of their ways? I think not , their appetite for hypocrisy will no doubt resurface and all will be forgotten…

Filed under: Politics, The Media, frankly mediocre speculation, immigration, Justice

Advertisement + Justice = Awesome

In a fantastic coup by “Dave” at Third Estate, he has managed to buy some great space on the Westminster tube advertising a really worthwhile cause. Strangers into Citizens describe themselves as…

…a national campaign calling for a one-off regularisation of long-term irregular migrants in the UK. There are an estimated 500,000 irregular migrants in the UK. They face exploitation and uncertainty. They want to work, integrate and be able to contribute to life in the UK as full members of our society.”

The underlying logic is mindblowingly simple and the moral arguments incredibly persuasive.

The National Audit Commission says that it costs £12,500 to deport an illegal immigrant and the LSE has recently estimated that there are some 500,000 million illegal immigrants in the country. A back of the fag packet calculation comes in at £6,250,000,000. Roughly the same as introducing ID cards and about a big a waste of money.

They are expensive to remove. This is an unavoidable cost if we wish to continue living in a democracy, which maintains a rule of law not mobs. But on top of this you also have the benefit which they would bring by leaving the “black economy.” Their income and contribution is invisible and hidden. Poor wages, bad conditions, terrible housing, no security and a media hate campaign that just won’t quit. They have such a huge contribution to make, why not let them?

Third Estate have not given as much weight to the moral argument as I would have, instead concentrating on the £1 billion contribution they could make to the treasury. This is something I will hopefully be able to tackle once I have a little more time to write something more in depth. Watch this space.

If you like the look of this why not help out? Their website is full of ways you can join the campaign. Why not go to their rally on May 4th or contact your MP?

Filed under: Politics, immigration, nationalism, The Media

A Missed Opportunity on Homophobia

Faith Schools are now to be allowed to teach Sex Education in a manner which is consistent with their “values”. Nothing wrong there is there?

Oh… unfortunately their values seem to include thinking homosexuality is a sin, that sex outside of marriage will send you to hell and that using condoms is wrong.

There seems little logic in allowing the same institution that teaches pupils how to use a condom to also teach them that they must never do so. Unfortunately, this is not the most worrying thing about these new guidelines.

Bullying is a very serious manner and as anyone who is still young enough to remember knows homophobic bullying is widespread. Exactly how a school preaching that homosexuality is wrong can combat this is beyond me. If we care about our children then we need to help, guide and where necessary force our schools to stamp this out. Helping schools legitimise it will do far more harm than we are ready for.

The bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch, offers a welcome ray of reason with this welcome and intelligent argument. He believes that Christianity must first and foremost be about protecting the weak. This protection extends to stamping out homophobic bullying in schools and this cannot occur at the same time as children are being told that these same 2% – 13% of the pupils deserve a fiery hell of burning and brimstone.

I would like to be clear that I have always been against the setting up of Faith schools. I can understand the argument that all faiths present in the UK deserve equal treatment with the Church of England, who of course run some very good schools. However, the anomaly of religious schools should have been levelled down and removed from out society instead of expanded to include all. Religion is a private matter and where it clashes with public health and child welfare it must step aside.

Filed under: Politics, Society, Politics, Sexuality, Society

Does Speaking Spanish Give you the Flu?

It is now 90 years since the Spanish Flu [1] hit a world still caught in the wake of the First World War. We can only hope that we do not see a pandemic of similar scale. In 1918-19 conservative estimates would put 20 million people dead out of population of 2 billion. The general consensus is that the Flu killed more than the years of war that preceded it and the grand total may have reached 100 million.

Luckily, the odds are in our favour. Despite talk that we are “due” a pandemic there is no reason to assume this will get much worse.

At the time of writing around 100 people have died in Mexico and the infection has finally hit European shores. Unfortunately, as I am sure many expected the reaction to this has not improved the media’s reputation for balanced reporting. My post title is not meant to be flippant, only a prediction of an upcoming Sun headline.

Despite the imminent meeting of the World Health Organisation involving nothing more than moving a dial from 3 up to a maximum of 6 it has still garnered plenty of coverage. The normally balanced Huffington Post has a splendid “World versus Swine Flu” headline guaranteed to panic. And the bastions of calm at BBC News 24 asked a bemused scientist if this virus will mutate too quickly for any effective defence to be mounted (no link for this).  In case you haven’t guessed, it won’t.

However, some hope remains to avoid media sensationalism. This has not descended into panic mongering yet. The job of our media at the moment is to keep us informed of the very limited spread of the disease so far.

A worse case scenario would present a real challenge for the Media, especially the 24 hour news channels. If the worst does occur and the world descends to the seriousness of 1918, or even a fraction of this, they will have a huge task ahead of them. They will need to inform, to direct and to keep people calm. I hope they are up to it.

++UPDATE++Unfortunately, it appears I might have been a bit prematurely glib, we are now on a 5 WHO warning level and Ben Goldacre has just informed me that even if the media do keep shouting wolf it doesn’t mean that one day there wont be a pig. Swine Flu looks like it’s getting serious.++UPDATE++

[1] Unfortunately for my headline, Mexico is the only Spanish speaking country where a Flu out break has began. Spanish Flu is most likely to have begun in east-Asia.

Filed under: History, The Media, Flu, frankly mediocre speculation, The Media

Left Outside by Labour and Shat on by the Press

Welcome to Left Outside.

This is a blog I felt I had to start for two reasons. Firstly, I felt compelled to begin writing because I don’t feel represented by those in power and I don’t think many other people do any more. I admit that The Labour Party betrayed its roots a long time ago but I never believed it would sink so low as it has. Call me naive if you will…

Secondly, I don’t believe that they are being held to account by our moribund media. Their responsibility is to hold up to scrutiny those in power, and those seeking it too (that means you Dave). I believe the press are failing us and there is plentiful evidence to support this here, here, here and elsewhere.

I will endeavour to post as frequently as I can and I hope that I can better the quality of what is currently on offer.

Filed under: Blogging, Blogging, Brown, Cameron, The Media