Category Politics

Moral Panics: Thoughts on Immigration

There are many posts presently here at SIN written, or in the pipeline, on our series concerning moral panic, and nothing promotes moral panic quite as much as immigration. Immigration is a hot topic, particularly in the UK, where I live, but also within the wider context of Europe (and pretty much anywhere). There are literally boat loads of people from Africa and the eastern end of the Mediterranean who are hitting the shores of Italy and Spain in waves of thousand upon thousand. Often, the end destination is seen as the UK with its perceived soft touch welfare system.

Racism and xenophobia in economic downturns

My previous post talked about the rise of the right-wing UKIP in recent polls and elections in the UK. Part of this phenomena, which is predicated upon the blaming of immigrants and immigration for many social woes, is as a result of the recent economic downturn.

Scottish Independence – my thoughts

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and flag-waving the first action of a warmonger.

yes-no2

I am British, English, and live on the south coast of the UK. That said, the coming Thursday referendum affects me as much as most people in the country. I will set out what is, for me and my compatriots, the most important democratic decision in the last hundred years, if not ever. At present, the polls are all suggesting it too close to call. They are neck and neck.

Pro-life, anti- everything else

This meme is pretty powerful because it is so accurate. I can never understand how pro-lifers are very often pro-gun, anti-universal healthcare and so on. There is a disconnect there, for sure.

The Religion Hurts Humanity blog recently posted this on a survey about pro-life attitudes:

Sara Firth quits RT over “lies”

This is yet another case of a defector from RT, the Russian news media organisation. Liz Wahl recently quit over the Crimea conflict and demands on her journalistic integrity in the context of what management and Putin were demanding of the network and its conclusions:

UKIP voters must surely support Scottish independence, no?

UKIP have done spectacularly well in the recent local and European elections in the UK> They were a fringe group of right-wing Euro/climate/immigrant-skeptics. They are now not so fringe, having, post-recession, harnessed the fear vote. Whilst I don’t deny the need for immigration reforms, supporting UKIP in any way to do this is clearly the wrong option.

The extreme right: UKIP and the evolution of ideas

“I’m not a racist, I’ve got coloured neighbors and they’re fantastic neighbors” – An interviewed UKIP voter on the BBC.

Local elections have just taken place in the UK for a proportion of local councils where the electorate can decide which councillors will represent their interests in local wards by winning seats on their local council. UKIP (the UK Independence Party), essentially a break-away faction of the Conservative Party, the right wing mainstream party of the UK, originally set up to take the UK out of membership of the EU, made massive gains.