Sunday, September 30, 2007

Immigration - Stirring by the Independent

I see the Independent on Sunday is trying to stir up a race row for the Tory party by saying that an interview made by Sayeeda Warsi, the shadow community cohesion minister, threatens to fuel the already highly charged debate about immigration by arguing that it has been "out of control".

Now I wonder who has stirred up the immigration debate recently with his "British Jobs for British Workers" and other trite sayings designed to appeal to the likely BNP voter.

Looking more closely at Sayeeda's apparent interview with the Independent on Sundays "journalists" we see her saying such controversial things as

"What this country has a problem with is not people of different kinds coming into this country and making a contribution, but the problem that nobody knows who is coming in, who is going out – the fact that we don't have a border police; we don't have proper checks; we don't have any idea how many people are here, who are unaccounted for," she says. "It's that lack of control and not knowing that makes people feel uneasy, not the fact that somebody of a different colour or a different religion or a different origin is coming into our country.The control of immigration impacts upon a cohesive Britain."
Apparently these views are "somewhat surprising"
as she is the daughter of immigrants herself. Her father is a former Labour-supporting mill-worker from Pakistan who, after making a fortune in the bed and mattress trade, switched his allegiance to the Tories. The lawyer, 36, who is married with a nine-year-old daughter, devoted her early career to improving race relations helping to launch Operation Black Vote in Yorkshire and sitting on various racial justice committees. So her analysis of race relations on the eve of the Tory conference cannot be dismissed as a right-wing rant.
Why should the views be surprising,. It is not racist, it is just that we carry on being silent on immigration, as it is one of those subjects that mustn't be discussed in a sensible way in these evermore sensitive days.

Each time Sayeeda Warsi makes a point in the article it is prefixed by the "journalists" view with the usual prejudicial language that attempts to destroy any sensible argument on the immigration issue.

This is the sort of "journalism" that causes people to vote for BNP rather than look for solutions within the mainstream parties as it stifles reasoned comment and debate that might sort out the problem in a sensible way.

Immigration... Immigration... Immigration: Cameron hoped to ignore it. But now it's back with a vengeance - Independent Online Edition > UK Politics

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