On immigration, the language of genocide has entered the mainstream [View all]

Desperate people die at sea and are talked of as insects, not human at all. This is the natural conclusion of the toxic attitudes on proud display in British politics.


Mediterranean migrant boat disaster victims' bodies arrive in Malta – video

The politician who promises control of all borders, and pledges to further strengthen that control by withdrawing further from Europe, is selling a simplistic idea. This idea is now indeed itself Europe-wide, as the toxic language around immigration has moved from the margin into the mainstream.

If we are encouraged to project all the problems we face around education, housing, employment and health on to one group of people, our lives are made easier and their deaths more likely. The fact that it’s not true, that immigrants are not the source of our problems, no longer matters. The “tell it as it is” crowd don’t tell it as it is at all. They are cowards.

Our political class, both Tory and Labour, has been pulled so far right that it cannot, and will not, tell the complicated truth about the consequences of conflict, about a globalised economy, about our interconnected world, a world that we cannot simply step off, or stop.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/20/immigration-language-of-genocide-british-politics

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Outstanding opinion piece from the Guardian.

For Tory and Labour you could substitute Republican and Democrat, and for Mediterranean migrants, substitute Latin American migrants.