I saw yet another anti-immigrant story this morning with unchallenged “immigrants are taking all our houses, the NHS is falling apart because of them, inflation is all their fault” and so on. I’d love to see politicians call out the facts on that, but they won’t, easier to just nod along. 1/
What about: No, there are no council houses because Margaret Thatcher brought in a law that allowed them to be sold off and not replaced. There are less than 1/3 the number of state owned residences than in 1979. To replace them would cost tens of £billions that no govt would fund. 2/
What about: No, the NHS was doing very well in 2010 but has had 15 years of sleight of hand cuts. Immigrants keep the NHS alive, they keep you alive. To fix the state of much of the NHS would need many tens of £billions of capital rebuild and investment, not a subject any govt wants to raise. 3/
What about: No, your food and other bills have gone up because of Brexit. The costs of importing and distributing items is so much higher now. Also, you got rid of the cheap freedom of movement folk who’d come work in our fields in the summer then go home for the winter. That’s your fault. 4/
What about: No, your water and domestic fuel bills aren’t higher because of immigrants putting strain on it, they’re higher because no government wants to step in and properly regulate the grifting in the market that produces disproportionate profit and lack of investment. 5/
It’s easy to disprove most anti-immigrant stuff but… The right wing goons see this as a way to get power through populism. Immigrants are an easy target. “Them” in the way that racists have used forever. The others are either afraid to challenge or don’t want to pay the price of fixing it. 6/6
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