I don't know about you but I've had about enough of mainstream media & politicians legitimising racist anti-asylum protests that terrorise refugees & communities. I had to push back hard, TWICE on BBC yesterday about supposed "legitimate concerns" www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtkA...
Well pushed back! Nice to hear!
is it worth writing to our MPs asking what these 'concerns' are? and can gov stop using the phrase if there aren't any
Brilliant and thank you. We need more people like you being interviewed.
I have LEGITIMATE CONCERNS ABOUT RANCID VIOLENT RACIST REFORMERS 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Pressures on school??? What’s the correlation with schools you weirdo
The right need someone to hate to mobilise their base. Without the hate they have very little.
So articulate @zoejardiniere.bsky.social
I struggle with the "We don't know who's living in these hotels" argument Surely that is the case for all hotels I have no idea who is staying in any hotel that I walk past I assume criminals staying at Claridges are wealthier than those staying at a Travelodge
Beautifully put. You get a follow for that. Nasty thugs in the Hilton!
Exactly. You could even broaden this. I'm a "bl*dy immigrant",who's been living in 🇬🇧 for almost 30yrs now. Why should I have to tell my neighbours "where I come from"? How useful would this info be to them? Would my origin ctry tell them how likely I am to commit crimes? That's the basis for racism.
Rich crooks are ok of course.
The best🙄
I have legitimate concerns about our public service broadcaster.
I don't even look at mainstream media anymore unless it's a clip someone posted. They're so far behind as well.
Why do I have to sign in to see this?
I think you can just skip that and then view it
The current move on asylum hotels is quite sickening and pandering to racists directly. And yet it was govt policy when tories in power.
Well done - you’re doing the right thing… keep going!!
Rejoin EU petition bsky.app/profile/peti...
With the recent protest in Falkirk, misinformation and conspiracy theories are rampant. Stories of the government suppressing the true number of rapes by "illegals" and of them getting houses and instant access to NHS services. None of it is true.
The government have lost control of the narrative and have in fact just reinforced the conspiracy theories with their inhuman rhetoric against irregular arrivals of asylum seekers.
And this is what happens when you report on "legitimate" concerns:
"legitimate concerns" is the new "I'm not racist but.." britain & america need more Jonathan Millers.
The fabulous Dr Jonathan Miller. We need his ilk and their moral authority more now than ever. Where are they to be found?
they exist in their droves, but, simply not allowed on the telly it seems. I visit england regularly and find it jarring how r/w types, echoing "Island of Strangers" rhetoric ala powell, appear on so many news & current affairs programmes largely unchallenged. here's farage on telly in Ireland.
#FarageRiots
So good to see a journalist doing their job properly.
I agree but it's their job to be well researched and trained how to conduct an interview, no? I visit england regularly and pick up BBC here in CH...I was stunned to see this scary and dangerous individual given 7 or 8 minutes, largely unchallenged, recently on newsnight.
British media died in the Tweenies 😞
Sorry, what's the tweenies?
THE 2010 to 2019 decade.
ah. makes sense. never heard that expression before. I remember being in London for 2012, olympics year, a fantastic time to visit england. So upbeat, positive & welcoming. the buzz was brilliant. the decline since is so dramatic it's as if by design.
I agree 100% It was Britcool time there was positivity despite austerity. Nastiness in politics had not yet emerged but was on the way. Libdems did mitigate some of the worst Tory policies. Media were frightened by Leveson 1 and upcoming Leveson 2.
Design would imply the Tories knew what they were doing when they decided on austerity to fix the economy; bombing Libya to fix a civil war; a ref to fix UKIP; to walk away from the most effective trading community in the world & create an economy built on mountains of red tape were all good ideas🤷♂️
I remember being there when Putin came to visit and to watch the judo. As far as you can tell, I think he hated everything he saw. Engineering the change we've witnessed must have been an integral part of his long term strategy.
“Legitimate concern” is the new “patriotism” (i.e. Oscar Wilde’s “last refuge of the scoundrel.”) And the focus is never on the tax-avoiding billionaire, the non-dom slum landlord or the far right, multi-millionaire rabble rouser. They’re only ever “legitimately concerned” about the vulnerable.
"legitimate concern" is the new "I'm not racist but..." Wrapping racism in a flag, to make it patriotic is not unique to the UK Mark. It's used by the r/w all across Europe and in the USA. It's Tip #1 on their cheat sheet.
It is unpatriotic to make the country's flag a symbol of hate and thuggery.
They also like "common sense" . They are both fascist speak for bigotry.
Dr Johnson, not Wilde.
You’re right. I’m grateful for the correction. Thank you. Mx
Well said, Zoe.
I'm so glad we've got Zoe Gardner & some others pushing back at these xenophobic & racist views. Unfortunately mainstream media are doing the work for these nasty people for some time now: normalising far right policies. " legitimate concern " is a trick to con the public. We need more Zoe's!
Thankyou, that must have been hard work.
📌
Curiously the BBC never frame protests related to Climate Change or Palestinian deaths as people raising legitimate concerns
Well done Zoe.
Well done.
The BBC News editorial team will be the downfall of the BBC. It’s been stuffed with Tories since the late naughties. The reputational damage that they are doing to the BBC could be terminal. Something needs to be done - it’s becoming increasingly obvious that nobody trusts the BBC’s reporting.
Well I have "legitimate concerns" about the mainstream-medias relentless scapegoating of migrants! Keep up the good work Zoe. 👍
Thank you for what you do Zoe 💐
Added to the newspeak dictionary: 'Legitimate concerns' = "i'm not racist BUT"
On the other side, it's a terrific dialectical boomerang. Tell them about your 'legitimate concerns', Zoe
I hate the phrase "legitimate concern" its so overused on issues where their concerns are just made up Its like saying anti-vaxxers have "legitimate concerns"
Excellent work! "Legitimate concerns" about scant resources are legitimate concerns about scant resource. Blatant scapegoating cannot ever be legitimate.
The BBC's new euphemism for disgusting bigotry is "legitimate concerns".
Well done, please keep it up!
I’m sure you’ve seen this, Zoe, but I thought @bearlypolitics.co.uk post on this was excellent. substack.com/@bearlypolit...
You do such a fantastic job, Zoe. It amazes me how you remain so calm and articulate in the face of such appalling nonsense from organisations who really should know better.
See also “silent majority” who never shut the fuck up btw!
The concerns are being legitimised and the media attention being given to the (uneducated) minority who believe the right wing untruths is frightening. Well done for speaking up against it but we all have a moral obligation to do the same do that the voice of humanity is the loudest and strongest ❤️
Absolutely right. It would be great if the government and Labour MPs had the courage to make this case. Rather than buying into the toxic, mendacious narrative that prevails. The mainstream media, including the BBC, also feel like a lost cause..
Unintended consequences. The Epping judgment could be relied upon to prevent the use of hotels/B&Bs for anyone who is homeless, not just asylum seekers, including families escaping domestic violence. Legitimate concerns indeed.
But that is EXACTLY the reason they are doing this. We think of this as "unintended" but for the RW this is part of the plan as a way to ultimately target anyone they see as "undesirable" - see for example who is being rounded up in Washington and the US.
It is absolutely not unintended, it is deliberate.
I think it makes a difference that the Home Office hired out the whole hotel rather than just individual rooms. I don't think local councils do that for homeless accommodation, and if they did, they are the same local councils responsible for planning permission anyway.
Quite. There are other differences too, there’s a useful list in the judgement of how these premises are being used. Also any local council that considers there’s a change of use resulting from their own action ought to seek planning permission or risk maladministration finding.
Where something similar could happen is if for example Westminster City Council were to hire a hotel outside of London and dump all their homeless people there. London councils dumping their homeless people elsewhere is something that other councils have complained about
because they then become responsible for providing local council services to them.
The right wing would love that, when you consider how many of its supporters seem to have domestic violence convictions.
I don’t think so. Finely balanced & nuanced. We await the full hearing as to whether repurposing an entire hotel for asylum accommodation is a change of use (FWIW, I think it is) but I don’t see the use of some rooms in a hotel as temporary accommodation in that way at all.
So then the Home Office can rent half the rooms at the Bell Inn for asylum seekers and half the rooms at another hotel and the problem is fixed?
They could fix it by letting asylum seekers work and then most would find their own accommodation and be fully part of the communities in which they live pending decisions. Reading about the contract just reinforces my view that the current approach pushes away from the public sector equality duty.
Christ I hadn't even thought of that.
another reason why it needs to be reversed even if it takes government changing the law at the moment the Home Office could be part of a national Whack-a-Mole game - moving asylum seekers from hotel to hotel as racists follow them getting court injunctions making them move again.
Except the body that could bring such a challenge - the council - will be the one using it for homeless temporary accommodation…
Or someone aggrieved by a Council’s decision not to take enforcement action against an alleged breach of planning control? Rare, but given the febrile nature of the debate, sadly not unimaginable. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I don’t think they’d have standing. Enforcement of planning permission is for the council.
Also couldn’t a council just give itself permission for whatever use it intends? Or is it a bit more complicated than that?
It is, yes. Different duties, etc. But trying to get an injunction based on its own use of the hotel? Non-starter.
Thank you. I’m surprised if I’ve understood correctly that those directly affected wouldn’t have standing to enforce breaches.
The council is the planning authority. Others may have different remedies, but not an injunction for planning breach.
The interfering bystander would have to JR the council for failing to enforce planning breach. Not injunct the hotel.
I suppose a neighbour might be in a better position as part of a nuisance claim, though that would be an indirect way of achieving the same.
I think a nuisance claim, absent some remarkable facts, would be a non-starter
Might be an idea for the councils thinking of bringing actions to stop hotels being used for migrants checked this, rather than discovering they have to find other accommodation for their homeless at short notice.
Well they can't be using the same hotel, if block booked by the Home Office.
No, but if a court decision says an organisation can't use hotel A to house people long term without a change of use planning permission it may well also apply to hotels B, C and D and to bookings by organisations other than the HO, which needs to be checked now, not when people get chucked out.
It may or it may not. It is not a precedent, it is a fact specific case by case thing. But it is only the council that could seek an injunction and that strikes me as unlikely against its own use, don’t you think? (And even unlikelier to actually get an injunction in those circs.
Agreed. It’s more the optics: ‘concerned citizens’ pressurising local politicians on the basis that they don’t like the look of the people using temporary accommodation, regardless of their residency status. Thin end of a political wedge issue.
On all matters of planning law I defer to @simonicity.bsky.social and his fantastic blog. See his commentary here: simonicity.com
🙏
The protests/disruption were 'lesser' elements of the Epping judgment. And similar could not be confidently relied upon by other councils to obtain an injunction. Too much is made of this as being 'a precedent'.
Isn’t the other point that’s being overlooked that the hotel may yet succeed. This is just an interim injunction. If there is ‘a precedent’ we don’t yet know what that precedent will be.
Or do lawyers think it unlikely that the hotel will ultimately succeed?
That is possible, though given that in such cases, the threshold for an interim and a final injunction is not terribly different (absent unexpected facts), it is not something I would rely upon. But it is only a precedent for itself, in any event.
doesn't have to be the council could be an arsehole dominated ' residents group ' who spot some asian women being given refuge , or people with drug problems , or just families with rowdy kids ..
No, it couldn't. It is only the council that could seek an injunction to stop a use in breach of planning permission.
Could it be deployed strategically to ensure homeless people are made another council's problem, though? "We can't house them, someone else will need to."
It could be used by councils who are having accommodation block booked for use by a different council though - as happens with some London boroughs accommodating people out of borough.
Block booking an entire hotel in those circumstances would be extremely rare. Let alone for a sustained duration.
It's not unheard of - mentioned in this article: "We can’t even book hotel rooms because London boroughs are block booking the hotel out" (complains Harlow council) www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/trend-o...
No, but rare, as I said. In that article, it is largely purchased or leased property.
And Harlow's complaint was it couldn't use the hotel for TA for their own homeless, so highly unlikely to injunct use of hotel for TA...
Well that would seem somewhat self-defeating.... (though I think they may have wanted to book individual rooms, rather than block book, to be fair)
An eg of block booking for temp. accommodation. Not clear if planning consent sought. Q of law & fact: Is this still hotel use, or homelessness hostel? The latter would require consent for change of use. Failing to seek consent if required would be “do as we say, not as we do”aka maladministration.
No.
Thanks. I'm interested in what makes you say that.
Because it is the law? Council remains under a duty to secure accommodation for eligible and priority need homeless in their area. Can’t just make it someone else’s problem by closing temp accommodation. Councils are *desperate* for temporary accommodation.
I'm sure my council (Newham), would love to be able to offload its temporary housing costs onto someone else. www.newham.gov.uk/news/article...
Any London council, TBH.
Thanks.
Thanks for so quickly and articulately pushing back against that poisonous phrase. It's used to justify 'debate' in so many situations where the safety of marginalised people is being deliberately compromised. I've never seen someone publicly shut it down like you have. ✊
Thanks for all the great work you do! 😊
Was this the interview in response to the, "oops we seem to have booked multiple racist bigots, can you step in to counter?"
You've the proverbial patience of a saint dealing with BBC diatribe Zoe; it's why I ended up deleting their news app from my phone, as sick of their right leaning nonsense - supposed to be impartial, sadly they're anything but 🙄
Thank you for pushing back. It's so sad that so few people do. I can't bear to watch the BBC News anymore because of the legitimisation of racism and extreme right wing views. BBC indulges in lazy journalism which reports someone saying something as fact without a deeper dive. Shameful.
Legitimate concerns are ensuring Refugees and Asylum Seekers are treated fairly and helped to find jobs and homes in the UK, the far right and Reform viewpoint is Racism, Racism is never a legitimate concern
The only concerns are the rent-a-mobs causing trouble.
Thanks for pushing back on this “legitimate concerns” nonsense, which feels almost Trumpian. There are some “nice guys” in that lot of far right protestors. Intimidation is not a legitimate form of protest and should be called out.
Brilliant. Well done at pushing back on this „legitimate concern“ nonsense the BBC keep pushing.
Legitimate concerns? The last one of these demos (race riots?) in Scotland one guy had a kill them all banner. There’s your legitimacy.
Well said👍
Zoe you are a force to be reckoned with in UK politics. Thank you for articulating what the BBC journalists should know already and putting it to them so directly and clearly. More of this. 🙏🏻
Why is it legitimate concerns when it's racist mobs against asylum seekers, but not when it's peaceful products about a genocide in gaza 🤔 one side is getting locked up for terrorism, the other isn't. That's the real two tier system
It's all clickbait and airtime filling to them Zoe. Well done for calling them out!
We should hold the BBC to a higher standard than clickbait and airtime.
@zoejardiniere.bsky.social You are again the voice of reason. I can't see how anybody can argue with your points, yet interviewers and other guests seem to do it repeatedly. You are fighting the good fight and I hope you have the strength and patience to continue to do so.
Thanks for doing what you do. There need to be more voices like yours for the media to draw from.
Thank you Zoe
When did "I don't like brown people" become a legitimate concern?
Well said, thank you for putting this across, Zoe 👏
Ita double speak. Worries about inflation and cost of living are legitimate concerns. Data support this. Worries about disproportionate crime from immigrants are unfounded concerns. Data do not support this.
Surprised at how The Guardian seems to be adding to the problem by headlining migrant housing statistics As for LBC........
I heard you on R4 on anti social and you were utterly brilliant despite the normalisation of racism by the presenter and the blatantly rascist rhetoric spewing from Poppy Coburn. Thank you for being there.
I just listened and actually had to switch off. That Poppy woman - why do the BBC insist on platforming her? She gets everywhere, like a new Farage.
Very well said; don't let them get away with this 'legitimate concerns' nonsense. 👏👏👏👏
We came back from house hunting in France last night to find our town covered in sprayed red paint crosses…..all the zebra crossings and mini roundabouts….plus union flags and St George's crosses up everywhere. 😬
The majority of people doing this would never have had the imagination to think it up! The mainstream media is doing Farage a favour by publicising this ‘Flag’ craze. It sickens and depresses me.
How lovely 😔 Did you find Chez nous?
Unfortunately not.
Just means you've got an ex use to keep coming back...
Absolutely. 🙂
hopenothate.org.uk/2025/08/22/o...
What is it with racist knuckle draggers and flags? They do the same here in parts of Ulster trying to convince themselves they’re British.
There's a surprise.
Well said, thank you so much Zoe.
turns out the phrase itself has been in use since 1960, but only by the 1980s–1990s, politicians began using it to "walk a rhetorical tightrope: acknowledging public unease about migration while distancing themselves from overtly racist language" - aka a dog-whistle. (by 00 we got a bit tired of it)
Badenoch writing to Tory councils saying she’ll support their appeals and Philp wanting to bring back for profit (of course) barges. The more Labour demonise Asylum seekers the more Reform and the Tories will get ammo for the next election UNLESS Labour manage to drastically reduce the numbers.
Why invite someone on to give what is disgracefully perceived as a radical and controversial view on Asylum Seekers and then interrupt and effectively dismiss their views? Zoe absolutely spot on as usual of course.
The road to fascism is paved with "legitimate concerns".
I defy any reasonable person to disagree with what Zoe Gardner is saying here. There needs to be much more exposure of her position on this. Despite the impression given by The Daily Mail or Tory-governed BBC, not everyone in UK is a racist.
Racism is largely the refuge of the undereducated.
Racism was created by the rich and highly educated to keep the uneducated down.
👍
*misseducated? The overeducated can be just as racist, only in a more sophisticated way
Certainly applies to far too many ex public schoolboys/girls who found a career in politics.
Public? You mean educated in public schools?
Weirdly, in the UK, public schools are where the rich send their kids to be educated. The rest of us send our kids to state schools, which are free.
I'm confused 😅 So public schools are the private ones? Newspeak goes that far??
It’s old speak. Public schools, such as Eton College, were invented by Henry VIII as places where a boy could be publicly educated, as opposed to being taught at home by private governesses and tutors.
I might mean an earlier Henry. VI probably…
I had a sketchy education at a state school.
Yes Henry VI opened Eton to enable a few poor, but bright boys to get into Cambridge. How times change 😂
although just to confuse you, in Scotland (where I live) the posh fee-paying schools are in fact called "private schools."
Yes. sometimes called independent schools here 😅 The most elite private or independent schools are usually called public schools. Complicated.
And of the power-hungry.
The power-hungry throwing the red meat of racism to the undereducated at regular intervals.
It’s not, though. Many of the vilest and most dangerous racists are very well educated by very politely but foundationally racist schools and universities.
Yes. I don't disagree. I should have said that the well educated, often wealthy are using the gullible and undereducated to achieve their far- right goals.
Patriotism = MAGA and Reform yobs.
Illegitimate Concerns - opinions held by racist bastards.
Like I said yesterday you must be exhausted, this has all been 70 plus years in the making!! Historian David Olusoga youtu.be/f_rzJTNZSLM?...
Innocent until proven guilty. Unless you're not white
Thank fuck for you, Zoe x
also letting people get away with ' we don't know who these people are ' - racist pricks don't know who ANYONE is outside their small circle of friends and family , why do they need to know who everyone with a brown face is?
And you pushed back well - but the thing is you weren’t telling them anything - about crime, about deficient services - that hasn’t been said thousands of times before, and yet still they keep going with this ‘legitimate concerns’ bs.
Thankyou for your work, Zoe
Agreed. I don’t know how Zoe has the strength to keep doing what she does, but all power to her, long may it continue, and hopefully more voices will speak up alongside her.
People protesting against deaths in Gaza obviously dont have legitimate concerns. And pedophiles in the church dont stir up legitimate concerns. The phrase is a terrible one I cant believe the BBC are obviouslty being told to use it. Well done for pushing back!"!!
🫡👍👏👏
I’m boiling at BBC news headlines on 6 music, it’s always awful but the distortion and pro right rhetoric is off the wall. Having Badenoch and Philp spout their nonsense with no rebuttal just normalises these foul attitudes
Bravo. Nailed it.
Excellent Zoe.
Well said. And primary school numbers have been dropping for years. If they’re struggling it’s not number of children, it’s funding (which I know you mentioned).
Thank you. 'Legitimate concerns' are not facts, anything can become a 'legitimate concern' if blasted via media every day.' It's the BBC's job to distinguish between the two.
'Artificially created paranoia' would be more accurate. It only happens because racists have spread misinformation and misinterpretation and conned enough other people into going along with it.
Thank you for being the intelligent voice of reason in the room. It is scary how the right-wing media propaganda has stirred up this xenophobic bigotry among a far too large a section of the population. Had an exchange with my normally OK siblings yesterday where they brought 'the women and girls'
Well done, keep speaking out.
You killed it.
Don't watch or listen to msm, doesn't seem to be much point
Thank you for saying this. I wish I saw more people with such sensible and evidence-based views talking about this topic on TV.
I've had enough too. Peter Oborne in August Byline Times describes the direction BBC has taken. It's a 'moral quagmire'.
Very well said
One would think that the BBC, especially, would want to help diffuse the tension. Instead we get this irresponsible reporting.
The Beeb is the chief culprit instigating and amplifying this framing.
I would suggest the BBC has been irresponsible in its reporting since 2015 and the run up to Brexit. It started with the false equivalence talked about by Emily Maitliss
Even earlier: during the Scottish independence referendum the BBC was actively campaigning against independence. " Yeah but the B stands for British " some said.... doesn't work when you're supposed to serve all of Scotland not just the unionist half (<50% now) & the license fee is mandatory.
I've tried to avoid The BBC since the Brexit Referendum.
A reminder that every time the BBC does a news story about space, they don't need to get a Flat Earther on for balance. Funny they get that. 🤔
Just to remind everyone that Scotland experienced the BBC’s “balanced” coverage on the run up to the 2014 independence referendum. That’s one reason why I suspect there’s a high %age of licence fee non payers north of the border.
The BBC is run by Tories, and that includes BBC News, so it's no surprise they take this line - though it would be nice if they could try and remember that as the national broadcaster they should make an effort to be fair and impartial.
Just wanted to say you're doing an absolutely amazing job across various media outlets in the fact of a deeply entrenched hostility. Thank you so much for all of your work!
:) thanks mate
Well said. 1 asylum seeker is accused of indecent assault, denied, so the knuckle draggers persecute all asylum seekers. So if 1 white man is accused of similar should the whole household or street or all white men be persecuted?
That doesn’t happen by accident, BBC News has clearly received instruction to warp the narrative.
Thank you for doing this. We need so many more voices like yours pushing back on this 'legitimate concerns' nonsense.
Fantastic interview!! Definitely need to hear more of you on MSM! So much dignity and clarity in the way, you articulate your thoughts. A master class!
I can’t tell you how many fairly well educated people I know who are now parroting this ‘legitimate concerns’ bullshit, and they can’t and won’t be dissuaded from doing so. It’s very demoralising. Keep up the good work Zoe.
Once again some excellent work. @zoejardiniere.bsky.social
The right has a long, long history of rent-a-mob tactics.
Someone posted on here that the right wing motivated mobs outside the hotel near where he lived caused disruption & fear in the local community. Many of the mob were not local. He also alluded to some of them drinking.
Outstanding. Thank you.
Well done you.
Excellent job remaining calm and standing up to the narrative.
👏👏👏🙏Keep saying it Zoe, you’re doing a fabulous job!
Please can journalists covering the anti-asylum seeker protests: please ask the next protester who says they’re only concerned with protecting children why they need St George’s cross and Union Jack flags?
Hi Zoe, thanks for your ever continuing attempts to change things. I’m at a loss as to what to do? I’m still fairly certain the majority agree with you/us, but how can we make a difference? I genuinely don’t know, as our voices are silenced by the media. I’m in total agreement with you
Well said, Zoe. Thank you for speaking out so forcefully.
Why do you have to say the obvious when it should be for ministers and politicians ? Oh...
Good for you!
And bsky.app/profile/ldw1...
These concerns are “legitimate” in exactly the same way that migrants coming here are “illegal”. 😡
Thank you.
No one is speaking loudly enough about 'legitimate concerns' about the accelerating rise in fascism in the UK.
Keep banging the drum, lass.
You don't need my praise I'm sure, but here it is anyway. Great work!
