Here we go again. In yet another intervention on “migration”, it’s home secretary Theresa May’s turn to spin wildly out of control. EU free movement, declares May, “should mean the freedom to move to a job” – not to look for work or benefits. Yet again, the direct suggestion is that people are only coming here to claim benefits, not to live in a safe place, to work and to contribute. This is the politics of the far right, of Nick Griffin and Nigel Farage, of Britain First and the EDL. It is now also the politics of the Conservative and Unionist Party of Great Britain who make up the current government.
The recent tactic of politicians is to lump foreigners together as “migrants”, trying to turn the word into something unpleasant and unwanted. That so many desperate people are actually refugees is not a distinction politicians of the right care to suggest. But as a friend rightly pointed out, they are actually people.
The brass neck of the Tories to attack the EU for everything takes some believing. Who took us into the EU? Ted Heath. Who signed the single market treaty? Margaret Thatcher. Who signed the Maastricht treaty? John Major. Yes, it was the Tories who took us ever deeper into the EU. Perhaps the UK has strayed from the original principles of the EU, but remind me who took us there?
If you were in any doubts as to the Tories real agenda then this is the reality. David Cameron knows he cannot stop the free movement of workers. What he wants is to stop these wretched foreign people coming over here to claim benefits, which is a minuscule issue – I’d barely call it a problem – in the grand scheme of things. It’s the usual war on scroungers and skivers, but this time dressed up in thinly disguised xenophobia and, I’m afraid, racism.
Worse still, the entire migration/refugee/benefits argument is really all about politics. Cameron wouldn’t be holding a referendum unless the right in his party were demanding one and that there weren’t parties like Ukip coming even further from the right. In short, it’s cynical manoeuvring.
The tragic death of 71 people in a lorry has not affected May’s politicking. Whilst I sense the public mood is changing, the words and actions, but mainly the words, of the politicians remain the same. I hope that one day compassion will replace fear, that we will all recognise that, yes, these people, call them migrants, asylum seekers, refugees if it makes you happy, want the same things as we do and the reality is that they are less likely to claim benefits than any other group in society.
