Saturday, April 29, 2006
Dirty, Evil Foreigners
I know I'm probably just pointing out the bleeding obvious here, but this whole media crisis about Charlie Clarke's released and re-offending foreign prisoners is a bit xenophobic isn't it? Now I'm as in favour of seeing New Labour squirm under pressure as anyone else, and, more seriously, I'm aware that some of these ex-prisoners were guilty of serious violent crimes. Apparently, some of the released prisoners were gaoled for rape and child abuse. I don't want to see sex offenders reoffending.
But that's not what this whole thing is about is it? It's precisely the fact that these people are foreign and are immigrants, not the issue of their (proven or alleged) criminality which is driving the media witch-hunt. In fact their criminality is, effectively, a wholly secondary or incidental factor in this news hype. They are foreign muggers, foreign murderers and etc - which, of course, makes their crimes much more heinous than any indigenous Brit crimes.
This is another manifestation of the profoundly anti-immigrant and racist attitudes which seem increasingly to be worming their way into the mainstream media. Actually, I'm surprised that a paper like the Grauniad seems to be pandering to them.
But that's not what this whole thing is about is it? It's precisely the fact that these people are foreign and are immigrants, not the issue of their (proven or alleged) criminality which is driving the media witch-hunt. In fact their criminality is, effectively, a wholly secondary or incidental factor in this news hype. They are foreign muggers, foreign murderers and etc - which, of course, makes their crimes much more heinous than any indigenous Brit crimes.
This is another manifestation of the profoundly anti-immigrant and racist attitudes which seem increasingly to be worming their way into the mainstream media. Actually, I'm surprised that a paper like the Grauniad seems to be pandering to them.
