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If there’s one person you never need to go to for advice on how to combat the far right, it’s Tony Blair. Here he is with the same old reactionary, simplistic, and shallow ‘solutions’ - essentially blaming migrants for the rise of the far right. theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
According to him, it’s all about migrants ‘refusing to integrate’. Does he have the faintest idea of what ‘integration’ means? Should migrants speak English without an accent? Look, dress, and think ‘like us’? Eat only English food? Support England in the World Cup?
I know people who have lived here for years. Who loved this country, its language, its landscape, its music, its tv programmes and its people. Now being told ‘isn’t it time for you to leave?’
And along comes Tony fucking Blair telling us that migrants should be ‘forced’ to integrate. This isn’t ‘integration’ he’s talking about; it’s forced assimilation. Become like us - exactly like us - or else. Become like us and the far-right won’t hate you.
How about the possibility that racism and bigotry might be the responsibility of bigots and racists? Often stirred up by politicians as a useful distraction, or pandered to because of those famous ‘concerns’. This is what Blair and Brown did when in power. Pandered like crazy.
And now here is Blair, offering stale authoritarianism and ‘toughness’. So depressing that this lame tripe gets such coverage, as if it’s the result of profound thinking from a profound thinker.
I mean ‘ the word multiculturalism has been misinterpreted as meaning a justified refusal to integrate.’ Who has ‘misinterpreted’ multiculturalism in this way? How has their ‘refusal to integrate’ manifested itself as a consequence?
These ‘ideas’ don’t describe anything real or substantial. They are soundbites from a politician who actually has no idea what he’s talking about.
@threadreaderapp please unroll
