Corbyn’s Migrant Failure
- March 11, 2018
- by
- Matt
Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to the Scottish Labour Party conference last week has drawn a lot of criticism from the SNP and others, for appearing to attack and blame migrants for the UK’s economic woes. Corbyn’s defenders have naturally rejected these charges. Paul Mason has dismissed the criticisms of Corbyn to the ‘pro-SNP media’, whatever that is, while other Corbynistas have attributed them to the media in general, the Blairite right etc, etc
This furore was due to a single sentence – a phrase in fact – in Corbyn’s discussion of the May government’s Brexit policy. ...
Waiting for the Barbarian
- December 19, 2017
- by
- Matt
Anyone familiar with horror films will recognize the following scenario: a group of people are being terrorised by a monster/serial killer/alien. They find a hiding place and fortify it. All their attention is focused on keeping the intruder out. Not until it is too late do they discover that the monster is already inside...
Twilight in Brexitland
- September 18, 2017
- by
- Matt
Yesterday evening I shared a horrific post on Facebook about a tetraplegic woman whose disability benefits have just been cancelled, and has just been summoned to a job interview by her local job centre. As shocking as it was, this dreadful decision was a fairly typical example of the cruelty and incompetence that has...
One Day Without Us 2018
- September 04, 2017
- by
- Matt
It’s just under a year since I was part of a Facebook discussion about the alarmingly xenophobic drift of post-referendum UK society. We were people from many different nationalities, backgrounds and political persuasions. Some of us were migrants, others the descendants of migrants or British nationals who know migrants as our friends,...
Defending Free Movement
- March 02, 2017
- by
- Matt
Last night I spoke at the launch meeting of the Alliance for Free Movement, hosted by Caroline Lucas at the Houses of Parliament. The alliance is a broad-based movement of organisations, politicians, unions and NGOS, whose aim is to defend, uphold and extend the EU’s free movement rules at a time when the...
Imagine a Country Without Migrants
- December 23, 2016
- by
- Matt
It’s nearly three months since the idea of a national protest by and in support of migrants in the UK on Feb 20 next year went viral on social media. In that time what began as a Facebook discussion has morphed into the national campaign One Day Without Us. We now have more than two...
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