New Leadership, Same Cruelty
- Charlie Harden-Sweetnam
- Apr 7, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 8, 2023
I want to outline three clear consequences of the UK government’s latest attempt to ‘Stop the Boats’ encapsulated in the 2023 Illegal Migration Bill.
Firstly, the planned bill will distract attention away from bigger issues, allowing the Conservative party to shirk culpability. Secondly, it will fail to curb perilous movement into the UK via small boats. Finally, it will lead to a greater normalisation of anti-migrant rhetoric. This is the reality.
Firstly, this planned Bill is an effective distraction away from more important issues. In the same week that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared stopping the boats to be a major UK priority (Andersson & Gillet 2023), London’s MET police was declared institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic. The NHS is either sick or being sold, inflation is up, and more school children than ever are going hungry. Yet the Tories claim stopping the boats is the big issue.
From a cruel electoral perspective, it makes sense to try to use migrants as a scape goat and cause of crime. This political scheme is known as the Dead Cat Strategy. It is employed when its user has no credibility.
Under their economic mismanagement, poverty has skyrocketed. Conservative cuts to public services, 13 years of austerity, is the root of the lack of available funds for important expenditures like public health. By shifting media attention towards their controversial new bill, blaming an outsider, the Tories can distract the populace from their seemingly endless throng of scandals, towards a non-existent threat. If the Tories are really so tough on crime, they should be tough on its cause: poverty. Because as we all know, ‘violent crime rates do not significantly change with higher migrant populations’ (Ambler et al. 2018). If they were seriously committed to law, they would enact meaningful police reform and follow said laws themselves.
But they are not. They are only serious about winning the next election. But they know they have no hope of doing so through honest politics, so resort to deadcatting.
What wins them votes, sadly, is a bogus, fear-based, political campaign, with catchy slogans and populist narratives. Because ultimately, the ‘Stop The Boats’ campaign is a very simple attempt at distracting the electorate from more important issues.
It’s the British equivalent of ‘Build the Wall.’
Secondly, this Bill would cause more tragic deaths in the Channel and fail to prevent smugglers. Strengthening borders does not stop movement; they will move elsewhere to circumvent the system, and smugglers make more money. Conservative Member of Parliament Theresa May said it herself; ‘Whenever you close a route for migrants … the migrants and the people smugglers find another way.’ (Syal 2023).
So by making this journey more difficult, more people will be in danger. More children will wash up on the shores of the UK. More people will be profiting from that broken Bill, Tories and smugglers alike.
Finally, this Bill will, and likely already has, directly lead to an upsurge in violent rhetoric against refugee populations and Black and Brown British people. The language used by mainstream media and the government towards migrants is increasingly derogatory, and this has direct effect on society.
Analysis shows consistent likening of migrants and asylum seeks to criminals, natural disasters, and pests. Home Secretary Suella Braverman claims these decisions are made by British people,
‘not by the people smugglers and other criminals who break into
Britain on a daily basis.’ (Home Office 2023)
This kind of rhetoric links the migrant and the criminal. If you flee illegally to the UK, you are technically a criminal. If we can look to Brexit as an example, this kind of
‘Divisive, xenophobic rhetoric from politicians and leaders trickles
down into abuse and violence on our streets.’ (Weaver 2018)
This language from the government will find its way onto the streets in the form to violence, hate crime and dehumanisation against the communities that make up Britain. The government’s language will normalise and facilitate this mistreatment. Because the Tories see the migrants and the ‘small boats problem [as] part of a larger global migration crisis’ (Braverman 2023).
We are not under siege. There are not ‘millions’ of people coming in ‘waves’ of ‘unlimited’ migrants to ‘abuse’ and ‘overwhelm’ the system, as Braverman has stated (Braverman 2023).
To conclude, I implore you not to buy into this nonsense. This is inhumane, and neither generous nor compassionate, as it should be. The Tories are not interested in saving lives, in the interests of British people, or the migrants who need and deserve our help. They mercilessly promote their self-interests at the expense of others. That is the real danger.
Image credits: Getty Images.
- Bibliography -
Ambler, Kate, et al. 2018. ‘Https://Www.Ifpri.Org/Blog/How-Migration-Benefits-Economies-and-Food-Security,’ n.d. https://www.ifpri.org/blog/how-migration-benefits-economies-and-food-security.
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