It’s not personal it’s a view about the subject
Last letters become first - March 26
WORD PAIRS -APRIL 2026 (Old thread full )
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News & politics
Not such shocking news as the right-wing would have you believe
(99 Posts)Remember the so called “shocking news” from the right wing media about the level of immigrants in our towns and cities.
Guess what - all lies.
“The right-wing press got itself in hot water this week over a deeply misleading statistic that claimed one in twelve Londoners is an undocumented migrant. It was originally published in the Telegraph, but was uncritically re-printed and repeated across the entire media ecosystem from the Times, to the Mail to GBNews.
The claim, as many Londoners could immediately tell, is completely false. The study in question, commissioned by Thames Water, included immigrants with Indefinite Leave to Remain and tourists among the supposed irregular migrant population. Furthermore, it put that inflated figure into a deflated figure for the population of London of around seven million, instead of the nearly nine million it actually is. The resulting findings obviously have no credibility at all.
But the wild claim did what it was supposed to. You can see the purpose of it in the Telegraph’s very own sub-heading: ‘New research adds to fears over borders and increased pressure on public services’. You bet it does: exactly as it was intended to. As the IPSO complaints, corrections and withdrawals roll in, we know the number of people even clocking the corrections at all must be a tiny fraction of those reached by the original headlines.
Baseless scaremongering about undocumented migrants is a tactic copied directly from the Trump playbook by the British anti-migrant right. They are keen to promote a “mass deportations” agenda just like his. But deportations are no answer to the real problem of undocumented migrants in this country, and as usual the alternative, workable and humane solutions are not getting anything like the same airtime.”
By-line Times
Don’t allow them to push a Trump agenda.
Oreo
Kandinsky
Whitewavemark2
You do start numerous threads on the N&P board - all with the similar ‘far right fascist’ theme.
I’m surprised you don’t get bored with it tbh.I bet quite a few get bored of it 🤭
Stop making personal comments please, it’s not nice or necessary - if you don’t want to discuss something you can just ignore the thread.
Wyllow3
Some people on this board its true do overuse the word fascist, but WWM2 is not one of them, I don't recall her use of it once.
Just as some on the right fling around the word "commie or "communist" for centre left politics.
I dont think either extreme is helpful.
What does make me amused at the moment is who is claiming "sensible" and "common sense and decency" as buzz words for some on the right, because we all would lay claim surely to having common sense and decency and being sensible! 💁
Let’s be fair and honest, I’ve seen the word fascist on this forum hundreds of times and the word Communists never.
That’s not to say that Communists hasn’t been mentioned but must be a rarity.
We don’t know the numbers of undocumented people buzzing about mainly the big cities and London in particular but you can bet your boots it will be a high number.
Kandinsky
Whitewavemark2
You do start numerous threads on the N&P board - all with the similar ‘far right fascist’ theme.
I’m surprised you don’t get bored with it tbh.
I bet quite a few get bored of it 🤭
love0c
I think it is very unfortunate that we have so many rampant left wing folks in this country.
If any here turned your comment around- I am sure some would complain bitterly. How does this help, really. Just throwing insults. What is anyone wrote 'it is very unfortunate we have so many rampant racist, fascist folks in this country'.
Some people on this board its true do overuse the word fascist, but WWM2 is not one of them, I don't recall her use of it once.
Just as some on the right fling around the word "commie or "communist" for centre left politics.
I dont think either extreme is helpful.
What does make me amused at the moment is who is claiming "sensible" and "common sense and decency" as buzz words for some on the right, because we all would lay claim surely to having common sense and decency and being sensible! 💁
Indeed sundowngirl you’re not wrong.
I think it is very unfortunate that we have so many rampant left wing folks in this country.
The OP certainly did NOT post this thread
Shocking news this morning. On the tv and in the papers
which caused the need to respond.
loopyloo
The powers that be have no idea how many people are here illegally. We do not have ID cards and checks are infrequent.
It might be more it might be less than people think.
But we do know how many are arriving on illegally on the boats and there will be a lot more that arrive undetected. People living on the south coast frequently see boats arriving and the illegal migrants absconding from the beach . It's unlikely to be less than we think
Kandinsky
Another 👏 for GrannyGravy13 post.
Restores my faith that there are some sensible people on the N&P threads.
Indeed and happily there seem to be quite a few on this thread.
Excellent.
😁
Kandinsky
Another 👏 for GrannyGravy13 post.
Restores my faith that there are some sensible people on the N&P threads.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Kandinsky
And another for GrannyGravy13 post . Thank goodness for some sensible unblinkered posts
Whitewavemark2
You do start numerous threads on the N&P board - all with the similar ‘far right fascist’ theme.
I’m surprised you don’t get bored with it tbh.
maddyone
^this……..op starts numerous threads on the same subject ^
I’ve noticed that.
Perhaps you could point me to the numerous threads I have started about immigration - I seem to be suffering from memory loss
I don’t anyone, least of all the government, know how many immigrants are living in the UK.
this……..op starts numerous threads on the same subject
I’ve noticed that.
wyllow3 exactly that.
It is important to call out the lies and scaremongering from wherever it comes
Regarding the 3rd runway - I do think that it won’t have got off the planning stage by the end of this government.
I took the O/P to be a general as well as specific point. Sheer numbers of scaremongering stories, churned out daily, sometimes introduced as O/P's, which prove to be inaccurate, speculative, or totally unreliable when they are examined more closely.
Take yesterdays big Telegraph headlines which declared that the third runway at Heathrow won't be built until 2050. It wasn't based on any examination of fact or stats, but turns out to be because the Ryanair boss said so.
I think that it is important to understand that we can find balance in our reading if we look for it.
What I think ought to be remembered is that we know that we do not know the actual figures of illegal immigrants in the U.K. at any one time, and unfortunately because of the current zeitgeist, this not knowing is to the populists advantage, who use this, as we can see by the headlines to spread worry, fear and division.
I read this morning that economists who have commented on Brexit impact have noted that whilst immigration from the EU has almost dried up, this has been more than offset by immigration from the continents of Africa and Asia. Without this increase in immigration, our economy would have seen even less growth post -Brexit.
So I make no apologise for posting an alternative argument to the rampant right wing we are unfortunate enough to have in the U.K.
”And yes, the OP has already apologised on that thread.”
No she hasn’t.
It’s a simple enough question.
Would that it was. It is not in the least a simple question and therein lies the problem. If people expect simple figures on this then they become prey to figures that are concocted and doctored by those with a political axe to grind.
We are being manipulated by the media to expect simple answers and statistics rather than helped to recognise that this sort of problem is not simple - it is highly complex.
Publishing inaccurate figures needs calling out, but the corollary of that is not that those who do so should have the accurate figures at their fingertips - no-one has this. That is the crux of the problem.
The powers that be have no idea how many people are here illegally. We do not have ID cards and checks are infrequent.
It might be more it might be less than people think.
Kandinsky
What existing thread?
If the op has started a thread that’s basically bulls**t she should come on here and apologise.
This particular op starts numerous threads on the same subject, so why should I go looking for her apology on her other threads?
I’d be here all day.
Sorry, Kandinsky, my brief comment was in conjunction with the original poster of the previous shocking thread, having already apologised for misinformation - and was in reply to a sarcastic comment by bathsalts not by Whitewavemark2.
For the record, I look out for Whitewavemark2's posts, because they are informative.
And you're not unpopular with me either!
Anyway, on with the reading.
Another 👏 for GrannyGravy13 post.
Restores my faith that there are some sensible people on the N&P threads.
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