I deplore Jim Ratcliffe's words. (owner of Man U)

Goodness knows re what people think of being labelled.

I know there are a lot of people thoroughly fed-up with being called "far right" when they arent right wing at all. After a while one has to just brush it off and try and treat it as a "verbal weapon" designed to shut people up from expressing perfectly ordinary views that have been deemed perfectly acceptable for literally decades of their life to date.

How many times have I heard "I'm not racist but ......" People deny to themselves that they are racist.

Not sure but the people who aren't racist no longer care if they are called racist. So the power it once had to keep people quiet no longer works.

Do actual racist actually care about being so labelled?
I have no idea.

Whitewavemark2

Galaxy

But every attempt at discussion was labelled racist, it is no surprise when people don't care about being called racist anymore.

It goes much further than that though doesn’t it? That is too simplistic an explanation.

Its spot on.

I stepped away from GN because of the tone of some of the posts. If people are saying they agree with JR's comments then they must agree with his use of language which is clearly racist. When people say he's saying what people think, what they are saying is it's what they think. I think it's perfectly fair to call them out. How does this stop proper discussion?

Galaxy

But every attempt at discussion was labelled racist, it is no surprise when people don't care about being called racist anymore.

It goes much further than that though doesn’t it? That is too simplistic an explanation.

But every attempt at discussion was labelled racist, it is no surprise when people don't care about being called racist anymore.

It is the language used and attitudes around that language that makes it racist. It's perfectly ok to discuss immigration, voice concerns and express views. It's the way it's done and JR was IMO racist and if you think it was ok then I disagree with you. I notice that Farage is very careful these days but many of his supporters are not.

LemonJam

John Ratcliffe comments, that England has been colonised by immigrants, are being investigated by the Football Association- for bringing the game into disrepute....

Couldn’t do much else — looking at the profile of the players😄.

John Ratcliffe comments, that England has been colonised by immigrants, are being investigated by the Football Association- for bringing the game into disrepute....

Primrose53

Careworkers pay rise hasn’t happened yet - it is due on 1 April.
Could be yet another U Turn but I hope not for their sake. 😉

The vast majority of care workers are employed by Agencies and independent providers now though, rather than by councils, so their pay rise date and percentage rise is determined by them rather than the government.

MayBee70

Primrose53

Abuelamia

Maybee “Unemployment is down too, I believe”.

Unfortunately not, according to BBC news today unemployment hits highest rate for five years.

You beat me to it!

Maybee. You believe wrong. unemployment is now at the highest level for 5 years.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c62756plrp6t

I know. I realised. Wasn’t concentrating. Apologies.

It was on the BBC and ITV News today.

I don't think anyone is being gleeful about people being unemployed and not being able to find a job.

Careworkers pay rise hasn’t happened yet - it is due on 1 April.
Could be yet another U Turn but I hope not for their sake. 😉

For the first time in quarter of a century UK now has higher youth unemployment rate than the EU.

Unemployment has been increasing on a pretty straight line since quarter 2 in 2022. We are about average for Europe, which is experiencing a similar pattern.

By the way the other comments I made were, I think, correct, but alas you can’t be gleeful about those can you ?

Primrose53

Abuelamia

Maybee “Unemployment is down too, I believe”.

Unfortunately not, according to BBC news today unemployment hits highest rate for five years.

You beat me to it!

Maybee. You believe wrong. unemployment is now at the highest level for 5 years.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c62756plrp6t

I know. I realised. Wasn’t concentrating. Apologies.

Abuelamia

Maybee “Unemployment is down too, I believe”.

Unfortunately not, according to BBC news today unemployment hits highest rate for five years.

You beat me to it!

Maybee. You believe wrong. unemployment is now at the highest level for 5 years.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c62756plrp6t

Maybee “Unemployment is down too, I believe”.

Unfortunately not, according to BBC news today unemployment hits highest rate for five years.

Maremia

Just scrolling back, and see that immigration has actually fallen.
Who knew?
Where were the banner headlines?
Where is the joy?
Now I wonder, if Reform can no longer use immigration as a rallying call, what will the next 'rage bait' issue be?

Unemployment is down too, I believe. And care workers have had their wages increased. Oh and we’ve introduced some sort of world leading law about something I don’t understand. Live animal exports have been stopped ( but not sure when that was and may have been under the previous government). Lots of little things making this country a better place that no one seems to know about.

You have some lovely stories Cariad.

Then there was the Greek holiday with a boyfriend where I soon found out the resort was divided (almost had a line literally on the ground) between English and German tourists. Cue for I instantly decided which half I preferred and persuaded boyfriend we wanted to eat etc in the German half - I can readily pass as a German if my clothes are on the smarter side until I open my mouth and start talking....and out comes a very British voice....

Galaxy

To be fair if it was 20 Germans it would the cleanest village in England, in my experience incredibly tidy as a nationality

LOL. Remembering a holiday in Germany with a group of people one time. Cue for walking through the village and noting all the logs various houses had got stashed for heating their homes - and there was literally not a single log out of place.

As for a German friend I had here years back - when I went to visit her in the home she was lodging in = there she was doing the landlords housework too...as it wasnt up to her standard. Yep....she did the skirting boards as well I noticed. Cue for I was quite sorry I'd missed out on having her for a lodger - as she'd come round checking out places after I'd already got a lodger signed-up for the coming academic year - so the room had been booked already...

She'd have been a blessing compared to all 3 male lodgers I had in never seemed to do any housework at all if they could help it (had to throw two of them out for that in fact). Also the British female lodger who thought it was acceptable to leave her dirty dishes in my little kitchen for 24 hours and reacted badly when I had to put them on a tray on the floor outside her door to get them out of my way for me to do my cooking.

I wouldn't be happy if anyone moved in to my village 'in large numbers' as there wouldn't be the infrastructure to cope with them.
We do have some Muslims and not a problem for me.