Wonky Policies...
A couple of months ago, Gordon Brown made the ridiculous claim of 'local homes for local people.' This bizarre policy, based on no facts at all, gave some great headline opportunities for ignorant tabloids and ooops, a small problem with the matter of legality.
You see the problem with this policy, was that it was addressing a non-existent issue. There is no magic housing queue for migrants.
Now I thought that was ridiculous, until I heard this... Now this piece glosses over the nitty gritty of this little government initiative nicely, so here's the simple version.
1. People aren't happy because there's a recession on. Quite rightly, a lot of them are pretty messed up by it. (Actually they were pretty messed up before it too...)
2. Some, particularly those in deprived communities, feel angry that they are not appropriately served by the public sector when they need it most.
3. Many are blaming the myth that the public sector treats migrants better than local people.
4. Community cohesion is under threat. (More so than before, apparently)
With me so far? OK. So here is the government response...
5. Because of the above, we need to target the most deprived communities and demonstrate how local authorities are committed to supporting their residents through the recession.
6. This will be done through a series of interventions aimed at the indigenous white population, to counterbalance the myth that the non-white non-indigenous population are favoured.
Are you confused by the logic here? Let me simplify this a bit
1. People still believe WRONGLY that the government favours migrants and/or anyone who isn't white over locals.
2. To bust this myth, the government are going to implement a series of programmes to treat white local people better.
3. The hoped for result is that the white people live happily ever after, the non-whites have to live with it and Labour win a few votes back from the BNP.
I've always thought that myth busting was a little bit twee. But perpetuating a myth that you know is a myth so you can look like you are addressing the issue?
Shameful.
You see the problem with this policy, was that it was addressing a non-existent issue. There is no magic housing queue for migrants.
Now I thought that was ridiculous, until I heard this... Now this piece glosses over the nitty gritty of this little government initiative nicely, so here's the simple version.
1. People aren't happy because there's a recession on. Quite rightly, a lot of them are pretty messed up by it. (Actually they were pretty messed up before it too...)
2. Some, particularly those in deprived communities, feel angry that they are not appropriately served by the public sector when they need it most.
3. Many are blaming the myth that the public sector treats migrants better than local people.
4. Community cohesion is under threat. (More so than before, apparently)
With me so far? OK. So here is the government response...
5. Because of the above, we need to target the most deprived communities and demonstrate how local authorities are committed to supporting their residents through the recession.
6. This will be done through a series of interventions aimed at the indigenous white population, to counterbalance the myth that the non-white non-indigenous population are favoured.
Are you confused by the logic here? Let me simplify this a bit
1. People still believe WRONGLY that the government favours migrants and/or anyone who isn't white over locals.
2. To bust this myth, the government are going to implement a series of programmes to treat white local people better.
3. The hoped for result is that the white people live happily ever after, the non-whites have to live with it and Labour win a few votes back from the BNP.
I've always thought that myth busting was a little bit twee. But perpetuating a myth that you know is a myth so you can look like you are addressing the issue?
Shameful.
posted by Oscar | 10:15 PM
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