mrscracker,

When does a label become a description? When people call me a man, are they labelling me or are the simply stating a fact about me?

When a Republican politician calls Kamala Harris a “communist” does he mean it? Or is he simply reciting the part line?

Similarly when a Democrat calls the Republicans “Fascists”?

Are they any more sincere than the actress in a TV commercial who pretends to find a man wearing XYZ Cologne irresistible?

I am labelling people in public life who use these labels grifters, etc because that’s usually what they are.

Well, just my two cents but I think labeling is not a good idea all around.

Zander P, I for one do not label people who have concerns about immigration, or think the locals should take precedence over refugees, as “far right.”

Nor do I label people who distribute tampons “far left”.

I label people in public life who use these labels “spin doctors”, “charlatans”. “grifters” and “fraudsters” because, usually, that’s what they are.

I would point out that other comments here seem to be labouring under the impression that being against uncontrolled immigration, amongst other issues, makes you a far right nazi – and this is causing a lot of unease and upset across great swathes of the country. Given the numbers who voted Reform UK this time round, don’t expect to see PR brought in during this governments first term.
The sad fact is economically the country is struggling, and health and local services are already showing the strain. For example, our local council, Bolton, has over 22000 on the housing waiting list, was able to apparently find places for Syrian refugees amongst others, when the call went out. This presumably because they came with a budget sweetener, and unlike many, Bolton council doing very well budget wise. Now for many of those people who are on that housing wait list with little or no realistic chance of finding a home – why should people who have never paid taxes in the UK take precedence? The indigenous population have for generations being paying into the system in one way or another. They deserve to be heard. Yes, the refugees are vulnerable, but so are most people who need social housing.
Take the NHS – waiting lists are massive and seemingly getting worse. My mum and my wife are awaiting operations and treatment, ‘urgently’ although are already over a year into a wait. My mum worked in the NHS as a Nurse for 60 years and has always paid into the system – how is she to feel knowing people are arriving by boat and getting immediate access to care, and putting an already stretched service under increased strain. If you feel there are enough ‘right minded people’ would you care to have a referendum on whether to completely ban all immigration into the UK? Do you honestly think that’d go well. You may as well have a referendum on bringing back hanging. People can be very nasty in private in the voting booth,
No, the fact is by being tarred with the brush as a ‘far right nazi’ and people who ‘deserve to have their throats cut’ according to one labour councillor, the narrative is being dangerously and perversely skewed. Two Tier Kier certainly seems to deserve that nickname. During the Palestinian crisis protests (very few of whom protested the Russian invasion of Ukraine) Jewish people were put in fear when large crowds of certain demographics were able to call for the destruction of Israel and express support for Hamas – a proscribed organisation. Indeed we had the laughable scenes whereby British Police Officers refused to act for fear of inflaming tensions. Why weren’t those offenders thrown rapidly thrown in jail, where were the Cobra meetings then? All this does not go unnoticed, and starts to foster more hardening of attitudes; more and more people are starting to harbour views and suspicions that make them vulnerable to exploitation online. People like my mum who holds a Phd and who served the NHS for 60 years, are being told their views are far right? Don’t be surprised when they vote Reform next time and don’t get upset at the consequences. You had your chance to listen.
You know what also crosses my mind though – divide and conquer is the oldest tactic in the book. Its almost as if people were being nudged in a certain direction to create this divide so as to distract people from the fact that Britain is a grotesquely unequal society where the one percent get richer and the 99% get poorer. It certainly helps to cause a little division and take the attention of oneselves,
A case in point for all those who wish to throw open the borders – healthcare tourism is a thing and it is real. Wythenshaw Hospital has a maternity unit and is unfortunately located a 5 minute journey from Manchester Airport. This was underlined in a story that first appeared in the Manchester Evening News where a Nigerian lady, educated at Harvard in the US, flew into Manchester and got a taxi straight to the maternity unit where she walked in with a scan revealing she needed an emergency caesarean, an operation that cost the British tax payer ten thousand pounds. She had never lived in the UK or paid taxes, but the British tax payer picked up the bill for her birth. That might make you proud, but when relatives can’t get operations, and people die because there isn’t funding for expensive cancer treatments, this kind of sticks in the throat.
And this is the problem; an ageing population needs more taxpayers to support it. That’s going to be hard to achieve without immigration. There is a £20bn hole in the public purse that means services are going to be further cut. Councils will continue to go bust like Birmingham. How can we put more pressure on local authorities and the NHS? Are those who say throw the borders open willing to pay significantly more tax? Its fine saying tax the rich but they’ll just flee and take it with them. That makes things harder still. A population going through a painful reduction in living standards is going to look for people to blame. Insulting them by branding them far right Nazi’s isn’t going to help – you cant insult people or berate them into agreeing with you – but it will strengthen the hand of Farage et al.

I think this Youtube clip gives a balanced view of the riots and counter protests,

Huge Counter Protests Show the Real Britain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSAFdp-081A

Yes, I’m sure many people are upset about the huge influx of migrants. This is also true in Australia where the immigration surge is contributing to the greatest housing crisis in the nation’s history.

But, to their credit, the counter protesters demonstrated that a few thousand thugs do not speak for the British people. Pretending they do is the kind of misreporting we have come to expect from media. It’s a case of “If it bleeds it leads”.

And the right wing nuts pretending this is anything more than thuggery and a media beat up are also performing as expected.

It’s depressing that every aspect of society performs so predictably. Have we all become Pavlov’s conditioned dogs?