"The foreigners, they all hate us"

Rod Liddle, The Spectator

Quoting the Daily Mail's infamous distortion ("Nazi slur") of an article written by Nick Clegg in 2002, this is what Rod Liddle wrote:

"This is interesting because it is precisely the views of almost all foreigners, except for maybe the Norwegians. Nick seemed to have formed these notions while serving as an MEP, open to the influence of those Europeans around him and to whom he was inclined to suck up, and maybe also the input from his Spanish missus (they really hate us) and his own Dutch ancestry. From Skagen to the Straits of Gibraltar we are disliked – largely, I always thought, because we were one of very few European countries to emerge from the second world war with any credit, and that this credit was resented. But for the leader of a party which wishes to devolve all of our powers to people whom we either liberated or defeated, these are entirely fitting views. He is in step with Brussels".

[note Liddle's own photo from about 76 years ago. C'mon, Rod, get on with it, we're all getting older!]

OBSESSION

The Daily Mail

England branded least patriotic nation in Europe as citizens are too scared to fly the flag.
"Over-the-top political correctness, loss of national identity, and worrying about being judged when expressing pride in the country are the main reasons behind the findings, according to a study. Six per cent of Englishmen and women said they were 'scared' to fly the national flag and one in six fear they will be told to take it down".

[Six per cent. Oh my god. Shock. Horror. Storm. Teacup.]

The French and the Germans, who else...

The Daily Mail
Dunkirk spirit is sunk by French as British civilian rescue is thwarted by border police.
"And whereas in 1940 the biggest threat to the flotilla of boats steaming from Britain was the Luftwaffe, this time there was an unexpected enemy: French pen-pushers."

The Sun
JIHAD GERMANS.
A GERMAN Muslim points an automatic rifle in a menacing video threatening attacks against British troops fighting in Afghanistan. The footage is not the first sign of "German" involvement in Islamist extremism.

(Picture link: http://www.b3tards.com/v/420c52b7900bd7084f02/dailymail-arse-paper.jpg)

Outrageous

The Express

NHS SELLS OFF CANCER DRUGS ABROAD
"In February the Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust admitted it had sold £4.6million worth of drugs to a wholesaler to export to Europe".

LIB-DEM ELECTION MANIFESTO: LET ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BECOME BRITISH CITIZENS
"In a startling pre-election pledge, the Liberal Democrat leader said that those people who had been living in the UK without the correct documentation would be allowed to become British citizens after 10 years if they spoke English, had a clean record and wanted to live here long-term".

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AMNESTY IS AN OUTRAGEOUS CONCEPT
"The result will be to lock in massively excessive levels of immigration – both legal and illegal – for many years to come to the great detriment of community cohesion for the British population".

1,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS MAY WORK IN OUR HOSPITALS
"ONE of Britain’s biggest NHS private contractors may have employed almost 1,000 illegal migrants in hospitals across the South-east of England, an official audit has revealed".

The Daily Mail

Up to 3,400 NHS workers are unmasked as illegal immigrants
"Eight per cent of the cleaners, security guards and cooks supplied to the NHS by ISS Mediclean had no right to be here, the UK Border Agency discovered".

Foreigners: "hell rows", cancer and rape

The Daily Mail

Immigrant gang of eight molest girl, 14 in street - but no one is charged as 'it's not in the public interest'.
"The girl, who was set upon by eight Slovakians aged between eight and 12, said she had been 'treated like a liar' after the CPS refused to press charges".

The Daily Star

MIGRANT HELL ROW
"A homeowner who found a migrant squatting in his shed last night claimed he was threatened with an Asbo for pollution".

The Express

YOU'VE GOT WIND, FOREIGN DOCTOR TELLS GIRL OF THREE WITH CANCER
"The case is the latest in a series to highlight the use of bungling foreigners under Britain’s out-of-hours ­medical care system".

Her English was "all right", but also "poor"

The Daily Mail

Foreign doctor with poor English 'misdiagnoses toddler's leukemia as trapped wind'.

"But in a check-up that lasted just two minutes, the Eastern European doctor diagnosed trapped wind and sent them to pick up a bottle of Gripe Water from Tesco".
"[Father-of-two Mr Codling] said the doctor's English was 'all right' but that she had not spoken much during the brief assessment".

Failed asylum seeker who killed father-of-two while driving illegaly jailed for just nine months.
"Iraqi Delshad Aziz, 28, who is living in Britain with his wife and children, knocked Anthony Edney, 44, from his scooter in Hove, East Sussex last year".

The Express

SCHOOL THAT'S A SCANDAL
"FOR many years Left-wingers have attempted to stifle debate on immigration. in particular they have objected to terms such as “swamped” and “flooded” being used to describe the impact of new arrivals upon communities. Yet what other terms could be accurately applied to endeavour High School in Hull, which has seen its proportion of non-english speaking pupils rise from six per cent in 2005 to more than 50 per cent now?"

Foreigners. Bad here. Bad at home. Just bad.

A serious anti-foreign feast to start the week with.

The Express

1) "STRANGERS IN OUR OWN COUNTRY".
"'English' pupils are now the minority in 1,500 schools throughout the UK".

2) "TORIES MUST SPELL HOW THEY'LL CURB IMMIGRATION".
"Now, more than ever, it is time for the Tories to spell out how they will stem the flow before it is too late to stop britain [ed: note the lower case] from falling apart. They must not allow tactics of crying racism from any other quarter to deter them from their duty".

Daily Mail

1) "Outrage as British taxpayers face £600m bill to fund EU's bail-out of Greece's sinking economy".
"But another cash injection from the International Monetary Fund means Britain will have to pay part of a further £13billion bill to prop up Greece in the money markets. Because the UK contributes 5 per cent of the IMF annual budget, this would equate to a £650million bill for the taxpayer".

[ed: in which case so will the US, Japan, Canada, Russia, Switzerland and all other IMF members. Welcome to the IMF and how it works. The same happened when Britain needed crucial IMF help in the late 1970s, but you don't write that, do you Daily Mail?]

2) "Foreign workers 'to be forced to take English tests'".
"Last week it emerged that virtually every extra job created since Labour came to power in 1997 has gone to a foreign worker. Figures suggested an extraordinary 98.5 per cent of 1.67million new posts were taken by immigrants". [See this for debunking].

3) "English-speaking pupils now the minority in 1,500 British schools".
But then look at this: "Around one in seven - almost 500,000 --primary pupils and just over one in ten, or 364,000, secondary students do not speak English as their first language". One in seven and the Daily Mail calls it a minority based on a selected sample.

4) "Muslim nurses CAN cover up but Christian colleagues cannot wear crucifixes".
"The Department of Health will allow female Muslim staff to opt out of a strict NHS dress code to cover their arms and protect their modesty. But campaigners warn that the NHS is putting lives at risk because guidance that all staff should be 'bare below the elbow' was introduced after long sleeves were blamed for spreading MRSA".

[ed: this is exactly the same story that figures on the home page of the BNP's website].

Note that today the Daily Mail published an editorial called "Playing into the hands of the BNP", centred around the paper's usual: "the BNP are ugly smelly and vile. Right? Look, we've printed that. Now, the thing is, though, the BNP are right on everything, especially immigration, and voters a desperate to find a voice for their legitimate concerns. Look, we even have the same taste in front page news!".

They're eating swans again

While they took a break yesterday, today the (usual) papers are back with a vengeance with the bombardment about immigration bringing the Apocalypse.

The Daily Mail

Migrant city's crying for help: Anguished letter to Brown and Cameron reveals the devastating toll of immigration.
and:
City that can't cope anymore: While this Czech family are thrilled with their new council house, such largesse is ruining communities:

"Last month, it was revealed migrant workers in Peterborough are killing swans to eat and are also preying illegally on fish.

Local anglers claimed ' legally-protected swans' were being 'butchered' by immigrants who are 'raping' the city's waterways by snaring the birds, battering them to death with iron bars and roasting them on open fires on the bank of the River Nene".

The Express

WILD PIGS ON THE RAMPAGE IN GERMANY
[ed It turns out there was only one and it wasn't wild either and it didn't go on a rampage]

The Daily Star

AT LAST OUR FOREIGN DOCTORS ARE TOLD TO SPEAK ENGLISH
[featuring picture of German locum who prescriped a patient a lethally wrong dose of morphine]

Foreign doctors kill and migrants take all jobs

What would a foreign visitor think if he or she saw today's papers? 8 April 2010

The Independent
Foreign doctors' poor English is killing patients, say MPs.
"Tighter controls on GPs from overseas 'must be introduced immediately to save lives".

"Failure to implement the necessary checks on doctors who come to work in the UK led to the death of a patient, David Gray, who was given 10 times the correct dose of morphine by a German locum, Daniel Ubani, in 2008. At the inquest in February this year a coroner delivered a verdict of unlawful killing".

[ed: note how the article remarks that "lives have been lost" even though it only revolves around one case from two years ago]

The Sun
Migrants take every new job
"FOREIGN workers have taken virtually every extra job created since Labour came to power, it was revealed last night".

The Express
1.7 MILLION NEW JOBS AND 92% GO TO MIGRANTS
and:
SO HOW CAN WE IMPROVE YOUR LIFE, MR MIGRANT?
HOME Office chiefs are under fire for wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on a survey asking migrants if they like Britain.

The Daily Star
FOREIGNERS COME FIRST
"Britain's immigration policy is a mess".

The Daily Mail
"Labour's betrayal of British workers: Nearly every one of 1.67m jobs created since 1997 has gone to a foreigner".
and:
"Tiptoeing round the immigration taboo"- so much for Gordon Brown's pledge of British jobs for British workers!

About this site

While on holiday last year, my mates and I befriended a couple from Andalusia. As we chatted, they told me that they were considering booking a long weekend in England as they'd never visited the country and thought it would be an interesting travelling experience.

But then the chap changed his tack: "We're not sure though. We hear that English people are turning more and more hostile towards foreigners and that we're not welcome, even as visitors, so we may go elsewhere, somewhere where we don't get into trouble", he added.

My heart sank. I tried to tell them that it wasn't true and that loads of Brits are open-minded and welcoming and, probably, also less racist than in many other countries.

Yet from that point on I started paying more attention to how the words "foreign" and "migrant" are looked at in the press. Soon I was able to see where the two Andalusians were coming from.

I came to the conclusion that Britain is the only western democracy where hostility towards "the foreigners" is so routinely displayed by the mainstream media. It's a daily bombardment, obsessive and relentless.

Often, the stories that circulate are either based on myths or are given a certain angle with the specific aim to discredit 'foreigners' and 'immigrants', creating an absurd concoction between asylum seekers, the EU, foreign students and economic migrants. It all contributes to the growing atmosphere of suspicion as well as fear that Britain is under some sort of 'alien' threat.

Is this really how Great Britain wants to portray herself abroad? Has she really started to shrink into a hostile nasty Little England that views anything "not local" with suspicion and disdain?

Which is a crying shame.

Because Britain has a stunning tradition of tolerance and integration. Compared to many other countries with similar levels of wealth, the UK has probably managed to be a lot more outward-looking, open-minded, cosmopolitan and respectful of other cultures and ethnicities.

Just look at the way Britain's popular culture has evolved. Think of the entertainment industry, music or fashion, but also food, sport and much more. Alas, what used to be a positive approach now seems to have given way to a more negative, totally different discourse.

In this section of Hagley Road to Ladywood, we'll simply keep a record of how British tabloids and newspapers refer to people who were not born on British soil, "the foreigners".

Consider the long-term effect and then decide for yourself whether the narrative that comes across is indeed a toxic one or not.