BS: A horrible, racist circular...

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 04:26 PM

PetertS, THANK YOU! Those are excellent lyrics! They really ought to be used by the Doctor in some episode.


Oh dear - another member of Xenophobics Anonymous.

Well, maybe not, just yet...perhaps if they were, there'd be more hope for them seeing the "light?":-)

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 03:34 PM

I have found this on Attilla the Stockbroker's site.
Quite appropriate, I think.


ASYLUM SEEKING DALEKS!
(For Ann Winterton)

They claim their planet's dying:
that soon it's going to blow
And so they're coming here - they say
they've nowhere else to go....
With their strange computer voices
and their one eye on a pole
They're moving in next door and then
they're signing on the dole.....

Asylum seeking Daleks
are landing here at noon!
Why can't we simply send them back
or stick them on the moon?
It says here in the Daily Mail
they're coming here to stay -
The Loony Lefties let them in!
The middle class will pay......

They say that they're all pacifists:
that doesn't wash with me!
The last time I saw one I hid
Weeks behind the settee...
Good Lord - they're pink. With purple bumps!
There's photos of them here!
Not just extra-terrestial....
The bloody things are queer!

Yes! Homosexual Daleks
And they're sponging off the State!
With huge Arts Council grants
to teach delinquents how to skate!
It's all here in the paper -
I'd better tell the wife!
For soon they will EXTERMINATE
Our British way of life.....

This satire on crass ignorance
and tabloid-fostered fear
Is at an end. Now let me give
One message, loud and clear.
Golf course, shop floor or BNP:
Smash bigotry and hate!
Asylum seekers - welcome here.
You racists: emigrate!

ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER
6 May 2002

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 09:41 PM

I put up with some of these out of political necessity (ie., because I can't tell the sender to go to hell because my job requires that I be at least civil to them).

But that ol' delete gets a workout.

Sometimes, I'll reply if the matter is worth the time. I have one chap who says, "Please commment on this." Then I might, because he is sincere is wanting the know if it is the truth or not and I spend the time and effort to find out.

I never pass them on.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 09:31 PM

Spot on Alan!

Your response is, if anything, too gentle.

If this were one of my friends, he would certainly find that my Inbox, my letterbox, and my HOUSE, were barred to him without explanation or discussion.

No wannabe BNP apologist has a place on my list of those whom I am prepared to call "friend". In fact such slime have no place on the list of those I call "HUMAN".

And, without apology, I include in that number Guest, Fife.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: PoppaGator
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 11:38 AM

Alan, good job repsonding as you did.

I agree with you (and disagree with someone above) in expressing that you'd like to remain friends with the person. I don't know anything about your friend, but I'm sure that thoughtlessly forwarding a nasty message because he/she considered it a "joke" does not encapsulate that person's entire personality. I'm sure there are good qualities there along with that shortsighted racist tendency.

Maybe your thoughtful response will make that person stop and think.

I used to get this kind of crap all the time, but not recently. It's probably easier to deal with such tasteless asnd offensive "humor" via email than in person. Actually confronting this kind of crap in person can be pretty touchy sometimes (especailly when dealing with cooworkers you have to see every day).

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 09:40 AM

And just try getting free dental care in England anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: theleveller
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 09:39 AM

"I doubt very much if I went to Poland or any eastern European country I would receive family credit, sickness benefit, housing benefit or a free home. I know I wouldn't get free dental or health care."

Oh dear - another member of Xenophobics Anonymous.

I doubt that, if you went to Poland, you would be prepared to work for the lowest possible rate, undertake the jobs that no-one else wanted to do, like looking after an ever-increasing elderly population, be in constant demand because there weren't enough plumbers or electricians in the country.... I could go on but what's the point - bigotry is immune to facts. BTW: free dental care? Where do you live - it's certainly not available where I do.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 09:22 AM

It's funny, but nobody here in the US says anything about all those undocumented Irish who came here in '80s. Could...could...racism possibly play a part?????

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Zen
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 05:01 AM

Hi Alan,

I think your stand is to be applauded and, if I receive anything like this, I will be doing the same. That kind of c**p should never be tolerated.

I know there is a lot of bad feeling here in Scotland.

Well I live in the Central Scotland belt and I have not noticed it.

Zen

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:09 PM

I get that sort of stuff all the time. I read the first two lines and delete it -- I chose what sort of trash I read and that's not it.

It's the same sort of thing that has been going around in the US about "illegal aliens" (i.e., Mexicans and others from Meso-America and the Caribbean). Of course, some of the folks living the New Mexico and Arizona were living here before Jamestown, before the Roanoke Colony, but let's not get technical. And the fact that most Hispanics here are third, fourth, and fifth generation -- well, I suppose they're citizens, but just barely!

Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales, Gabriel and Paul Trujillo, Benjamin and Francisco Montano, Juan and Arthur Garcia and a bunch of others might be on "The Wall" but were all probably illegal aliens who came here to take advantage of America's free medical care and collect welfare checks. They just happened to die in Vietnam (note that I've included three sets of brothers).

I told someone who was going on about the "danger" from "illegal immigrants" that in my opinion the problem stemmed from the lax, criminally lax, immigration policies of the American Indians and that they should send all of those illegal immigrants back where they came from. That shortened the monologue considerably.

Good on ya, Allen.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Peace
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:10 PM

IMO, block the friend's e-mail address and that is that.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 06:15 PM

Often the best thing to do with racist crap is to ignore it, on the basis that a response just rewards and encourages it. I think that applied in the context of posts on the Mudcat, for example, even before a settled policy of deleting them by the clones had become established.

But in the case of stuff like that email I think it is right to challenge people who circulate it, especially friends. Of course when we do that we open ourselves to the response that it's all just fun, and objecting to it means we've lost our sense of humour, and that is a powerful put down. Normally accompanied these days by cracks about "political correctness gone mad" and so forth.

A few years back I wrote a song about this called "Poison in Jest", and I posted it in a thread on the Mudcat. (And the post that the incomparable Rick Fielding made referring to it immediately after is something of which I am still grateful and proud.)

Here is "Poison in Jest" once more:

Now there's a funny way of talking called "Politically Correct" -
Silly fools who think that words have some kind of effect.
Now that's surely not a notion that's entitled to respect -
So I'd like to poke a little fun at this strange dialect.
For when I meet some oddity I like to speak direct.
No, I never mess around with being "Politically Correct".
So I speak to them direct, that's what they must expect -
No I never mess around with being "Politically Correct."

So I say "Good Morning, Mr Nigger!",
or "How goes it, you old Yid?"
The answers that I get, I find surprising.
And I like seeing tins marked "Cripples",
or "For Little Spastic Kids" - I think euphemisims are so patronising!
So I speak to them direct, that's what they must expect
No I never mess around with being "Politically Correct."

So, perhaps you are a Poofter, or a Gippo with a van,
or perhaps you are a Mongol or a Moron -
or perhaps you come from Essex, Essex Girl or Essex Man,
and perhaps your name is Tracy, Wayne or Sharon
Well, I'll speak to you direct, that's what you must expect -
No I never mess around with being "Politically Correct."

If I call you what I choose, what's that got to do with you?
It's not my problem if the words appall you.
It's how I always speak when I'm talking to a freak,
and it doesn't really matter what I call you.
Yes, I'll speak to you direct, that's what you must expect -
No I never mess around with being "Politically Correct."

And if anybody says that I offends,
why then I just assume an
injured look - my poor little friends,
you must have lost your sense of humour.
And a sense of fun, when all is done,
it never should desert you.
And sticks and stones can break your bones -
but words can really hurt you.

So, I'll speak to you direct, that's what you must expect -
For I never mess around with being "Politically Correct."

Now some might call it courtesy,
or politeness or respect -
But I prefer to call it "being Politically Correct".

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 05:44 PM

Nothing new from me. You did the right thing and I can only echo kat, SRS, and others. I think kat's last sentence says it best for me and I wouldn't change a word except to say once again....Well Done my friend!

"May all those who value diversity, a basic human right to life and dignity, follow your lead. Thank you, my friend, for doing what is "right."

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 04:07 PM

I did something this weekend I have not done in many moons-I left a tip in a restaurant! Why? Because the waitress took the effort to make sure our needs and wants were met whilst at the same time being unobtrusive and very very pleasant. She worked incredibly hard to make sure every customer was being attended to rather than just grunting and making you feel that everything you ask for is too much trouble. The waitress in question was Eastern European (not sure exactly where from.
I have worked in many inner city schools and worked with children from various ethnic groups. Most come to this country to make a new life for themselves and work damn hard to do so. Yes, there are some who hope to take advantage of the system although they are far outweighed by non immigrants who try to do likewise. That said such people in any group are a very small minority but of course no one will buy a 'newspaper' (and I hesitate to regard the Sun or Star as such)with the headline "good worker gets job and pays his way".

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 04:06 PM

And now of course the Poles are going home in droves because the loony right wing let the bankers run banks short of capitalisation - whereas in Poland the banks were properly regulated and so they ahve not got a bank meltdown like we ahve.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 01:40 PM

British people have the same right to go and find work in Poland or elsewhere in the EU as people fro other parts of the EU have to come here.

No doubt if things keep going bad, more British people will be considering doing that, as has happened in the past. Remember Auf Wiedersehen Pet?

As for welfare benefits, these vary from country to country, but the UK is by no means the country with the best provision.

People come here from places like Poland to work, because we need them to do that work, and they work damn hard.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Beer
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 01:23 PM

I cannot understand why anyone would think that this e-mail being passed around is funny. It just isn't. It is racist and should be discouraged.
Beer (adrien)
Good for you Alan.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 12:22 PM

Alan, if anything you have been too patient and conciliatory. I would never write to such a "friend" indicating that "I hope we can remain friends" etc after such emails. The first one would be enough - I'd let them know that they offended me, without explaining in detail the how and without bothering to defend my position. They can either work it out for themselves or stuff it, I wouldn't care.

The forwarding of a single such email shows a mentality that I would never want to be assosiated with. Full stop. Life is too short to be explaining oneself to arseholes.

Which is why I will not respond to GUEST, Fife above either.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 12:12 PM

Alanabit - The "joke" that you received is typical of a kind of zenopohobic propaganda that goes around, its purpose to raise paranoia in people about foreigners and people who are "different", particularly Muslims these days, and thus fool people into supporting various things like:

1. Foreign wars on countries which are no threat to England or America, but which have a lot of oil.

2. Neoconservative economic policies which enrich the richest 3% of the population and impoverish everyone else and increase the national debt and reduce your social services.

3. Increasingly draconian surveillance of the population in your own homeland by an increasingly irresponsible and dictatorial police force and security services.

4. Ever-increasing efforts to divide and conquer the public by making them suspicious and fearful of each other, so that their fear and anger will be directed at other sectors of the population rather than at their rulers.

********

People who fall for that sort of thing are part of the problem, needless to say, and they seem to have been getting the governments they deserve for quite awhile now...but the rest of us (who would like to live in peace with our brothers and sisters) do not deserve those governments at all.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 12:06 PM

I know it is an emotional issue, but please folks do NOT respond to the trolling. If you will notify Joe or one of the clones by PM, we can take care of it without a thread devolving into a slag fest. Thanks.

Alan, thank you for the heads-up about the circular. Your response was excellent. I hope your "friends" open their minds a bit and understand the issues better thanks to you.

Whenever I see something like this I know it is driven by fear, as most negative emotions are; fear of lack, fear of anything different. Sometimes, because of visible characteristics, it is easier to find targets for that fear. All of it is terrible. It seems more awful, in a way, when it comes out in a physical way, i.e. violence, but it is more insidious and seemingly "respectable" when it is circulated as you have seen, through such emails as the one above. I am NOT saying the physical is preferable. NONE of it is preferable. It's just the nature of such emails has a lasting and intransigent effect and must needs be deflected, corrected, and/or stamped out.

One of the things which would help, SRS has already mentioned, better education through Civics classes. But, that only reaches the children and may cause strife for them at home if their parents are bigots. We also need education for the adults which may include presentations, multi-cultural fests, films, etc. to open their eyes. I remember when I worked with the Wyoming Grassroots Project, a human rights organisation; we showed many films to the public which chronicled the lives of various cultures in our country; sometimes they were about the beauty of the culture with its musical traditions, etc., other times they were about the very real ugliness: murder, intimidation, etc. which was perpetrated against anyone perceived to be of that background. Some stand out in my mind, still, including how a town in Montana stood up to white supremacists who attacked a Jewish family. "Not in Our Town" was so inspiring, other communities followed suit, having their own marches of solidarity against racism, etc.

You have started your own march, Alan, and I am salute you for it. May all those who value diversity, a basic human right to life and dignity, follow your lead. Thank you, my friend, for doing what is "right."

kat, s.r.c.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: cobra
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 11:32 AM

Dear Guest FIFE, A question. How far back does your "British" family tree go? And how would you define Britishness? For example, wuld you consider it appropriate to acknowledge the Pict/ Celt/ Hun/ Norman/ Angle/ Jute/ Saxon/ Roman etc etc inputs to your family or do you merely go back as far as your parents in order to avoid such embarassment? Would you consider Max Mosley a fellow Brit or, for that matter, that idle, workshy layabout Greek currently married to the nice German lady and residing in the big house in SW1?

Do you have a sliding scale of parasites? I wonder how many East Europeans it takes to consume the quantity of state handouts we give to that mongrel Greek/ German crew each year? A fair few I would wager.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:23 AM

Attaboy, Alan!

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: alanabit
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:10 AM

Thank-you Richard for the funniest (and most accurate) comment, which I have read on this thread so far. Yes it is true that some Britons, who live abroad, take E-111s with them and use them for years. We don't hear much about them from our "anti asylum seekers", do we?

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: GUEST,Fife
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:10 AM

The lady doth protest too much !

   
I have been trying to figure out a workable formula for what kind of person condones what is happening in the UK today. If you were to come down from space, I mean, and read the papers.

Protesters against war, environmental issues, poll tax, licking anals, the fact is crime figures in the UK have went through the roof, ever sat down and asked why ?

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Anne Lister
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:07 AM

Alan, thank you for responding the way you did. I get very, very tired of the kind of rubbish spouted by the dafter red top newspapers. I haven't received that particular email - if I do, I may cut and paste your reply. I hope none of my friends would think of sending anything as crass.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:04 AM

Perhaps, Guest, you would care to check the EU treaty before assuming that UK residents are not entitled to local welfare standards in other EU countries.

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:03 AM

GUEST, Fife sounds like an unpleasant fellow, Emma, not much point wasting your breath on the likes of him. You see how he carefully twists the rhetoric tighter with the dismissive "dear." He doesn't want to end the discussion at all, he wants to wind you up.

And contrary to what he thinks, the thread is not about the contents of the circular, thread is about sending willfully inaccurate posts and the appropriate response to them.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Emma B
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:00 AM

'guest' Fife - Would you like me to post your mudcat name too?

I have posted under the guest name Canadienne (suggested by a friend) when I was unhappy about some of the stuff being posted on mudcat but, as I'm sure you are well aware, I do not follow your habit of multiple guest posters to hide my identiy while posting the kind of crap you do.

Now please go back under whatever (Folke) stone you crawled out of today or have the guts to post under your registered name!

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:57 AM

I get similar on a regular basis from so called 'friends'. One has become so bad I have blocked all his mails. I have also passed the circulars to the authorities but was vey surprised that I got no reponse.

Alan, thanks for bringing up this particularly surreptitious method of demonising a very vunerable sector of the community. Only by standing against such things will they stop. If it is ignored these 'jokes' will become accepted as the truth. They already are by a growing section of our otherwise fair-minded population. It upsets me no end to think that my father (first generation Pole - fought for the British at Monte Casino) could be demonised in such a way. I dread the phone call about him being threatened, or worse, because of his still very obvious east european accent and open nature:-(

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: GUEST,Fife
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:54 AM

Well EmmaB/Guest/Canadienne/Guest/Guestguest I am sorry, but I have no connection with any of the above unlike yourself, do you really want me to go there ? I still have pm's a friend sent me. Best we leave it there dear.

Right back to the thread (sorry about the drift) You cannot ignore it, it is a problem in the UK. I know there is a lot of bad feeling here in Scotland. Possibly in Leburry or wherever too Emma !

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Emma B
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:37 AM

well yes I'm sure you would find that email funny Fife/Thornton/Ledbury/Folkestone - and I'm sure your friends, you are so fond of referring to, will as well

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:23 AM

This is typical hyperbole that is cranked out, with no regard to fact checking, in the U.S. also. Scare people to get the political outcome you wish. Bush did it for the 2004 election. This kind of talk is cheap.

In some ways we bring it on ourselves by not including "civics 101" in our high schools and doing a better job in general of educating the population on what our laws really are.

Truth be told, most of these immigrants would rather stay at home, but come (wherever) for family and financial reasons, or because they are fleeing harsh conditions or war.

Reaching out internationally to assist (not the way W did, but invading Iraq to "fix" it) other nations will make it easier for people to stay where they want to. And contrary to the belief of the lowest-common-denominator of under-educated folks, a guest worker program on a much larger scale would mean that (for example) many of the Mexican illegal aliens wouldn't be illegal and they wouldn't be forced to stay here year-round so they could get work when it was available. They could go home during the off season, and they would.

Thanks for replying back to your friends, Alan. I've lost a few friends that way also, but if no one points out this is a wacko view of the world, they might not figure it out for themselves.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Emma B
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:23 AM

well Fife (are you visiting your friends north of the border now?) your posts bear an uncanny and unpleasant resemblance to both guests Ledbury and Thornoton too - but hey folks! - why not check it out and make your own minds up :)

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Emma B
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:12 AM

Oh dear it's our railway gazetteer, xenophobic cowardly 'guest' poster again - check out previous garbage of this kind from guest 'Folkestone' and several other towns :)

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: Azizi
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:12 AM

alanabit, I also consider that email to be offensive. I applaud your reply and agree with all the points that you made.

I believe that people need to leave behind deeply rooted outdated, and counter-productive 18th, 19th century, and 20th century culturally stereotypes and stop creating and passing along new 21st century stereotypes. These characterizations of groups of people have negative societal and personal consequences.

Unless people of good speak up about words and actions that ridicule and otherwise demean individuals because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, and/or other variables, some people may not "get" that such words and actions are not only counterproductive, but they are also hurtful and at least potentially dangerous to the targeted individual/group. I also believe that these bigoted words and actions are ultimately emotionally and spiritually to the person who speaks and/or acts out these stereotypes.

Thanks, again, Alan for taking a principled stand!

Subject: RE: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: GUEST,Fife
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 08:54 AM

I doubt very much if I went to Poland or any eastern European country I would receive family credit, sickness benefit, housing benefit or a free home. I know I wouldn't get free dental or health care. The government has promised it is going to something about the number of free loaders coming in to "free" Britain.

I only wish they would leave the ducks alone in our local park.

Subject: BS: A horrible, racist circular...
From: alanabit
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 08:33 AM

It maybe that I have no sense of humour, but some of my friends, people whom I like and respect, have been sending me e-mails, which contain "humour", which I find unfunny and even downright offensive. I was finally moved to respond to one today, which particularly put my back up. If the following raises your hackles, please read on anyway. Perhaps I should have responded like this a long time ago...

WIN A COUNCIL HOUSE

Good morning and welcome to a brand new edition of 'ASYLUM'.

Today's program features another chance to take part in our exciting competition: Hijack an airliner and win a council house! We've already given away hundreds of millions of pounds and thousands of dream homes, courtesy of our sponsor the British Taxpayer. And do n't forget, we're now the fastest growing game on the planet.

Anyone can play, provided they don't already hold a valid British passport, and you only need one word of English: 'ASYLUM'!.

Prizes include all-expenses-paid accommodation, cash benefits starting at £180 a week and a chance to earn thousands more begging, mugging and accosting drivers at traffic lights. This competition is open to everyone buying a ticket or stowing away on one of our partner airlines, ferry companies or Eurostar.

No application ever refused reasonable or unreasonable. All you have to do is destroy all your papers and remember the magic password: 'ASYLUM'.

Only this week 140 members of the Taliban family from Afghanistan were flown Goat Class from Kabul to our international gateway at Stansted where local law enforcement officers were on hand to fast-track them to their luxury £200-a-night rooms in the fabulous four star Hilton Hotel. They join tens of thousands of other lucky winners already staying in hotels all over Britain .

Our most popular destinations also include the White Cliffs of Dover and the world famous Toddington Services area in Historic Bedfordshire.

If you still don't understand the rules, don't forget there's no need to phone a friend or ask the audience, just apply for legal aid. Hundreds of lawyers, social workers and counsellors are waiting to help. It won't cost you a penny, so play today; it could change your life forever.

Iraqi terrorists, Afghan dissidents, Albanian gangsters, pro-Pinochet activists, anti-Pinochet activists, Kosovan drug-smugglers, Tamil tigers, bogus Bosnians, Rwandan mass murderers, Somali guerrillas...COME ON DOWN!

Get along to the airport, get along to the lorry park, get along to the ferry terminal. Don't stop in Germany or France. Go straight to Britain and you are guaranteed to be one of tens of thousands of lucky winners in the softest game on earth.

Everyone's a winner, when they play 'ASYLUM'.

FORWARD THIS TO EVERY BRITISH TAX PAYER YOU KNOW!

My reply:

Dear ****,
                You have been a good friend for many years and I hope this will continue for many more. I am afraid this post offended me - a lot. We have different politics, but we can discuss things civilly and agree to differ on many issues. This post offends me for the assumptions on which it is based.
1.        It is easy to obtain legal or illegal entry into Britain: No it's not! Britain is an island and getting in means passing immigration controls at the air or seaports. I recall on one visit that a Turkish man, (German resident and perfectly entitled to unchallenged admission under the Treaty of Rome) wanted to visit with his daughters. I spent ten minutes of interpreting for him, helping to convince the officials that his credentials were spotless - as indeed they were. He had a return ticket, adequate proof of his residence, profession and financial resources. He must have been very glad that he had not come in from the Middle East.
2.        Immigrants harm our country: That's a three pint discussion, of course. However, within two generations most immigrants have learned our language and our invisible. Do you think there are more Germans or Pakistanis in our country? How often can you spot a second generation Pole until you know the surname?
3.        Immigrants are criminals and scroungers: Well are they? I should have thought that if they were, it would make sense to give them work permits immediately, so that they could be expected to produce something. Oddly enough, I don't hear much clamour for that from the people, who, "Don't like immigrants".
4.        Britain is soft on crime: Maybe we should look up the statistics on which countries have the highest per capita rate of imprisonment in Europe. That may tell another story.
I myself live as an immigrant in another country. I like to think that I have been a useful member of its society and have not damaged it in any way. I am also very proud to be British. However, ugly, racist, mean minded rants like the one above do nothing to enhance my pride in the country, of which I still consider myself a member. I want my country to be a generous, inclusive one and not one which fearfully looks out from its shores as if it were at war with the rest of the world.
Regards,
             Alan.