Some papers sympathise with the victims, while others swim in the sewer of nativism
As politicians compete to find the most callous and militarised response to the Calais ‘migrant crisis’, a division has opened up among the Tory commentariat.
Finally, after some excellent reporting by several papers, columns sympathising with the victims of war abroad – rather than put out British tourists – have been published in the Tory press.
The Times has a thoughtful and stirring piece by David Aaronovitch looking at the real causes of the crisis, (dictatorship and war), which handily shames much of the press coverage of recent migration. Read it all here (£).
The Telegraph’s Emma Barnett (no relation) mocks emphasis on the supposed plight of British tourists stuck on motorways over ‘hundreds of displaced people from all over the world [who] live in some of the most wretched conditions’. She concludes:
“An island nation we might be, but that doesn’t have to mean our mentality must follow suit.”
The Daily Express and the Daily Mail, by contrast, chose to blame ‘the French’ for being too lax, and demand that soldiers in Europe be used to pacify refugees who have fled soldiers in the Middle East and Africa.
The worst of the bunch is probably the Sun.
Along with blaming ‘Frenchies’ (which century is this?), and running a two-page story headlined ‘Farce-holes’ against a picture of migrants tearing through fences, the paper’s main comment piece belongs in the archives, alongside Katie ‘let them drown’ Hopkins’s infamous ‘cockroaches’ screed.
Veteran noise-maker Rod Liddle, who was a troll before there were trolls, has decided to restate and extend the ‘what a rubbish holiday’ model, in a piece headlined:
‘Go on holiday to France? You’d be better off in Syria’.
Liddle doesn’t even attempt to justify this proposal, I suspect because he has little interest in what’s happening in Syria. Instead we are treated to sentences like this, describing the sort of holiday you can expect in France:
“…when you reach your home and empty out the car, you find Mohammed, Tariq and Abdullah from Somalia hiding in the kids’ lunchboxes.”
As against Aaronovitch’s solid internationalism, Liddle’s analysis is proudly nativist:
“It’s not a British problem. It’s not an EU problem. It’s a French problem.
They need to sort out Calais, and quick.Deport the immigrants. Send them back to the countries they came from. Stop whining about not having enough help.”
What if they face torture, death or persecution in ‘the countries they came from’? The thought seems never to cross Liddle’s mind. Or perhaps it does, and he simply thinks, ‘Not my problem’.
When he half-jokingly says ‘you’d be better off in Syria’, what he effectively means is, ‘they would be better off in Syria’. Which is quite a presumptuous line to take for a Little Englander with scant interest in Syria, Somalia, or anywhere else he’s unlikely to go on holiday.
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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47 Responses to “Rod Liddle says send migrants back to Syria in the Sun’s shameful Calais coverage”
makes sense
Step up security.. these people are intimidating and attacking drivers and damaging property. Use plastic bullets and water cannon to keep them out and round them up. There u fucking go….genuine asylum seekers make a claim in France the rest put on boats and send on their way. Wont cost as much as currently daily cost to economy due to standstill of trade. Keep repeating till the message gets through and electric fences and snippers are in place.
hateidiotslikeu
David (or should I say ‘Ahmed’), your comments are inaccurate, very immature, paranoid and pre-moral – a bit like a 10 year just hitting puberty and not understanding what’s happening to his body. Grow up, and engage in some adult discussion.
Matt Booth
Yeah, this comment is unlike your username.
Killing people isn’t an option. Just stopping them getting in and removing them immediately if they do is, though. It’s not about the cost of removing them, it’s the principal of the thing.
David
Ok Yitzak calm down. I’m a Christian actually.Truth hurt does it. You Israelis cause more trouble in the world than anyone else. You are obsessed by greed and your own self righteousness.
You think you are so important. Trying scupper the Iran nuclear deal using your US bribed Congressmen. You don’t rule all of us and when r u going to pay back the money you stole from the US people to bail out your investment banks. Sub-prime was set up by greedy Israelis. Also every Jew I’ve met has swindled me and I will fight to expose your lies and deceit until I die.
makes sense
No of course dont kill them…Round em up and ship em out is what I said, plastic bullets, water cannon and electric fences are all sound security measures. Fed up of people taking the piss and pathetic response from government. No right to be here, using our resources, need to toughen up and put us first for once not bending over backwards to accommodate everyone else.