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”
Matt Booth
Any kind of bullet is lethal, there is no non-lethal way to shoot someone… Unless you’re talking about air rifles or BB guns, in which case the illegals will just laugh.
Electric fences? They are not cattle, they’re easy to overcome.
Simple, non braindead solution is to beef up security at the borders. Inform France and the EU that the situation is unnacceptable and the free movement traties are no longer applying for the English Channel until they sort themselves out. Offer amnesty to any logistics worker who informs the border of illegals hiding their cabs
hateidiotslikeu
Like I said – grow up.
Cole
I didn’t say anything of the sort. I merely pointed out that many of these people are fleeing from civil wars and nasty dictatorships and are not economic migrants. Clearly we can’t let them all in, but people like you and the Mail should stop demonising them and recognise there is a real problem to which the UK (and other European countries) need to find a problem.
I’m fed up with the disgusting language and selfish attitudes shown to the refugees by people living a privileged, comfortable existence in Britain.
Cole
In case you hadn’t noticed there are quite a lot of immigrants in London, including Hamostead…
MacGuffin
Right, so you agree with me, Rod Liddle, the majority of the public, and – as it happens – the Daily Mail (oh, how that must sting!) that we must not let in any of the Calais ‘refugees’.
For you, apparently, it’s not a debate about public policy and what we should do, but rather, what we should FEEL, and – most importantly – be seen to feel.
What a waste of time reading your posts has been.
(By the way, nice try again at working in the Daily Mail. Are you not able to stop yourself? Do you socialise in circles where mentioning the Daily Mail stops all debate and results in instant agreement? Perhaps that is why your powers of analysis and debate have become so flabby).