'We’ve got to raise our eyes a bit from just blaming the poor for the problems in our society'
Mick Lynch destroyed the government’s Rwanda bill in under a minute during an interview as he made the case for an alternative, humane way of running society.
Proving once again his skills as an orator, the leader of the RMT union laid into the Tories cruel immigration policy. He described the plan to fly refugees seeking asylum in Britain off to Rwanda as “horrible”, “outrageous” and, as his mother would have said, “a sin”.
When it comes to holding the powerful to account, something trade unions play a crucial role in doing, Lynch didn’t hold back in highlighting where public attention should be focused over the problems this country faces.
Speaking to Politics JOE about the Rwanda bill, Lynch said: “I dont think it should ever be happening in a democratic country where we take people who are desperate to improve their lives for whatever reason, escaping war, escaping poverty, escaping climate change, who want to make their lives better.”
He went on: “I’m not a wishy washy liberal. There will always be an immigration policy in most countries, but we’ve got to get a humane one. It’s also useless. It’s probably the biggest waste of money this government could think of. It won’t even solve the problem on their terms. It will not solve the problems of the dinghies and people desperately trying to come to this country.”
Looking at the bigger picture, Lynch said it was a responsibility of the Western world to act on eradicating global poverty and in bringing global peace, so people are able to make lives for themselves wherever they live.
“We’ve got to raise our eyes a bit from just blaming the poor for the problems in our society,” said the union boss.
“Our problems in this country are not arriving on a beach in Kent from France. They’re arriving because of the oligarchs and the billionaires that run our society.
“We’ve got to look at that and think of ourselves as humanitarians and people that want to solve the problems of the world, not export them to places like Rwanda.”
(Image credit: Politics JOE / YouTube screenshot)
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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