they haven’t moved on since the 1970s then – or got worse… ( my parents did all the immigration stuff legally and it took years, and at every stage the people they dealt with made it quite clear they did not really want them to be in the United Kingdom.
its no better in other countries and has got worse since 9/11 – when my mum went back to Malaysia recently Malaysia’s authorities were no better renewing her passport (they made comments about her dyeing her hair and that she was too old to be a teacher etc)
when I went to the airport I could see the way the world really is – you’d think all the people would be happy that they could afford to go on a plane and see relatives/friends in other nations etc but everyone from different races was scowling at each other and suspicious. The cops and rentaguards were actually looking worried. – not because of terrorism (they don’t display guns now so the alert must have gone down a stage) but because they could also sense the hate and anger in everyones eyes.
I know its London but I’ve spent a lot of time in London and been to Heathrow loads in my life to meet relatives etc or go travelling. I’ve never seen the airport like this before! It used to be all smiling Asian families from all corners of the continent, from chubby Chinese babies to old Indian grandmothers, now it looked like an airport where people were escaping a country in civil war…
unfortunately a lot of the people who work for HM Immigration do so because they want the borders stronger and less immigration etc – its a semi-uniformed service with investigative and executive powers (i,e they can nick people) like the Police or Revenue and Customs with all the problems that that entails – you always get those who want a bit of power over others.
Ditto with the Home Office ; people who take these jobs often do so because they believe in strong government.
I’ve heard of people resigning from stress from enforcement roles because they are not being allowed to nick or investigate enough people and blaming it on “political correctness etc”
The problem with bigots is when they have more braincells than the usual knuckle-dragging thugs (and there are sadly some intelligent ones) they know how to get and use power.
I was initially shocked this would happen in an EU nation – but knowing how Euro-sceptic Britain has become this hardly surprises me…. OTOH Britain does everything possible to chery pick the “free market” bits of being in the EU but duck out of the “socialist” bits of being in the EU – yet won’t actually pull out altogether like Norway…..
its also a very subtle way of discouraging inter-racial relationships and/or making them difficult when they do happen ……
OTOH I bet this will also happen in other EU countries with the way the EU is breaking down and politics in some nations shifting to the right (which seems to be merely a backlash because rich europeans realise they now have to share our wealth with the countries we “conquered” in the Cold War which they were hoping would merely be a source of cheap labour and young girls to be traded as commodities 🙁 🙁 )
Cold War 2 on the way I wonder?
