Friday 7 March 2014

Barking


“Is it time the government listened to the people about the effect immigration is having in changing our communities?” asked Pam Dumbleton from the audience of last night’s Question Time.

“Just, in what way do you think the government isn’t listening?” enquired David Dimbleby.

“The government haven’t got a clue. David Cameron hasn’t been to Barking, and if he came they’d be warned in advance and everything would be brushed up. The government need to come and walk through our town, and just see how we now live.
Go back twelve years, it was totally different. Now, we are the complete minority here, and it’s just like the most terrible place on earth to live at the moment.” the questioner replied.


Amanda Platell said:  In this area there has been 30% drop in the, um, indigenous population, and a 200% increase in immigration.


“One in seven new business have been set up by immigrants, They’ve all been given money. Everything is set up for immigrants.I’ve applied for a hundred jobs on the railway. One hundred jobs. I don’t even get an interview these days. In the old days at least you’d get a letter. At least you’d get a rejection letter. I don’t even get that, but these immigrants, they get all their tickets paid for, they get all their jobs - I am homeless. I’ve got nowhere to live. I’ve have to go down today and see an immigrant, an immigrant telling me”... jeering.. “well that’s the truth. I went down to John Smith House today and an immigrant tells me that I can not live here. I can not get somewhere to live” said the homeless man.


You’re blaming the wrong people” - said David Aaronovitch.

“I’m just stating the facts” 

“No no, you’re stating a perception of the facts. Just cos you perceive something doesn’t make it true.” 

“It’s true for me. For me personally and many people like me.”

“The things that you said are exactly the same as were said about my grandparents when they came over to the Jewish east end in the early 900s. Exactly the same things. They said precisely the same things ‘we can’t walk through the streets because they’re not ‘ours’ any more. Why is the street ‘not yours’ when some of the faces in it are black?”

“He didn’t mention black people” said David Dimbleby

“Well I’ve got nowhere to live. I need to go and find somewhere to live” (indistinct jeers) “I will. Tonight”

It wasn’t just that, although his departure seems to have caused a minor internet flurry.
It was the bullying of the vociferous pro-immigration crowd and the implicit accusations of racism thrown at anyone who said anything moderately anti-immigrant that left a nasty taste. 

“I work round the corner in a school that is a fantastic assimilated community and I do not recognise the Barking that we’re hearing from the front row, and I’m a bit disgusted, no, concerned, that the BBC selected that question from the lady at the front there....” said a man in the audience.

That went down well. David Dimbleby reiterated the fact that this was the most ‘popular’ question submitted today.

Only one person pointed out, to more booing,  the difference between the relatively modest influx of Jewish immigrants who were desperate to assimilate into British society and the overwhelming ‘invasion’ of immigrants from backward Islamic countries who seem to expect the British to adapt to them, which has apparently been foisted upon places like Barking. 

Michael Heseltine said it was a parody of what Barking was all about. (How does he know?) Rachel Reeves sympathised with the homeless man, who had by now  gone off to find somewhere to live, and overlooked the glaringly obvious fact that this had been brought about by the Labour Government’s deliberate policy of social engineering, and Michael Heseltine did try to make that point.  “This is the most arrant hypocrisy I’ve ever listened to” he said.

David Aaronovitch is actually pleased that there’s an influx of immigrants because ‘their children will be paying our children’s pensions in a few years time’ . Hmm. If you say so.

Question Time has become a parody of itself, but it made compelling viewing for those of us who enjoy torturing ourselves with things that inflame our pent up indignation.  


14 comments:

  1. Sounds horrible.

    Maybe the Barking audience could just be re-hired for the Nigel Farage-Nick Clegg debate.

    Nigel Farage "Well, I think that...."
    Audience: "Boo!"

    Nick Clegg: "Immigration is a good thing and the EU is great too".
    Audience: Clap, clap, clap, clap
    Nigel Farage: "A lot of voters disagree with that though."
    Audience: "Boo!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Someone said: " Mass Immigration Leaves Towns and Cities 'Unrecognizable' "
      Who? Nige of course!

      Delete
  2. I live in Dagenham and 20 years ago it was 99 percent white British, now when ever you go out you can't understand the language what people speak on our streets. We have to get the BNP in Dagenham in the local elections in a couple of months time, NOT UKIP. The proud working class citizens of Dagenham need a party that has campained here before and KNOW THE AREA WELL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also grew up in Dagenham and I don't recognise your nakedly racist view of what has happened.

      Delete
    2. Harry, I hate to do exactly what David Aaronovitch accused the homeless man of doing, and 'state a perception of the facts', but judging from your poor grasp of written English, can I assume that you did not do particularly well at school, that you have been unable to hold a steady job in your lifetime, that you smoke, drink and gamble excessively, and as a result, appear to believe that all of the ills of this world are down to the 'immigrants'?

      Delete
    3. The current demographic trends in Western Europe and North America strongly suggest that indigenous Europeans are facing minority status in their own homelands.

      Either you are for it or against it. There's no grey area.

      Delete
    4. Sounds like BNP propaganda to me. You're a silly man (Dan) if you believe that drivel.

      Delete
  3. This post attracted an exceptionally large number of page views. In an uncharacteristically Craig-like fashion I thought I’d do some analysis.
    Out of the total 721 words, 434 words comprised a verbatim transcription of some of the relevant dialogue from the programme. Of the remaining word count, (287) 195 were descriptive and 92 were ‘opinion’.

    Admittedly the particular selection I chose to transcribe indirectly constitutes ‘opinion’, but it seems a shame that one attracts a greater amount of interest, and possibly several BNP supporters, by reproducing part of Question Time word for word than by cobbling together a carefully crafted diatribe.

    I was thinking of boiling my own head. Put the kettle on mother.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ' I was thinking of boiling my own head. Put the kettle on mother.'

      Please do.

      Delete
  4. Once again it proves that Politicians and media types do not listen to ordinary people.

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  5. My sympathies are with the homeless man. He spoke about his own truth and David Aaronovitch was arrogant and completely lacking in understanding and compassion.
    We need to listen and try to understand why people think and feel the way they do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David Aaronovitch is not indigenous to these shores, he's an outsider and he knows it so he can never support the truth.

      Delete
    2. I am an immigrant and a christian. I really made me sad that nobody really understood why that man felt they way he did. Yes it might be the perception of facts, but we can not take away the fact that he has no where to live. Some of these things might be unpalatable to talk about, but to him it is unfair. On the other hand I came to this country with nothing, but I worked hard and sponsor myself through university course. To some extent life in Britain is a wholly matter of individuals choice you can be what you want to be if you're willin to work hard.

      Delete
  6. I wonder if anyone dared to mentally connect the presence of Aaronovitch Familias in the UK and the population replacement the UK is currently experiencing?

    What exactly were the British Tommie's fighting for in ww2? The right to have their grandchildren replaced.

    ReplyDelete

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