The Hostile Environment. The Windrush Scandal. Priti “deport dem” Patel. RWANDA!!! And now “Cruella” Braverman is determined to break European law so Britain can pull up the drawbridge across the Channel. The recent hostility towards immigrants has a much longer history, going back to the 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act but the last decade would make even Enoch Powell blush. It is no coincidence that as the policy has become even more extreme the home secretaries responsible for it have not been White. No White home secretary could get away with sending immigrants to Rwanda, we would all see it for the blatant racism the very idea is. Patel and Braverman have been able to mainstream National Front ideas because they are Asian. Previous prime ministers could play the political equivalent of denying they were racist by saying they had a Brown friend (or in this case home secretary).
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