RogerS wrote:it is unfair to imply that anyone concerned about immigration is automatically a racist.
I didn't say that, Roger. What I said was that people have been misled by the press to believe stories that are simply untrue. Immigration is not a problem in isolation, despite what the famously hate-filled Sun, Mail and Express might tell you. People are flocking into Europe because their homes, their jobs, their lives have been totally destroyed by 'foreigners'. Thos 'foreigners' must, clearly, also include the military forces that destroyed their countries almost entirely, as well as killing family members, etc. To try to isolate cause and effect is something that the press are always very happy to do in order to create a sensational headline or two.
We now have huge numbers of people trying to make homes in Europe. We should be, together, tackling the growing problem in a sensible and thoughtful way; but we don't. We think only of our own situations, fuelled by the fear.inducing stories carried in our favourite press. It hasn't worked, has it. There are still huge numbers of immigrants arriving on our shores daily. "I'm all right, Jack" would seem to be the favoured reaction from people, then fuelled by the fear of the "Muslim Menace" (suitable Sun headline there).
The EU is just an administration, not a ruling authority. The EU, as you have been taught, simply does not exist. If a new ruling comes to us, it is because it was started off by an elected representative of one of the countries in it - maybe not your country, but by someones country - democracy, in other words. Why it is that no one has tackled the real problems causing the exodus of people from lands destroyed by either "coalition" forces, or radicalised Islamacists is beyond comprehension. But it seems that politicians all across, particularly, northern Europe are thinking far more about their re-election chances than actually solving a real problem that is affecting us all.
Short term gain for politicians and greedy self interest from media owners. They should be the real targets of people's anger.
ETA.
Sorry, I had to break off then for a light dinner.
There are huge numbers of people trying to do something about their ruined lives, yes. They tend to be foreigners, yes. However, there are very few that are EU citizens and there is no mechanism whereby anyone can get, as the British press like to claim, an "EU Passport" to enable them to enter the UK. The only country in the EU that has a method whereby people can actually buy a passport is Malta - and they charge around €1million for one - hardly something a destitute immigrant hanging on to the sides of a rotten old boat would be able to afford, eh?
Fear-mongering is rife in the increasingly xenophobic and right-wing European press, which some people with political dreams of power are more than happy to exploit for their own purposes.
Blame the press and check the stories they feed you. Not check them with another right-wing rag, but against foreign press and non-aligned blogs, even (although most are appalling, I must admit).
Anyway, Must go now..