Sunday, November 17, 2013

The REAL Double Standard

You have to read it to believe it. Yeah, like the Roma are running around intent on changing our laws, honour-killing their women, and be-heading Soldiers in the streets... riiiiight?....

(H/T: Freedom Loving Infidel ~ http://freedomlovinginfidel.blogspot.ca)

http://babsbarron.freedombulwark.com/archives/392#sthash.w8iGquSJ.2KfLkxX7.dpbs

THE BBC’s DOUBLE STANDARDS ABOUT IMMIGRANTS’ BEHAVIOUR ~ November 16, 2013


INTRODUCTORY NOTE:  I have no opinion whatsoever about the influx of Roma into the UK.  I know little of the Roma culture, but it seems to me that the reactions of the UK government to the threatened influx of Roma as a result of EU open borders policies is evidence of its own double standards.  It seems to me that the UK government is scapegoating the Roma already there for all the ills in UK society, when they dare not criticise the impact of Muslim or other cultures on the UK in like terms.  The BBC is joining in, probably for the same reasons:
Outspoken: Local Pakistani Mashmir Malik has expressed the thoughts of many on their new Roma neighbours
"They're ruining my ENGLISH neighbourhood!"
 The “Today” programme on BBC Radio 4 on 16th November contained a slot about the impact of the real and expected Roma influx into the UK.  In true, biased BBC fashion, the interviewer set the scene by reminding the listeners that Nick Clegg had told the Roma that they needed to be sensitive to the British way of life, and that David Blunkett had warned, in similar fashion to Enoch Powell about immigration of black people into the UK, that there was a possibility of riots if relationships between British people and Roma were not improved.  
Blunkett had also said, and probably with a straight face, that the Roma in Britain should make more effort to fit in.  Blunkett of course, unlike Enoch Powell, was not censured for what he said, and was obviously blissfully unaware of the irony in his instruction to Roma people that they must integrate more – I doubt that he would have dared to make similar statements in public about Muslims in the UK.
The “Today” team then focused on Chelvay, near Slough, which, according to the interviewer, was “largely Asian” but more recently had had an influx of populations from Eastern Europe as well as Roma.
There the interviewer spoke to an “Asian” businessman who said that his business was failing because the Roma congregate nearby and intimidate his customers after dark.  In an account very reminiscent of the nervousness felt by non-Muslims in Tower Hamlets and other Muslim areas in the UK, he said that his community’s womenfolk did not go out after dark because they were afraid of the Roma and felt threatened by them.
 The interviewer then talked to a Romany spokesman, the editor of the “Travellers Times”, who explained that Roma liked to congregate in large numbers because they are a “very sociable community”.  That interview went as follows.  I have quoted verbatim in certain places:
The interviewer asked why Roma want to come to the UK in the first place.  The spokesman told him that there was no simple answer to that and there are a wide variety of reasons for wanting to seek a better life in the UK, among them the institutional racism against the Roma in Eastern Europe. 
Then came:
“So lots come here and you’d expect that when they arrive in a country they’d want to make a new start and not be badly treated, that they’d do more perhaps …”  (he pauses here and probably feels awkward)… “to fit in”
 The Romany spokesman reminded him that the vast majority are doing just that, but the problem is that those who are not are more visible. 
 (The Romany spokesman was remarkably even-tempered here.  I cannot imagine a “Today” Programme interviewer daring to suggest that new immigrants from Pakistan or other Muslim countries should do more to fit in with the wider community – ie saying in effect that the problem lay with them – much less imagine the reply he might get from a Muslim spokesman or the wails of ‘Islamophobia!’ from Muslim communities and other listeners).
The interviewer then referred to the “… kind of tension here that it will take both sides to reduce..”
The Romany spokesman answered by talking about what he called the “medieval poverty” from which most Roma come.
The interviewer said, a little testily in my opinion, that was not the fault of the people of Sheffield, was it, that it was their lives which were being disrupted.
The Romany spokesman agreed that it not the fault of the people of Sheffield, but that it was “flippant” to ignore the history of the Roma.  He said that the Roma would adjust in time to life in the UK.  
(I remember thinking that the BBC is expert in ignoring context and does so very regularly in its reporting of the Middle East, and how significant was the Romany spokesman’s reference to the Roma adjusting to UK life rather than demanding that the UK bend itself out of shape for them so that they need not have to do so).
The interviewer interrupted him: 
“Yeah but while they are adjusting – sorry  to interrupt – but while they are adjusting, we expect, don’t we, communities in Britain – it tends to be poorer communities, let’s be blunt about it, that … that ….we are expecting people to behave harmoniously towards the wider community and to understand cultural differences but they are not getting the help themselves…”
(What on earth did he mean here?  Who are the “they” who are not getting help themselves?  Is he referring to the wider indigenous community?  Was he blaming the Roma community for not providing input to help indigenous communities to understand them, or blaming the Roma full stop for the wider communities’ reactions to them simply because they are in the UK?   I believe that it was the latter, although I admit that my interpretation may well be coloured by my experience of the BBC’s own biases, and the statement above was very unclear).
The Romany spokesman said that only the basics of the Roma culture are understood by the wider community.  The subtext here was, I believe, that more could be done to educate British people about them.
The interview ended, however, before that could be explored.
What on earth are we to make of this exchange?  What has it achieved?  As I have said above, I have no particular opinion about Roma coming into the UK. I see this as yet another monumental mistake which can be placed at the door of the EU because of its open borders policy and about which British people can do little other than vote to leave the EU.
However, I am disgusted (although not in the least surprised) by the double standards shown here, not only by the BBC but also by the UK government and certain other commentators on the issue, who are quick to attack and condemn and scapegoat the Roma whilst remaining deafeningly silent about the dangers to the UK from other incomers who mean and do and have already done them much more harm.
 I invite the reader to substitute “Muslim” for “Roma” as appropriate in this interview and to ask themselves whether such an interview about, say, Muslim immigration would ever be aired by the BBC.

1 comment:

  1. They let em in to cover the muslim problem,or they have let them in to sort the muslims,then just get rid of them,lots of reasons,but this government does seem to like playing russian roulette with our citizens and our standard of living which is plummeting.

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