The Student Room Group

Owen Smith Panders To Racists By Lying About Immigration


At leadership hustings, Smith presents an enlightened, pro-immigration, anti-xenophobic stance, but in a Newsnight interview last month we saw something rather different. When asked if there were “too many immigrants” in the UK, he replied that “it depends where you are”, giving official comfort to the post-Brexit pack your bags brigade. He asserted that EU migration “definitely caused downward pressure on wages” despite academic studies having repeatedly shown that this is false, and that EU migration is of clear overall benefit to the economy.

Then, calling for an “honest” discussion on immigration, Smith noted that his wife is a school teacher and that schools in their local area are under pressure from “significant numbers into South Wales of people fleeing the Middle East”. In fact, a grand total of 78 people have been resettled in the whole of Wales under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. In the local authority encompassing Smith’s constituency of Pontypridd, the total number is zero.

Source.

Does this represent Smith now pandering to xenophobes through provably inaccurate statements?
New Statesman is like the left-wing version of Breitbart but even more insane and detached from reality if that's possible*
Reply 2
Original post by KimKallstrom
New Statesman is like the left-wing version of Breitbart but even more insane and detached from reality if that's possible*

So nothing to say about the actual content of the article, then?
Reply 3
Bump. :h:
Original post by lawyer3c
Source.

Does this represent Smith now pandering to xenophobes through provably inaccurate statements?


I'd be careful about watering the word "racism" down to such a degree that it becomes almost meaningless. There is such a thing as real racism and it's still very worth calling out. It certainly isn't sensible immigration policies though, nor is it being truthful about the problems with multiculturalism.
Reply 5
Original post by KingBradly
I'd be careful about watering the word "racism" down to such a degree that it becomes almost meaningless. There is such a thing as real racism and it's still very worth calling out. It certainly isn't sensible immigration policies though, nor is it being truthful about the problems with multiculturalism.

Lieing about the levels/effects of immigration is pandering to racists.
Original post by lawyer3c
Lieing about the levels/effects of immigration is pandering to racists.


Where is the "lie"?
Original post by KimKallstrom
New Statesman is like the left-wing version of Breitbart but even more insane and detached from reality if that's possible*


NS is a fairly generic soft left publication. Sure, it sometimes has articles from radical lefties, but it also has some from Blairites. If you have to pick a right-wing counterpart, The Spectator is probably closest.

Breitbart, by contrast, isn't and never has been a serious magazine, it's just stereotypically bad internet 'journalism'. Guess you could compare it to Huff Post or Salon, but they're more politically bland and have less of a strident overriding ideological impulse. Something like Jezebel would be closer, I'd say, from a 'neutral' standpoint.

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Reply 8
Original post by The_Opinion
Where is the "lie"?

Oh boy, you really can't tell? It is pretty explicit/obvious in the article quoted... Alas, I shall help bring the lies to your attention:

Lie 1:

He asserted that EU migration “definitely caused downward pressure on wages” despite academic studies having repeatedly shown that this is false, and that EU migration is of clear overall benefit to the economy.


Lie 2:

Smith noted that his wife is a school teacher and that schools in their local area are under pressure from “significant numbers into South Wales of people fleeing the Middle East”. In fact, a grand total of 78 people have been resettled in the whole of Wales under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. In the local authority encompassing Smith’s constituency of Pontypridd, the total number is zero.


I hope this is clearer for you.
Anti-racists wont be happy until there are no Europeans left. You are therefore, racists.

Deal with it.


It's not racism for anybody else. How would you like if we said Africa had to have a Asian majority? LOL

Xenophobes are people who want to retain their identity that you people are destroying. Hang your heads in shames, racist hypocrites.

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