Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Take a good look. I hope you’re happy.

The anti-immigration posse must have been slapping themselves on the back and cheering yesterday when they saw the footage of dying cancer patient Ama Sumani being bundled away from her home to be deported.

Here's a woman whose only crime is to have fallen ill. And our state has come down hard on her, hounding her out of the country, denying her life-saving treatment and sending her packing back to Ghana, where she will not be able to afford the private healthcare she needs to stay alive.

Here is someone who came to this country to try and be a good citizen; who tried to contribute to the economy, but who had the misfortune to fall terminally ill. And who has therefore been punished for being terminally ill, and deported.

Remember Ama Sumani the next time you read some shit in the Mail, or Telegraph, or Express, saying that Britain is welcoming in a 'flood' of immigrants. Remember Ama Sumani when someone says we have an 'open door' policy. Remember Ama Sumani when you read UKIP or BNP lies in your local newspaper letters page saying that the 'indigenous population' of this country have been betrayed by 'mass immigration'. Remember her and her dignity when you see comment after comment from ill-educated bastards on immigration in newspapers and on websites.

She isn't alone. This week, Arnel Cabrera, the husband of a nurse killed by accident during childbirth was told he'd have to go home, because she was now dead and therefore her visa had expired. He was punished for his wife having died. No mercy, no compassion, no remorse. Just sent home packing with his young child.

Is this really the 'open door Britain' that I keep reading about in the Mail and Express? Do I see these stories on the front page of the anti-immigration rags? No. In the Mail today there's 'immigrant pupil numbers to rise 50 per cent' with comments like this:

So much for the benefits immigrants bring. By any sensible calculation they must be an on cost to this country. Their children cost a fortune to educate, they cost a fortune to house, they cost the NHS a fortune to treat, they cost local counciltax payers a fortune to provide benefits for, and they damage our fragile balance of payments by sending money abroad, and also reduce job opportunities and wages for British people. In the context of this article British children are also paying a high price with their education reduced because of non-English pupils in class.

The Daily Express, meanwhile, cares more about some horses in a field than Ana Sumani, who hasn't troubled its reporters at all. Obviously, it must be a little bit difficult for the anti-immigration paper to try and tell a human interest story about an immigrant, maybe might require a bit of sympathy or intelligent journalism... so let's not fucking bother at all. Who cares about one black immigrant who's dying? We've got horses in a field in the Home Counties!

This is the truth about our 'open door' policy. If you should happen to fall ill through no fault of your own, you're out. If your spouse should die at the hands of the NHS, you're out. No appeal. No hearing. No compassion. You're out. You'd think it would make the Express, Mail and other papers delighted, yet they seem a little shy about celebrating these victories against 'political correctness gone mad' and the 'flood of immigrants taking our jobs'. They don't seem so interested to cheer the departure of Arnel Cabrera or Ama Sumani. Which is odd. Because the racist bastards that they pander to every single day with their lies, lies and more lies about immigration will be delighted.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related posts:

1. Hope v fear (& hiatus)
2. Two hopes: Bob Hope and no hope
3. Friday links 21/11/08: Lolgriffin & happy birthday to me
4. Hope and fear among Mail readers
5. Happy New Year