Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Coalition dilemmas

The Coalition government poses problems for those of us who have what might pass for a liberal mindset. On the one hand:

You look at something like that, and you think, is that real? But it is. The link takes you to a page where the need to stop foreigners coming over here is made crystal clear. There's apparently no debate about it - you're asked to contribute in terms of letting the Government know just how hard they should clamp down on immigration. They have decided they need to stop as many foreign students as possible; we, the hive mind, the general public, the hardworking taxpayers (tm), are simply there to give them a nudge as to how best to do it.

As it happens, I don't think we should reduce the number of foreign students coming to the UK, but there isn't an option for that. One such student put it very articulately yesterday when they said this:

I am a non-British student in the UK. You can't imagine how terrible I just felt having had to type that out, but I can't deny it any more. It's true. In light of your latest Tweet encouraging me to "Contribute my views to your consultation into how you can best reduce the number of students who come to the UK." I feel extremely bad about my nationality, as I should. Some might argue that the overseas fees I pump into your economy every year "entitles" me to be here. Of course, I know, as you do, that this is utter rubbish. After all, it would be utterly irresponsible to sell out the pricelessness of the Great British Culture for something as worthless as money. Some may also claim foreign students like me "enrich the British culture". Again, an appalling and unpatriotic statement to make, showing a complete lack of understanding of what truly makes this country what it is; the pure, proud, British, homegrown race.

I understand that I am and will continue to be a burden on the British society, and for that I can do nothing but apologise profoundly. I realise that I am nothing and will never be anything but a second-rate citizen. I would leave the country immediately, but the Great British Infrastructure seems to be crippled by snow at the moment. I'm terribly sorry about that. It's probably my fault.

While I wish for nothing more than I wish to stay here and complete my degree, the Home Office will have my full understanding and cooperation if they decide that I am polluting the culture and general Britishness of the country by being so bold as to living here. If you decide that deporting me is the only reasonable action you can take I can be found in Edinburgh, Scotland. I'll be easy to find, just look for the foreign guy. My non-Britishness stands out like a sore thumb.

It might be tempting, in the light of the Government's stance on immigration, to think of them as illiberal, but that's not entirely true. Ken Clarke and the Conservative/Liberal Coalition seem to be genuinely on a mission to reform the "Nail em up!" New Labour crime policies. Which doesn't endear him to the redtops, of course:

In one way, the Government is pleasing the tabloids - promising to crack down on those horrible foreign types who come over here to LEARN things and PAY US MONEY, the dirty swine - but in another, it is courting the wrath of the Sun and others, by daring not to lock up everyone who commits a crime, which is thereby tantamount to ordering people with HOODIES and KNIVES onto our streets. (I wonder if it's just a coincidence that there's no face there? Or that it's just a black void?)

Again, as the bleeding heart I am, I find myself a little conflicted. On the one hand, the Tories are ripping up so many things that I hold dear; on the other, they're attempting some kind of rehabilitation-based approach to justice. You can argue about whether that's just expediency based on the need to cut costs, but nevertheless that's what they're going for. And then you remember Labour, and you're reminded that they're all for the kind of scaremongering rubbish spouted by the Sun. (Remember when they nearly bought into the Sun's lust for prison ships?) And how different is the Coalition policy on immigration from the likes of Phil Woolas for Labour?

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that things could be worse. It could be all the cuts, plus the anti-immigration rhetoric, plus a brutal justice policy. As it is, it's all the cuts, the anti-immigration rhetoric, without so much of a brutal justice policy. Under Labour, it might be slightly less bad cuts, the anti-immigration rhetoric and an ever increasingly brutal justice policy. It's not inspiring, any way you look at it. Am I looking too hard for crumbs of comfort? I suspect I might be. But crumbs are all that liberals have right now.

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