Stupid campaign targets whites

There are articles in the papers today about the billboards being driven around London which are asking illegal immigrants to go home. The newspapers have been reviewed on the Andrew Marr show and one of the reviewers was Trevor Phillips, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. According to him "it is a stupid campaign". I can't see much wrong with that review It is supposed to be targeting illegal immigrants, and presumably many of these immigrants don't speak (or read) English. The billboards are in English. There is nothing wrong with attempting to uphold the law. The problem is the targeting.

There are many good ways to target illegal immigration but this isn't one. The comment that inspired this blog was that if you took these newspaper articles down to the local pub you would get support for the campaign. This snippet highlights the true target, the white male population in areas of high immigration. Nigel Farage would be proud - except that he sees it as a Tory move against UKIP. Trevor Phillips did not say the campaign was racist but if the target of an immigration campaign is Caucasian then it is hard to see how this is not the case.

I would guess that most Liberal Democrats have strong views on this subject and Vince Cable is one who has been widely quoted.“It's stupid, the whole idea that illegal immigrants have got a sophisticated grasp of English. It is offensive. It is designed apparently to create a sense of fear in the British population that we have a vast problem of illegal immigration. We have a problem, but it's not a vast one and it's got to be dealt with in a measured way."

The other point from the campaign is that the Liberal Democrats were not involved. I'm not sure how the coalition partners got away with that but it is pleasing to know that we can label this as a stupid Tory campaign.

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