I have said it before, but I just feel we are sleepwalking into a reform Govt.
Trump normalised bad behaviour, and now Farage & co are. It will soon be expected to get abuse if you are slightly off white or have a weird surname.
As you all probably know I have an English first name, but my surname isn't. Had a long convo last year with someone who kept saying what is your real name as that is just your English first name. He just wasn't having it.
I've mentioned it before that Mrs No7 doesn't see it, but I see looks and sneers at me and it isn't me being paranoid. I'm used to it, but it is there and getting more obvious.
Not so much sleepwalking as careening at this stage.
Overt racism is definitely rising rapidly it is clearly being normalised, mainly online but we are now seeing it very quickly seep into public spaces.
I try not to pan everyone with concerns about immigration, because some of it in fairness is a reasonable concern. Hotel use isn't sustainable and there needs to be an appropriate method for processing asylum claims applied.
(Half responding to the point I think Libby made about being too quick to label everybody a racist).
But there are racists among their number using it as an excuse and they are being strengthened by the increasing validation of their views by a grifting Reform Party, pathetic and dying Conservative Party and a weak and indecisive Labour Party who are seemingly unable to seperate legitimate concerns from intimidation and racist behaviour and as such have just stood aside hoping the heat leaves the situation whilst they try to fix the Hotel situation (which in my one defence of them is not their creation and it will take time to solve it properly). They need to be more aggressive in rooting out racist behaviour.
Unfortunately I think it is naive to think that this is going to stop if/when the Hotels and crossings are sorted, these people are emboldened now and will swiftly move onto the next thing until they are stopped, possibly by force or not at all.
What happened today in Lordshill is a clear sign of the increasingly emboldened far-right and it does exist, we can't just wave that away.
As much as I am loathe to say it, I think the only thing that can defeat Reform at the moment is a revived Conservative Party managing to chip some points off of Reform and split the right wing vote enough for someone else to win or a coalition to form. That is if the Tories don't merge with them.
On the positive, plenty can change in 3 and a half years, even if we can't see it right now. Reform may be peaking too early though, their ideal scenario might actually turn out to be right now and not down the line, like what happened to the Canadian Conservatives and Australian Liberals (neither of whom were anywhere near as dangerous as Reform).
