So, Nigel Farage has brought out his dog whistle again. Quelle surprise. He told the Sunday Telegraph:
The nuclear bomb this time would be about Cologne,” he told the Telegraph. Women may be at a particular risk from the “cultural” differences between British society and migrants, after gangs of migrant men allegedly launched a mass sexual attack against hundreds of women in Germany last New Year’s Eve.
It’s not as if he and his party have any sort of record of being in favour even of gender equality. Remember Godfrey Bloom and his comments about women not cleaning behind the fridge? Farage himself thinks that women who take maternity leave are of less value to employers, and of course his party took money from someone who thought that women were being hostile for the simple act of wearing trousers . The same guy thinks women can’t be raped by their husbands. The vast majority of sexual assaults and attacks happen in the home by someone known to the victim, so the UKIPpers have some way to go to understanding the reality of the situation.
You can take any claim of concern for women with a pinch of salt. All Farage is trying to do is to stoke up fear and division.
Sal Brinton was deeply unimpressed, saying:
Nigel Farage’s comments are disgraceful. He has sunk to new depths in his scaremongering with these remarks which are completely unacceptable. The debate about whether Britain is better off in Europe is hugely important and should be based on the facts, not shameful attempts to stir up hatred and fear with smears like this.
It is disgusting to see a politician make comments like this. He must withdraw these remarks and apologise.
She’s right, but we won’t be holding our breath for an apology.
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8 Comments
Why won’t Sal deal with what farage said rather than saying he shouldn’t be saying it? Why won’t the lib dems allow such comments?
OK, I will. What Farage has said is utter bilge (I’d prefer to use a stronger word but it probably wouldn’t be allowed.)
He has no evidence to support what he is saying. What happened in Cologne was not pleasant, but is in no way representative of the majority of Muslims who might come to the UK, refugees or not (and I live in Egypt, just for the record.) He is only saying it to scare people, in the same way that the National Front or the BNP used to make similar comments in the 1970s and 1980s.
Unfortunately, you don’t have to go far in UKIP or Vote Leave to find people who would agree with Brock Turner’s father that a sexual assault could be dismissed as “20 minutes of action.” Their attitudes don’t reflect modern Britain.
Farage didn’t say it represented most Muslims. He said 1. In those societies women are treated badly. 2. After allowing about a million people from those societies to enter Germany there were mass, organised, sexual assaults and rapes in public on New Year’s Eve. 3. If those people are given eu passports we will not be able to stop them coming here if we remain in the eu.
This is not a pleasant thing to say, but he said it and it must therefore be addressed. Saying that’s offensive he should apologise is not addressing it.
Hardly a dog-whistle. Anyone who had hearing within the normal range could hear what he was saying. Apart of course, the extreme Right who have selective hearing when challenged about the intentions behind comments.
If reports are correct, and were reported correctly, it was the way that the authorities dealt the assaults in Cologne and other Western cities, that was most likely to cause animosity towards the group as a whole. If women living in western Europe area were advised to dress or behave differently, it was bound to cause a backlash amongst those who have been taught that one doesn’t blame the victim for the behaviour of predatory men.
Have liberals learnt nothing from Rotherham, where a fear of fuelling racism and anti- Muslim sentiment, ( a decent enough desire, but misguided), only achieves the opposite and drives people into the arms of the political Right? The ramifications for law abiding decent Muslims in Rotherham have been awful.
As someone from Rotherham, I am aghast at the success of UKIP there. Especially as I have not noticed any particular sensitivity to women from people of the political Right.
It isn’t just the women of Cologne though is it. If the likes of the person who wrote this article looked at Germany, they would have seen that there have been problems with the migrant accom. Men, Women and children are being physically assaulted on a regular occasion (both by other migrants and by those who are supposed to support them), while the politicians who caused the problem seem to be playing slopey shoulders.
Germany has other problems at the moment, it wasn’t just the politicians who messed up, the media has also got a lot of stick for the way they reported Cologne. This is leading to a loss of trust in both the politicians and reporters, hence the rise in popularity of those on the extreme left/right as people turn to other news outlets (e.g. Face Book!!).
Back in Feb, Spiegel had an article on this problem, there was one part (at the end) that was about journalists, but I often feel that it could have been written about Lib Dems in general and on this issue in particular:
‘ “that journalists hardly even recognize everyday life at many levels of society, and that they no longer directly perceive social conflicts at the lower end of society.
The academization of our profession is a problem as well,” Wolf says. “The fact that journalists are not as present where society needs them most — there’s something to that.” ‘
The lib dems are pro immigration, the majority of the public aren’t. But that’s ok because different parties are there to represent different points of view. Being in favour of more immigration is a perfectly legitimate point of view, but then again so is wanting less.
The reason I believe the leave campaign will win is because as articles like this show, the remain side are not addressing people’s concerns so all the leave campaign need to do to win is give people concerns.
People can clearly see that there are serious issues with the mass immigration that happened in Germany. If they believe the political establishment and the remain side understand this and aren’t ignoring these problems, then they might trust them when they also say that the benefits of being in the eu out weigh the negatives.
But if the remain side say that there are no negatives, that all immigration is great and that people raising these issues is offensive and it therefore shouldn’t even be raised, then people will conclude that the remain side have their heads stuck in the sand, aren’t addressing their concerns, and vote for Brexit.
Presumably, judging by some of these comments,” migrants” (presumably asylum-seekers, not long-established Turks) in Germany are never being assaulted?
Of course there are problems of culture clash and it is true that in some societies, women are badly treated, though I’m not convinced that’s more so in Syria (in peacetime) than in some European countries. The arrival of very large numbers in a short time can cause problems. If other European countries had done their bit in taking in asylum-seekers, the numbers in Germany wouldn’t have become so large so quickly.
@ Simon Banks,
There is no ‘of course there are problems of culture clash’. Some of the brightest, most independent minded women that I know come from the societies where women are supposed to be treated badly. They are doctors, engineers, architects etc., and their husbands wold find it laughable that they were subservient wives.
The worst type of racism as far as I am concerned , it the type where individuals such as the alleged perpetrators of wrong-doing are somehow excused because ‘they don’t know any better’, or are incapable of better behaviour’.
The vast majority of migrants did not behave in the way some, a minority, behaved. They do not want to be judged by the behaviour of those whose behaviour is shameful.
In my opinion, Farage is saying more and more outrageous things to maintain his relevance now that the Leave campaign has been taken over by bigger players with more clout than him. I suspect that many of his comments repel more voters than they attract.