Cardinal Nicholls of Westminster Archdiocese suggested that some media were guilty of fostering a climate of fear of refugees ahead of the June 23 referendum that resulted in a surprise vote for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. He told a Nov. 18 press conference that attitudes toward migrants had since hardened, making it harder for humane solutions to be found to the refugee crisis in the Middle East and the crisis of mass migration from Africa.
Speaking at a London press conference after the annual November meeting of the bishops of England and Wales in Leeds, Cardinal Nichols said: “We were concerned about the levels of intolerance, of attitudes hardening, of attitudes of exclusion.
“It is the fostering of a climate of fear that actually makes finding solutions more difficult,” said Cardinal Nichols, the president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
The cardinal said the bishops collectively “expressed our regret of the emergence of harder attitudes toward people who have migrated to be in this country and our regret at the way those views are given such ample expression, particularly in parts of the media.”
Cardinal Nichols added that inevitable economic consequences of Brexit – such as rising inflation, possible restrictions on trade with the European Union and the devaluation of British currency – would be felt “most keenly at the bottom of the economic ladders.”
Some of those who support Brexit will say the Cardinal is making it up.
That would suggest that both brexit and the election of Trump were indeed a xenophobic expressions of racism.
Perhaps the truth is that the people at the bottom, the precariat classes if you will, have felt no benefit from the elite managed march of globalisation that has been resulting in the consistent growth of right wing politics for many decades now. It has been ignored by the establishment and their purchased media and is not a surprise to everyone that the worm has turned.
If what you suggest were true, there would be wide scale evidence of racial attacks all over the nation, but there is not.
Perhaps the truth is, globalisation was destroying humanity, moving wealth in vast sums towards the few and away from the many.
It uses free movement of people not as a freedom, but a means of preventing cohesive community collectives. Groups of tight knit communities will stand together with one another beyond race, class and religious differences. Interspersed disparate and divided communities rarely agree on anything as we know only too well. Divide and conquer on a global scale.
The people in England who voted for brexit did not all do so for negative reasons, they just disagree with globalisation and a dilution of their own sense of community. Not necessarily because it was unwelcoming but because they scale in which it was imposed was based on profiteering and was simply unsustainable and no one was prepared to compromise.
To say the levels of intolerance, of attitudes hardening, of attitudes of exclusion are only post brexit don’t explain how the right has been steadily on the wise in so many nations for 40 years. That is an easily verifiable fact.
But of course, men of God wouldn’t tell lies now would they Joe?
Interesting analysis Jessica. What I cannot understand is how the precariat classes in America turned to Trump who may not be part of the political establishment but surely very much part of the corporate establishment and who will now probably line the pockets of the rich even more now he is in power. Seems he is beginning with a plunder of the environment as he lifts restrictions on dirty energy technologies. One hope however improbably at this stage is that he would use his position and entrepreneurial skills to bring green technologies centre stage in America and globally creating employment for the disaffected working and middle classes. As for Brexit, how can the Tory’s lead an anti-establishment crusade when they are the epitomy of establishment both political and corporate? And was the Left too tolerant of the status quo that people turned instead to the perceived super-hero individuals on the Right to deliver them back to the good old days. I offer these as the honest, open quesions as I struggle along with everyone to understand the shift that is taking place in our world today.
I doubt very much Trump gives a hoot about the environment Martin but he wont get everything his own way, the party will have an interesting job reining him in though.
I heard he was against wind farms ruining the view from one of his golf courses.
I would like to see Ireland get very much involved in renewable technologies and believe Harland and Wolff will be central to developing this industry in Ireland moving into the future.
We can build it, we have the brains and innovation to develop the science behind it and become a global leader in this technology. I would be very strongly in favour of Ireland becoming 100% self sufficient in renewable energy and I work with people involved in this area who are all convinced it is doable in a short time if the investment and will was there and that there are political blockages to it being implemented for whatever reason.
As an island totally dependant on others I consider the southern establishments policy and lack of leadership in this area to be bordering on negligence.
Back to trump, I imagine desperation would be one possible explanation. If your damned if you do and damned if you don’t for long enough, sooner or later enough people will say, why not try something different?
I don’t believe it was the support for the Tories that won brexit, Jermey Corbyn did not oppose brexit, and many feel inside he is a supporter of brexit and a euro sceptic. I think brexit could result in a rise of a new labour and end up with Jeremy Corbyn as PM. As you say, there is no login in the worst off voting in a right wing government. A bounce back to the left seems logical to me.
As Gerry says, these are interesting times.
Joe, Tranona duit. Once upon a long ago, in a wee, united country called Ireland, thousands of foreigners, with different languages, cultures and grattitude landed in this place, unwanted, savage and murderous, curiously they’re still here, or the six Ulster counties, now, what was it they’re gurning about?
Myself, I am still anti federalist but, the irony is beautiful.