Heroes: Love Thy Neighbour 

 

‘I’ve got to get away from here 

This is not a place for me to stay 

I’ve got to take my family 

And find a quiet place’ 

 
Well, so long as they are white and British, obviously. 

Downing Street wants to give UK families higher priority for social housing in a controversial scheme that will be badged as ‘British homes for British workers‘. Apparently, this is to further bolster Rishi’s reputation for being tough on immigration. 

The latest government figures show that 90% of the lead tenants in social housing are British citizens, including 82% to white peoples. In certain areas, however, that figure is much lower. In the London borough of Brent, 40% of new social homes were let to foreign nationals in 2021-22, while in Southwark the figure was 29%. 

There are, however, concerns that the proposal could further fuel support for the right-wing Reform UK party. In addition, housing experts say it is likely to be either illegal or unworkable, or both. 

Polly Neate, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said: ‘This policy amounts to nothing more than scapegoating at its worst. It is unnecessary, unenforceable and unjust. Not only does it ignore the fact that there are already stringent rules so only UK citizens or those with settled status can access homes for social rent, but it blames a group of people for a housing emergency that they did not create.’ 

Under current rules, local housing authorities decide social housing allocation based on need, giving priority to those who are homeless or living in overcrowded or squalid conditions. Refugees are allowed to claim social housing, but anyone who is not entitled to benefits is not, meaning most foreigners in the UK are already excluded. 

Social housing, like all housebuilding in the UK is declining. Circa 40,000 new socially rented properties were added to the market in England in 2010-11, but by 2022-23 that figure had dropped to just 9,561. 

The Affordable Housing Commission observes that there are almost 1.5m fewer social homes today than there were in 1979. In 2000, of those in the bottom half of the income distribution, 36% lived in social housing and 12% rented privately; by 2017, social rented housing was down to 28%, while 22% were private renters. To reverse this shift, the commission’s proposals include an accelerated housebuilding programme, a ‘rebalancing‘ of social housing and private rental provision, and a reform of right to buy schemes. Not a hollow slogan, but the practical policies necessary to build homes for all workers. 

This decline, coupled with record immigration levels, has left ministers looking for a way to prioritise British people on the waiting lists. One option would be to discriminate on the basis of nationality, but such a move is likely to fall foul of equalities law. 

‘Not a day passes but English families are ruthlessly turned out to make room for the foreign invaders.’  

‘They can’t get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry.’  

‘Millions of ordinary people up and down Britain are utterly fed-up with how immigration is driving up house prices, rents and flooding social housing.’ 

‘Not a day passes but English families are ruthlessly turned out to make room for the foreign invaders’  

 
Its all so familiar; the first from the Tory MP for Stepney, William Evans-Gordon in 1902; the second from 2006 by New Labour minister and Barking MP Margaret Hodge; and the third from a Spectator article last month by the academic Matthew Goodwin.  

The reasons we need to champion ‘British homes for British workers‘ is simple; it’s the governments failures of social policy to improve working-class lives, so they do what bullies usually do, find a scapegoat to take the blame.  

The real blame, as was illustrated above, lays with government housebuilding policy; we don’t build enough homes. Rather than correcting this, it is easier for governments to perpetuate the myth that migrants ‘flood‘ into social housing, depriving British workers of their rightful dues. 

What we are really seeing with this resurrected racist policy, is, as I wrote earlier, Rishi posing; trying to appear tough. Instead he just looks petulant. 

This is no more than an extension of his ill-fated attempt to deal with immigration but offshoring claimants to Rwanda. 

Ah, yes, Rwanda, which, so the government would have us believe is a bastion of human rights. Well, maybe not. They have been caught lying, again! 

It has been reported that four Rwandans were granted refugee status in the UK over ‘well-founded’ fears of persecution at the same time as the government was arguing in court and parliament that the east African country was a safe place to send asylum seekers. 
 

‘Rishi posing; trying to appear tough. Instead he just looks petulant’

 
This is the same Rwanda that the government keeps telling us is ‘unequivocally‘ safe for asylum seekers. Whereas, the supreme court seem a bit more clued-up, having ruled that Rwanda was unsafe, leading Sunak to introduce new legislation which, he argues, allays those concerns. 

The report also reveals a dossier compiled by a western intelligence agency accusing Rwanda of orchestrating a dirty tricks campaign to smear and undermine critics including those based in the UK.  

One of the Rwandans was granted asylum by the Home Office on 12 October, the day after the government concluded a case in the supreme court arguing the country was safe. 

The refugee was a supporter of an opposition party led by Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who is campaigning for justice for colleagues who have been killed or disappeared. The Rwandan also witnessed alleged atrocities committed by president Paul Kagame’s forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

He and his wife were granted asylum with the Home Office stating in a letter: ‘We accept that you have a well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to your country Rwanda, and we have recognised that you are a refugee under the 1951 Refugee Convention.’ 

The refugee, who still fears for his safety, said: ‘Britain should stop pretending this is a safe place. Find some other excuse for sending people to Rwanda but don’t say it’s because the place is ‘safe’, because that’s just insulting to people like me.’ 

Ali Abdulkarim, who is vice-chairman of the opposition Rwanda National Congress party and lives in London, said: ‘The fact that these Rwandans are still being granted asylum in the UK shows the Rwanda bill for what it is. It’s politically motivated. There may be a semblance of order, or rule of law [in Rwanda], but it’s a dictatorship and there’s no safety for the people living there.’ 

This petulant display really has been coming for a while. It’s more than we have seen in other countries, where struggling centre-right party’s and politicians ape the hard-right as they struggle to maintain their grip on power. 

In the past 10 days, the Telegraph has published a damning piece from a Tory MP calling for Sunak to go, followed by a detailed poll explaining why it would be better for the party if he did. 

The initial poll, published 2-weeks ago, fronted by Lord David Frost but commissioned by a previously unknown group calling itself the Conservative Britain Alliance, predicted an election wipeout for the Tories. Following this was more results from the same poll, which asked voters whether they preferred Sunak or Keir Starmer. The Labour leader came out on top in the majority of constituencies, but this was reversed when Starmer was put up against a ‘new, tax-cutting Tory leader with a tougher approach to legal and illegal migration‘, who was not named. 
 

‘The unvarnished truth is that Rishi Sunak is leading the Conservatives into an election where we will be massacred‘ 

 
To hammer the point home the same article carried quotes from Simon Clarke, a Liz Truss-era cabinet minister who said; ‘The unvarnished truth is that Rishi Sunak is leading the Conservatives into an election where we will be massacred.’ 

There is a clear message here;  voters would favour a low-tax Tory MP who took an even more robust line on immigration, which fits with the Telegraph’s view, as articulated in recent leader columns. 

The reason the Tories will be ‘massacred’ is because they constantly ignore what is going on around them, E.G., strikes, cost-of-living crisis, and a disintegrating health service. 

To that list we can add local government. Only 2-yrs ago, Michael Gove unveiled plans for a ‘Medici model’ to rejuvenate Britain’s cities and towns. Levelling up was supposed to restore a sense of local pride and belonging, and empower local leaders. An ‘array of interventions‘, it was claimed, would create a virtuous cluster effect, echoing the formula of success in Italian city-states during the Renaissance. 

In place of Florence we have an existential funding crisis in local government. Many councils are barely able to carry out their statutory and growing responsibilities in adult and child social care, let alone engage in the kind of ‘discretionary‘ spending that enhances the life of their communities. Last week, facing a rebellion by Conservative MPs fearful of further cuts in an election year, Mr Gove made an extra £600m available to local authorities.  

Nice try, but figures shared by the Institute for Government indicate that £7bn in extra cash would be required merely to return to the pre-austerity funding levels of 2010. 

The arts that the Renaissance was famed for have suffered worst, as, between 2010/11 and 2022/23, local spending per head on culture has dropped by almost half. Spending on roads and transport has plummeted by 40%, and on housing by a third. Libraries and youth clubs have closed, community buses have been curtailed, and parks have been neglected.  

These cuts have has hit hardest in the poorer communities which rely on them most.  

Going forward, the government’s funding estimate for local authorities next year, which are already inadequate, rely on the assumption that a maximum 4.99% increase in council tax will be imposed. While communities burn Sunak and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, prepare the ground for their pre-election tax bribes cuts. 

If Gove wishes to continue with his analogies to Italian history, he be best served remembering the last days of Rome, which is all that successive Tory governments have achieved. Their ideology and austerity has set councils on an unsustainable financial path which for some can only end in municipal breakdown and bankruptcies. There are only so many one-off asset sales that can be made, and there is a limit to the extent services can be further cut. 
 

‘Their ideology and austerity has set councils on an unsustainable financial path which for some can only end in municipal breakdown and bankruptcies’

 
Finding funds does not seem to be such a problem for the government in their attempts to restore the power-sharing administration at Stormont. 

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, said that he would publish details of the deal with the DUP tomorrow and that he expected it to lead to the resumption of power sharing at Stormont. He said: 

‘I will tomorrow publish the details of the proposals we have made to secure Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market and to strengthen the union. I believe that all the conditions are now in place for the assembly to return.’ 

If rumours are correct the proposals are set to include a funding package worth  up to £3bn. 

Perhaps, little Rishi is getting his bribe in first, just in case he needs Unionist support in the event of a hung parliament. Somehow I think he might need more! 
 

‘Different strokes for different folks 

And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby 

We got to live together’ 

 
 
Pretty gloomy stuff from Philip, but something that has been mounting in Broken Britain – and it’s deuced difficult to see a way back; so what’s he thinking:

Life under the Tories becomes more surreal with each passing week. It feels like a long, protracted version of Hitler’s last days in the bunker.

We all know defeat is coming. We all know it is likely to be so heavy that Rishi won’t survive yet still we limp on.

Rather than sending order to illusory battalions, or ordering us to fight to the last bullet, there is a feeling of weary resignation. Dragging out the old faithful’s racism and tax cuts, for one last stand, one last ditch plea to the faithful.

Whilst outside the bunker everyone else is suffering. The health service is left to rot, local authorities can’t afford anything other than the basics, people are still choosing between heating and eating. Despite this Rishi blunder on, unseeing, uncaring, or just unable. You decide?

Musically, we start with Massive Attack’s cover of “Man Next Door”, and a real treat to finish, “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone. Enjoy!

 
@coldwarsteve
 

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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