Taking it to the streets
We love it when a plan comes together: general election commentary care of Flickr users.
Seen more of the same? Do send us photos.
See also: Taking it to the streets (part 2)
We love it when a plan comes together: general election commentary care of Flickr users.
Seen more of the same? Do send us photos.
See also: Taking it to the streets (part 2)
April 5th, 2005 at 12:39 am
Those posters really are just asking for it aren’t they? Takes me back to my first (and more or less last) political poster defacing. It was 1969, I was 18 and had just gone to university. The Tories held their conference literally just up the road. Outside their hotel was a billboard with the slogan ‘Britain would be better off with the Conservatives”. A bunch of us waited until about 4:30am, sneaked up the road and painted ‘dead’ at the end. Within a couple of hours it had been painted out but not before someone took a photo which appeared in a Sunday Times(?) book of graffiti. I’m ashamed to say that the following year I voted Tory because the uni Maoist group had convinced us that, if they won, it would polarise the electorate and bring about the revolution. They did and it didn’t. Felt ashamed about it ever since. Kiddies: never, ever vote Tory. Whatever the reason!
April 12th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
…and you can count the number of braincells these vandals have on one hand.
Try speaking and debating; not crime to put across your points.
April 12th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
It isn’t racist to impose limits on immigration. Whoever altered those posters is obviously moronic for thinking so.
The reason for lowering immigration is so that this country doesn’t get more over populated. If they start concreting over green belt in the south of england in order to build low cost housing for unskilled immigrants, who come here to (lets face it) exploit our benefits system (just like the most of the people who vote labour), then I will personally start a revolt against the government and the immigrants.
Do you not get this? We don’t have the resources to have more people in this country. The area they want to build housing on is local to me, and would involve exploiting a water system which is already used to capacity, if not more. In order to fund it, they have to raise taxes. That’s fine for all the fucking idiots that don’t work, but I do, and I am not going to pay for fuckwits who can’t speak the language to sponge off me.
Immigrants who can speak English, and are skilled I have no problem with, but the majority dont, and as far as I’m concerned they can all fuck off.
April 13th, 2005 at 4:32 am
Try speaking and debating; not crime to put across your points.
Incitement to racial hatred isn’t a crime? Hmm. Try again, Tory boy.
April 13th, 2005 at 1:09 pm
What a bunch of complete idiots.
As if the spin from all the parties is not enough you have to resort to childish schoolboy pranks in the vein hope of making people vote labour. If you think defacing the posters will sway votes you’re mistaken.
April 13th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
ToryScum.com, lol and double lol!
April 13th, 2005 at 3:00 pm
We’ve currently got the right-wing press, BNP, Labour, Tories, UKIP and Kilroy-Silk all trying to play the race card, so it’s really important that somebody says something different! None of the main parties is prepared to come out and stand up against racism because they need to pander to people’s fears to get elected. It’s crucial that some alternative voices are heard - and I don’t think it matters if vandalism is what it takes to get the message out.
April 13th, 2005 at 7:40 pm
Quite funny but I think some of the other defacings have been a bit cleverer. Oh and to Helena who clearly believes what the Daily Mail tells her; can you guess how many of the 150,000 immigrants from Eastern Europe are currently claiming benifits? Go on guess … well it’s 23. Benifit scroungers my arse!
April 13th, 2005 at 7:47 pm
Crap! I thought this was going to be about the Canadian Tory scum and their overzealousness in forcing an election a year after the last one.
Bloody crap!
April 13th, 2005 at 11:49 pm
Oh Helena, Helena, my (probably) BNP loving friend, it would be nice if people actually did a little research before seeing red and spouting vitriol, wouldn’t it? I’m not going to go off into a huge counter-argument here as frankly I’m tired, but I do feel it important to respond to your last little eloquent point. Namely, that 37-or-so percent of immigrants have university degrees, as opposed to 17% of Britons.
Who’s unskilled now?
April 14th, 2005 at 12:41 am
Taking it to the streets - Tory poster alterations
April 14th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
Helena, you embody everything that is wrong about this country.
April 14th, 2005 at 5:17 pm
Due to declining birthrates and improving medical care the proportion of Britains past retirement age is rising. However this is also being matched by a declining workforce. It is this problem which is resulting in a raising of the retirement age and predicted problems with future pension funds.
Immigration is required to help balance this declining workforce, as otherwise a growing number of dependents will rely on a smaller and smaller workforce. This problem will only get greater as the birth rate shows no sign or rising to maintain a stable balance population.
The attitude that asylum seekers are money grabbing scroungers is a massive over generalisation which is racist. I’m not saying that there aren’t any assylum seakers who exploit the system, but likewise I’m sure there are Brits who exploit the system as well. Criticisms should be leveled at those who actually are commiting benifit fraud, and not generalised to assylum seakers or those on benifits. This attitude just creates scapegoats and doesn’t actualy place criticisms in the correct place.
April 14th, 2005 at 6:52 pm
Helena - there are more than enough resources in this country. The problem is with their distribution. Some people own 2 or more homes while other people live on the streets. Does that sound like a fair and equitable society to you?
April 14th, 2005 at 7:10 pm
and Helena - just because you had the luck to be born here, what gives you the right to decide who should come and go. We’re all human (insert obligatory anti-politician quip here)
April 15th, 2005 at 9:06 am
“just because you had the luck to be born here, what gives you the right to decide who should come and go.”
John……isn’t that fact the reason why she does have the right, in a democracy, to decide how her country is run……or would you prefer we ask somebody from a different country what we should do ???
April 15th, 2005 at 9:36 am
“can you guess how many of the 150,000 immigrants from Eastern Europe are currently claiming benifits? Go on guess … well it’s 23. Benifit scroungers my arse! ”
Well, I like it, and I’d like to use it, but what’s the provenance of that ‘fact’?
April 15th, 2005 at 9:42 am
“or would you prefer we ask somebody from a different country what we should do ???”
Like Bush for example… oh, sorry, my mistake. He already does.
Great work on the posters
April 15th, 2005 at 10:51 am
“just because you had the luck to be born here, what gives you the right to decide who should come and go.”
Because we pay taxes (just like our parents and grandparents) that keep the country running. Who should get a say who comes and goes if not us?
April 15th, 2005 at 2:16 pm
F.A.O. Helena, a very great man named Gandhi once said:
” There are enough resources on this Earth to fulfill human need, but not human greed.”
Being a fourth generation immigrant myself (my great grandparents came here from Poland in 1939 to avoid being killed by Nazi’s) I have to say that people are getting too bogged down in the political correctness of the situation and avoiding the main issues completely!! What we need is a decent system in place to deliver fair judgement on who should be allowed to stay in this country based on persecution or people who want to make a better life for themselves (everyone is entitled to that right). There is no point in simply imposing limitations on numbers as each case is individual, but riddle me this…. if Spain or France or any European country turned round to us and started imposing limits on the droves of English families buying holiday homes in their countries, claiming ‘We’re too full, or you don’t speak our language (which hardly any of them do) or what skill do you have that is useful to us?’ there would be uproar in this country. Do unto others my friends….
April 15th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Helena,
So all Labour voters exploit the benefits system, do they ?
What ridiculous nonsense - I’ve always voted Labour, and I’ve always had a full time job since I left school 20 years ago.
You clearly are a deluded fool, who would have a bright future as a Daily Mail columnist……
April 15th, 2005 at 3:39 pm
Hahaha, thank God I live in a lib dem area. Helena is so foolish, overpopulating? LOW-BIRTH-RATES, we need immigrants to keep the population and hence economy stable! Plus as others have rightfully stated, they’re often highly skilled and dedicated.
Only idiots and selfish snobs are thinking what the tories are thinking.
April 15th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
Or is it the fact that immigrants once they come and work and pay taxes will also have a stake in (hopefully) diminishing the influence of the elitist right-wing power brokers in this country? Isn’t that what they’re all afraid of?
April 16th, 2005 at 9:35 am
Helena, would you clean the floor of a Wetherspoons for the minimum wage, would you pick up litter on the high street, would you live in sub-standard housing that no-one else wants to live in?
I’m taking that you’l say no, most people do!
Except of course many unskilled-imigrants. They are a replacement population who do jobs, fill vacancies and live in housing that elitists like your self won’t. What would you say when the high-streets are covered in litter and there is no-one left to be exploited for cheap labour? (i’m guessing you resort to the slave trade again?)
The only limits we need are those on Tory bigots
April 18th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
[...] you smoking what were smoking? to his pride-and-joy poster. And there’s plenty other examples on that site… This entry was posted on Monday [...]
April 19th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
I think Helena has a point.
American indians have a right to object to having had their green belts turned into roads, housing and factories. The descendants of a million or so mostly unskilled British in Australia are certainly straining the supplies of water there (although the skilled ones are welcome of course…). And how many British immigrants to NZ, European mainland, Africa and Asia have ever bothered to learn the native language or made a significant contribution to the well-being of the host (as opposed to enrich themselves, their companies and their rulers)? I say, take them back. And see where you lodge the 40 million or more British (or their descendants) who have emigrated to find a living in someone else’s country over the last 2 centuries?
April 19th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
The only limit we need is a national IQ limit. That would stop the vast majority of immigration and also kick out the people who deface the posters.
April 19th, 2005 at 3:31 pm
They make me so mad. My girlfriend is from Portugal and people pick on her for being foreign and more so since she has been on TV (Big Brother)
April 19th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
Dear Helena
I don`t mind people who argue against immigration in a reasoned, none racist, none opportunistic, statistically accurate and none hateful manner.
But the majority don`t, and as far as I`m concerned they can all fuck off.
April 20th, 2005 at 1:05 am
In reply to some of the earlier responses like “Try speaking and debating; not crime to put across your points”. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Free speech is like money… some people have a lot more of it than other”? In that vein of thought perhaps if you want to have your say and your voice to be heard but don’t have a few million to spend on media and billboard advertising you have to use other means like this or are you implying that if you are not as rich as the average Tory you don’t have as much right to free speech?
To those that said that and also the people agreeing with the Bories thoughts on immigration we should put you in a country where you find it hard to live let alone chat your aristocratic loving drivel on here.
April 20th, 2005 at 1:11 am
“Try speaking and debating; not crime to put across your points.”
Since when is posting a bigoted sign considered speaking or debating? Besides, who wants to debate with someone who can’t use a semicolon correctly in a sentence, yet continues to think themselves somehow superior to other human beings?
April 20th, 2005 at 1:27 am
To the person that posted on here called Helena, by stating that immigration is a drain on society and that most of the people that come to this country are a drain on society is really showing your ignorance and that you’ve been listening to Tory and other right wing fascist idiocy for too long.
Immigrant workers really do help this country thrive and have done so long before even you and I were here. No one is pure breed from any nation in this world so through your stupidity you are insulting your own ancestry. If you are foolish enough to think that you would dramatically see a fall in immigration if the Tories came in is ludicrous as immigration didn’t start in 1997. The Tories know really they wouldn’t change anything too as our economy really is reliant on foreign workers. And if you want the immigrant workers out then I propose that you go and do all the jobs that they do, that nobody else would do in this country like clean the toilets (Just go to any train station in a major city to see this) and pick up all the litter. Chop chop you’ve got a lot of work to do and nobody else seems willing to help.
April 20th, 2005 at 9:15 am
Helena is insane- she along with the other tory bigots should be deported.
it is thanks to helena and her facist friends that any brown person fells that people think we are all islamic terrorists so how can immigrants be made to feel british. the worst thing is that i an mot even muslim!!!!!!! i am not even an immigrant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the tories wouldnt object if all immigrants were white. it seems that michael howard is fine with his father and that generation of east europeans coming over, but none from non white countries.
April 20th, 2005 at 9:45 am
I wonder if people are aware that the number of immigrants last year numbered 40,000, down 65% on 2003.
I wonder if people are aware that crime statistics show overall crime is down.
I wonder if people realise the tories privatised the hospital cleaning company, and abolished matrons in the first place.
I wonder if people remember that the tories introduced council tax- as a raplacement for MICHAEL HOWARD’S POLL TAX.
I wonder if people realise that the tories CUT spending on schools and hospitals.
I wonder if people know that the tories would close down the head teachers training college and abolish the necessary qualifications.
I wonder if people really have a justification for voting tory on may 5th.
April 20th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
‘Helena’ talks out of her arse. If you’re going to spout that load of neo-fascist bullshit that one may hear at a BNP meeting/the Daily Mail then you should be bloody deported
April 20th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
Arjun, all of those excellent facts, yet i’m still very worried that more than 50% of voters might still have justification…
April 21st, 2005 at 11:32 pm
What an terrible ignorant myth that immigrants “sponge off our benefits system” - they actually contribute far more in income tax than they claim, which is a lesson to over-paid UK workers who moan about tax yet complain about the state of state education, the NHS etc…
It really shows the strength of a party when it resorts to negative scribbled messages to drum up support…
April 22nd, 2005 at 1:37 am
“I wonder if people are aware that crime statistics show overall crime is down.”
Please be careful how you use statistics - remember that, when quoting such statistics, the users of those statistics alter what is considered a crime to suit their needs.
I agree that we need to somehow sort out the immigration - that is, not to send people who have been granted immigration rights back to where they came from, but to make the system we currently have actually work.
Not everyone abuses the system, but some people do, and it is those people whom I object to.
April 22nd, 2005 at 1:21 pm
The people that say “we need to sort out immigration” never say “we need to sort out emigration and bring back all the Brits from Oz, US, SA, Canada, Spain etc etc”. Face it - people have always moved from one country to another and they always will. The Tories are inciting racism as usual.
April 22nd, 2005 at 6:03 pm
In response to that, I frankly fail to see how emmigration is meant to be considered a problem for our country.
Yes, people will always move from one country to another - but those who abuse such a system should be dealt with.
Before anyone comes out with any statistics about how many people do abuse the probelm, Tony Blair said today that he doesn’t know how many people do abuse the system, because it is impossible to tell, but it still does happen.
Even Labour is planning a way to fix the system that they introduced - everyone seems to be saying “We need to sort out the immigration system”
April 22nd, 2005 at 6:11 pm
Also, to talk about the crime statistic again:
Even if it was including every type of crime, it would still only show that the amount of [b]reported[/b] crime has decreased.
This statistic was used previously, I believe, but it was the case that more crimes were being commited - people thought the police wouldn’t do anything, and so didn’t bother reporting it.
April 23rd, 2005 at 10:17 pm
Helena, you troll, go back to the National Socialist Party where you belong, the BNP is way too moderate for your white trash.
Fact is, emigration is higher than immigration, but you would conveniently overlook that because it does not suit your agenda.
Fact is, the British Empire controlled vast swathes of the world until not that long ago and thus English has become the most common second language on the planet making English-speaking countries amongst the most popular for immigrants. Lump it, because that is not going to change.
Looking on the bright side, with plenty of interacial mixing (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/changing_face_of_britain.stm) Helena’s on her way to becoming a biological irrelevance and my offspring will be better protected against skin cancer caused by the ozone hole than hers!
April 26th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
this is the problem with party politics its just a game of debate and people direct anger and frustration at their stereotyped “opponants” rather using that energy to work out solutions together. misinformation and corruption are just symptons of this competativeness.
re posters — white background - are they stupid - how stupid are their marketing people
April 26th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
Well, it seems that all the people here bar a few have used this reply column to spout hatred at “Helen”. First off, who the hell are you to say that she’s not right? (if a little misinformed) A lot of people if asked, especialy those who live in a major city, see the problems with immigration. It’s only normal that some people will feel resentment for this. My own personal opinions aside, the city I live in has a serious problem with out of work “refugees and asylum seekers”. Not just inciting hatred towards them from the “white” working class but also the minorities that live here as well. This is not racism. This is a problem with the way these unfortunate individuals are “housed” together in one particular area. Resulting in a lot of out of work young men hanging around on the streets, trying to fit in to a society and way of life they are not used to. This is what we see, this is what most people don’t like. Quite a lot of people are afraid to walk into these areas now because of the abuse and the malavolence they receive from said group of individuals.
I won’t go into the problems as they are way too complex, and I feel would be wasted here, but there IS a problem, and it’s affecting a lot of people’s lives.
“Helena, you troll, go back to the National Socialist Party where you belong, the BNP is way too moderate for your white trash.” - This is completley uneccesary. Please keep you’re comment constructive and subjective rather than trolling, because, and lets face it, if we don’t we’ll be just like the parties themselves.
In my honest opinion, I don’t care what newspaper you read, what area you live in, what nationality you are or what party you vote for, as the majority will vote for what works best for them. Some will believe the spin, some will not. The Labour Party are just as guilty as the Tories for creating spin and although some of the comment scrawled onto the posters nearly made me choke on my cornflakes with laughter, it is essentially against the law. And should not be condoned.
April 28th, 2005 at 9:58 am
I’m thinking I’m not going to vote for a party full of vandals.
April 29th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
Utter morons like the ones who defaced those signs and sites like this just make me want to vote tory even more.
I think the tories are idiots for playing on immigration, to me it is a total non issue. There may or may not be a minor problem with assylum seekers but i dont care. Immigration on the other hand = a neccessity and i see absolutly no evidence of i tbeing a problem. However, if this wins the conservatives votes then fair play to them. They are playing the game as it should be played,
April 30th, 2005 at 11:07 am
If you want to argue with someone over the Conservative posters, argue with me - someone who knows what he’s on about. It isn’t racist to impose limits on immigration at all, as you are not targeting a specific race in making that action. If you want to argue with that, please do. But keep your shameless socialism in check.
April 30th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
I can appreciate the vandalism in the first 2 posters, becuase, though I don’t agree with the views of the people defacing the posters, they are at least witty.
The others we just making it look like those who oppose the Tories are mindless idiots who can’t come up with anything remotely clever.
It reminds me of a car poster I was saw, with “Car exhausts make me cry :(” written on it.
May 1st, 2005 at 10:41 am
The answer here is obvious….Vote Liberal Democrat
May 3rd, 2005 at 1:44 pm
quote ” As if the spin from all the parties is not enough you have to resort to childish schoolboy pranks in the vein hope of making people vote labour. If you think defacing the posters will sway votes you’re mistaken. ”
I was going to vote the tories until I seen the defacing of the posters. I will now change my vote to the Lib Dems
May 5th, 2005 at 2:38 pm
Who cares about immigration?
More importantly, tax is theft.
October 13th, 2005 at 3:08 am
Don’t waste your emotional energy worrying about immigration. It’s too late for that; Britain’s already committed cultural suicide through its multicultural insanity. Current UK immigration policy is keeping the right people out and letting the wrong ones in. Enoch was right: He was advocating not allowing unrestricted immigration as a way to prevent racial strife. If only he’d struck out that “rivers of blood” phrase, history might have been different. The cause and effect of joining the US in the Iraq misadventure is becoming painfully obvious. Britain together with the US is heading for pariah nation status, which is the one thing that mitigates against emigration. Just hope reality takes a long time to catch up with image. Your income potential in say Asia is buttressed by your “English gentleman” image. If the 7/7 bombings haven’t convinced you of the folly of multiculturalism, nothing will. Essentially there is a Muslim 5th column of sleeper cells throughout Britain that just need activating. But it’s far too late to “send um back” now: The NHS would collapse for starters.
So think about emigration for yourself, because Britain’s washed up. Surely the 5/5 election makes this obvious. An apathetic electorate voted back Blair and NuLabour after all the deception, lies and spin. Blair should be facing impeachment and treason charges for taking the country to war on the basis of lies and deceit. The threat to your way of life is not synonymous with the threat the Britain. Apathetic Brits, particularly the underclass aren’t worth blogging for, marching for, protesting for, fighting for. Leave them behind because Police State UK is all they deserve. Get yourself a clean passport and start hitting the embassies. And if you really want to make the ultimate sacrifice, marry a citizen from your emigration target country, and seek your fortune in the colonies. Hey it worked for me back in 1972. “Three more brandies and pronto.” Obviously everything moves on. You could aim at increasing net wealth by $1,000,000 per year in Japan in the late ‘80’s, but those days, sadly, have passed. So today, as a starting point, try entering “English teacher, Shanghai” on the web.
February 19th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
No because what they wrote is true and i agree with it.BUT i do not think this is the way to show their beliefs.:D
May 14th, 2007 at 9:41 am
We have to remember that the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees are far worse than anything we’ve ever experienced in our British safe haven. Not only that but, to reiterate a few points already made, they are some of the most educated and skilled people in this country and the Home Office actually refuses them the right to work. There are those that scrounge, no doubt, but I know a lot of white, British, young men and women that live locally that are bumming off the system. Those people that complain about immigration are the same ones that will be complaining about higher taxes when the population deficit kicks in and we’ve got to support all the grans and grandads. It might do them some good to consider the long term implications of what they are fighting for instead of picking up The Sun or Daily Mail and being taken for a ride.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Wake up for f*** sake!! Do you live in cuckoo land.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
“The only limit we need is a national IQ limit. That would stop the vast majority of immigration”
And that’s not racist?
October 9th, 2007 at 1:31 am
Don’t REALLY need that many kebab shops. There are other things in life!