Shameful Patel

When the Iranian Embassy siege took place in May 1980, a friend commented on the effect such a terrorist act would have on us Asians in Britain – that we’d be tarred with the same brush. The next shameful moment occurred in February 1989, with the fatwa against Salman Rushdie – which effectively killed-off multiculturalism in the country. And now, in April 2022, comes perhaps the most shameful act of all, with Priti Patel – who’s parents were refugees from Uganda in the ’70s – introducing legislation to deport refugees to Rwanda.

I find myself shaking with rage every time I read the news. The wilful inhumanity of this act – at a time when inhumanity is writ large across Europe, with what Russia’s doing in & to Ukraine – is simply staggering. And all to win votes at the local elections and so keep Boris Johnson safe for a while longer.

Where is the outrage akin to Extinction Rebellion? Or are we so innured to the barbarity of our current government that we remain silent? Is this how post-Brexit Britain intends to be “great” again, acting as imperialists of old, with Africa again simply a territory to be used? As a prison-camp! Oh!