On the day when the unemployment figures surpass those of any time since “things could only get better”, the BBC have found the perfect story to fill the space and relegate jobs to a lower position on their UK news webpage: racism in Belfast. Normally this would be somewhere tucked into the N. Ireland backwater pages, but somehow this time it’s really critical.
What was fascinating, as I took a glance at the ONS June update on employment was a rather startling figure concerning employment of “British borns” versus overseas workers. I don’t pretend to be able to contextualise this thoroughly, but it does bring perspective on the Romanians in Belfast story. Here goes:
“The number of UK born people in employment (not seasonally adjusted) was 25.28 million in the three months to March 2009, down 451,000 from the three months to March 2008. The number of non-UK born people in employment (not seasonally adjusted) was 3.81 million, up 129,000 fromthe three months to March 2008.”
Needless to say, this was not in the BBC report on the jobs news, which was stuffed with “not as bad as expected” voices.
Going big on this Roma story helps to keep the Lindsey oil refinery protests further down the news agenda. The protest is in its 5th day now, with 1,200 people on strike.
The BBC would rather partake in its favourite hobby of Brits = eviiil, than go big on these protests or rising unemployment.
Refinery in strike talks deadlock
I believe the BBC itself has been guilty of anti-Romanian propaganda. It was Paxman who asked, with reference to Michael Howard: "Will the country ever choose as Prime Minister a man of Transylvanian origins?"
Oh no, sorry, that was a subliminal reference to JOOOS. As you were.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1445728/Lifes-moved-on-the-countrys-move-on-and-I-hope-Ive-moved-on-too.html
It is striking how this incident has been characterised and reduced to racism. There has been no attempt to place it in the context of who they actually are and what they are doing. It could equally have been reported as an attack on migrants or beggars or freeloaders or people perceived to be taking scarce jobs or housing or whatever they may be.
I see from reading the Belfast press that these were not in a loyalist area as such but in what appears to be more of a mixed area in South Belfast. Some local people perceive them to be not workers, so much as exploiters of women and children as beggars them not as people who work. Nobody has mentioned any job, that I can see. Individuals among the Romanian gypsies themselves said they didn't have any money to get back to Romania. That's interesting. What would be even more interesting would be to know how they had money to get all the way from Romania to a fairly out-of-the-way Belfast. THey must have passed quite a few places to get there. I wonder what the attraction was. Hm…
Sorry for a dog's dinner of a sentence above.
Should have read:
Some local people perceive them to be not workers, so much as exploiters of women and children as beggars.
cassandra
I go to Italy, particularly Rome, on a regular basis. The large numbers of Romanian gypsies in Rome have made that beautiful city into one of squalor and danger. As you note, the begging is not just begging but aggressive begging, generally by a woman, with a couple of men behind her. The threat is that any response of yours could be treated as an insult to their woman, leading to violence. Many people simply pay up.
This is just the open side of their presence. Crime in Rome has shot up. Police simply do not know how to deal with the problem. It is too much to handle.
Italians are a tolerant bunch but in the end they got fed up, and took matters in their own hands. A similar thing seems to have happened in Belfast.
If this is the situation that the people in Belfast were facing, then I can understand their problem.
Umbongo @ 11:24 PM
The Roma are Catholic. The BBC can't take that angle because everybody would look at the footage and know they weren't being hassled because of their religion, so they didn't bother. The sexy angle is racism.
But every time they call these people Romanian, they are implying that you're a racist. Every other country on the planet at least makes a gesture towards acknowledging their actual heritage, even when it's "Roma Gypsies". That's redundant, but I understand that people in the UK might confuse them with Irish Gypsies. But they call themselves Roma, and it's insane that the Beeboids – who normally go the extra mile to defer to the nomenclatura of all cultures – whitewash these people's heritage by calling them "Romanians".
It's because the BBC, and the local advocates, and all the Multi-Culti fascists in government and media, think you and the British Public are racists. If they reveal the truth, they assume you won't care, and maybe even agree with those threatening them. The Beeboids and the rest of them know perfectly well that they're all benefit tourists, and they know perfectly well what many of them get up to. Further, they know that precious little has been done to get them to do that dirty "I" word.
What I find most peculiar about all this is the fact that if they wanted to wring their hands over racism, why not do it over the genuine Roma article? Why water it down? Is it because the Beeboids and the Multi-Culti fascists are the real racists, and think Roma are scum, and they know they'll never convince the public otherwise?
So they hide the truth, and imply that you're a bunch of racists, when they should be ashamed at their own racism.
I think this post is quite despicable David.
I don't agree that 100 Romanians being forced from their homes in a small place like Northern Ireland would 'Normally…be somewhere tucked into the N. Ireland backwater pages'. But of course the choice of news stories is a subjective area, something you seem incapable of understanding, instead you will always read something in to it.
What is disturbing is your underlying implication that if they weren't here stealing our jobs they wouldn't be attacked.
So that's liberals, Muslims, AIDs sufferers, poor people, have I missed anyone out?
2.43 above- I don't know how your comment could be less apt.
you say "What is disturbing is your underlying implication that if they weren't here stealing our jobs they wouldn't be attacked."
That's nothing to do with the post at all- you just made it up. And the post wasn't written by David Vance. The post was simply about how the BBC cover up news with their own agenda, missing the true story and feeding you their chosen one.
I call it "racism"- it's not a term of approval, dimwit.
No wonder 'anonymous' prefers to keep, er, anonymous, with such woeful argumentative skills as those displayed on its last post.
How times have moved on. The letter-to-the-newspaper laughing stock caricature "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" in the manner of the late Kenny Everret has been replaced by the polar-political young urban Lefties "ashamed of these wacist comments – Anonymous (Hoxton Collective)"
I heard a PSNI spokesman deploring the fact that some people did not appreciate the benefits of multiculturalism. Since when did that become law, and since when did the police become the mouthpiece of political correctness? If the PSNI has done its job and stopped the begging, pickpocketing and thieving, this problem would never have arisen. No doubt that now constitutes a thought crime in NuBritain.
Is the bigoted, closeted racist Anonymous coward @ 2:43 the same one who was crying about depriving us all of his important contributions if the mods ever prohibited anonymous comments?
Apologies ED, you're right the post wasn't by Vance. I can't tell the difference between you anymore.
This site has a very clear undertone of racism and this post is just one part of it.
Btw, the story is now being covered on the national news by ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and Channel 5. That kind of makes a mockery of your comment that '. Normally this would be somewhere tucked into the N. Ireland backwater pages'.
I hope the BBC never becomes what you want it to be. That would make it a racist and bigotted, ignorant and small-minded organisation.
"This site has a very clear undertone of racism and this post is just one part of it."
– right, that would be a kind of fake but true allegation. You can't actually give any reason for your "feeling" concerning this actual post (as you claimed to originally) but you think your accusation fits something undefinably wider.
"Btw, the story is now being covered on the national news by ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and Channel 5. That kind of makes a mockery of your comment that '. Normally this would be somewhere tucked into the N. Ireland backwater pages'."
No, the story always had picturesque qualities, and the BBC ensured that it made the news big time. Across Europe however this is nothing, and the BBC have opportunistically raised this nothing story to international status for various reasons no doubt, but especially the one covered in this post.
BTW- other allegations that this site is racist will get you deleted. It's a serious matter and it's untrue, however much you "feel" it to be. It's not, and to accuse as you have with terms as contradictory as "clear undertones" is both trollish and slanderous. Desist now.
Anon 9:44
The BBC already is racist, bigoted, ignorant and small-minded.
Another 'sting' enacted on Labour's open-door immigration 'policy'. BBC disinterested.
'Mail'
[Extract]:
"Between 15 and 20 Chinese watched as a man introduced as the Home Secretary gave a speech welcoming them to Britain. They swore an oath of loyalty and happily sang God Save the Queen.
"Finally, they were handed their passports, visas and other documents.
"Some may have been surprised to be asked to pay up to £20,000 to a law firm for the privilege of becoming British, but they had no reason to suspect anything was wrong.
"Not until they tried to use their passports, at any rate.
"For they were fakes, and the whole ceremony was staged by a gang of conmen, a court heard yesterday.
"The 'Home Secretary', officials, guards and audience members were all actors. And they too had been conned, along with the film crew recording the event, and thought they were making a promotional video." ('Mail'.)
'Telegraph' report. (No BBC report on this spotted.)-
"Doctors told to give priority to gypsies."
[Extract]:
"Gypsies and travellers should be given priority in NHS hospitals and GP surgeries, according to Government guidance.
"They should be given longer consultations, and should be seen by GPs when they walk in without an appointment, even if doctors are fully-booked.
"The average length of a consultation is five or ten minutes but travellers will be given 20 minutes and allowed to bring relatives into the consulting rooms.
"The guidelines have been introduced because, under race laws, gypsies and travellers are defined as minority ethnic groups and the NHS is obliged to consider their special needs and circumstances." ('Telegraph'.)
'Mail'
Littlejohn:
"Fast-tracking the Tarmacing community on the NHS"
By Richard Littlejohn
"One of the many emails I received yesterday was from a loyal Daily Mail reader incensed at the news that the NHS has decided to give priority to gipsies in hospitals and GP surgeries.
"He had tried to see his doctor in Wellingborough, Northants, only to be told that the first 'pre-bookable' appointment was in a month's time."
Scroll down's Littlejohn's 'Mail' article for section on:
-Martin McGuinness and Romanians.
Half these posts don’t even make sense!
pounce_uk – you’re saying that 90% of the British population can hide their skin colour – how on earth can ANYONE hide their skin colour?!?! (your post on 17 June)
David H – it’s people like you i.e. those who stereotype a whole society based on one experience that encourage racism and prejudice. Should you, as a British citizen, be seen as a Muslim terrorists just because there may be some such people in the country?
No matter what the Roma/Romanians did (pickpocketing, begging) it does NOT justify racist attacks on them. Instead society should want to help these people so that they do not need (or want) to go beg or steal. It’s worrying that some people seem to think that these attacks and attitudes can be justified.
Boy Blue (17 June) here’s an article in answer to your question
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7412123.stm
David Preiser – how do you know that these Roma are Catholic?? If you knew what you were talking about you’d know that Romanians are mostly Christian Orthodox (not Catholic) so if these Roma are from Romania –there’s more chance they are Orthodox. For information about religion, this is a reliable source:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/beliefs.htm#Religion
As someone who has lived in more than one country with large Roma populations I know how annoying they can be (begging etc) – however nothing justifies attacking them.
Whether the BBC call them Romanians or Roma isn't that important – these attacks were clearly racially motivated – whether the attackers were racist against Romanians or against Roma.