The tweets weren't too bad in all fairness and were simply in relation to the new "points-based immigration" policy statement that the government has just put out. In particular with relation to an Independent article (in turn based on an LBC interview) where Home Secretary Priti Patel kind of admits that her own parents may not have been allowed into the country had this current policy been in place when they arrived.
(Sonic, in all good cinemas)
Independent: Home Secretary Priti Patel admits own parents may not have been allowed into UK under her new immigration laws
It's a bit of a gotcha moment and obviously people against these new policies have ran with it on Twitter. Going with the "ha, look how horrible and hypocritical she is" type vibe.
Personally I think this is just unfair and lazy. Obviously the circumstances are very different now to how things were back then. We've had a lot of immigration into the country over the last two decades, and many people are genuinely worried about our capacity to deal with it in the coming decades if it continues at this level. In fact, the current government were explicitly voted into power to implement this very legislation by the British public.
I also take issue with this type of argument because it is in itself quite a racist way of looking at things. It's basically saying "..but you're of Indian heritage yourself, how can YOU have these opinions". Essentially implying that because she has brown skin she must therefore have a certain viewpoint, and base all her own decisions and values upon that very fact.
Of course, I'm saying "racist" but that's not really accurate. The people making this argument aren't the slightest bit racist in any real sense, and it's unfair to so loosely apply that label. However, it is a thinking based upon race, or at the very least cultural heritage, and it does betray a bias in thinking on the part of the people making this point.
The vast majority of Tory or Brexit voters simply see Priti Patel as a Tory politician, but people on the other side of the fence don't see her like that. They don't see her as just another nasty Tory, but as a brown person who's saying things that black and brown people normally don't say in their stereotyped worldview. So we get this condescending "..but your own poor little ancestors wouldn't even be in this country!". As if her parents themselves were needy and helpless. As all non-white people are in their "progressive" system of placing people according to "type".
Again, I'm being unfair in accusing people of actual racism, as all these people are absolutely well-meaning and believe whole-heartedly that they are doing what is good. Likewise they do have genuine fears that there are actual racists on the other side of the argument, and it's only fair of course to remind ourselves that there are some real genuine racists out there.
Generally speaking though Britain is most definitely not a racist a country. We wouldn't have a child of immigrants running the Home Office if it was.
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