Noel Edmonds - How 'scarcity' easily leads to racism
Blobby Politics | 14.09.2008 10:59 | Climate Chaos | Repression | World
A horrible example of how a right-wing take on climate change, energy security etc. can foster reactionary mentalities instead of human-centered social change. It's bad enough that some green activists are abandoning an anti-capitalist ecology in favour of green capitalism based on the notion that anything that works is necessary given the likely timeframe of global warming. Worse would be a convergence of green politics and a support for the Tories based on a perceived 'better' green agenda. No doubt this will happen. Get ready!
voting Tory (as the greener party)
voting Tory (as the greener party)
LONDON (Reuters) - TV game show host Noel Edmonds has made controversial comments about immigration, saying there are too many migrants to Britain and they are draining national resources.
"We can all go down the pub and go, 'Oh it's terrible, all these immigrants.' But what are we going to do in Britain to change this toxic culture if we don't say, 'Enough is enough,'" the popular presenter told the News of the World on Sunday.
"I'm very straightforward on immigration. The bus is full," he said. "We haven't got enough energy, we haven't got enough electricity, we haven't got enough of a health service."
The comments by one of the country's most widely watched entertainers are likely to spark debate.
Britain has welcomed millions of new migrants to its shores in recent years, especially those from east European countries that are now members of the European Union.
The influx has given a substantial boost to the economy as new arrivals have taken on many of the undesirable jobs, often for low wages, that Britons generally no longer want to do.
But as the economy has slowed in the last year and the credit crisis has taken a toll, polls show most Britons think there are too many immigrants in the country and want to see new restrictions imposed on the influx.
A YouGov poll last week showed 57 percent of adults thought there should be less immigration.
Edmonds, 59, the host of popular game show Deal or No Deal, said he not only wanted to crack down on immigration, but on crime and youth violence, saying he would like to build more prisons and overhaul the police force.
"If I was prime minister for a day the first thing I would do would be to close the border. Then we could work out how many people we've got here.
"Then you get people out who have committed crimes and you look at others who shouldn't be here. Nobody knows how many people we've got here."
Edmonds denied there was any element of racism in his views, saying he just wanted to be straightforward about the numbers of immigrants and how an increase in people would lead to competition for scarce resources.
"Please be clear. I do not have an agenda that involves where people come from, the colour of their skin or what their religion is.
"But it is a fact that there is a finite number of people who can fit into a lift.
"This is an island and we have a situation now where we are going to run out of energy," said the personality, who once hosted a programme called Noel's House Party featuring an inflated pink character called Mr Blobby.
"We can all go down the pub and go, 'Oh it's terrible, all these immigrants.' But what are we going to do in Britain to change this toxic culture if we don't say, 'Enough is enough,'" the popular presenter told the News of the World on Sunday.
"I'm very straightforward on immigration. The bus is full," he said. "We haven't got enough energy, we haven't got enough electricity, we haven't got enough of a health service."
The comments by one of the country's most widely watched entertainers are likely to spark debate.
Britain has welcomed millions of new migrants to its shores in recent years, especially those from east European countries that are now members of the European Union.
The influx has given a substantial boost to the economy as new arrivals have taken on many of the undesirable jobs, often for low wages, that Britons generally no longer want to do.
But as the economy has slowed in the last year and the credit crisis has taken a toll, polls show most Britons think there are too many immigrants in the country and want to see new restrictions imposed on the influx.
A YouGov poll last week showed 57 percent of adults thought there should be less immigration.
Edmonds, 59, the host of popular game show Deal or No Deal, said he not only wanted to crack down on immigration, but on crime and youth violence, saying he would like to build more prisons and overhaul the police force.
"If I was prime minister for a day the first thing I would do would be to close the border. Then we could work out how many people we've got here.
"Then you get people out who have committed crimes and you look at others who shouldn't be here. Nobody knows how many people we've got here."
Edmonds denied there was any element of racism in his views, saying he just wanted to be straightforward about the numbers of immigrants and how an increase in people would lead to competition for scarce resources.
"Please be clear. I do not have an agenda that involves where people come from, the colour of their skin or what their religion is.
"But it is a fact that there is a finite number of people who can fit into a lift.
"This is an island and we have a situation now where we are going to run out of energy," said the personality, who once hosted a programme called Noel's House Party featuring an inflated pink character called Mr Blobby.
Blobby Politics
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
bullshit will get you killed
14.09.2008 11:46
creeping death
Immigration opinion does not make one racist
14.09.2008 12:16
Ruby
err hello? having so many of us in small places of the world?
14.09.2008 13:02
The UK once you take out the isle of Man and Channel islands doesn't even figure in the list of most densely populated administratives areas of the world. In fact the only European area to figure is the urban sprawl of "hospitalet" which is found between Barcelona and its airport. Here's the list
But if you want to bring "resources" into like Mr Edmonds did - then it's an idea to look at how much arable land is available for food here "List of countries by real population density (based on food growing capacity)" :
UK is ranked 74 and then wonder at the ability to bring food in. The UK really excels itself at its ability to bring food into its larder. There's enough land for food in global terms and enough land for wool in jumper terms. Yet people always go for the obese pictogram argument of a swollen Britain (see this illustration
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Can the world's population fit onto the Isle of Wight?
The Isle of Wight is 380 km squared. A kilometer is 1000 m X 1000 m or a million square meters. so the area would be 380 million square meters. The Earth's population is about 6,500 million people. You would need 17.1 people on each square meter to fit the world's population on the island. So it might have been true in 1965 or so, but probably not now without some people standing in orderly fashion in Hampshire. But allowing for population growth we have about another 5 centuries to go before the posher bits of England are full & the world's population would have to squeezing into Wales. They will have closed the border to Wales by then though.
∞ ≈ £
Well-considered opinions
15.09.2008 14:50
Who else dared to stand up to the menace of CAKE?
Chris Morris