A few days ago, I saw a post by the author Phil Tinline that really got me.
I had been drafting and deleting messages all week after Reform and, particularly, the Tories came out with their horrible policies – ones that could see our friends, neighbours, colleagues, and family members deported.
So many of my own friends would be affected by this. I know people that have been in the UK for decades and have spent that time contributing to our shared society, building lives, paying taxes, raising families. People we would all be poorer without.
When I read that, I thought: I could – and should – do something too.
So I built the app “Will the Tories/Reform deport you?” — partly because I could, and partly because I should.
I have the privilege of not being personally affected by these kinds of hateful, far-right pronouncements – rhetoric that’s edging further right than Idi Amin, but that privilege also comes with responsibility.
And partly, I built it out of frustration. The online right have become so nimble, so quick to spread hate, while those of us on the left and centre often hesitate, spending three paragraphs carefully crafting a response… by which time the right have already moved on to their next hated target.
I built it in about two hours.
Then I hesitated. I wondered if it was too on the nose, if it might upset people directly affected by such policies. But I did post it.
Thirty minutes later, Labour released a clunky statement that somehow managed to upset everyone while reassuring no one.
Then Phil got in touch. He reposted it, we spoke, and the next day he wrote an article in the New Statesman about the project.
He included this quote from someone who took the test – and it hit me hard:
“Just taken the test – I’m on the next boat out. (74 yrs old, worked as an educator, raised 3 children:1 teacher & 2 doctors all working in UK, volunteered all my life & excellent grasp of English)”
Maria Goretti
Reading that was difficult, and yet, that was Phil’s original point.
We need to understand the real-world outcomes of what these people are proposing. These aren’t just throwaway lines from a political class addicted to culture wars. This is serious, and it’s frightening.
Our elected leaders should be doing more to reject these ideas. But while they should, so should we.
We have to protect each other.
As I read this morning:
We protect each other, period. These are our neighbors, our friends, our family. We do the things we have to do to ensure that as many of us can make it to tomorrow as possible. Not everyone does. I need you to understand that we tried.
Dan Sinker
That’s it. That’s all there is to say.
We protect each other.