When You Think Your Racism Is Too Subtle, Go Full Wanker
By 
Yesterday morning, Nigel Farage launched a new front in the final week of campaigning for Brexit, based on the image above. I’ll let this HuffPo article draw the obvious historical comparisons. The photo, taken in October 2015,
“shows some of the 47,000 refugees said to have entered Slovenia from Croatia in just a few days after Hungary closed its border to them. That in turn saw Croatia direct them to Slovenia which is part of the European Union’s open border Schengen Area.”
Also note how they airbrushed out the lone white guy in the picture. Classy.
In addition to the nod to earlier forms of propaganda, I have two thoughts on this. First is the economical relationship with the truth that has typified the Leave campaign. Ah, screw that careful wording. The leave campaign is explicitly lying, and getting away with it. In this case, it’s an implied lie, but a lie nonetheless. The UK is not a member of the Schengen Area. Yes, due to free movement of labor, EU citizens have the right to live and work in the United Kingdom. However, just because somebody gets into “Europe” through Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, or France, it doesn’t mean that they can automagically walk into Britain. First, there’s that English Channel thing, stopping invaders since 1066 (or 1688, depending on how you interpret the history). Second, when entering the UK (unless you’re entering from Ireland, which is also outside of the Schengen Area) everybody is greeted with this:
Your passport doesn’t matter — British, Irish, American, Syrian, you get to stand in a queue. If you don’t hold an EU passport, your queue takes longer to process. If you’re in this slow queue and you don’t have a visa, you get grilled. I had an American friend fly to Britain three summers ago to visit. The flight was long and she was exhausted by the time she arrived at T4. I waited for her to appear at international arrivals, but she never showed up. Then I heard my name called over the loudspeaker. Even through she was in possession of a return ticket, UK Border Control would not let her enter the country without interviewing me first. She was a white American woman. I’m guessing it’s significantly more difficult for non-whites who don’t speak much English.
The other thought is about timing. As in very bad timing for Mr. Farage. Jo Cox spent her sadly truncated career as an MP in part focusing on the plight of refugees:
“She set up a parliamentary group on Syria and staged Commons debates on the plight of the refugees. She argued forcefully that the UK Government should be doing more both to help the victims and use its influence abroad to bring an end to the Syrian conflict.”
I hope that Farage feels like a dick right now.
