We need a fair and controlled Australian style pointsbased immigration system.
that a Labour Party government would vastly increase immigration (“uncontrolled”, “unlimited”). The formulation of a “huge pressure” on housing and public services implies that immigrants are a danger that weighs down the social system. Immigrants are constructed as outsiders who only have a negative function and threaten the nation’s welfare and social cohesion. It is not mentioned that they also pay taxes, pay for housing, etc. The NHS wouldn’t exist without immigrant nurses and doctors because there is a shortage of both. The friend/enemy-scheme here plays the ideological role of distracting attention from the neoliberal politics of Thatcher, the Conservatives, and New Labour whose austerity politics have limited and cut investments into public services and have resulted in various privatisations, including of council housing. Johnson promises tough immigration laws in the form of an “Australian-style points-based system”.
The friend/enemy-scheme not just takes on the form of racism and xenophobia, but is frequently also expressed as the scapegoating of political opposition and investigative media. Figure 4.4 shows an example.
In his ideological logic, Trump identifies himself with the US people. It is a frequent claim of populists that they alone authentically and absolutely Represent the people and the nation. Based on this logic criticism of Trump is presented as anti-American and directed against the American people. Trump, therefore, presents media that have reported critically about him, namely New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN, as “the enemy of the American People!”.
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Theorists
Boris Johnson @BorisJohnson