The UK’s hostile environment is spreading. Just days ago, the country was downgraded in an annual global index of civic freedoms, as a result of the government’s “increasingly authoritarian” approach towards bodies that speak out against policies on anti-racism, refugee and asylum seeker rights, and the climate crisis. The Tory obsession with immigration in general, and lately small boats in particular, has become a gateway for even wider oppression.
The Gary Lineker affair seemed like a victory, but really it was a warning. He is reinstalled, the BBC is cowed, and the Conservatives are nursing a bloody nose having lost this round in the culture war. But all it illustrated was the strength of the chokehold the right has on our ability to speak against its agenda without vilification. When significant resources are directed towards scapegoating and punishing those whose rights have been taken away by a government, the result is a country where everyone’s rights are by extension removed. Disagreement is turned at once into dissidence.
