The Asylum Lottery

It's been a couple of days since the rational and fair-minded Daily Mail has had a story on asylum/immigration but it comes up trumps today. It has chanced upon one of its favourite themes - wasting of lottery funds on foreign projects. The gist of the story is that a grant of over £400,000 has been given to an organisation to help successful asylum seekers claim welfare benefits. Unfortunately in DM Land, asylum and immigration are often confused into one.

Now, there can be a debate as to what the Lotto Good Causes Fund should be used for. We often see local projects which, on the face of it, seem to be suitable but are turned down. There is also the argument that such help should be funded from taxation. The Mail, however, does not seek to debate, merely to inflame hate.

There is also the rules that do not allow asylum seekers to work immediately. We have the potential of many doctors, teachers and business managers being wasted. The tone suggests that all those needing help are not literate. This need not be so. The Social Security legislation and process is very complex and ever changing. Having represented people at appeals tribunals I am fully aware of this. Also, lawyers specialising in other areas have little or no understanding. Many organisations that help people on welfare are voluntary bodies.

The DM bigots (as can be seen by the usual moronic comments) fail to understand that as signatories to the 1951 Geneva Convention on Asylum, we have a duty to these people. Don't forget this money is being utilised to help those that have convinced the authorities they are genuine. You can imagine how greater the furore would be if the money was to aid failed applicants.

Furthermore, we should remember the circumstances that brought this about. There was a collective guilt at the lack of provision given to those fleeing Nazi persecution. How often do we see the dead of WWII invoked to support an argument for increasing pensions or better health care. The irony is not lost. Take, for instance, our friend from Leeds :

They shouldn't be here, they shouldn't be getting benefits and we shouldn't be going out of our way to make sure they get them! Somebody PLEASE sort this mess out. Millions of men died in the two world wars and for what?-
Adam, Leeds, UK

Again I say to people in Leeds, if you see this cretin, point at him and laugh. He is a waste of air.
Compassion is alive and well and living in Hartlepool:
The lottery fund is supposed to be given to "good causes" sorry but helping asylum seekers to claim benefits is not a "good cause", most of them are only in this country to claim benefits that other countries they have had to pass through to get here would not give them.- John, Hartlepool

Given that the town became famous for the myth of a monkey being hanged because they thought it was a Frenchman, one wonders if there is any truth in it.

The actual article also quotes Ruth Levy of the Centre For Policy Studies. This is a right-wing think tank set up by Keith Joseph, the mad Tory MP whose prodigy was Margaret Hilda Thatcher. No mention is made of this. Most DM readers would be unaware of this and so give more credibility to the view as if it were independent. At least when Andrew Green of Migrationwatch is quoted it is more likely that people will realise he has an axe to grind.

The article also churns up previous misdemeanours. "In recent years, The Big Lottery Fund has handed out hundreds of thousands of pounds to help battered wives in Siberia and to a pressure group for prostitutes."

This is an interesting juxtaposition. Obviously no normal person would want to give money to help victims of violence or the oldest profession. I wonder how any mail readers actually use sex workers' services. Many are from Eastern Europe and are forced into this due to the pressures of the asylum process. Many are subject to assaults. Nothing to do with us, implies the DM, charity begins at home.
Of course this is the paper that employs Richard Littlejohn who said after the murder of Ipswich prostitutes, that they were "disgusting, drug-addled street whores" and their deaths were "no great loss". He added that for prostitutes, being murdered is "an occupational hazard" stemming from their own "free choice". Not a surprise is it?

Is it April 1st?- Peter Pan, Great Britain
Says the man with the made up name!

There is a ground swell of opinion that says we don't want any more asylum seekers until we have assimilated the present lot.Lottery money seems to be given to anything that seems too stupid for the Government to fund.Anything that stupid does not deserve funding.We have thousands of old people and disabled who would welcome funding, but don't get it, and what about the armed forces, I'm sure lottery funding would be welcome. It seems to be the criteria for Lottery money that the recipients have to come from an ethnic minority or outside the country altogether.- John Sizeland, Eccles on sea, Norfolk, England

You get the impression that Mr Sizeland could go on at length at this. Maybe he should get a blog. Or a brain. I am a nice person, really. If you meet me you'd be charmed I'm sure. I do not suffer fools gladly so I tend to vent my spleen at these people.

Whatever you call the fund the money is still being thrown away. Sack the lot of them and bring in Richard Branson in to run it- Roy Pedersen, Worcester , England

This used to be a standard answer to any question about improving everything in the UK, education, health, English football. 'If only Branson were running it....blah blah.' I'm sure that Mr B will be horrified to see some of his fans. There was the suggestion that the people could tick boxes as to where the money went. If this happens I will get a job in a newsagents and alter any DM buying lotto player's form to note asylum causes.

Simple answer: stop playing Lotto.- Jim, Sutton, England
from a simple guy.

The lottery should be for the benefit of needy British people only. The foreigners and scroungers get enough already...- Mark, Chorley, Lancs

I worked for a short time helping the 'needy' of Chorley. I now wonder if Mark was one.

What an insult to the people of this country! The money should be used to send them back!- J, cambs

Yet again the indigenous population who have worked hard and contributed for years are raped of their taxes, national insurance contributions, local services and the right to retire without working to the grave so that it can be given to those who haven't (and won't!).But hang on... think about it. After all, several million migrants can't be wrong can they - perhaps those indigenous ones of us who do contribute should follow their lead and migrate ourselves, taking our money and contributions with us. Our skills are highly sought and we are respected more elsewhere than in what used to be our own country. Now, where's that light switch?- Frank, Solihull, West Midlands

Frank has been reading my comments about light switches again. Note this idiot's use of the word raped.

Finally, the photograph also serves a purpose. It does not seem to be taken outside a DSS office but perhaps a detention centre. It is to give the impression of a long queue for the easy to get hand outs.