Interestingly, I posted my observation that, whenever there is a proliferation of anti-immigration posts on Social Media it almost always seems to be linked to the Government struggling in other fields. That went to the Politics forum, but this thread is far more political. I'd say, though, it needs to stay here.
Whilst the government stealthily move people's eyes to something that is, frankly, small fry the obvious dot-to-dot drawings from the hard of thinking is that "I got to pay for all these illegal immigrants". The other, illogical, conclusion is that "we should be housing our homeless ex-servicemen, not these 'scumbags'" - as if somehow the two causes are clashing.
"These scumbags are bringing covid to our country, it's costing us a fortune" is another conclusion that people are coming to.
The last time I saw so many facebook posts on this topic was when Cummings was caught out. They may not be directly drawing the lines, but the conclusions are naturally being jumped to by an ill-informed public who (basically) read no further than the headlines "We are in recession" "Boatloads crossing the channel".
I had an amusing coversation on facebook recently where my uncle said "You wouldn't be happy if they bought the house next to you" to someone he disagreed with. I pointed out an illegal immgrant can't, actually, buy a house. Nor can they claim benefits. His daughter then weighed in calling me a "stirrer", I said I was merely adding some facts in the hope it would calm people down from their hysteria. She then sent me a screenshot of her phone with the headline "85 out of 95 migrants had covid" and said "This is interesting reading, don't you think?". I read the article and it was about a boat that landed in Malta, not the UK. I pointed this out, and her reply was "I didn't read the article, I haven't got time or energy, I'm working hard to pay for all the migrants". She works in a hospital in Merthyr Tydfil and took the decision to unfriend me (no loss) when I said "Give my regards to the Sri Lankan Doctors and Filipino nurses when you bump into those migrants".
As for Lineker, good for him. It's appalling that we are called virtue signallers for merely having an opinion. The Ashfield MP has obviously been shit scared of Farage and has decided to join the crowd. This country is more divided than it ever has been, over an issue that is really, really small. Farage is a tosser of the highest order, but he also has a lot of money behind him. He's Nick Griffin with intelligence and money, and he is rousing the crowd who have little idea that they are being played.