SOMETHING unpleasant is starting to happen to the independence debate. It’s changing and being shaped by the UK’s ugly, endless ‘culture wars’ – an interminably stupid phrase, up there with ‘woke’, but one which is laced with the fatal power to immediately kill off rational discussion and nuance. At the heart of all ‘culture wars’ in the West lie two issues: sex and race. Sex and gender have already fed into the independence question. The fall-out from the Salmond affair and the matter of trans rights firmly divided the Yes movement into two camps: progressive SNP and Greens, and socially conservative Alba supporters.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on Monday described the recently signed Migration and Mobility Partnership (MMP) with India as a new gold-standard for immigration, which will open up opportunities for thousands of British and Indian citizens to live a
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The UK government plans to reform the asylum system but the British Red Cross charity warns that a two-tier system risks being created that would see anyone arriving via a third country being held in reception centres, potentially for months.
Asylum seekers have to live in dirty and unsafe accommodation for lengthy periods while their claims are processed, according to the latest report on Britain s treatment of migrants.
The British Red Cross tells of accommodation so ramshackle that a roof collapsed and how migrants were forced to wear filthy clothing to keep warm.
The report follows a warning last week from the Refugee Council that asylum seekers face food shortages and racism in UK hotels, with one teenage boy needing hospital treatment because of the poor food provided.