Some thoughts on immigration controls.

I used to think the world would eventually grow to be a more tolerant place. Now I see things closing up more and more. Those who don't like what people say, or the opinions they express, or the policies they put forward, feel free to tweet the nastiest abuse. When did it become acceptable to be so rude and aggressive? Is it no longer possible to express your disagreement without sounding as if you want to do serious harm to the person whose ideas offend you?

On governmental levels we have President Trump rescinding DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme – which allows undocumented migrants who came to the US as children (the so-called Dreamers). Did he do this because it was an Obama initiative or because he really doesn't like immigrants?

Whatever the motivation, imagine having grown up and gone to school in the USA, coming to think of it as your country, playing taxes and contributing to society, only to find suddenly that they want to send you "back" to a country you don't remember and where you won't know how the society works. 

And now we have a leaked document about our government's proposals for how to control immigration. Here's a link to Jonathan Freedland's article on this topic.

Somebody I have never heard of called Stormzy has said that Theresa May is a "paigon", something else I have never heard of. So I googled "paigon" and found this:

"paigon - friend that lies betrays and isnt true to u

drini: u wana cum cinema
dina: na i woz feelin sik all week includin toai so am stayin home
drini: k den

- hour later drini is walkin to the cinemas - drini see's dina in the near by shop wiv sum of her frenz

drini thinks omg wot a PAIGON SHE LIED TO ME DAT BITCH"

I also looked up Stormzy and found this:

"Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo, Jr. (born 26 July 1993), better known by his stage name Stormzy, is an English grime and hiphop artist. He won Best Grime Act at the 2014 and 2015 MOBO Awards and was named as an artist to look out for in the BBC's influential Sound of 2015 list."

Not someone I was likely to have listened to then.

He made his comment as he received an award at GQ Men of the Year presentations. The news item about him went on to say:

"The epithet is popular among black Londoners and generally used to describe untrustworthy individuals; Stormzy’s fellow Mercury prize nominee J Hus had an underground hit with the scornful Dem Boy Paigon, for example. The word confused some in the audience though, with the Telegraph quoting Stormzy as calling the prime minister a “pagan” and Alastair Campbell tweeting that he’d said “pig”. Campbell later apologised, saying it was “good to learn new words.”"

Nice to know I am not the only one thoroughly out of touch with the jargon!