Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the chemical tycoon, billionaire, Manchester United co-owner and one of the wealthiest people supposedly in Britain, is under fire after saying Britain has been ‘colonised' by immigrants.
As he put it:
You can't afford … you can't have an economy with 9 million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in. The UK is being colonised by immigrants, really, isn't it?
Three things.
First, Ratcliffe left Britain some time ago. He lives as a tax exile and migrant in Monaco. The irony of that should not be ignored. Apparently, the rich can be mobile. No one else may be.
Second, if there are nine million people in the UK on benefits, it is because of the massive wealth inequality in the UK. Ratcliffe has created this problem. He could call for higher taxation to help solve it.
Third, I wonder how many of those Ratcliffe is abusing support Manchester United, and how many around the world will be alienated from doing so as a result of his racist comment? This feels like a Gerald Ratner moment.
Ratcliffe reveals his staggering level of indifference, naivete or stupidity with these comments.
For once, Starmer made the right reaction. Farage could not help but jump in with his own vile comment, based on the politics of hate, division and racism, which he has made his only speciality:
We need a politics for people, based on a politics of care, to fund the future.
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All true what you say but it is also true that his opinion is shared by a very large proportion of the Country. You have to move on for calling every comment about immigration “racist” if there is to be proper discussion on the subject
It is racist.
There is no issue to discuss
Why do you think there is?
And when is the concern greatest where there are fewest migrants?
His do you think the country could survive without them?
No you don’t.
People who are anti-immigration are, without exception, racist.
Many of them start a comment with
‘I’m not racist, but…’
The world we live in has been built on immigration for hundreds of years.
Where does one start with such offensiveness? First of all, I’m Irish, so an immigrant, and I’m embarrassed and ashamed to support the club he has a stake in. Then there is the number of immigrants who play for the first team, as well as the many in the club’s other male and female teams, and the academy system. Nine million on benefits also includes the many who work but don’t earn enough to survive without the benefits they are entitled to. And, as many have pointed out, the UK population in 2020 was 67m, not 58m. He’s also looking for government money to regenerate the area around the new stadium, which a lot of fans say is not necessary anyway.
All to agree with.
4th. He either lied or fabricated the population statistics to make it appear that Britain is experiencing massive growth in the population. He claimed that in 2020 there were 58 million people in the UK and now it’s 70 million. It’s easily enough to google but what he said is a lie. A racist lie.
And if he lied about that why should we even listen to him?
And if he lives in Monaco, how would he know? Unless of course he migrates himself. One rule for the elite, destruction for everyone else.
Leave our democracy alone.
So angry.
There were 67 million people here in 2020.
Yet another example of the fact that being rich turns many people into horrible hypocrites, peddling lies to the gullible poor who created their ‘wealth’ in the first place. Why does anyone look up to such miserable people?
Lennon had it right way back in 1971 https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=gimme+some+truth+lennon&&mid=22658CC632F16104B13522658CC632F16104B135&mcid=59690F575FCD43AB9362694D22A9BAA4&FORM=VAMGZC
Agreed
I was raging when I saw this yesterday, raging.
Such lazy generalisations and disgusting remarks. Some people get lucky, get rich. And being rich begets being richer.
These Ratcliffe types are so out of touch – my hope is that eventually, people boycott their products and their business suffer. Probably never happen, but…
And what of the reporter? No challenge whatsover to the comments.
Slightly off tangent – be very interesting what happens in the court case of Prince William vs The Daily Mail… Leveson 2 needs to happen.
Ratcliffe was already toxic in Scotland for partnering with the Chinese to run the Grangemouth refinery into the ground. He, like Farage, has no interest in the little people he exploits other than as tools to increase their obscene wealth, is Ratcliffe’s case now safely tucked away in Monaco. His attitude to Manchester United has simply reinforced this impression of self-righteous indifference to others. Like all the other wealthy economic migrants he reeks of hypocrisy.
The only thing Sky questioned was use of the word “colonisation” and they specifically agreed that migrants use up resources.
Looking up one of the many football stats websites, the current male Manchester United squad has 19 out of 26 non-british players (73%).
As I thought