Farage’s contemptible attack on Glesca weans

Nigel Farage has been a racist bully again. But don’t worry, he’s only doing it indirectly and without intent to offend or insult. So that’s OK then. Just days after the Scottish Languages Act came into force the English nationalist golf club boor has taken aim at school children in Glasgow. Apparently it’s the “cultural smashing” of Glasgow that one third of primary school pupils in the city are bilingual. For God’s sake no one tell him about Gaelic and Scots. The actual percentage is 28.8%, somewhat less than a third.

Farage and his followers have now gone very far beyond “legitimate concerns about illegal immigration” and have turned their bilious gaze onto people who not only obeyed all the relevant laws and arrived and settled in the UK via legally recognised routes, but who are in addition assimilating into the local community and sending their children to schools where they will receive the same education in the same language as children whose families have been established and settled in Glasgow for generations. It’s a new low from Farage who has made a career out of racist shit-stirring under the guise of “I’m only asking questions.” If you feel threatened by children you are a deeply insecure and fragile individual.

Farage is due to visit Scotland this weekend to attend a Reform UK rally in Falkirk, near the scene of the racist protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers where he will again no doubt “just ask questions.” Questions which will have the effect of inflaming tensions and dividing the local community, but for all his denials and faux innocence, Farage knows exactly what he’s doing, and the BBC will platform him while he’s doing it.

This is what happens when the first expressions of racism, or any other form of bigotry and intolerance, are not stamped on immediately. The racists become emboldened and push the envelope of hatred even further. With this latest comment, Farage is no longer talking about “young men of fighting age” who have crossed the English Channel in small boats. He’s talking about children who were born in and are being brought up in Glasgow. He’s talking about Glesca weans.

The loaded phrase “young men of fighting age” which the far right bandy about so often in connection with refugees and asylum seekers is itself not merely a dog whistle to racists, it’s a fog horn. Why not “young men of working age?” The terminology used by the far right is designed to spread fear and suspicion and to cultivate the idea that asylum seekers represent a violent threat, that they represent a hostile foreign invasion of British streets and towns. “Young men of working age” would foster the idea that refugees and asylum seekers can make a positive contribution to society, which in fact the great majority of them do. But the far right cannot countenance the idea that immigrants can and do create an economic and social benefit.

Neither can Farage and his ilk accept the idea that bilingualism is a good thing. What exactly is his problem that under a third of kids entering school in Glasgow come from households where a language other than English is spoken? These children very quickly attain native speaker fluency in both Scottish English and the Glasgow dialect of Scots. They do not form a cohesive block of ‘foreignness’ which impedes the educational prospects of their classmates who come from households where Scottish English and the Glasgow dialect of Scots are spoken.

Children from households where a language other than English is spoken represent dozens of different language backgrounds, naturally they will gravitate towards Scottish English and the Glasgow dialect of Scots as the common tongues with which to communicate with the kids they play and socialise with. That’s how language acquisition works. But that would get in the way of Farage’s divisive rabble rousing. I’ll bet not too many of those Glasgow school kids sidle up to their Jewish classmates making “sssssssssss” sounds to impersonate the gas chambers that killed their families, as Nigel Farage allegedly did when he was at school. He would probably assert he was demonstrating bilingualism.

Farage and other Anglo-British nationalists reject any notion that bilingualism is good for a child’s mental, educational, and social development and good for society as a whole. They are equally hostile to Gaelic and Scots in Scotland and to Welsh in Wales. They stand for English supremacism and shouting at foreigners slowly.

Like the recent demonstrations in Glasgow against English language classes in a primary school for the mothers of pupils from homes where English is not spoken, this kind of attack on children who are for the most part attending English medium schools – although some will attend Glasgow’s five Gaelic medium schools – proves beyond any doubt that despite their protestations to the contrary, Reform UK and its supporters do not care about integration. If you object to immigrants who don’t integrate, and you object to immigrants who do integrate, you have an objection to immigrants no matter what they do, and that just makes you a nasty small minded racist. We need to stop beating about the bush and being afraid to call racism and bigotry out for what they are.

What Farage has been saying is profoundly anti-Scottish. The genius of Scottish culture down the centuries is that we accept people into Scotland and make them our own. But then Farage is equally hostile to manifestations of Scottish culture and identity. His comments about Glasgow school weans are a very bold move from a guy who’s too feart to show his gurning face in the city. Glasgow is proudly welcoming, the antithesis of Farage and all he stands for.

Of course, what Farage doesn’t say is that the reason there are so many children that speak a second language is because Glasgow was the only city in Scotland to take part in the Home Office relocation scheme. Farage ought to know this as he’s an MP. But that didn’t stop him from blaming the SNP. Farage has picked up a statistic that probably looks at English as an Additional Language as a general categorisation of children in Glasgow schools. This is fundamentally flawed as a genuine measure of language proficiency. But it gets worse. Farage claims this statistic applies to Scottish schools. It doesn’t. He said one third of kids in Scotish schools have English as an Additional Language. That’s a lie. He probably knew that too, the true percentage of kids in Scottish schools with English as an Additional Language is considerably smaller. Farage’s latest remarks are simply more racist pot stirring and contemptible scaremongering.

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