"While accepting that David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary is, for many, the human embodiment of Marmite loved or hated, with not much in between one can still question whether, for all his faults, he should go home to the Caribbean. Whether you agree with him over this or that utterance or the broad sweep of government policy, he has, unquestionably made his contribution to Tottenham, in north London, whose people he has represented for a quarter of a century,"
"But then, in the year just past, when bigotry in frontline politics took off its training wheels and othering became the sport that everyone can play, the notion that someone who clearly belongs here should not belong here ceased to shock. Bad stuff happened in 2025. The big stuff you know: the violent, toxically nativist besieging of asylum seeker hotels and the condoning of it by rightwing politicians and media outlets."
David Lammy has represented Tottenham for a quarter of a century and served in senior government roles including foreign secretary and key portfolios. A lieutenant of Nigel Farage suggested Lammy should "go home to the Caribbean," a claim uncondemned by Reform. Bigotry in frontline politics intensified in 2025, making othering commonplace and eroding shock at exclusionary claims. Violent, nativist attacks targeted asylum seeker hotels and received explicit or implicit condoning from rightwing politicians and some media outlets. Hard-right activists deployed national flags as tools of intimidation. Individual incidents of racial abuse occurred in public, revealing emboldened hostility.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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