Friday 28 October 2016

Lily Allen compares refugee crisis to Nazi propaganda

Lily Allen

Lily Allen compares the current refugee crisis to Hitler's Nazi propaganda.

Allen, 31, slammed the press for criticising her after she visited a 13-year-old Afghan boy at the Jungle camp and apologised to him on behalf of the UK for his situation.

The singer – who previously said she would take in child refugees – said she does not question the right of migrants to come to the UK because she wants to be "on the right side of history".

Writing for Vice, she said: "From a very early age we were taught about the Second World War and how evil Hitler was. You always wonder how he managed to get the whole country to go along with that.

"Now we're seeing it. But I don't want to be a good German. I want to be on the right side of history." The mother-of-two suggested the press has an ulterior motive when reporting on the migrant crisis and claimed media outlets are being "aided by the Home Office" to whip up propaganda and make people "less trusting" of refugees.

She wrote: "The furore about whether or not some refugees may have lied about their ages is not really about whether these refugees can enter the country.

"It's about creating the narrative that people trying to come here aren't asking for our help, but trying to dupe us, take advantage of the system.

"The hope is that this will make us less trusting of them next time round."

Writing about the arguments over age checks on older Calais migrants who could be posing as children she said: "The tabloids have been aided by the Home Office. There are much younger unaccompanied children who still haven't been processed – so why did the UK take in a tiny group of older male teenagers first?

"Doing that doesn't really help the plight of the refugees, but it does push the agenda of the tabloids."

Her comments were branded "crass" and "deeply ignorant" by Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, who called on her to learn "common sense".

Pollard said: "If Lily Allen thinks those Brits who have concerns about some of the refugees in Calais are the same as Germans who stood by while Hitler attempted to exterminate an entire race then she needs to learn some basic common sense, as well as apologise for a crass and deeply ignorant comment."

The Smile singer previously told LBC that she understands why people are outraged by immigration.

Speaking to James O’Brien she said: "I don't berate those people for having this kind of opinion, they're being fed a lie by the media.

"There are desperate people in this country, but it's not refugees that are the problem, it's this government."


SHARE THIS

Author:

Etiam at libero iaculis, mollis justo non, blandit augue. Vestibulum sit amet sodales est, a lacinia ex. Suspendisse vel enim sagittis, volutpat sem eget, condimentum sem.

0 comments: