Now racists turn on white foreigners

For many years xenophobia-which is a dislike of foreigners- was almost always the exclusive preserve for targeting those who are non white- even if they were not foreigners. Not anymore.

The post Brexit climate across the UK has let out a poisoned bigoted genie who’ll not be returned anytime soon.

Yesterday whilst on LBC’ James O’Brian programme, a distressed caller phoned in to highlight the abuse she had received since the election day.

The caller who was a German woman who has lived in the UK for 43 years broke down as she told how she is now "living in fear over race hate" since the Brexit vote.

In the distressing phone call which will shock, she explained how she is "so scared" and now "frightened" to leave her home - and has even been "told to go home" to Germany.

Karen - a widower who was married to a GP - says that since the UK voted to leave the EU, she has had dog excrement thrown at her house and that neighbours have said they can no longer be friends with her.

She told the phone-in with presenter James O'Brien:

I came from Germany in 1973, my late husband was British. I have lived here for 43 years and I'm so scared now.

Friends of mine say they can't be friends with me any more. I'm so frightened.

I got dog poo thrown at my door on Friday. I've been told to go back home. I've got nobody in Germany.

I've phoned up the Citizens Advice Bureau and they told me I have to understand that people are frustrated.

I'm so, so scared. I haven't been out of the house for three days because I don't know what to do."

Karen added that she is middle class and it is "middle-class pensioners" who are targeting her.

Karen also claims - in the audio above - a friend's seven-year-old grandson has been beaten up "for having a foreign grandmother".

I'm so scared because I don't know what is going to happen next.

I never had any problems. I don't understand what is going on. I'm so sorry I don't want to be hysterical."

Shocked and stunned in the studio with O’Brien my first thoughts were that she needs help. I argued:

She needs support, she needs the authorities to ensure that she can be safe and feel safe in this country... because she and others deserve better having lived here, worked here and loved our country.

It breaks my heart to hear her being subject to this level of nasty." "They -Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, -they've normalised this. And this is how it's translating. Fifty years we've fought for race equality.”

In another turn for the worse school teachers seeing 11year old children using the jingoist, and bigoted rhetoric used by some Brexiters stating that, “We want our country back, now all foreigners should go home.”

http://www.lbc.co.uk/im-so-scared-now-german-woman

Simon Woolley