The Xenophobic Response to the Liverpool Attack - Boris Allows It.

 On the 14th September, a taxi pulled up outside of Liverpool Women's Hospital and exploded. One person died during the attack, and the driver of the taxi was injured. 

As of today, three arrests have been made in correlation with the incident, which has been cited as a potential act of terrorism - the arrested people were men aged 29, 26 and 21 according to Sky News. 

Rumours have quickly begun to spread like wildfire, with some claiming that the taxi driver, upon realising that the passenger was wearing a bomb, locked himself in with the attacker at great risk to his own life to prevent him from heading towards the hospital. 

Though arrests have been made, it has not been fully ascertained whether this was an act of terrorism at this time, with the police declaring at 10.59am that "it has not been declared a terrorist incident at this stage", with the counter-terrorist officers being deployed as a safety measure and no further statement being made as of yet. 

One Kensington resident, aged 21, said to a reporter, "They grabbed two men and handcuffed them behind their backs. One looked Iranian."

And here lies our greatest issue with the way the tragedy has been reported at Girls Like You. It goes without saying that the incident is tragic and the loss of life is harrowing to contemplate. 

But this horrific event has exposed the tender and ever-present veins of xenophobia that run through our country, with people jumping on the race or ethnicity of the perpetrator before the attack has even been officially confirmed as a terrorist act. 

Boris Johnson posted on Facebook "My thoughts are with all those affected by the awful incident in Liverpool today. I want to thank the emergency services for their quick response and professionalism, and the police for their ongoing work on the investigation." 

Now, love him or hate him, this post is innocuous enough, but a look into the comment section reveals exactly the kind of people that his supporters really are. 

Jennifer Larner commented, "We are at war, they are murdering us and our government are giving them houses, money and mobile phones". Her comment got 164 likes at the time of writing.

I would hope that the typical reader of Girls Like You would understand instantly just how ignorant this comment truly is, but just a brief explanation for any Tories reading this: 

1) There are enough houses in Britain for everybody to have a place to live, regardless of their migration status. In residing here, migrants are taking nothing from us. There are enough empty houses in Britain to end 72% of the housing crisis - and that's without factoring in new builds and subdivisions.

2) The percentage of migrants in receipt of benefits in the UK is far lower than people like the lovely Jennifer may believe. According to the DWP itself, only 7.2% of benefits claimants are non-UK nationals. 

In their 2016 report, they say, "Non UK nationals at the point of NINo registration are much less likely to be receiving key DWP out-of-work-benefits than UK nationals." They are also no more or less likely to be out of work than UK nationals.

In short, the idea of 'foreigners taking our jobs/benefits' is just a very bigoted myth that does a disservice to the beautiful people who have moved to England from elsewhere and who work tirelessly in our public sector. 

So our take? Mourn the victims of the attack in Liverpool today. But don't use it as an excuse to be a racist piece of shit. 

Written by Jasmine Lowen.