Slightly off topic sorry but I’ve been looking at what is happening in the US, ( can’t think why) and this is exactly what happens there, albeit on a much larger scale. Big business getting huge government payouts (Musk for example or Panasonic) for their own investment, that the tax payer pays off through energy bills, taxes or whatever etc.
And we ask why we’re skint?
Hmm where’s Andy Burnham on this?
His hypocrisy is staggering.
The dreaded laces heading straight for someone’s forehead :0)
Yeah, I read what he said and in which context he said it, and find the outrage manufactured. Surely, he is well within the realms of civil opinion to say what he did ?
It’s not as if what he said was particularly controversial. If what he said is “wrong”, if people cannot even tolerate that someone says that you cannot have an economy so and so and at the same time have the high number of immigrants etc. And that this would in practice be some sort of self colonisation. That is a legitimate political opinion surely ?
Because if that is unaccetable (why should it be?), then meet Reform’s non-civil immigration criticism.
PR is amusing though. You cannot ruffle even one feather. So he was probably silly being honest.
Anyway, there is no “hate speech” here:
Imo, if one cannot tolerate such an exchange of words and opinions in the immigration debate, then you have lost, as the outrage will in time be counter productive and usher in Reform with a far more damning rethoric that does not focus on the economy but on culture. It’s always better when such debates circle around the economy as regard to the far more explosive cultural bracket.
I do like his classic non-apology, ‘sorry that his language offended some people’
I am happy we are not being fronted by a bussinessman with those opinions, but I also see them as essentially in the category of “unproblematic”. We are used to way worse than this these days.
Really?
The UK has not, by any measure, been ‘colonised by immigrants’. It’s dangerous, racist, rhetoric and should be the cause of outrage.
That’s before we even get to the subject of Sir Jim’s patriotic tax affairs and his begging bile approach to tax payers money.
Hate speech? Probably not, but colouring close to the lines. Empirically wildly wrong, the numbers he uses are nowhere close to reality. But it is the glaring hypocrisy of a tax emigre lamenting what immigrants are costing the society he has decided to step away from to maximize his wealth that really stands out.
But isn’t it clear that he is talking about the economy (i.e. danger of too high immigration versus how many you can integrate) and not “racial replacement”; because I see no hint of the racial replacement thing ?
Despite the rivalry between the clubs, United fans and decent people. I don’t think they will want to hear this kind of racist rhetoric from their owner, and I hope there is some reaction. There would be at Liverpool.
K. I don’t think it was racist. But ok. I think it’s an extremely strong statement to label it racist if I am frank.
‘Colonized’ is not a particularly neutral word to use for population growth due to immigration. Canada has seen significantly higher immigration levels recently, and there is discussion of some of the problems linked to that - but colonization would be a career-ending term to use.
He said the UK had been ‘colonised’. I’m really sure the language could be any clearer.
But even if we take the more charitable view and assume Sir Jim is concerned about the effects on the economy, he is doing so as a tax exile who lives in Monaco so he doesn’t have to contribe to the UK, and he seems to think the UK tax payer has a duty to foot the bill for his various business ventures.
It’s either racist and divisive, or hypocritical and tone deaf. I’d go with both personally.
It’s certainly hypocritical, tone deaf and divisive.
Maybe it is racist too. I am not sure about that though.
It was factually incorrect in terms of figures.
“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he said. "I mean, the UK has been colonised. It’s costing too much money.
“The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn’t it? I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million. That’s 12 million people.”
That’s what he said. I am not sure it is really all that terrible. I wish the conversation had been longer with questions and more clarifications of opinion. Maybe the use of the word “colonise” is automatic red card, maybe. It is certainly a vulgar use of language, not technical and an exaggeration.
To say it anywhere is plain wrong. To say it as the part owner of Manchester Utd shows a startling insensitivity to the racial demographics of the city and the fanbase. Once again he’s proved he’s an ass.
Yes, but that’s about the wisdom of it and public relations. I am more interested in how awful or not this is as political rethoric in 2026. Perhaps the use of the word colonise alone is too loaded and could be correctly viewed as racist, but I am not sure I would like the space to be so narrow in terms of freedom of speech.
He is reinforcing long-standing racist stereotypes.
“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he said. "I mean, the UK has been colonised. It’s costing too much money.
This is a racist trope that immigrants come to the UK and live off the state. They don’t. Typically you are talking about young people who come here and work and have a minimal impact on public services. He says this even more explicitly:
“But you’ve got all the same issues with the country. If you really want to deal with the major issues of immigration, with people opting to take benefits rather than working for a living, if you want to deal with that, then you’re going to have to do some things which are unpopular, and show some courage.”
As I posted earlier, Ratcliffe himself has constantly taken huge handouts from the taxpayer without paying a penny in tax himself.
Frankly, billionaires like Ratcliffe are parasites. They asset strip companies, ship their ill-gotten gains overseas, and expect the state to pick up their mess. His blatant racist wolf-whistling is simply a ploy for people to look the other way.
