The home secretary, Suella Braverman, has described rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice” while defending her decision to restrict the use of tents by homeless people on the streets of Britain.

According to Whitehall insiders, Braverman plans to crack down on tents that cause a nuisance in urban areas such as high streets – amid growing numbers of rough sleepers and what the government considers a rise in antisocial behaviour.

The home secretary has also proposed the introduction of a civil offence, which could lead to charities being fined if they provide homeless people with tents, the Financial Times reported.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Braverman defended her proposals, saying: “The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.

“Unless we step in now to stop this, British cities will go the way of places in the US like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug-taking, and squalor.

  • 01011@monero.town
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    1 year ago

    The UK has one of the most vile governments in the industrialized world.

    • Striker@lemmy.worldOP
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      Yeah. The fact that so many people are ok with this mask off cruelty is astonishing. No one sees the connection between the cost of living and sky high rents leading to an increase in homelessness. No one sees until they are on the streets themselves.

      • Endorkend@kbin.social
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        It’s a worldwide phenomenon unfortunately.

        A bunch of populist shite riling up the masses against people that have it even worse than them, to take away any and all focus from the people that are actually causing all these issues.

      • MrNesser@lemmy.world
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        Most people are NOT ok with this. The problem is we have no way to remove the vile cow until a GE.

        Sunak is so weak he has to keep her in place to shore up support anyone else would have got rid of her already.

        • VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world
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          Try living in NI and no matter who you vote for in a GE makes fuck all of a difference. In fact even the MPs that do get voted into Westminster can be told to do one and laws can be passed affecting us without our representatives agreeing to it. See the troubles legacy bill which had no support in NI from either community but was passed regardless.

        • Striker@lemmy.worldOP
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          If most people are not ok with this then explain why the tories have such a death grip on the electorate. Most people in the UK will just shrug their shoulders few will actually have the balls to say they support this. These same people are outraged with Corbyn doesn’t sing God save the queen but are alright with literally making giving homeless people tents illegal. Try to suggest any social programme and grandpa will break out the fucking abacus but fuck the homeless I guess.

          • ThePenitentOne@discuss.online
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            All you need to know is most people don’t give a shit about anything not directly threatening their way of life in immediate terms. Once you understand how pathetic people are, it becomes all the more obvious why things are allowed to be this way and not change. A lot of people don’t even care to put in the effort to learn or expand their knowledge of things at all.

        • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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          But they were when they voted these people in. I still maintain that if Boris came back, the Tories would probably win again.

        • OrteilGenou@lemmy.world
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          Gastroendoscopy finds the virulent pustule butt I think they do something else to remove it

          Edit: ooh, General Election, my bad

        • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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          If you think Starmer’s neoliberal lot will actually be any different, besides having the mask on more often, I’ve got a bridge to sell you…

          • loobkoob@kbin.social
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            Even if Starmer and the Labour party were pretty much the same except they kept the mask on, that would still be a step in the right direction. Normalising the racism, bigotry, corruption and general inhumaneness that fuels the Tory party is absolutely something we should try to avoid.

            However, I don’t think Labour is like this. I don’t think they’re perfect, but I think they’re much, much better. They’re not going to fix everything overnight, but I do think them getting into power would be an important first stepping stone in moving the country and politics towards being a better place in in 10-15 years. They may not be your ideal party but, if you’re pragmatic and have any kind of long-term vision, you’ll likely vote for them (or the Liib Dems, depending on which constituency you’re in) to make sure the Tories are eliminated.

            The Overton window is far too far to the right at the moment and Labour getting into power is important for helping to gradually shift it leftwards. People simply aren’t going to vote in a “radical” socialist in the current political or economic climate; they want someone they can see as a safe pair of hands who can work on stabilising things somewhat. Right now, that’s Starmer - the boring man who’s politically central (by current standards) with a fairly clean record and an air of competence. When, in most constituencies, the options are Labour and Tory, you working to put everyone off Labour is just going to benefit the Tories.

            Stop letting perfect be the enemy of good.

        • ThePenitentOne@discuss.online
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          People don’t want to learn or debate anything. They form an opinion and from that point on stop giving a shit. It’s no surprise things end up like this.

    • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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      I dunno, don’t forget Netanyahu and his judicial reforms. Not even to speak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

      I think UK is, for better or for worse, fairly middle of the pack, and it’s the world that is seeing a rising tide of authoritarianism and reactionary positions. Heavily enabled by instantaneous digital communication, which essentially turned each individual authoritarian faction in each individual society into something of a broader, more cooperative front.

      Thus giving them the numbers to start getting shit done in certain places where they have an advantage, and pressing to create advantage in places where they don’t have it yet.

      Most of the folks swept up in it are just along for the ride. A little mistaken idea over here, a little willful ignorance over there, and normal, good people can get convinced they need to take radical actions against, basically, themselves.

  • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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    Right, and it just so happens that more and more people are “choosing” to be homeless since the cost of living has deepened (never mind over a decade of Tory enforced austerity that came before it), and despite the fact that hundreds of rough sleepers die every year, mostly due to freezing temperatures and/or related illness…

    It’s also a classic Tory projection move how in California the problem is due to policy, but where she makes the policy, it’s anything but… 🙄

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      San Diego passed a camping ban a few months ago. We are challenging it in court, but they’re doing the same hateful shit out here too.

  • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world
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    many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice

    Not so much a dog whistle, as a dog fog horn.

  • SomeoneElse@lemmy.ca
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    Hateful woman. Each time I think her policies can’t get any more evil she outdoes herself.

      • VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world
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        Par for the course with this woman and her party. She wants to send refugees off to Rwanda and believes many asylum seekers who claim asylum under grounds of persecution (IE being gay where you could be executed) are bullshitting and so should be sent back to be killed.

      • Nacktmull@feddit.de
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        Versus people who are recreationally homeless i guess?

        Keep in mind that it´s simply a lifestyle choice, nothing more.

    • Techmaster@lemm.ee
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      “If you see a homeless person with a funny sign, they probably haven’t been homeless very long.” - Chris Rock

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          The Tories used to be a bunch of out of touch weirdos who were obsessed with financial prudence above all else. Never giving any money to anybody. Unless they were already rich obviously

          They were unpleasant for sure, but at least their political philosophy was fundamentally understandable even if it was undesirable.

          This current lost are just awful for the sake of being evil. They don’t have any policys, they don’t have any concept of financial prudence, they’re just racist. That’s it at this point, that’s the entirety of their political image. Racism. They’re not Conservative anymore, they’ve managed to morph into something worse.

          Edit, added a word

          • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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            As it becomes more obvious that the right wing has nothing to offer ordinary people, right-wing politicians retreat into incendiary populist rhetoric. The easiest way for them to generate votes without offering anything positive is to select minority groups to blame for people’s problems and to offer to oppress these minorities. It’s part of how conservatism lurches towards fascism when the going gets tough.

            • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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              Of course the going is only tough because the conservatives mismanage the economy. Which is hilarious in a kind of depressing way because they’re supposed to be the party that is all about the economy. They essentially believe in corporate self-regulation. If the corporations will regulate themselves then the government barely even need to exist.

              That ideology seems to have gone out the window. Not that was ever any good but it did at least mean that they would probably leave minority groups alone, they wouldn’t be supported in any particular way, but then again no one was supported.

              Of course at this point a minority group is anybody who doesn’t have six figures in their bank account

        • toiletobserver@lemmy.world
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          My apologies. I hope to not confuse that cunt with any of the fairer sex. I mean no disrespect to women, just that one cunt.

    • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@lemmy.ml
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      They call it the Nasty Party for a reason.

      Its a line that worked well for blair, i don’t know why Starmer doesn’t make use of it, it’s apt.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    Just in case anyone is concerned, Bretherman is insane and has absolutely no idea or indeed any interest in what the “British people” want. And her and her useless excuse for a government are just biding their time until they get unceremoniously kicked out of office.

    She has repeatedly claimed that “the people” are interested in immigration despite the fact that polling data shows that most people couldn’t give a flying rats backside about immigration.

    The only people who care about immigration are the sort of people who get upset if somebody with slightly different coloured skin walks past them in the street. Or they hear previously unknown language that they suspect might be foreign or possibly Welsh. I.e morons

    • gmtom@lemmy.world
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      Unfortunately for everyone large swaths of the British public support her and her insane racist bullshit and will no doubt support this because they are lead poisoned narcissistic scum

  • BabyWah@lemmy.world
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    Cunt. To go after people that have already lost everything. She probably wants to freeze them to death this winter. Instead of being human and helping them.

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    Wow, this heifer really has zero concern for possible repercussions to her actions or her words.

    Shall the Brits return to the days of the houses that lent you a rope to drape over for the night before you go back to your wandering homelessness? At least a rope to drape over at night wouldn’t be as much of an eyesore as a tent, right?!?

    People should just start camping out on her property by the thousands just on principle.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        Well in that case being hungover is practically a British institution.

        The whole point of drinking is to do it to excess. If you can remember your name at the end of a night out it’s a failure.

  • SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works
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    The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people,

    Great! So we will build tons of public housing, right?

    many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.

    Oh- Oh… Oh…

  • nomad@infosec.pub
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    Blatant cruelty and using xenophobia to mask it. Thats some vile shit.

  • ValiantDust@feddit.de
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    I’m not up to date with the online discussion of British politics. Is Cruella Braverman a thing already or do we need to make it happen?

    • loobkoob@kbin.social
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      That and “Suella de Ville”. And she’s fully deserving of either title. I mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but where other politicians I dislike feel like they’re either doing the wrong things for the right reasons, or they’re selfish, corrupt or incompetent, Braverman feels like she gets off on the cruelty and is a genuinely evil person.

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      Definitely already a thing, she is a real piece of work…
      If you want to ruin your weekend, hers is a rabbit hole to go down…