this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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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.

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[–] 01011@monero.town 185 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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

[–] STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world 99 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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 64 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] MrNesser@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (6 children)

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 13 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] EnderMB@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

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

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[–] Nacktmull@feddit.de 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People are just too stupid for democracy I´m afraid.

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[–] Candelestine@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

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 82 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 15 points 1 year ago

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 66 points 1 year ago

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 55 points 1 year ago

Hateful woman. Each time I think her policies can’t get any more evil she outdoes herself.

[–] flower3@feddit.de 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

“Genuinely homeless” lol

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[–] Fungah@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago
[–] echodot@feddit.uk 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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 11 points 1 year ago

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

[–] Kalkaline@leminal.space 36 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Let me guess, she's a Tory.

[–] p5f20w18k@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

She’s as Tory as you can get

[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You misspelled cunt. It's ok, i won't hold it against you.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

"They're the same picture."

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[–] kaitco@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sleeping on clotheslines was the source of the term "hungover".

Lifestyle choice, see?

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[–] Zippit@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 year ago

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....................

[–] t0m5k1@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

This fucking pariah of an mp needs to be taken out of office now.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

Guillotines, what we need are Guillotines.

[–] Nomad@infosec.pub 24 points 1 year ago

Blatant cruelty and using xenophobia to mask it. Thats some vile shit.

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.de 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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 14 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] DessertStorms@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

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..

[–] halferect@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

So fine already poor people to make them less poor? And how do you decide "lifestyle" poor? This is exactly the stuff the GOP is spreading and the want "camps" that would be fenced in areas for tent cities way outside the cities that the poors could live in

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The world is literally being run by a bunch of psychopaths.

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[–] JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] theinspectorst@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. Literally the only truly evil senior British politician I have come across in my lifetime.

There are plenty of politicians in my lifetime who I have disagreed with quite severely on certain things - Thatcher, Blair, Corbyn, May, for example. But in each of their cases I honestly believe they were pursuing a course that they believed would improve the lot of the British people and bring about a better, fairer and more prosperous society - I might have disagreed with them (in some cases a lot!) about how to get there, but I never doubted their hearts were ultimately in the right place. Boris Johnson was the first who left me thinking he had no redeeming qualities - selfish and egotistical, heart very much in the wrong place. Boris was only in it for Boris.

But Suella is something else. Suella isn't in it for the public good, but Suella isn't in it for Suella either. Suella is in it to hurt people. That's her overwhelming motivating goal in life and politics. She gets off on undisguised cruelty. She is genuinely evil.

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My idea is that this kind of people are deliberately chosen by their superiors to act as "lightning rods" for all kinds of unpopular measures.

Then they often fade away into relative obscurity and reappear in a next election cycle, as needed.

After they leave politics, they inevitably end up running a board of directors or a committee or a think tank somewhere...

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[–] spiderkle@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 year ago

Tories are conservative monarchists, what do you expect? They hate "peasants", especially those on the lowest social ladder.

[–] ZeroCool@feddit.ch 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

“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."

"Oh you're homeless? Name the top three ways to cook beans over a hobo campfire so I know you're not a poser." - Suella Braverman

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[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 year ago

Love how there's only one 'Lifestyle Choice' available for billions of people on God's Green Earth: Work or Die.

[–] watson387@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wow. She sounds like a real shit human being.

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[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

The US cities have those issues largely because they priced out ordinary people and have a climate survivable outside all year.

Where is the compassion.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Fascists will be Fascist...

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did y'all really need the Second Coming of Maggie?

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think calling her the "second coming of Maggie" really undersells Braverman's cruelty and capacity for evil. I think Thatcher really fucked up this country, and we're still feeling the effects of some of her policies to this day. But Thatcher did genuinely think she was doing things for the right reasons - that she was making tough but necessary decisions.

Braverman seems to get off on the cruelty. A lot of her policies and ideas seem cruel for the sake of cruelty. There are plenty of politicians I've disagreed with and disliked, but they've all tended to feel like it's either because they were doing what I'd consider to be the wrong things for the right reasons (ie, they thought it would help, different approaches to what I'd want but with positive outcomes in mind, etc) or they've just been selfish, corrupt or idiotic. Braverman is a whole different thing entirely. The purpose of her policies is often the cruelty, with no tangible benefits that even she can list. She's a genuinely evil person.

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[–] Chozo@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Is "rough sleeping" a UK term, or is that as tone-deaf as it sounds to my American sensibilities?

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Stand UK term. Used by charities and the voluntary sector as well as government. Not particularly tone deaf. What is your preferred term?

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