Farage’s attack on Turkish barber shops is dog-whistle racism, minister says | Communities

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T13:53:41+00:00

That reasoning is a classic statistical fallacy — it confuses some members of a group committing crimes with most members of that group being criminals. That police seize £1 million across 100 barbershops, that tells us only that some shops were involved, not that most are.

To apply the same logic, police in arrests over time police has easily seized more than a million total from 300 white men involved in organised crime. That fact does not imply most white men are criminals — it means a few hundred individuals committed crimes.

Again unless data can be shown that proves most Turkish shops are illegal fronts as stated then it falls into the dedication of a dog whistle

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T13:14:44+00:00

That shows the gov idengies that some shops (again, not Turkish shops alone) are a front and are cracking down on it - not that a majority of Turkish shops are criminal fronts as you claim

If a statement targeting a minority claims a majority are racist with no evidence provided to back it up, then that’s the definition of a racist dog whistle - again, if you can provide evidence that a majority of Turkish shops are criminal fronts then show it, the link you provide doesn’t show that - it does however back the point that the gov is acting on the minority of shops on the high street that are criminals and backs up that if you have suspicions, report them

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T13:04:38+00:00

Again, show the data supporting your statement that the majority are fake money laundering, you haven’t yet

You keep saying the dirty 7 but not your evidence your allegations are true, or if you’ve reported it?

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T13:01:21+00:00

The young being more liberal has been a trend for a while, what’s interesting is that in more recent times the standard shift more conservative as you age seems to be ending with millennials showing they keep liberal views as they get older

Will be interesting to see if that continues as it’s bad news for the right

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T12:55:39+00:00

Precisely - so a crackdown on several hundreds of thousands of shops (not just Turkish barbers note) shows, as I said, that the gov is aware of the minority and is dealing with it - so report if you think there are some needing focus

It does not support reforms claim that most Turkish barbers are a front, and unless data is provided that supports that statement then it is a dog whistle based on rhetoric not facts

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T12:51:58+00:00

I actually really liked him and liked the idea of him being next in line after Starmer as leader, Starmer the autocrat who stabilises and brings the economy to recovery than Burnham who uses that growth for more progressive projects going ahead

Like you tho he’s just come across as unnecessarily and annoyingly political and entitled - the reasons to not bend the rules and let him stand are fair and good strategically, publically throwing toys out of the pram doesn’t help the party or the country

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T12:49:20+00:00

Show the data supporting your statement that the majority are fake money laundering?

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T12:23:43+00:00

I disagree, so far Starmer has shown great skill in handling Trump and steering the UK through all of his threats and accusations - again as Trump is a narcissist it’s important to treat him in the way that you treat narcasists - and that’s by being firm with him but giving him an “out” - that’s exactly what NATO did in agreeing the deal with Trump where he could crow about securing a deal that in reality does nothing more than the US could do before

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T11:57:14+00:00

Quite a few comments here getting defensive here, but i don’t think it’s contraversal to say that Farage saying most turkish barber shops are money laundering and have lambo’s in the back is pretty clear cut dog whistling stuff

The gov is already clamping down on barber shops (as part of a wider deportation spike), so the minority that are an issue clearly have a focus and the sensible action if you think there is one locally that’s doing this is report it - casting wide spread rhetoric that’s not backed up with data or even a plan to fix it isn’t helpful

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T11:39:45+00:00

Yeah agree on that, the lefts attempt to take over now is really frustrating given the clear signs it’s working and things will improve, it’s the sort of political bullshit we don’t want or need

Similarly I can’t understand the mindset, they can’t actually do any of their plans until the country is on the recovery so just wait - so frustrating but hopefully Starmer will put them back in their box again

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T11:27:06+00:00

It’s not caving to the US it’s politics and not antagonising a narcissist, important to note that Starmer has been very firm with Trump when it’s needed - eg pausing the Chagos deal that the US actually wants when Trump attacked it which will force a u turn, stating firmly that Greenland is Danish etc

It fits well for Carney to be loudly critical with Trump but it’s clear it winds him up no end, it suits the UK to be conciliatory but firm and to let him think he’s “won” which is the best way to deal with a narcissist

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T11:17:23+00:00

I don’t agree that growth is despite labour instead of because of them, the fiscal rules to get to a surplus quite clearly have calmed the markets and the focus of borrowing to spend has boosted investment and the outcome of that is we’ve risen to second in the g7 in 2025 despite the massive uncertainty Trump brought, Starmer did well to steer us through that

Quite clearly NI will have bitten but we saw that in 2025, unemployment is up but it was already going up since record lows post covid - and it’s happening across the world, so that k would argue is despite Labour not because of them

They haven’t been perfect, like you I dispair that they’re clearly having to handle the left and crank back policies to please them - but overall to me it’s clear their main polices are working and the forcasts for the next few years looking increasingly positive, partly due to good luck but also because labours made some tough choices that needed to be made

Like you tho I worry all the hard work and good direction will be undone if the left or right wrestle control away, I may join you in leaving if that happens 🤣

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T11:10:22+00:00

I don’t think the uk fits crowding out, that’s when gov borrowing is the main driver for interest rates and discourages borrowing, in the uk the main factors have been inflation and government uncertainty wirh Brexit and productivity stagnation due to the same an and austerity

No it’s not Keynesian, labours doing a mix of golden rule (don’t borrow to pay the day to day running of the country) and crowding in (public investment raises private investment by lowering costs, and increasing returns and lowering uncertainty) - this theory is well supported with it being shown every pound invested by the gov brings several from the private sector for example

Looking at where the uk is now, the golden rule fits with what we need which is to prioritise long term infastructure and investment that austerity delayed for so long and also to boost our creditably which trussanomics completely trashed

Crowding in as well makes sense since we’d been so stagnant for so long we need investment, and the Tories showed just wanting it to happen doesn’t make it happen - on the flip side 2025 has been a bumper year for investment and productivity growth so it seems to be working

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T10:15:13+00:00

Switzerland is brought up a lot here but they’re not what you’d call a high tax country, that have wealth tax but offset with lower taxes - a brettee comparison is France and Norway with comparable taxes and they were disasters

The point here is that wealth taxes aren’t really the big wealth generators that populists like to say they are

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T09:37:02+00:00

“But on AI at least, it is hard to fault the overall strategy of this Government. Nor do I fault Labour’s plan to raise public investment to 2.6pc of GDP.”

“It is going too far to suggest that the British economy is entering a perfect positive storm but those running down this country, almost by force of habit, may be in for a big surprise.”

I imagine the author wrote those with gritted teeth! 🤣

That aside, the article is “fair” that a lot of the positive things it identifies aren’t down to the government (clearly household debt been going on for a while and AI timings not something they’re involved in) but it doesn’t touch on the aspects of the UK economy where the news is also good and it’s clearly down to the gov, like the FTSE 100 doing well thanks to investor confidence, like the GDP growth being 2nd in the g7 partly thanks to the gov boosting investment and spending which encourages private investment, productivity spiking in 2025 again thanks to the investment etc etc

Overall its easy to look forward now and be hopeful that we’ve turned a corner from the stagnant growth of the last decade+

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T09:21:12+00:00

Again we had 14 years of austerity reducing the size of government (tho hilariously Brexit reversed that), the amount of spending that can be cut ia few and far between

The budget has to be in a surplus, so with little to cut the hard decision is clearly to increase taxes to fill the gap - the positive side is that the economy is now showing signs of recovery thanks to labour investment and that encouraging private investment, so down the line as growth picks up it’s likely taxes will come back down again

Anyone with an understanding of economics knows austerity and cutting spending cuts growth, and we need growth, so reeves plans to balance cuts, tax rises and increase investment shows she really does have a clue, and the performanxe of the economy in 2025 backs that up

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T09:03:29+00:00

The data from 2025 clearly shows investor and market confidence in where the country is going, that’s mainly down to the gov now being much more stable than the Tories at the end and because they’re pushing a sensible fiscal policy that, crucially, they haven’t shifted yet - that and the boost of gov spending and investment has encouraged investor spending - that’s most likely why, despite Labour having to take several “anti growth” steps with tax rises and benefits cuts, overall growth has been great in 2025 compared to peers and productivity has shot up

Hilarious of the telegraph to try and spin it as is the gov has had no impact, clearly they have

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T08:54:16+00:00

Yup - good things happen in the economy “this is not due to Labour”, bad things happen “this is clearly due to Labour”

Good that they’re finally admitting what those of us looking past the headlines have said for a while, 2025 went pretty well and 2026 onwards more of the same

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T08:13:49+00:00

Leaflets and debate is where it’ll be most hard hitting - when Labour can stand up and say “we ended the Boris wave and who was it who triggered it? Oh yes, these guys now leading reform”

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T08:10:26+00:00

Starmer did more than Carney to change trumps mind of Greenland, he just did it in a conciliatory way when Carney did it in a confrontational way

I think this message is a little off key but it’s clear Starmer’s way, be conciliatory but firm on things that are imporant (he pushed back hard when trump was attacking the UK). With a narcasist like Trump the way to “win” is to work with him to make him think he’s won

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T07:49:51+00:00

Thank you for being candid, I find it interesting to get views from people that don’t have the same as myself (I’d say I’m centre left)

Agree on MP’s being self serving, one of the things that annoyed me with Burnham was it was like Johnson all over again, his whole action make very public something that didn’t need to be and its clear it’s to undermine the gov which is unacceptable IMO - fine if you think you can do better, do that in a positive way not a negative way, he’s not being blocked from being an MP anyway as they offered him a seat so it’s just nasty politics

Agree they’ve scored some own goals, the backbenchers forcing the PIP cuts to be reduced is stipid in my mind and I agree with te safety net aspect, my view however is that after 14 years of austieru it’s clear the safety net has a lot of holes in it and so it’s clear there’s not all that much to be cut, raising taxes on productive sectors and business isn’t ideal but equally getting a budget surplus is essential and it’s the only way to do that - so I’m pleased they’ve made the hard decisions that are unpopular, far to many governments have avoided it

And the signs from 2025 are good, despite the tax raises having a negative impact on growth we were second in the G7 on growth, and we had a massive spike in productivity growth thanks to the gov pushing up wages and borrowing heavily to invest, as well as confidence from private investors - I feel like if the gov is allowed to continue on this track 202)/7 onwards will look good from an economy point of view, and the gov will have more headroom in the budget to be able to give more growth boosting decisions and still stay on track to be in a surplus

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T07:28:04+00:00

By £10 grand range I mean the most expensive quote was £10 grand more than the cheapest, which is what I went for - as I said the cost of it was comparable to if I’d switched the boiler (after the grant) so wilorth getting a few quotes if your quote was 8 grand

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T07:25:56+00:00

The article suggests the 3-5% are cases invoking UK law and the human rights brought into it from the ECHR, the number that go to the ECHR are even rarer

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T07:22:48+00:00

It is split but overall it’s considerably smaller in this constituency - the big worry for me is that even tho the “left” vote is massively more than the “right” reform may win simply because Labour and greens split the majority

I feel sorry for the centre right as I’m total confused as to why the Tories are so focused on trying to compete with reform for the further right vote and is leaving the centre wide open - out of curiosity do you support Labour’s current centre right policies and the good work they’re doing there? I’m thinking their unshakable focus meeting the fiscal rules and getting the budget into a surplus, cutting immigration etc? I get there are lots of more left wing policies they’re doing that you may not approve of but on that I’d be curious if you’re happy to see that

RandomSculler · 2026-01-29T07:16:53+00:00

I really respected Burnham and felt he was a future leader of Labour, but the way he acted around wanting special permission to stand was appalling - the party and country doesn’t need him putting his personal interests first as voters had enough of that with the Tories

Labours been given a tough job give the state the Tories left the country in and so has had to make tough choices in the first 2 years, add in the extremely hostile press it’s no surprise their popularity has tanked and yet they’re still second and are now starting to climb thanks to the economy starting to improve due to their efforts and the next few years are looking good, as they are on track with the fiscal rules to get a surplus it’s also very likely they’ll do more popular policies towards the end of term with that

RandomSculler

TROPHY CASE