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.
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.