As someone whose life might be significantly affected by the outcome of this referendum, please register to vote on 23 June.
All of you who know me might rarely think about the fact that I’m an Eastern European immigrant, meaning I’m one of these scary, scary people that you hear about on TV so very often. A potential EU leave will make it very hard, if nearly impossible, for me to continue living in a country I’ve grown to love as my second home for the last three years.
Not only will people like me no longer have access to education in British universities (as prices will hike up at least three times than what I’ve paid and non-EU residents have no access to a tuition fee loan) but also hardworking graduates like myself, looking to stay, work, live and pay taxes in the UK will not be able to do that. Applying for a permanent residence in the UK for non-EU nationals currently requires a minimum salary of £35,000, as per the most recent developments, courtesy of Theresa May. The average salary of a graduate from a Russell Group university is £29,000. Therefore, I may have all the good will and ambition in the world, but this sets an impossible goal that I simply won’t be able to achieve.
While the Leave campaign may offer a sense of control in the current panic surrounding immigration, I implore you to think about what it might take away as well.
Please consider all the viewpoints and arguments and make an informed decision. Most importantly, register to vote.
uk
If you are in the UK and you are eligible to vote in the EU referendum YOU HAVE TO REGISTER AND TURN UP TO VOTE
This referendum is so close that it will come down to voters turnout. Young people are the ones that are are more likely to want to stay in so if you want to stay in but then don’t vote, statistically we will end up leaving.
This is the most important referendum in Britain’s history for decades please vote if you’re eligible, this will affect our whole futures so vote or deal with the consequences of not voting and letting older generations decide our future
(Even if you’re not from Britain would you please signal boost for your British followers?)
a guide to british news sources
Because you (quite rightly) hear a lot about how awful the Daily Mail is, but not enough about how awful the others are.
The Daily Express:
Cons:
- Can very possibly lay claim to being even more racist than the Daily Mail
- Currently financing UKIP, which needs no further commentary really
- Also hates immigrants, the EU, and school shooting survivors
- Obsessed with a) Princess Diana and b) touting ‘miracle cures’ for stuff, all of which is nonsense
- Is less popular than the Daily Mail, but I suspect that just helps their particular brand of awfulness go under the radar more
Pros:
- None whatsoever
The Times:
Cons:
- owned by Rupert Murdoch
- Seems to have gotten steadily more and more right-wing over the years
- AA Gill writes for it and he’s a tool
- Ditto with Jeremy Clarkson (for the Sunday edition), who is the Worst
Pros
- Invented the Times New Roman typeface, so we have them to thank for that I guess
The Guardian
Cons:
- Once published (alright, it was in its sister paper The Observer, but still under the Guardian name) a piece by Julie Burchill so shockingly transphobic it’s remembered with disgust even now
- Is pretty white-feminism-y, really
Pros:
- Still probably better than most of the others, although you may have guessed that’s not saying much
The Sun
Cons:
- another one that could make a convincing case for being even worse than the Daily Mail in many aspects
- ACTIVELY ENDANGERED PEOPLE’S LIVES back in the 80s with their headlines about AIDS
- Is still loathed in Liverpool to this day due to its coverage of the Hillsborough disaster
- Happily and casually racist, homophobic, ableist and transphobic
- Just…read its Wikipedia page. How the hell is this clusterfuck still a newspaper
Pros:
- absolutely zero
The Daily Mirror
Cons:
- I think it’s sort of responsible for Piers Morgan’s fame, sorry about that
- wrote a really gross article about Charlie Sheen’s HIV diagnosis
Pros:
- presumably hates racist comedian Frankie Boyle almost as much as I do
The Independent
Cons:
- was a pretty good newspaper as far as I know, is now no longer published
- neither are most of its sister publications I think
Pros:
- Its website is still around
The Daily Star
Cons:
- I refuse to call this a ‘newspaper’
- It literally just makes shit up and puts it on the covers
- It’s a sexist, racist, Islamophobic, gross mess
- Just…look at its headlines, and despair that people actually buy this
Pros:
- Nope
The Daily Mail
Cons:
- Where even to start
- Constantly outs or tries to out transgender people, this has led to someone’s actual death
- They kept Richard ‘Human Scum’ Littlejohn on their staff even after that: he’s also called the deaths of five women sex workers ‘no great loss’ and mocked the family of Mark Duggan
- And countless other things
- After the death of 90s pop star Stephen Gately, published an article insisting his homosexuality killed him
- Responsible for possibly the most disturbing, homophobic headline ever put to print
- Happily supported fascism in the 1930s and opposed Jewish refugees fleeing Germany coming to Britain
- EVEN THAT is just scratching the surface
Pros:
- If you were some sort of detective and the outcome of your case relied on knowing exactly what Kylie Jenner was wearing on the evening of 11th December 2015, then you’re in luck, because the Mail obsessively details young female celebrities and their choices of outfit
- Other than that, absolutely nothing.
Sadiq Khan becomes first Muslim mayor of London
Labour Party’s Sadiq Khan has become the first Muslim mayor of the city of London, defeating Conservative nominee Zac Goldsmith by a 300,000-vote margin and shattering the latter party’s eight-year hold on the city’s top job. Khan’s victory is particularly telling over the way Goldsmith ran his campaign.
Sadiq Khan…
The son of working class immigrants who became a human rights lawyer.
The practicing Muslim who is a LGBT rights advocate.
The politician who refused a salary increase when his constituents and country were in a Recession.
The true progressive.
London needs a mayor like him.
#YesWeKhan
He did it!
Sadiq Khan is London’s next mayor! He’s the first Muslim and Asian mayor in London’s history, as well as the first Muslim mayor for any major Western capital!
Congratulations to Labour and an awesome future mayor!
#YesWeKhan
Since heatwave season seems to be upon us again, this is just a reminder to international Tumblr that most European houses and some public spaces do not have air conditioning and are insulated to trap the heat against our cold winters, meaning that there is nowhere to escape hot weather and temperatures you may find laughably cool can be lethal over here.
Every year, people die in those 30-40C European heatwaves, and every year, non-Euro Tumblr treats this tragedy like a joke.
Please let’s stop doing that.
Okay, I just heard about this now, and I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but I am genuinely confused/curious: why don’t you guys have air conditioning? If it’s causing deaths and illness and stuff, why isn’t there a bigger focus on improving the availability of climate control?
Because:
- Too much expense for too little reward. We only need it for about two weeks of the year in total, it’s expensive to install and run, and nobody can be bothered because the heatwaves don’t last long enough to go through the faff.
- Ableism and ageism. It’s survivable, as long as you’re young and healthy and careful and don’t try to, you know, do anything.
Mostly #1, though.Why would you spend a few thousand pounds on an AC unit for one week of the year, which you can just about survive? It’s just not good return on the money.
Yeah, that makes sense, but still, shouldn’t there be some kind of precautions? Some kind of emergency air conditioning that you don’t keep on all the time? Like, you’d build levies around a big river in case it floods. You don’t just leave people in danger of drowning because it’s only rainy a few months of the year. If these heat waves are killing people, then they’re serious dangers. You can’t just let people die because it’s expensive. Either it’s a serious threat and it needs to be addressed, or its just unpleasant and needs some empathy. If people are in threat of dying, then to me it sounds like the former.
You’re overestimating the Tories, I’m afraid.
(Ironically, “just unpleasant and needs some empathy” could sum them up as well.)
Unfortunately for you @michelleobama and @barackobama I wasn’t alone when you sent me that video 😉 – Prince Harry (x)
