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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      1 year ago

      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.

      • MrNesser@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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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          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.

        • Striker@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          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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            1 year ago

            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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          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.

        • OrteilGenou@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Gastroendoscopy finds the virulent pustule butt I think they do something else to remove it

          Edit: ooh, General Election, my bad

        • ThePenitentOne@discuss.online
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          1 year ago

          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. Too many people are seriously close-minded and ignorant about things, yet their opinion is allowed to equally weighted to another who has put serious effort and thought into their decision. The way of thinking at large is just wrong. People are very short-sighted and easily fall for appeals to emotion instead of taking a second to think rationally. Voting Tory is reprehensible.

    • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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      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.