Thousands sign open letter condemning Tories

MORE than 11,000 people have signed an open letter condemning the “xenophobic” rhetoric of Theresa May’s government.

The letter, penned by Scots-based writers Peter Geoghegan and Chris Silver, calls on May “to put a stop to her government’s bitter, racist and divisive language” and to “explicitly rule out any policies which are premised on dividing workplaces and communities based on where people were born”.

“Foreign nationals make an enormous contribution to this country’s culture, economy and society,” the letter says. “They are not a separate caste in our society – they are our friends, partners, colleagues and neighbours. A country robbed of these people is a poorer country in every sense: they are a part of who we are.”

Within two days of being posted online, the letter had gone viral, jumping from 300 to 10,000 signatures. That was partly down to staff in universities and colleges sending it around colleagues.

It was also partly down to the Tory party conference in Birmingham, and Amber Rudd’s proposal to make companies list foreign workers in a bid to shame them into hiring more “locals”. The resulting outrage saw the government drop the policy.

Geoghegan and Silver are to hand in a copy of the letter and the names to the Scotland Office in Edinburgh tomorrow.

“We think it’s important; the government might have rolled back on things, but it’s important to keep the pressure up on this kind of language and this idea of what society should look like,” Geoghegan told the Sunday Herald.

Human rights campaigner and solicitor Aamer Anwar said he signed the open letter because of the “rank hypocrisy” of the government’s condemning the rise of racist incidents while “pandering to ideas bordering on fascism”.