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.
Right, and it just so happens that more and more people are “choosing” to be homeless since the cost of living has deepened (never mind over a decade of Tory enforced austerity that came before it), and despite the fact that hundreds of rough sleepers die every year, mostly due to freezing temperatures and/or related illness…
It’s also a classic Tory projection move how in California the problem is due to policy, but where she makes the policy, it’s anything but… 🙄
“Genuinely homeless” lol
“If you see a homeless person with a funny sign, they probably haven’t been homeless very long.” - Chris Rock
Is “rough sleeping” a UK term, or is that as tone-deaf as it sounds to my American sensibilities?
Stand UK term. Used by charities and the voluntary sector as well as government. Not particularly tone deaf. What is your preferred term?
Americans call it homelessness, sleeping on the street, and homeless camping. To us it would sound like a euphemism. Just a confusion in language though.
Here “homeless” is more of an umbrella term, since many people are homeless and not sleeping rough (housed temporarily by the council, staying with friends, staying in a shelter).
I dunno, but I feel like even “homeless” is a more-encompassing term, since it affects more than just your sleep situation. I feel like “rough sleeping” is really downplaying what homelessness entails.
Homeless people are called homeless. But not all people sleeping rough are homeless. For example someone ejected from their home by an abusive partner might be sleeping rough, but wouldn’t be homeless. It’s a question of being precise and not assuming things about someone’s circumstances
Sounds insensitive alright and I’m not American.
I’m Canadian and the phrase “sleeping rough” is definitely in use here. Many homeless people sleep in shelters or cars or someone else’s place, if they have the option. “Sleeping rough” is useful for differentiating those who are sleeping in bus shelters, tents, etc. I most frequently hear it used by people advocating for the homeless.
“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."
“Oh you’re homeless? Name the top three ways to cook beans over a hobo campfire so I know you’re not a poser.” - Suella Braverman
“No true homeless…”
Blatant cruelty and using xenophobia to mask it. Thats some vile shit.
Wow. She sounds like a real shit human being.
If she pulls herself up and really tries hard at itself improvement she might elevate herself to being a really shit human being.
Just in case anyone is concerned, Bretherman is insane and has absolutely no idea or indeed any interest in what the “British people” want. And her and her useless excuse for a government are just biding their time until they get unceremoniously kicked out of office.
She has repeatedly claimed that “the people” are interested in immigration despite the fact that polling data shows that most people couldn’t give a flying rats backside about immigration.
The only people who care about immigration are the sort of people who get upset if somebody with slightly different coloured skin walks past them in the street. Or they hear previously unknown language that they suspect might be foreign or possibly Welsh. I.e morons
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,
Great! So we will build tons of public housing, right?
many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.
Oh- Oh… Oh…
The UK has one of the most vile governments in the industrialized world.
Fascists will be Fascist…
Tories are conservative monarchists, what do you expect? They hate “peasants”, especially those on the lowest social ladder.
Is this woman Satan?
Yes. Literally the only truly evil senior British politician I have come across in my lifetime.
There are plenty of politicians in my lifetime who I have disagreed with quite severely on certain things - Thatcher, Blair, Corbyn, May, for example. But in each of their cases I honestly believe they were pursuing a course that they believed would improve the lot of the British people and bring about a better, fairer and more prosperous society - I might have disagreed with them (in some cases a lot!) about how to get there, but I never doubted their hearts were ultimately in the right place. Boris Johnson was the first who left me thinking he had no redeeming qualities - selfish and egotistical, heart very much in the wrong place. Boris was only in it for Boris.
But Suella is something else. Suella isn’t in it for the public good, but Suella isn’t in it for Suella either. Suella is in it to hurt people. That’s her overwhelming motivating goal in life and politics. She gets off on undisguised cruelty. She is genuinely evil.
Love how there’s only one ‘Lifestyle Choice’ available for billions of people on God’s Green Earth: Work or Die.
Hateful woman. Each time I think her policies can’t get any more evil she outdoes herself.
Let me guess, she’s a Tory.
They call it the Nasty Party for a reason.
Its a line that worked well for blair, i don’t know why Starmer doesn’t make use of it, it’s apt.
