The Conservative party’s deputy chairman wasn’t saying they should return to countries blighted by war – only liberal, safe France
Until this week, most of us would probably have guessed that “Bibby Stockholm” was the name of some skittish young blonde from Made in Chelsea. Abruptly, however, it’s become the subject of the most furious row in British politics. Because, as everyone in Britain is now well aware, the Bibby Stockholm is in fact a huge barge which the Government is using to house a small number of asylum seekers. And the Left, inevitably, are appalled.
They were angry enough when the idea was first proposed. They denounced it as cruel, callous and inhumane. Now, however, they’re angrier still. Because Lee Anderson, the deputy chairman of the Conservative party, has told a newspaper that if migrants don’t like barges, they should “f- off back to France”.
Cue a wildfire of progressive hysteria. Diane Abbott called his words “a new low even for the Tories”. Sadiq Khan accused him of “stoking up more division and hate”. Meanwhile, the SNP-supporting newspaper The National devoted its entire front page to the headline, “ANDERSON IS A POUND-SHOP ENOCH POWELL”.
On the whole, then, it’s safe to say that they’re not tremendously impressed. At the risk of provoking yet more fury, however, I wonder if it’s not too unreasonable to ask: what precisely is it about Mr Anderson’s remark that they object to?