Flying a kite with the RNLI

In a way, I suppose the attack by two newspapers on the RNLI this weekend is not that surprising. For some years now, those on the right of politics have been attacking the foreign aid budget — a mere 0.7% of GDP — and trying as hard as they can to find examples that they think will scandalise their readers, and persuade them we shouldn’t help others. At the same time, they’ve ramped up fetishisation of the military and ex-servicepeople.

I’m sure there is some waste in foreign aid, just as there’s some waste in the BBC, or the NHS, or the Cabinet Office. But it’s almost certainly a relatively small amount.

In the 80s, the ‘anti-PC’ papers made a big fuss about an “Asian Women’s Hopscotch” project, presenting it to their readers as money spent on teaching immigrant women a childrens’ game. In fact, “Hospcotch” was the name of the building used, and it had nothing to do with the game. But, damage done, seeds planted. “Stop spending our money on these people”

In foreign aid, wilful misrepresentation of a project designed to empower women resulted in a funding cut to “Girl Effect” after it was describe as money being spent on funding an African version of the Spice Girls. Leaving aside how many women of a certain age do speak highly of the Spice Girls and the message they got across, it’s a simplistic diversion from the scope of the project, and surely helping women become more aware of their possibilities in the developing world is actually a good thing? You can read more about Yegna here.

Still, seed planted, and all that. Froth and bigotry deployed, to prop up the idea that no, we shouldn’t be sending this money abroad. Look — they’ll spend it on girl bands and nonsense like that.

So, having thoroughly trashed the idea of foreign aid in the minds of their “right thinking” readers, time to turn elsewhere. Throw in the ever popular “charity fat cats” angle, and you have this weekend’s astonishing attack on the RNLI.

Small minded bigots — many of whom probably never donated anyway — are saying “It’s the Royal NATIONAL, not INTERNATIONAL” and other such stuff as they bluster away, terrified of the thought of a brown person being taught to swim. Whatever next? Some of them might swim all the way from Africa to Littlehampton!

I can’t help wondering if this is all a little bit of kite-flying, or testing of the water, to see how receptive people are to further calls for isolationism, and blind nationalism. The RNLI, as far as I can recall, doesn’t have the really high profile patronage of, say, Princess Diana and land mines. But most people have heard of it, there’s a highly paid exec, some issues with volunteers to play up, and — how glorious for the reporters who dug up the “secret” information from the website — burkinis, to excite the most frothing bigotry.

In a way, it’s pretty much the perfect target for this type of attack. You can’t go after Oxfam — not just yet — because they’re specifically set up for overseas work. So fly the kite with the RNLI. See how many you can whip up into a frenzy of “I’m never donating again.”

I hope very much that this backfires on the newspapers — and particularly the scumbag ‘journalists’ who wrote it; I certainly see plenty of people pledging to support the organisation more, though that could be my filter bubble.

If it doesn’t backfire, if it achieves a measurable effect upon RNLI donations, don’t be under any illusion that other charities that dare to spend money overseas will be next in the firing line for this disgraceful nationalist claptrap.