A Flight to Harare

Note: Read the whole entry before saying anything in response to it. I’m not going to be tolerating ignorant, half-baked comments saying what an “evil, racist, Tory” I am etc. If you have a valid view, opinion or counter-point, think it through before putting it in the comments.

I’m getting pretty fed up of hearing about Gamu off the X Factor’s deportation ordeal, if I’m quite honest with you, dearest readers.

From what I can tell, her mother did outstay her visa, and claimed £16,000 benefits when she was not entitled to any. To me, that’s a pretty much open-and-shut case of this family being driven to Heathrow Airport and waved goodbye from the tarmac by HM Government as the flight for Harare takes off.

Now, of course, the public would presumably be in favour of, what looks like to me, an unaffordable, unfair burden on the state who, despite her apparent “talent” and fashionably harsh upbringing, should welcome being sent away.

But no, because she appeared on The X Factor, which just loves these sorts of ready-made sob stories that make excellent telly, the public think that it is an absolute outrage that the immigration systems put in place are actually, for once, working.

I’m sorry, but the public, and the papers that seem to perpetuate this story day-in, day-out, are enormous hypocrites.

If Gamu had not put herself forward for The Cowell Factor, I really do doubt these people would have rushed to join a Facebook group demanding that she be allowed, for no legitimate reason bar her being “liked” by the public, to stay in the UK.

I suppose now she’s really thinking she shot herself in the foot.

Now, I’ve not watched the X Factor, as, by my previous posts, I really can’t be doing with this sort of synthetic trash telly that makes “stars” out of anyone and everyone. I’ve not watched Gamu’s videos, for fear of succumbing the the Cowell-tinted sunglass effect, and I mean her no ill will, but let’s face these quaint things called… the facts:

• Her mother had a visa to work as a nurse in Scotland which expired, and a request to renew it was denied by the Government.
• Her mother has wrongly been claiming state benefits  (apparently to the tune of £16,000) that she was not entitled to.

What, depressingly, doesn’t surprise me is the swathe of front pages exclaiming that if Gamu is deported then she “faces the death squad in Zimbabwe” and that her family are “enemies of Robert Mugabe”.

Are you having me on? Do I look like I was born yesterday?!

If you ask me, this is just another cynical media ploy to bolster her case by doing what the X Factor does best with some pedigree – getting the public to buy hook, line and sinker an act due to some overblown, sensationalised, manufactured story of hardship and despair if things don’t go according to plan.

Now, let’s get this clear: I’m no racist, (I’m predicting there will be some accusations of this, remember, never let the facts get in the way of anything) but come on. From the evidence provided – and I’m inclined to believe the Home Office over Gamu or the X Factor – it seems pretty simple. Why, oh why, are we all buying this rubbish that the system should be somehow unjustly bent around one individual who’s flavour of the month.

I’ve held some private counsel with friends, and searched online. It refreshes me to know that somewhere, some people may agree with me on this. I somehow have premonitions that I could’ve touched a nerve with some X Factor luvvies, but, I’m sorry. This is what I believe.

Either way, this is publicity the X Factor could never have made up if it tried. All its Christmases have come at once. Simon Cowell must be sneering all the way to the bank.

Just because someone is talented in some form does not give them the right to abuse the system, and, they should face the same consequence as someone who isn’t “talented” or a total media darling would do in the exact same circumstances, lest we arbitrarily start bending the rules for whoever we feel like. That’s not fair on anyone. Let the Government investigation take its course, and accept whatever verdict comes from it. That’s how society works.