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I read a Sky News article this week about protests outside asylum hotels, and honestly? I found it maddening. Not because the people quoted don’t have feelings - they clearly do - but because the whole framing gives such an outsized stage to doom-laden exaggerations like “They’ve ruined it!” One bloke even claimed: “If I can sleep in a tent, they can too.” Seriously?
The country is not falling apart because of a few thousand desperate people in temporary hotels. But listening to the coverage, you’d think the apocalypse had already checked into reception.
Send the army in!
Reality check: The Army isn’t your personal complaint department. They don’t get shipped in to guard Holiday Inns full of people who’ve broken no law. This is Britain, not some dystopian regime where soldiers police your local Premier Inn. Using the army on asylum seekers would shred the very “British values” protesters claim to defend.
I don’t trust the media!
Classic. Because apparently all outlets—BBC, Sky, local press—are colluding to “hide the truth.” What’s really happening? Those same outlets have been reporting the community’s anger and the broken asylum system.
But the same people shouting “mainstream media lies” will happily repost some badly cropped Facebook meme claiming asylum seekers cost £500 a night. Spoiler: they don’t. The average is about £119 per person, per night, down from £162 last year.1 Which is still absurdly expensive, but that’s a government screw-up, not some luxury hotel scam.
So, if your gold standard for “truth” is your uncle’s WhatsApp chain, then sure, maybe TikTok flat-earthers really are more reliable than the ONS.2
Crime skyrockets with asylum seekers!
This one is a favourite because it feels true to people. But the data doesn’t exist to back it up. The viral “asylum crimewave” stats floating around were actually ripped from old German police numbers, not UK figures.3 The UK’s Office for National Statistics doesn’t even break crime down by asylum status.4 Meanwhile, multiple studies show no link between immigration and higher crime rates.5
Translation: you’re safer walking past an asylum hotel than believing whatever stat comes up first on Google.
Housing asylum seekers in hotels costs £200-£500 a night!
If “luxury” means being trapped in a Travelodge for months with no right to work, then sure. But let’s be clear: hotels are being used because the system has collapsed under the backlog—109,000 people are still waiting on decisions.6 Around 32,000 of them are stuck in hotels.7 Not because it’s fun, but because the Home Office hasn’t provided proper housing.
Also, fun fact: hotels eat up three-quarters of the asylum housing budget while housing just a third of people.8 So who’s being ripped off here? Not locals. Not asylum seekers. It’s taxpayers footing the bill for government incompetence.
Deport them all!
The Reform UK fantasy. Mass deportations, tear up international law, job done. Aside from being grotesque, it would be astronomically expensive and legally impossible without Britain going full rogue state.9 Meanwhile, Labour’s at least promised to phase out hotel use with actual reform instead of daydreaming about detention camps.10
And if you want an example of how not to do it, look at the Bell Hotel in Epping. The Home Office dumped 138 men there, sparked fury, and then watched as the council dragged it to court.11 That’s not an “invasion.” That’s a planning failure masquerading as a crisis.
So why did I find the article so maddening?
Because giving so much airtime to slogans like “They’ve ruined it” makes it sound like Britain’s collapse is one hotel room away. It’s theatre. The real villains aren’t the people stuck inside those hotels. It’s the politicians who designed a system where hotels became the default solution—and then sold us a story about migrants ruining the country.
And that’s what really drives me mad: protesters screaming about “our country” being ruined while the actual wrecking crew—the backlog, the policies, the cowardice—skates by untouched.