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A new definition of what constitutes British

(42 Posts)
Whitewavemark2 Fri 07-Aug-26 09:14:37

Both parents must have been born in the U.K.

(Restore)

MollyNew Fri 07-Aug-26 10:55:38

WW2 hopefully they'll self destruct. Radio 4 asked Rupert about the King this morning and he avoided the question! grin

I'm superior too but our family surname only goes back to the Norman conquest so if Rupert moves the goalposts, I could be in trouble.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 07-Aug-26 11:06:01

Of course to be absolutely certain you would have to trace your ancestors back to black skinned blue eyed Hunter gatherers.

Anyone? If so you may consider yourselves royalty.

Pippa000 Fri 07-Aug-26 11:09:46

This would make hundreds, of not thousands, of forces children, including mine, stateless. What a stupid idea

Basgetti Fri 07-Aug-26 11:10:00

Our grandson too, Ladyleffieldlover.

TerriBull Fri 07-Aug-26 11:18:44

Rupert Lowe's proposals make me laugh they sound exactly the sort of thing my late father- in- law would espouse. Personally, I'm happy to be a hybrid, only one of my grandparents was British through and through, by jove!!! who had a traceable line back into parts of England down through the centuries. The others emanated from other places. Our own grandchildren have an Italian maternal grandmother so they too are a blend, I'm happy to say. The latest addition to the family, my husband's first great grandchild, is eligible for 4 passports, through a half British and half Australian mother and an Indian father born and living in New York, they came over in May and very beautiful she is too. It's the way of the world dear Rupert and you should be used to it even if those, like my late father in law imbued in attitudes from a dim and distant past couldn't get their heads round the fact that many don't see marrying or partnering up with someone from overseas, I did in my first marriage, is no longer a barrier.

nanna8 Fri 07-Aug-26 11:29:38

Well my ancestors go back to the Plantaganets in a direct line but I have a feeling they were more French than British. Bloody foreigners.

Graphite Fri 07-Aug-26 11:40:04

To be clear Lowe, is talking about “White Britons.”

In a bad tempered exchange with BBC’s Nick Robinson, he claimed:

It is a fact that, by 2063, white British people will be a minority on current trends. I don’t think anyone disputes that.”

This is how Reform/Restore propaganda is perpetuated.

It is not a fact and many people have disputed it.

If you are having a sense of déjà vu it is because we have been here before.

The report claiming that “fact” was written by none other than … no prizes for guessing … Reform’s Matt Goodwin. His numbers have been widely discredited as AI slop and hallucinations to support the Great Replacement conspiracy theory. We had a long debate about this here just a few months back when he was promoting his book Suicide of a Nation.

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1356753-Matt-Goodwin

I gave some stats and links to ONS data on page 16 of that if anyone is interested.

When he was challenged in a debate on GB News with Andy Twelves, Goodwin claimed the numbers has been verified by world-leading demographers but he couldn’t name them and they are not credited in the book.

Of course, Lowe would promote such a claim but it has no foundation is fact.

Here’s just one of many online articles disputing the claim:

georginasturge.substack.com/p/will-white-british-really-be-a-minority

What worries me about these wild claims is that Reform (Reform/Restore it makes no difference especially when Lowe is suggesting they get together again) is known to be collecting a vast amount of data on people - but about what we don't know.

In a video begging Reform activists to come to Clacton to help with the by-election, Farage said, we need people here to help build up a massive impressive level of data. About what? Surely all he needs to know is whether someone is going to vote for him. What other data is Reform collecting?

The Good Law Project is already prosecuting Reform in the High Court for failing to respond to Subject Access Requests about what data it is holding on people.

From a party which has made no secret of wanting ICE-like squads on the streets, it is very worrying.

AGAA4 Fri 07-Aug-26 12:04:33

It's absurd that anyone thinks like this. Being "superior British" I am acceptable but some of my GCs would no longer be British citizens. I thought Reform were bad but Restore? Heaven help us!

SueDonim Fri 07-Aug-26 12:23:15

Good grief! I’ve just worked out that of the sixteen of us in my direct family, only six, would be British, by that measure. Of my parents and siblings, five out of six of us would have to leave. My mum could stay, though.

What a piece of absolute nonsense. 🙄

Whitewavemark2 Fri 07-Aug-26 12:27:55

I wonder what KB thinks of Trump’s plan to take away US citizenship from people born there as a result of birth tourism?

It is odd how the right picks what is convenient and ignores other stuff, when it is actually all of a piece with right wing dogma.

Chocolatelovinggran Fri 07-Aug-26 13:13:31

Thank you, Graphite - Mr Lowe's claims based on Mr Goodwin's data: now, it makes sense.
I would no more looking to Mr Goodwin as a reliable source of facts than I would have consulted Dr Shipman about my blood pressure, or sought advice about constructing a patio from Mr Fred West.

Jaxjacky Fri 07-Aug-26 13:14:15

That’s my children out then, I was born in Pakistan.

JenniRen Fri 07-Aug-26 13:21:06

nanna8

Well my ancestors go back to the Plantaganets in a direct line but I have a feeling they were more French than British. Bloody foreigners.

You probably have more of a claim to the throne than Charles!!

Perhaps Who Do You Think You Are should make an episode about Rupert Lowe, he might be surprised to find out who his ancestors were.

Chocolatelovinggran Fri 07-Aug-26 13:25:40

The other slight possible problem could be that this ruling might reject, I suspect, my GP and my dentist.
I expect that I am not the only GNetter in that situation.
Fear not, everyone, I'm sure that Mr Lowe has thought this through..

Graphite Fri 07-Aug-26 13:33:26

Rupert Lowe’s son, Oxford-born Angus Lowe recently married foreign national Yasmin Mezran.

Yasmin is the daughter of a Muslim Libyan father and Italian mother. Her father is Karim Mezran, a Libyan academic and senior fellow at the Washington DC based Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.

www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/karim-mezran/

According to Lowe then, if any grandchildren from this union are born in the UK, they are not going to be British despite the rules saying that for anyone born in the UK on or after January 1, 1983:

You are a citizen if at least one parent was a British citizen or legally "settled" in the UK at the time of your birth.

When he prattles on about "wanting his country back", from whom does he mean exactly?

JenniRen Fri 07-Aug-26 13:44:23

Who Does He Think He Is I wonder?