The Media & Their Narratives.

[BIAD]

There's been a quiet nudging in the world of Journalistic parlance recently, where The Guardian news-outlet is being
suggested as a better area than usual to garner interesting news. Below is an example of their 'sensitively data-excluded'
work regarding a UK policy about illegal arrivals to the British shores.

Amelia Gentleman is a journalist who is married to Jo Johnson, the older brother of the previous Prime Minister -Boris.
So I guess she'll have her finger on the nation's pulse of how they feel and surely relate the fact that the vessel involved
in her article was actually a place to house oil-platform employees who worked off-shore for months at a time.
Or maybe not.


Oh... and don't fall for the idea that Miss Gentleman (don't women accept their married names anymore?!) actually
visited this kitted-out ship. No, her subtle word-smithing derived from a prepared Press Release handed over from
the Government. The photographs are from locally-based PA Media photographer of the south-English coast.

A sister-in-law of an ex-Prime Minister doesn't get down with the peasants, it's the rules. However, she does have her
very own Wikipedia page, something William Brazel of Roswell fame could never achieve!


21 Jul 2023

‘Cabins slightly larger than a prison cell’: life aboard the UK’s barge for asylum seekers

'Each two-person cabin in the Bibby Stockholm barge, which is set to start accommodating asylum seekers imminently,
has a small flat-screen television screwed to the wall opposite the bunk beds. Residents will not, however, be able to
watch them because they have not been wired to anything.

The timeline for the arrival of the first group of 50 asylum seekers has slipped from next week to “the coming
weeks”, with the Home Office aiming to increase the number of occupants (or “service users”, as barge staff term
them) to 500 by the autumn.

Organising tours for journalists on Friday of the 222-cabin barge moored in Portland Port, Dorset, presented
government officials with a PR conundrum. To underline that reliance on expensive hotel accommodation was
being reduced, conditions needed to be shown to be less luxurious than hotels but not so austere that the barge
could be classified as a floating prison.


Better than a dingy in the English Channel.

Officials have refused to provide any detail about the figures behind their assertion that the barge accommodation
will be considerably cheaper than hotel rooms. When the facility finally opens, arrivals will make their way on to the
barge via a gangplank, and through airport-style security. In line with the Home Office’s prevailing dislike of friendly
murals and pictures, asylum seekers will be greeted by plain, undecorated walls, though a simple laminated A4 sheet
stating “welcome” has been stuck on the wall of the reception room.

Windowless corridors, narrow enough to trail your fingers along both walls as you walk through them, circle the
perimeter of the barge, with about 50 rooms on the long edges. Empty of inhabitants, the very confined space
feels clean and cool, with an atmosphere vaguely reminiscent of a faded cross-Channel ferry.

Single-person cabins have been refitted with bunk beds to double the potential capacity of the vessel. Each cabin
is slightly larger in size than a prison cell, a bit smaller than the most basic university accommodation, and is fitted
with a shower and toilet, a cupboard, mirror, desk and (staff are keen to point this out as a positive feature) a window.

There was a subtle difference in approach taken by the Home Office employees giving tours to journalists and the
representatives of the firm subcontracted to manage the barge. Government officials were keen to emphasise the
barge’s low-cost appeal, but staff working for the Miami-based Landry & Kling, which has been subcontracted by
the Australian firm Corporate Travel Management (CTM) to run the vessel on behalf of the Home Office, wanted to
highlight the “dignified” treatment that would be provided: a 24-hour snack bar, planned visits to local allotments,
proposed walks and cycle trips for residents.

Joyce Landry, the firm’s cofounder, valiantly described the Bibby Stockholm in an interview earlier this week with the
Herald as “actually quite lovely”. In the centre of the barge there are two smallish outdoor areas where nets are soon
to be installed to allow people to play volleyball or netball and possibly a very contracted form of football.
There is a small gym with two running machines, and an education room with just eight seats.

“The thing that puts this vessel above many others is that every room has a window. You won’t feel claustrophobic.
The windows open, unlike in some hotels. There’s enough public space to have a sense of freedom and openness,”
said a Landry & Kling staff member.

The windows offer views of high metal fencing and naval works units. Whether or not residents, single men aged 18-65,
who will be held here for up to nine months, will agree that there is a sense of freedom and openness is a moot point.
Security staff are being trained to manage conflict on board.

In the street by the port’s entrance local protesters have been displaying their anger about the barge all week, with some
furious at the arrival of large numbers of asylum seekers so close to the small tourist town, and others protesting that
asylum seekers should not be held on barges at all...'

Archived Guardian Article:

They're all asylum seekers now, the media says so. We'll see if they report the fires suddenly breaking out
on the ship.