The current furore over immigration figures is a mess of the Government's own making. In pandering to the right, and using racist rhetoric like "British jobs for British workers" Gordon Brown has dug himself into a hole entirely of his own making.
Free movement around the EU isn't something to be condemned.Neither, frankly, is the number of people coming to this country in search of employment because we need them. The problem is that all to often unscrupulous employers pay below minimum wage levels and exploit the workers in all kinds of other ways. But does this Government act to tighten up the labour laws and stop such scandalous working practices ( which fuel the right) No, it doesn't. The "flexible" labout force , after all , is one of Brown's big mantras. You can't have it both ways, The media, meanwhile, is whipping up a storm of bigotry and prejudice. Even the BBC. The fact is without the thousands of migrant workers coming to this country the economy would be in serious trouble. The building trade ( once staffed almlst entirely by migrant Irish workers ) and leisure industries rely very much on foreign nationals. The other weekend I went to the Lake District - almost every pub and cafe I went into was staffed by workers from Eastern Europe. Good luck to them. But let's ensure they have proper wages at the proper rates That means tightening up enforcement and trade union legislation - which this Govt is reluctant to do.
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
DOG WHISTLE POLICY ON IMMIGRATION COMES HOME TO ROOST
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3 comments:
Of course, migrant workers should be treated fairly but you and other supporters of No/Open borders appear to believe that mass migration has no downside, no delitorious consequnces. Well, perhaps here is just one:well over 50% of new jobs created since 1997 have been taken up by migrants, yet there are also over 1 million NEETs who have been abandoned by this govt as they don't really need them anymore because of course they(employers) now have access to an inexhaustible pool of imported labour. I can think of many more.
This refusal to acknowledge that there are a number of genunine concerns about the scale of migration leaves the left failing and failing and leaves the door open to the far right to make the running. it also means the left has no response to the shambles that is uk immigration policy and the recent farce on migrant statistics,
In fact, Jenni Russell in the Guardian is arguing the very same points
The left can no longer afford to bury the migration debate
The gulf between the political rhetoric and people's experience of immigration has grown too big to be ignored
Jenni Russell
Wednesday October 31, 2007
The Guardian
For years, the vast majority of politicians in the main parties have avoided having an honest public conversation about the extent and consequences of immigration. The fear of appearing racist, or of giving any ground to the arguments of the far right, has left most MPs and commentators in Pollyanna territory - extolling the economic and cultural benefits of immigration and glossing over the problems. That has done the nation no favours, because the consequences of rapid social change have been scarcely studied, let alone addressed. And it has increased many people's distrust of the political universe, as the gulf between their own experience and the bland assertions of leaders has grown.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/comment/0,,2202164,00.html
You're spot on here. Except on Iraq, New Labour has never had the balls to show leadership and make the case for what it apparently belives in.
When people only hear the right side of the argument, it's little wonder they drift in that direction.
In any case, as Poland and other east European economies pick up and create more jobs, there will be fewer economic migrants... then we'll be in trouble.
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