COMMENT It would be wrong to dismiss the latest Government immigration figures as lies, damned lies and statistics.
They are worse than that. Indeed, they are hardly statistics at all. They are little more than guesswork.
When Poland and other states joined the European Union, Government “experts” estimated 20,000 newcomers would enter Britain looking for work.
The actual figure is more than 450,000. As Romania and Bulgaria prepare to join the EU, even this massive figure could be dwarfed.
Don’t blame the new arrivals. Half of Europe has only recently emerged from the poverty of communism. Wages are a fraction of UK rates. No wonder the brightest and best of central Europe are pouring into Britain, the one EU state with no work restrictions.
The results would gladden the flinty heart of the greediest Victorian capitalist.
This influx of cheap labour has driven down wage rates dramatically.
The biggest winners in this vast migration of labour are employers paying the minimum wage, or less.
The biggest losers are British job seekers who find themselves better off on benefits than trying to compete with foreign workers who live in hostels and send half their wages home.
Schools are overwhelmed with children unable to speak English. NHS surgeries, already at full stretch, are faced with new demands. Trade unions are in despair.
And all this has happened under a Labour government. How? Why?
The stock response from Chancellor Gordon Brown is that migrants are needed to drive the economy and to support an ageing population.
What nonsense. Migration on this scale may be a godsend to a few greedy bosses but it is creating huge tensions in British society.
Ordinary British people are now demanding some limits on immigration, even from EU states.
We need action. We get waffle.
Uncaring side of the health service
Where is the one place that a disabled car sticker counts for nothing?
A hospital car park.
Today we report the plight of 74-year-old Rob Fletcher, forced to walk nearly a mile to visit his sick wife in Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital because he cannot afford to park there.
A hospital official says people on low incomes may be able to reclaim the money at the hospital office.
Really? And will these unfortunates be required to hold their cap in their hands as they apply for charitable relief?
The NHS is supposed to be a caring 21st Century service. It can surely do better than this.
This article posted on August 22, 2006 at 5:23 pm.
Workers are immigration game losers
COMMENT It would be wrong to dismiss the latest Government immigration figures as lies, damned lies and statistics.
They are worse than that. Indeed, they are hardly statistics at all. They are little more than guesswork.
When Poland and other states joined the European Union, Government “experts” estimated 20,000 newcomers would enter Britain looking for work.
The actual figure is more than 450,000. As Romania and Bulgaria prepare to join the EU, even this massive figure could be dwarfed.
Don’t blame the new arrivals. Half of Europe has only recently emerged from the poverty of communism. Wages are a fraction of UK rates. No wonder the brightest and best of central Europe are pouring into Britain, the one EU state with no work restrictions.
The results would gladden the flinty heart of the greediest Victorian capitalist.
This influx of cheap labour has driven down wage rates dramatically.
The biggest winners in this vast migration of labour are employers paying the minimum wage, or less.
The biggest losers are British job seekers who find themselves better off on benefits than trying to compete with foreign workers who live in hostels and send half their wages home.
Schools are overwhelmed with children unable to speak English. NHS surgeries, already at full stretch, are faced with new demands. Trade unions are in despair.
And all this has happened under a Labour government. How? Why?
The stock response from Chancellor Gordon Brown is that migrants are needed to drive the economy and to support an ageing population.
What nonsense. Migration on this scale may be a godsend to a few greedy bosses but it is creating huge tensions in British society.
Ordinary British people are now demanding some limits on immigration, even from EU states.
We need action. We get waffle.
Uncaring side of the health service
Where is the one place that a disabled car sticker counts for nothing?
A hospital car park.
Today we report the plight of 74-year-old Rob Fletcher, forced to walk nearly a mile to visit his sick wife in Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital because he cannot afford to park there.
A hospital official says people on low incomes may be able to reclaim the money at the hospital office.
Really? And will these unfortunates be required to hold their cap in their hands as they apply for charitable relief?
The NHS is supposed to be a caring 21st Century service. It can surely do better than this.
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