Labour's U-turn on immigration.

misskool

Well, not quite but Ed Miliband would like all companies who employ foreign workers to report if they have more than a quarter of their payroll who are not British.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18539472

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/22/ed-miliband-immigration-bigots
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/22/ed-miliband-immigration-bigots

Discussing immigration in the context of the economy, can we please try to keep on topic?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

"By focusing exclusively on immigration's impact on growth, we lost sight of who was benefiting from that growth - whose living standards were being squeezed. We became disconnected from the concerns of working people."

Translation:

"We tried to do the right thing for the economy and country, but the working class proles who are our voter base are too thick and bigoted to understand why immigration is vital.

So now we're going to make confused statements and try to appeal to the xenophobe vote just like the Tories do, whilst not actually doing anything to cut immigration, because just like them we know we can't, but also like them we daren't admit it in public."

Lots of Love

The Millipede

lvader

Most people don't understand that when people from places like Poland come to the UK it's not immigration it's free movement of European citizens and there is nothing that the government can do about it. Apart from leave the EU that is.

I don't think polititians do a good job of exlpaining this.

CLAPTON

For different reasons all the main political parties support the idea of immigration.

Given that EU immigration is part of the Eu rules then nothing can now be done about that.

And in practice, it's seems that anyone can enter the UK from anywhere and it's impossible to expel anyone then non-EU immigration will continue unabated.

So it probably better to plan for the large increase in population by building more houses, schools and other infrastructure than to fight the inevitable.

worldtraveller

lvader wrote: »

I don't think polititians do a good job of exlpaining this.

I wonder why?

lvader

Being tough on immigration while in the EU is like putting a padlock on your back door while leaveing your front door wide open. personally I don't see the point.

kabayiri

CLAPTON wrote: »

...
So it probably better to plan for the large increase in population by building more houses, schools and other infrastructure than to fight the inevitable.

It would have been quite a good idea to beef up infrastructure *before* embarking on mass immigration though. Smooth the path a little.

Mr Milliband admits they got a few estimates of the numbers wrong, which doesn't help. 13,000 est , out by a factor of 20 then.

Seriously, did they not think of canvassing potential immigrants to get an idea of the scale?

It just looks incompetent when you are so far out.

amcluesent

Without the Mohammedan block-vote, 10s of Labour MPs would be out on their ear.

Just another lying politician who is grubbing for votes.

kabayiri

amcluesent wrote: »

Without the Mohammedan block-vote, 10s of Labour MPs would be out on their ear.

Just another lying politician who is grubbing for votes.

Imagine how thin Private Eye would be without our weekly Tower Hamlets revelation?

michaels

Surely multiculturalism means embracing other countries 'unique' approaches to democracy....

WE do better at selling things like education and legal services to foreigners than TVs so restricting immigration seems a bit like cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

However it would not seem impossible to have a social security system that favours those with the longest links to the country?

kabayiri wrote: »

Imagine how thin Private Eye would be without our weekly Tower Hamlets revelation?

Thrugelmir

The free movement of people and right to work. May be a political ideal. In practice doesn't work so well in Europe.