Farage and UKIP would have been vilified - and rightly so - if they had suggested what Dave has 'announced' today. 'Announced' because it is not 'law' and will only be applied, subject to the usual fudge and rejection by the EU, if he gets re-elected. And on the evidence of his 'leadership' seen today, that is extremely unlikely.
Fundamentally these measures are designed firstly to make Dave look strong on the issue - which he quite simply and clearly is not - actions not words, at this stage, are the only way for him to restore any kind of credibility. Secondly they seek to address the symptoms of the problem rather than the 'illness' itself and are likely to encourage a sharp rise in immigration in the short term as people seek to beat the deadline on the possible implementation of these measures. They are almost impossible to apply retrospectively.
They are a curb on migrant benefits, not on migrants actually coming in. And when they're coming from countries as poor as Bulgaria and Romania, these curbs are unlikely to be any kind of disincentive - the UK will simply not allow people to starve on the streets, while their own countries probably would.
Let's start with the fundamentals: If immigration is good for the UK - and I think it is if managed in a controlled, logical and fair way - how does this help?
All it is doing is making us less attractive as a place for people to come and live, whether they are skilled and likely to make a positive contribution to our country or not. 'Restricting, deporting, removing, stopping'? The words of panic.
We should, in 2014, be talking about 'attracting, encouraging, accommodating, helping, benefiting from' the right people coming into the UK. And that means controlling the quality and, to a lesser extent so long as we do have a firm grip on the numbers so that we can plan the provision of infrastructure properly, the quantity.
These proposed measures do absolutely nothing to secure control of our own borders - a fundamental requirement of any nation state.
Will it stop criminal gangs bringing people into the UK to be exploited? I think it just makes the situation worse - they will be more likely to come (especially in the short term) and be exploited even more disgracefully when there is no longer any kind of safety net.
'Stopping claims for four years':
Unless they get a job. Work for a couple of months and then the whole thing kicks back in.
'Stopping child benefits for kids living outside the UK'
How the hell did we ever get to the point where this happens? This is just a fairness issue and should be implemented regardless of immigration figures.
'Removing migrants after 6 months if they haven't found work'
Yeah good luck with that Dave. You think they'll come forward and say 'I haven't got a job will you send me home please?' How much will it cost to monitor 250,000 people? Is it even possible?
'Restricting migrants bringing family members to the UK'
From outside the EU we can do this now, but we don't. From the EU we simply cannot enforce this.
'Speeding up deportation of convicted criminals'
Yeah and making appeal court lawyers even richer than they are. Unworkable.
'Longer re-entry bans'
You think criminals won't just change their identity - they don't have to do so in the UK with its legal niceties but can do so in Bulgaria. good luck with that.
'Stopping immigration from poorer countries until their economies have converged more closely'
Decades, at least, if ever. What's the criteria? How will it be judged and enforced?
It's all cloud cuckoo land stuff: An unworkable wish list that dances around the real issue - the only measure that will actually allow us to make the changes we really need, which is the ability to control our own borders.
Only when we have that control can we be generous to people rather than implementing these draconian and frankly nasty measures. As usual, by the time the issue is actually addressed, the pendulum has swung so far and the situation become so difficult and problematic, that the measures designed to tackle them have gone too far in the wrong direction.
And then, finally, after all the 'strong rhetoric' from Dave, he admits that he will only be able to implement most of these measures with the approval of a reformed EU. And if he doesn't succeed in securing those reforms he will... well what will he do?
Campaign for the UK to leave the EU? Withhold our funding of the ridiculous bureaucracy of the unelected fraudsters in Brussels. Simply ignore their directives?
Oh no. Dave, our strong leader, who works for us and should be acting first and foremost in the interests of the UK and the voters who elected him, will, decisively and positively, 'rule nothing out'. Big fucking deal.
Thanks for reading
No comments:
Post a Comment