BRITAIN should shut the door to more migrants to protect jobs for native workers, a Labour adviser said yesterday. Lord Glasman, Ed Milibands chief policy guru, wants a temporary halt to immigration to ensure British people are first in the queue for jobs. The Labour peer also urged the Government to renegotiate EU rules allowing the free movement of migrant workers in a decisive break with the open door policy of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The people who live here are the highest priority. Weve got to listen and be with them. Theyre in the right place its us who are not, he said. His remarks follow a report he has written for the Labour leader and sparked fresh anger last night over the relaxation of border controls by the last Labour government that allowed more than five million immigrants to settle in Britain. Mr Miliband yesterday tried to distance himself from the remarks by claiming he had not read them. Lord Glasman spoke out on immigration in an interview for Fabian Review, the journal of the Left-wing Fabian Society think-tank. Weve got to reinterrogate our relationship with the EU on the movement of labour, he said. Its legalistic, its administrative and its no good. So I think we have got to renegotiate with the EU. Britain is not an outpost of the UN [United Nations]. We have to put the people in this country first. The peer believes that the previous Labour governments backing for mass immigration from Eastern Europe helped undermine support among traditional Labour voters. Nine out of 10 new jobs created in Britain go to migrants. Lord Glasman had been asked by Ed Miliband to study how Labour can reconnect with millions of working class and middle-class voters who have turned their backs on the party, particularly in areas that were once the Labour heartlands. Under the title Blue Labour, his report looked at how to re-establish the partys standing among socially conservative voters uncomfortable at the rapid change to their communities caused by huge influxes of immigrants in some areas. But the peers remarks were last night seen as embarrassing for the Labour leader. Mr Miliband has admitted Labour made mistakes on immigration while in office but has opposed the coalitions Governments drive to limit the number of arrivals each year and does not support overhaul of EU freedom-of-movement rules. Yesterday he claimed not to have read Lord Glasmans comments and said: I think that one of the virtues of being in the House of Lords is that you can speak independently on any issues of the day. I havent seen those comments by Maurice Glasman, Ill obviously have a look at them. But Ive said in the past that we underestimated the impact of Polish migration to Britain. I think it is quite hard to renegotiate the terms of free movement of labour. I think the right solution is to provide a strong immigration policy but also provide people with the guarantees they need in relation to wages and conditions, which is one of the biggest worries that people have about some of the migration issues. Critics of mass immigration yesterday seized on the peers remarks as evidence that Labour was beginning to acknowledge the huge damage they caused by allowing more than 200,000 migrants a year into the UK. And yesterday Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: I dont believe that freedom of movement across the countries of the EU is a good idea. I certainly feel we should break the link between people working here and the right to settle here. If the Labour Party is beginning to wake up to this, I think the Conservative Party should as well. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said: He, like we, believes that there should always be the opportunity to invite people of drive and talent but to shut the gates to mass migration. Miliband must be fuming about this^
He might be fuming. What do you think of it yourself? With the state of the economy, can we take racism out of the equation for a minute and honestly consider the "9 out of 10 new jobs created go to migrants" (if true) alongside the current high unemployment figures? I am completely anti-racism, but I'm pro having a job. Of course it's not as simple as that, it has to be considered in context and many things come into that. Do immigrants come in and create jobs and is that why new jobs are created at all? Do they then spend money here and help develop the economy by default? Do they create business, initially employ their own people, get it off the ground and then develop into a business which employs UK people? Or do they come in and work in low paid jobs which UK people don't covet? Or do they come in, give a nod to employment and drain the economy? I expect you to know the answer to all of these questions and to put many more points forward for consideration... As to Labour, they have to do something. Blair almost became a Tory to regain the vote. That's been done, Nick Clegg is the Tory now so Labour has to find something else. Gone are the days when the unions were worth having on your side. Gone are the days when they could rely on the Scottish vote. Their target audience is shifting below them.
There is some anecdotal evidence of foreign workers being preferred. However, the UK labour market is large and complicated with nearly 30 million in the work force and, of course, the total number of jobs is not fixed. The statistics are not unambiguous but there are some worrying signs. Recent figures have shown that of the increase in employment of people aged between 16 and 64 during the period of the Labour government 68% went to non-UK nationals and 88% went to non UK born workers. (The difference is because a number of those born outside the UK will have acquired UK citizenship during the period).
Sorry for nic ing your questions Viv, but they make a great lead in:- Yes, but not all new jobs. Yes, most certainy. Yes, but not so much "don't covet" as are too (*)(*)(*)(*) lazy to do. No. Undoubtedly there some migrants who, for a variety of reasons, depend on the benefit system (such as it is). The fact is however, the vast majority earn money and pay taxes. Another point worth consideration is that although Greater London(AKA the Westmonster government) thinks immigration is a problem, that is, in a nutshell, their problem. Scotland welcomes anyone who wants to live and work here. This Tier One / Tier Two crap which has recently been pushed isn't much more than closet racism.
Before we can address immigration and its impact on the economy and national security interests of the UK, we need to move beyond the constant cries of racism. I doubt that will occur, but we would be better off if this cheap tactic was abolished.
Ed Milibands chief policy guru is making no more sense that Iain Duncan Smith did when he was talking about British jobs for British workers. But Red Ed hinted at the truth: I think it is quite hard to renegotiate the terms of free movement of labour." What he means is other member states won't renegotiate, so we're stuck with it, unless the government is willing to play hard ball and at least threaten to leave the EU, but then we're in flying pigs territory there.
Too late. They had 13 years and did precisely the opposite. Labour's open door immigration policy is directly responsible for the collapse in working class living standards as the labour market has been flooded. The bankers are laughing, everyone else is getting screwed up the arse.
... Playing hard ball... You really think we would take you seriously if the "UK threatens to leave the EU."?!
Yes, it has been discussed before, this can be taken seriously. I thought it was Mr. Juncker, who said something like, the EU would be lost without Germany or France, but the EU sure can afford to lose Britain. The EU was there before Britons joined and it would be there, if Britons leave. So the EU would probably be like "don't let the door hit you where the dog has bitten you", they only would express it more diplomatically.
In the UK there has been widespread political persecution against the BNP, whose platform is simply to reduce immigration! Members of the BNP are labelled racist, demonized on public televission, and many have been fired from their jobs. Indeed, the education minister even tried to sack all the teachers that were members of the BNP: Technology teacher Mark Walker was suspended from Sunnydale Community College, in Shildon, County Durham, last March pending an internal inquiry. The schools board of governors terminated Mr Walkers contract on the basis of his sickness record. Supporters of the former RAF weapons technician, from Spennymoor, County Durham, claim the action against him was politically motivated. They said he was accused of accessing the British National Partys (BNP) website during school time and described the proceedings as a witch hunt. Patrick Harrington, general secretary of Solidarity, a trade union closely associated with the BNP, said: No one should be victimised because of their political views. To sack him for ill health is despicable, since his health only deteriorated because of the pressures of the disciplinary and sickness process. Mark Walkers brother, Adam, is due to appear before Englands General Teaching Council in Birmingham next month and faces being struck off the teaching register. He left his job at Houghton Kepier Sports College, Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, last year after using a school computer to join an online discussion forum about the BNP. Both men had stood unsuccessfully for the BNP in Durham County elections. The school has never commented on any specific allegations. Headteachers will be given new powers to sack teachers who are members of the BNP or other 'extremist' groups. The previous government ruled out banning BNP members from teaching after an independent inquiry decided it would be 'disproportionate'. But Michael Gove, the education secretary, said he couldn't see how membership of the far-right party 'can co-exist with shaping young minds'. His decision to overturn the existing rules follows the case of a BNP activist who used a school laptop to post comments describing some immigrants as 'filth'. Adam Walker, a teacher at a school in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, wrote on an online forum that Britain was a 'dumping ground for the filth of the third world'. But he was cleared of racial and religious intolerance by a disciplinary panel in June. Mr Gove told The Guardian: 'I don't believe that membership of the BNP is compatible with being a teacher. 'One of the things I plan to do is to allow headteachers and governing bodies the power and confidence to be able to dismiss teachers engaging in extremist activity. 'I would extend that to membership of other groups which have an extremist tenor.' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1325797/Schools-given-right-sack-BNP-teachers-Tories.html Do not believe the liberal/multiculturalist propaganda about the BNP on wikipedia!
EU is the hegemony of Germany and France.Its economic and political slavery for others. If you colonize,assimilate and take everything from people then leave them to poverty,you should not get surprised about immigration.Its just the results and reflections of your past actions.Its fun to watch.
Never mind the immigrants, what about the government at Westminster which hands out massive contracts to foreign firms and not to UK companies?
Is it important whether one works for a foreign corporation or a UK corporation? If a foreign firm is able to bring employment to people, they should be encouraged to do so.
They're complying with EU law, which requires all public contracts to be offered across Europe, with the lowest bid winning. National favouritisim is forbidden.
I lived in London for a couple of years, and i think the mistake the UK made is letting in to many immigrants. Some parts of London resemble a foreign land.