Immigration and jobs

More depressing newspaper ‘stories’ emerged this week, following an ‘official report’ claiming that non-EU migrants ‘destroy British jobs’. The Daily Express triumphantly trumpeted it on its front page, under the screaming all-caps headline “IMMIGRANTS DO TAKE BRITISH JOBS”:

MIGRANTS have snatched 160,000 jobs from British-born workers in just five years, an official report said. One British job was lost for every four non-EU workers arriving here between 2005 and 2010. The study by the Government’s Migration Advisory Committee revealed that the total number of foreigners working in the UK has soared by 2.1million in the past 15 years. [...] The startling findings come with 2.6 million Britons now jobless and youth unemployment crashing through the one million barrier. They vindicate the warnings the Daily Express has sounded for years over the dangers of Labour’s open door on immigration. [1]

The story was reported in rather less inflammatory and more considered detail by the Guardian, which also made it the front page headline:

Immigration to Britain from outside Europe is linked to unemployment in depressed economic times, according to an explosive report from the government’s own expert advisers. The migration advisory committee research published on Tuesday suggests that for every extra 100 non-European migrants who come to Britain, 23 fewer British residents are employed. The finding directly challenges the established academic consensus that there has been little or no direct link between immigration and employment levels in Britain. It flatly contradicts research from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research published on Monday, which found that even in the recent recession there was no direct impact.[2]

The journalist Zoe Williams followed this up with a sober article [3].  Plenty of other writers and bodies have, over the decades, destroyed the myths and lies about immigrants taking jobs (and scrounging benefits at the same time), and it’s important to do this, but the depressing truth is that such debunkings make feck-all difference to the backward English petit-bourgeois suburbanites and White Van Men whose views dominate the barking sewer Press.  The really depressing thing about this ‘story’ is that it’s been manufactured by the Tory government in what’s plainly a deliberate attempt to further stir up racist feeling against foreign workers and refugees, and to set the default agenda on immigration. With an ‘official’ report behind them, the racists inside and outwith the ruling regime will claim legitimacy for their views, and will demand that their opponents disprove the report. The ‘report’ has thus significantly shifted the battle to ground of the racists’ choosing.

It is the classic ‘divide and rule’ tactic, trying to deflect worker anger into hatred of immigrants, but the state of Ingerlan is such that such sentiments fall on fertile ground. The Express is only too happy to promote and amplify this line [4], and the cost will be felt in racist attacks on foreigners or anyone who looks foreign. Once again, the racist Press exercises power without responsibility or accountability.

A future dark laugh will be had when the English economy collapses in a year or two into deep depression, unemployment soars to 4 million or more, and sterling becomes a junk currency. English workers will pile out into foreign countries in desperate search of work, and many of these workers will be the same White Van Men who so loudly loathe and abuse foreigners now. I wonder if they’ll see the irony in their going to Germany, say, to ‘take German jobs’ and ‘sponge off German benefits’. Or if they’ll condemn themselves for not speaking the language and not integrating (as the expat Brits in Spain are so infamous for) with the host culture. Probably not.

References

[1] Immigrants do take British jobs. Martyn Brown, Daily Express, 11/01/12

[2] Non-EU immigration linked to unemployment, says report. Guardian, 10/01/12

[3] Migration caps aren’t about British workers. Zoe Williams, Guardian, 11/01/12

[4] That the openly racist Express can thrive in Ingerlan is a clear indication of how far right the country has moved, and how racist it’s become. That the good petit-bourgeois burghers who read the rag aren’t bothered about Richard “Dirty” Desmond being the owner of a host of hardcore porn channels and mags shows that their moral standards are rather more lax than those riff-raff and ‘liberals’ whom they look down their moral noses at.

Reasons to leave England, part 4

Part 4 in an occasional series featuring news stories that just make me want to pack my bags and escape across the Border to a civilised country.

Cameron should forget about compassion – what people clearly want is the nasty party back

Alexander Chancellor, The Guardian, 8/12/11

David Cameron once preached “compassionate conservatism” to make his party seem nicer, but that’s not what people want at all. What they actually want is “the nasty party”; and the nastier, the better. The latest report on British Social Attitudes, published annually by the National Centre for Social Research, reveals a sharp lurch to the right in public opinion. Most Britons, it finds, believe that the unemployed are deterred by excessive state benefits from looking for jobs, child poverty is the fault of parental indolence, and global warming is a myth. The amount of people willing to pay higher taxes to spend on health and education has fallen in nine years from 63% to 31%. And while people agree that Britain needs more housing, 45% don’t want any new houses built near them (and the percentage is higher – for example, 58% in outer London – in areas where the housing shortage is greatest).

The full, and highly detailed, report is available to download from the NCSR website, and makes depressing reading for liberals and socialists, or indeed anyone who values compassion and solidarity over hatred and self-interest.

Bubble trouble at South Coast derby

Football Supporters Federation, 15/12/11

Fans of Portsmouth and Southampton are unhappy with Hampshire Police thanks to their decision to force a so-called “bubble match” onto supporters this Sunday. Bubble matches place severe restrictions on fans’ freedom of movement and supporters of both sides say the move is unnecessary. [...] Bubble matches are games where ALL away fans must travel on designated transport – usually club coaches – from specific pick-up points. No independent travel is allowed and fans are usually given match tickets en route to the game, which guarantees compliance. It is a tactic that police forces around the UK have used – fans from Bristol City, Burnley, Cardiff City, and Wolves have all been on the receiving end in recent years.

Now police can shoot rioters

Daily Express, 21/12/11

POLICE should be prepared to shoot arsonists during riots to save innocent lives, one of the UK’s senior officers has said. An official review of police tactics during the shocking summer disturbances has found that officers should be ready to use “extraordinary measures” if yobs endanger lives by attacking homes and businesses.

The Super Soaraway Scum also led on this ‘story’:

COPS could shoot rioters who start fires that threaten life, a watchdog said yesterday. Water cannon and rubber bullets could also be used to stop a repeat of the summer disturbances. Live rounds could be used by gun cops against arsonists who torch businesses and homes with people inside, reported HM Inspectorate of Constabulary. It stated: “In extreme circumstances, where life is threatened, (police) commanders must also be able to use extraordinary measures.”

Shooting unarmed people is ‘oppression’ when it happens in Egypt or Syria, but just an ‘extraordinary measure’ to safeguard ‘life and property’ when it happens in the UK. Same old, same old – when under threat on the streets, all States are the same. You might say that the rioters in the UK were just ‘criminals’ and ‘yobs’ with no political aim, whereas ‘protesters’ in Egypt are revolutionaries aiming at removing dictatorship, and many (especially in the chattering classes) said precisely that during the 3 nights of rioting across England. Perhaps we now have two types of rioters, as we now (again) have two types of poor these days: deserving and undeserving.

London Olympics security to be boosted by 13,500 troops

The Guardian, 15/12/11

Up to 13,500 military personnel will be on duty in London and across the country during the Olympic Games next summer, the government has revealed, including 7,500 to boost the number of security staff inside Olympic venues. The number is greater than the 9,500 deployed in Afghanistan, although the defence secretary, Phillip Hammond, insisted the large call on the armed forces would not affect operational capabilities elsewhere. Hammond also revealed that the Royal Navy’s largest ship, 22,500-tonne helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, would be based in Greenwich for the duration of the Games, while assault vessel HMS Bulwark would be moored in Weymouth, where the sailing events will take place. An “appropriate and scaleable” air security plan includes Typhoon aircraft at RAF Northolt, helicopters operating from HMS Ocean and “appropriate” surface to air missile systems.

Reasons to leave England, part 3

Part 3 in an occasional series featuring news stories that just make me want to pack my bags and escape across the Border to a civilised country.

Police turn back 50 cars in operation to stop criminals entering city centre

Manchester Evening News, 13/8/11

Police used number-plate spotting technology to turn known criminals away from Manchester in the days after the riots. Officers stationed on key routes into the city were instantly checking registration plates of vehicles against a string of national databases. Known criminals have been intercepted and ordered to turn around. On Wednesday evening alone, 50 vehicles were turned away from Manchester by officers determined to keep the streets trouble-free.

GMP search protesters outside BBC in Manchester under S.60, Public Order Act. YouTube, 12/8/11. Video taken by passer-by of nonviolent, non-aggressive protesters taking part in a peaceful protest against the Dear Leader – sorry, PM David “Bullingdon Boy” Camer0n – who were stopped and searched in the street by Greater Manchester Police under the Public Order Act.

Shut social networks in riot – poll

The Guardian, 08/11/2011

“More than two-thirds of adults support the shutdown of social networks during periods of social unrest such as the riots in England this summer, new research has revealed. A poll of 973 adults carried out for the online security firm Unisys found 70% of adults supported the shutdown of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), while only 27% disagreed. Three-quarters agreed that governments should have open access to data on social network users in order to prevent co-ordinated crime.”

Circle in deal to run Hinchingbrooke NHS hospital

BBC News, 10/11/11

“A groundbreaking £1bn, 10-year deal for a private firm to run a struggling NHS hospital has been confirmed. Circle is to take over Cambridgeshire’s Hinchingbrooke Hospital in February – although it will stay in the NHS. The deal will see Circle assume the financial risks of making the hospital more efficient and paying off its £40m of debts. But fears have been raised it could pave the way for “wholesale transfers” of hospitals to the private sector.”

Plastic bullets available to police for Wednesday’s student protests

Guardian, 7/11/11

“Baton rounds of plastic bullets will be available to police chiefs in an attempt to prevent disorder from breaking out in the capital during the latest round of student fees protests. Trained officers will be free to use baton rounds for “extreme” measures as 10,000 protesters march through London on Wednesday to voice their anger over tuition fees and cuts. Scotland Yard commander Simon Pountain said about 4,000 officers will be on duty to police the event amid fears the march could be hijacked by anarchists.”

‘Death threat’ in union jack row

BBC News Nottingham, 17/11/11

“A man who complained about the permanent flying of a union jack in his Nottinghamshire village said he had received racist death threats. Gamston Parish Council voted in favour of the year-round display of the flag on the village common. Roger Henry said the flag had become a symbol of far-right political groups. He said he had since received a letter which said “we hope you get killed” and “go back to your own country”.”

See also, on this story in the Nottingham Evening Post:

Row over flying of Union Jack in Gamston (8/11/11)

Village in U-turn over plans to take down the Union flag (16/11/11)

It’s the comments to the NEP stories that are the most depressing and disturbing.

Europhobia on the rise

The Europhobic Right is on the advance again. At this very moment, Tory blowhards are gassing away in the Commons about the EU superstate, UK sovereignty, the Euro crisis, and how much they hate Johnny Foreigner. This is but the start of what the super-reactionary Express calls, unselfconsciously and quite possibly as a deliberate insult to Muslims, its “Crusade“. The Europhobes are a motley mix of Little Englanders and US agents, or less inaccurately petit-bourgeois English nationalists and bourgeois Atlanticists. Such is the febrile atmosphere of reactionary English nationalism carefully stoked and propagated by the current and previous regimes, the petit-bourgeois and reactionary print media, and of course the BNP and UKIP (nicely described by Jeremy Hardy as “Fascism Lite”), that ‘Eurosceptics’ have the confidence to call for outright EU withdrawal. Quite possibly, in a few years, they’ll have their way.

Political pundits are forever saying that the Tories are “split over Europe”, but that disguises the reality, which is that the Tory Party reflects UK Capital by being divided between Atlanticist and European interests. Usually this is hidden behind the rhetoric of patriotism and sovereignty, but the recent Liam Fox scandal brought the Atlanticist faction momentarily into the spotlight through his membership of the Atlantic Bridge , a body which describes itself as a:

“Group which coordinates the sharing of policy ideas and personal networks between conservatives in the UK and the US”

It could more accurately be described as an alliance of Finance Capital across the Pond, with the Thatcherite Atlanticist Tories making common cause with the US Tea Party [1]. There have been previous spats between Europeans and Atlanticists which have occasionally brought the factions blinking into an unwanted light, one of the most notable in the Thatcher reign being the “Westland affair” [2] which become a very public US v EU struggle. That was in the days when manufacturing Capital had some leverage with the Tories, but now the party is dominated by Finance Capital [3] its political axis has moved sharply towards the US and away from the EU. For all that the Tories bang the nationalist drum about sovereignty and the “overweening” power of Eurocrats, they’re really following the money. Tories are traditionally pragmatists who know which side their bread’s buttered on and who’s doing the buttering, and there’s no question these days that it’s Washington providing the spread. From a national viewpoint it might seem to make more economic sense to stay with an EU which, for all its travails, is a growing economic and political power with a currency set to derail the dollar as a reserve currency [4] and not weighed down with the multi-billion costs of a parasitic massive military-industrial complex and of waging imperialist wars producing relatively little return (not enough buck to be worth the bang). However, from a factional viewpoint, there’s little doubt that Finance Capital is dominant in the UK economy, and that’s inextricably linked to US interests. The nation might benefit from the EU, but factions in Capital make their money across the Pond.

Still, WTF does it matter if the UK is a declining peripheral nation in an Atlantic ‘alliance’ or a European superstate? It’ll make a difference to the bourgeoisie in the opposing factions, but the working class has a ‘choice’ between:

a) a corporate authoritarian racist EU superstate in hock to European corporations

b) a corporate authoritarian racist UK state (in reality, a 51st US state) in hock to US corporations

Hobson’s Choice, right enough, so why get up tight about it? Because it signals the inexorable rise of virulent English nationalism which may lead to fascism. EU withdrawal would lead to:

• greater authoritarianism
• intensified racism
• sharper intra-UK conflicts leading to hostility, possibly violent, towards Scotland and Wales
• subordination to the USA [5], such that the UK becomes part of a dollar zone and resumes its role as US military outpost
• steep economic decline, with sterling nose-diving against major currencies

Undoubtedly the Scots would be aghast at UK withdrawal, and would rush to independence to become a State within the EU [6], particularly with the UK regime increasingly acting as an English State. Scotland is already a ways to the Left of England, with Tories wiped out North of the Border, and has far more in common with European social democracy than US/UK neo-liberalism. Serious noises about EU withdrawal would be the final goad towards independence. That will undoubtedly lead to conflict, stoking English nationalism, and you can just see the Sun and Daily Mail calling for action to secure ‘UK assets’. The Welsh might have less room to manoeuvre, but they also wouldn’t want to be part of an isolationist English regime and would at the very least be pushing for full economic and political autonomy.

Without Scotland and the EU, there would be no brakes on English reaction, and England would rapidly move to a form of fascism portrayed in the films V for Vendetta and Children of Men. England is already virulently racist and violently authoritarian and becoming more so, under official sanction, by the week, so without the checks of EU legislation and Scottish social democracy, and with a rapidly declining economy driving sharp social tensions (the recent riots will be a tea party in comparison to what would follow) the creep towards fascism would become a headlong rush.

There is a respectable strain of opinion on the Left for EU withdrawal, so as to build a progressive and socialist, or at least social democratic, nation free of an EU in hock to multinationals. Whilst in theory this is an option, in practice, with a Tory majority solidified in England after Scots independence and zilch political consciousness in the English working class, there are two chances of a socialist England: fat and slim (and Slim just left town). EU withdrawal would result in an isolated and xenophobic England, deeply racist and reactionary, in which worker’s interests would be ruthlessly stomped on by the State. Those on the Left (Bob Crow and Tony Benn come immediately to mind) who support EU withdrawal are living in a state of denial, and their attempts to distance themselves from Right-wing Europhobes are futile.

Still, this is all just wibbling. In practical terms, all these games are played out by factions way above our heads and completely unaccountable and uninfluenceable by ordinary people. We might get a referendum, but if Europhobia has reached such a pitch that that takes place then the result will be a foregone conclusion. If that ever does happen, then this writer for one will be for the off to a Celtic civilisation before the borders are sealed. I’m no fan of the EU superstate, but I’ll take a civilised European country over a fascist England every day of the week.

References

[1] Liam Fox’s Atlantic Bridge linked top Tories and Tea Party activists. Guardian, 15/10/11

[2] Wikipedia: Westland affair. Accessed 22/10/11

[3] Revealed: 50% of Tory funds come from City. Guardian 8/2/11. City’s influence over Conservatives laid bare by research into donations. Guardian 30/9/11

[4] And has gone up significantly against Sterling. According to the Interactive Currency Table, the Euro is currently worth 87p, and five years ago was worth 67p. That’s an appreciation of over 30%, and that with the Euro in crisis.

[5] Those Right ‘idealists’ who dream of a UK independent of power blocs are naive fantasists

[6] The SNP’s stated objective is “an independent Scotland within Europe”. See, for instance, the press release “SNP to relaunch Independence in Europe campaign” on the SNP website.

Reasons to leave England, part 1

An occasional series featuring news stories that just make me want to pack my bags and escape across the Border to a civilised country.

Migration settlement cuts planned

BBC News, 9/6/11

Proposals to cut the number of migrants allowed to settle permanently in the UK have been published by the Home Office. In future, only a “tightly controlled minority” from outside the European Union will be allowed to stay for more than five years. Ministers say they are also considering stopping wealthy business people staying on after five years. The move is part of the government’s pledge to cut net migration to tens of thousands by the end of the Parliament.

Vince Cable warns unions strikes could spark clampdown on industrial action

Guardian, 6/6/11

The business secretary, Vince Cable, will issue a warning to the country’s union chiefs that if they ratchet up strikes opposing the coalition’s cuts the government may be forced to make it harder for them to embark on industrial action.

David Cameron to target Islamists who hold ‘un-British’ beliefs

Guardian, 6/6/11

David Cameron has won a cabinet battle to toughen up the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy and take a harder line against Islamic traditions that fail to “reflect British mainstream values”.

The successor to Labour’s Prevent strategy is likely to redefine extremists as those who hold “un-British” views, such as intolerance of equal rights for women, because ministers believe there is a link between non-violent extremism and violent acts of terrorism.

The new policy, which could be unveiled this week, will reflect the prime minister’s February speech in Munich in which he claimed “state multiculturalism” had failed. Further education colleges are likely to be targeted in the belief that they have become a breeding ground for young Islamists.

British airline passengers to US could have details kept for 15 years

Daily Telegraph, 26/5/11

British airline passengers flying to the United States face having their personal information, including addresses, phone numbers and credit card details, stored for 15 years under under a proposed agreement between the US and the European Union.

Oh Nottingham… (2)

Today I got a real in-yer-face reminder of how backward and reactionary Scab City – sorry, Nottingham – is. An anti-cuts demo was announced for 5pm in the Market Square. I turn up, barely 50 were there, with just a couple of banners and a few lefty paper sellers whose hearts weren’t really in it. This is in response to the most savage cuts to public spending since the 20s (and look what happened then) – only 50 people can be arsed to come out to protest. Oh well, I thought, usual English apathy, then a 50-something unshaven pissant knuckledragger comes up to me and starts ranting into my face about “socialist wankers” and indolent public workers and “human nature” and the rest. Pretty aggressive toe-to-toe stuff too, and had there not been coppers around I’d have challenged him to back his loud mouth up with actions. Which wouldn’t have done any good of course, but I’ve a short temper – must be the Irish blood, or maybe just lack of patience with scabby lumpens.

However, the fact that he thought he could just pick on anyone in the street to rant to indicated that he thought that most Nottingham folk would be in his camp, and I reckon he’s right. I’ve lived in Scab City for 7 years now (a job’s a job, eh?) and not once in that time have I met, or even overheard, anyone with an ounce of class consciousness. Even the few activists around the Sumac centre are middle-class animal rights moralists, who openly scorn the working class and only care about their own narrow campaigns and identity politics. There’s a small Anarchist Federation rump, and fair play to them, but they sure have a hard job on their hands making any headway in this place. Even the Trots have given up on Nottingham’s workers – they know a lost cause when they see one.

Earwig Nottingham-ites in any pub and when any political topics come up they parrot the Daily Mail line. A good taste of Nottingham thinking can be gathered from reading the reader comments on stories on the Nottingham Evening Post website, where the green ink flows freely and contributors (more than a few of whom are BNP supporters) make the Daily Mail seem liberal. Yet once upon a time, so I read, Nottingham was a hotbed of radicalism, but that was all snuffed out by the city’s shameful yet still unrepented betrayal in the ’84 Miners Strike. Now they take whatever the bosses throw at them – for instance, 700 made redundant by Boots last month, and nary a whimper, let alone a factory occupation; 500 made redundant by Experian earlier this year, and Nottingham Forest continued to wear the Experian logo on their shirts.

I’d gone along to the ‘demo’ in the vain hope that even the zombie-like Nottingham-ites would be capable of understanding that we’re all being screwed by the Tory cuts, and would come out in force if only out of pure self-interest. Fat chance.

For a decent summary of the effect the cuts will have on Nottingham, see the Notice Nottingham ‘special’ on the Comprehensive Spending Review - this is usually a council propaganda sheet trumpeting only good news, but for a change it’s spin-free and fact-packed.

(For previous thoughts on Scab City, see Oh Nottingham… from a few months back.)

The Spud-faced Nipper gets the hump

Well, the spud-faced nipper Rooney put his foot in his mouth again, before and after the bore-draw with Algeria. Before the game, he said:

“Against Algeria we can not be at our best and win the game” [1]

Then afterwards, he gets the hump at being booed off the field:

“nice to see your home fans booing” [2]

Well, O Potato-faced One, they could be booing because a) the team’s shite, and b) you’re ugly (inside and out) and shite. If not for Everton, you’d be another hoodie low-life twocking cars in Toxteth, and how do you express your gratitude for the club that raised you from the gutter? By fecking off to Merchandising Utd ^[TM] after professing your undying love for the blues. You now ‘earn’ more in a week than an average worker earns in five years for doing sod-all squared for a couple of hours a week, but when the punters express their righteous displeasure you just have a good old sneer at them. You’ve got the morals of a rat, the brains of a hamster, and a face like the south end of a northbound hippo. The only good thing about your fame is that your wife has launched her career off it, and she’s got what you haven’t: talent, desire, imagination, intelligence, and good looks. She’s not the trophy wife, you’re the trophy footballer. You remind me of Paul Gascoigne, without the charm, humour or brains. Or skill.

Ingerlan never looked likely to score in the match, and in truth the Algerians were the better team, particularly in their ball control and organisation. So much for “living the dream” as the pre-Cup blurb had it. Maybe, Potato Face, your bunch of overpaid underskilled journeymen will grind out a win against Slovenia (though I’ll be having some of the ludicrous 6/1 being offered against Slovenia for the match – is that value, or what?) but it’s a racing cert that you’ll go down on penalties to Germany in the next game, a prediction I was making with some confidence before a ball was kicked. I think they call it kismet.

Interestingly, and amusingly, I read in the papers that bookies are offering a mere 6/4 against Ingerlan being booed off the field this afternoon. Fairly long odds…

The truth is that Ingerlan is much like England: a 5th-rank power living on nostalgic memories of past glories, and forever bitter when their delusional dreams come up hard against reality. Other ex-imperial nations have reconciled themselves, to varying degrees, with their downgraded position in the world, but Ingerlan forever dreams of 1966 and all that and turns its wrath on its representatives – players and managers – when they necessarily fail to lift the trophy. It’s difficult to predict what root vegetable the Sun will dub Fabio Capello when the team return home, but as a class manager who’s nailed on for another top job whatever happens, he can afford to give the tabloids two fingers and a righteous vaffanculo.

Perhaps England’s nostalgia for past glories and its delusions that it can still be a ‘major power’ derive from never having fought a war on its own soil, and thus it doesn’t have the fresh memory of occupation, its humiliations and dirty compromises, that is so part of the history of mainland European nations. It can still delude itself that it’s a ‘proud island nation’ still ruling the waves, a delusion plainly nurtured by Ingerlan fans who still sing “Two world wars and one world cup, doo-dah, doo-dah” and the theme tune from the Great Escape. Such delusions would be charming national idiosyncrasies if they weren’t so dangerous. By trapping English nationalism inside a time bubble of nostalgia for a mythical Golden Age, these delusions give succor to the reactionaries and fascists who promise to bring the good old days back (the BNP in particular seems to hark back to a mythologised all-white 50s).

I’ve always hated Blairite language, but in this case you can assuredly say that it’s time for the English to put a line under the past and move on. Imperial power has gone. Britannia doesn’t rule the waves (though it surely waives the rules). The England team can’t win the World Cup. Get over it, grow up, and get real.

[1] Wayne Rooney jibe fires up Algeria, BBC Sport, 17/6/10

[2] World Cup 2010: Wayne Rooney apologises to England fans, BBC Sport, 19/6/10

NuLabor racism intensifies

I must stop listening to the radio news because it just winds me up every time. Today there’s a report on that amoral apolitical venal chancer (sorry, “Labour leadership candidate”) Ed Balls calling for harsher immigration controls, on the grounds that NuLabor lost the election because it wasn’t tough enough on immigration:

Meanwhile in an interview with the Observer, former schools secretary Ed Balls said high levels of immigration under Labour had had an impact on the pay and conditions of “too many people”.

He said there had been “real economic gains” from eastern European immigration but added: “As Labour seeks to rebuild trust with the British people, it is important we are honest about what we got wrong.

“In retrospect, Britain should not have rejected transitional controls on migration from the first wave of new EU member states in 2004, which we were legally entitled to impose.”

On immigration he told BBC One’s Politics Show immigration should not be seen as a race issue and said he told Gordon Brown over the past 18 months that Labour had been “making a mistake by brushing it under the carpet”. [1]

So now he’s saying that workers inside the European Union shouldn’t be allowed to come to England to work. Would he support restrictions on English construction workers going to, say, Spain? Like feck he would! But the prospect of Turkey joining the EU, with all those Islamist darkie hordes waiting en masse to descend on this ‘land of freedom and tolerance’ ^[TM], has got him all in a tizzy:

He said the possible future accession of Turkey could create a similarly “destabilising” exodus of workers across Europe. [2]

And if EU workers are allowed to keep working here? Then there might be an “undermining” of “popular support” for the “EU project” (trans: the UK will pull out of the EU, which would be music to the ears of the other EU nations).

This from a heidyin in the corrupt, racist and venal regime that locked up asylum seekers and refugees, including their children, in concentration camps for years, and actively courted the Sun, the Mail, and White Van Man with rhetoric that made the BNP seem positively moderate. In all my adulthood I’ve not come across a more racist and oppressive regime, and that includes the Thatcher era which was openly racist. Yet we’ve got this tit saying that more immigrants should be locked up and kept out of this Green and Unpleasant Land. It’s no accident, to my mind, that the BNP rose in popularity during the NuLabor regime, as NuLabor actively legitimated the BNP’s racism, clearing political space for it to become a regular political party.

Even more disgusting is that the trades union Unite has immediately supported Balls’ racism:

In response to Ed Balls’ Comment on EU Immigration Unite Assistant General Secretary, Les Bayliss said:

“Ed Balls is absolutely correct. The current situation of immigration from the EU combined with weak employment protection in this country has led to widespread exploitation of workers in the construction industry. Wage levels are being undercut and national bargaining agreements are being ignored. We need to tighten up on regulations to protect domestic workers’ ability to get jobs and to earn a decent living, whilst at the same time allowing skilled workers from the EU to come here without fear of being cheated by unscrupulous employers.” [3]

So much for class consciousness, worker solidarity, and internationalism, eh, guys? Oh, for a Bob Crow at the head of all trades unions.

Balls and his ex-bosses are living proof that scum, as well as cream, rises to the top. If Labour elects him as leader, on an openly racist platform, any socialists worthy of the name should resign from the Party.

What’s darkly ironic is that Eastern European workers have over the last year been returning home for work, for the very simple reason that the UK economy is going down the tubes and there are no longer the jobs for them here, skilled or unskilled. It’s bleedin’ obvious: economic migrants migrate for jobs. This racist myth that Polish workers, for instance, were coming to England to sponge off benefits and the NHS (after impregnating our pure English Roses and spreading filth and disease, just like us Irish did back in the days when we were “Fenian bastards” and before we became ‘cool’) because “we” were so “tolerant” (hah!) and “lax”, was just that: a myth perpetrated by the petit-bourgeois sewer Press. Now that Poland is growing economically, and Ingerlan is in the shit, they return to where the jobs are.

And when (not if) Eastern European economies (particularly Poland and the Baltic countries) take off, economically, and England (once Scotland gains independence) sinks into the bottomless economic pit it’s destined for, there’ll be shedloads of English workers piling over to Poland for work. And with luck, the Poles will give them the same reception as the English have given the Poles. That would be a matter of dark satisfaction for this son of an economic migrant.

[1] “Andy Burnham ‘confident’ of Labour leadership support”, BBC News, 6/6/10.

[2] “Balls accuses Brown over immigration“, Financial Times, 6/6/10

[3] “Unite response to Ed Balls’ comment on EU immigration“. Unite blog, 6/6/10

‘Talking about immigration’

The most irritating and damaging thing to come out of Gordon Brown’s “gaffe”, where he called a Rochdale woman who was banging on about Eastern European workers coming to the UK, a bigot, is that it’ll give carte blanche to all the racist green-inkers whose mantra is that “it’s not racist to talk about immigration”. As it happens, guys and gals, it is racist, because the only people in England who use that mantra are those who want to control or stop Johnny Foreigner coming to this green and unpleasant land. You don’t get someone in favour of further immigration or even open borders using the mantra, it’s only the bigots and the racists of Middle England [TM] who have a persecution complex about being ‘banned’ from talking about immigration (news to me – every other Mail and Express lead story is a negative story about immigration) by the ‘liberal politically-correct elite’.

Is ‘immigration’ a big issue amongst the Great British (well, English really) Public? Yep, and it’s so because the dominant form of Englishness – the reactionary nostalgia for imperial glories, warm beer and cricket, ‘two world wars and one world cup, doo-dah’, bootlicking obeisance to the monarchy, and hatred and contempt for all foreigners – is racist to the marrow. Racism is so much a part of ‘traditional’ Englishness, so ingrained in dominant English culture, that it’s not even remarked upon, and if you do try to show it up Englanders get the hump and bang on about how they’re “proud to be English” and “if the Jocks can be proud of Scottishness, why can’t we be proud of being English”, accompanied by a thrusting of the jaw and defiant Churchillian glare (and the barely concealed threat of a smack in the teeth). Well, O Pugnacious Patriots, it’s because you’re comparing chalk with cheese: English nationalism is exclusive, inward-looking, aggressive, imperialist, and backward-looking towards a mythical whites-only society where folk ‘respected their betters’ and ‘knew their place’ [2]; modern Scottish nationalism is explicitly inclusive, outward-looking (‘an independent Scotland in Europe’ is the SNP’s slogan), pacific and forward-looking.

This contrast between the nationalisms was made stark some years back when Jack McConnell, First Minister of Scotland 2001-7 and leader of the Scottish Labour Party, actively and publicly pleaded with Tony Blair to send all the asylum seekers and refugees that England was trying to keep out and deport, up to Scotland to help rebuild their society and economy. For sound reasons of self-interest, to be sure – Scotland’s population is falling, particularly in the deprived Highlands & Islands, and the country desperately needs fresh young blood to produce new generations of Scots and bring vitality and expertise to the land. Can you imagine the outcry in England from the petit-bourgeois and sewer Press were a top politician in England to actively welcome refugees? His or her political life would be measured in days, if not hours. In Scotland, it bolstered McConnells’ popular reputation.

If you’re in Scotland then ‘talking about immigration’ really does mean talking about pro as well as anti viewpoints, and these days more pro than anti. It’s not, as it is in England, unsubtle code for ‘kick the wogs aht’. Scots know full well that this isn’t some tiny little overcrowded island – you just have to go to the Highlands and Islands, where sheep outnumber people by orders of magnitude, to see that. Scots are also very well aware that there’s masses of empty space in the Highlands as a direct result of the Clearances, which were a combination of class war by lairds against peasants and ethnic cleansing by the English army. What happened in the Balkans in the 90s is what happened to Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries, a linkage the famous Gaelic poet and radical Somhairle MacGill-Eain (Sorley Maclean) frequently made in his work.

As for whether or not yer woman Brown cursed was a bigot or not, who knows for sure other than herself and those who know her, but that she was banging on about immigration in another decaying lumpen Pennine town twinned with Royston Vasey makes it pretty likely that she is, and for that reason I’ve some sympathy with Broon. Instead of apologising and saying he was ‘mortified’, he should have stood his ground and said that, in his view, the woman was a bigot. By cravenly backtracking and grovellingly apologising, he makes himself look even more of a tit than he already is.

[1] Gordon Brown ‘mortified’ by his ‘bigoted woman’ slur. BBC News online, 28/4/10

[2] A nostalgia that conveniently airbrushes all the riots and near-revolutions and strikes out of English history, but then that’s the sort of thing that an England-hating leftie would say, eh? Wat Tyler? Jimmy Reid? Levellers? Just a bunch of lefty inventions.

[3] Such a lovely irony, lost on White Van Man, that yer man Georgie was a Palestinian who never went within a hundred leagues of Ing-er-lan.