(not satire – it’s the UK today!)
This is actually a blog post I wrote over a year ago. But with the success of UKIP in both Tory and Labour heartlands – it’s even more relevant today.
A couple of days ago I wrote an article about how Cameron had secretly agreed a deal to allow cheap labour from India into the UK.
You can read it for yourself here:
Immigration bombshell: Cameron’s (very) secret deal to allow a flood of cheap labour from India
The main point of the article wasn’t just about immigration – it was also about how Cameron has successfully managed to hide what he’s doing from the electorate because if it were ever to become widely known – it would be electorally devastating for him at the next election.
I knew I would be attacked for the post – but I was surprised at how many on the Left attacked me for even attempting to start a discussion about immigration. One person even went so far to compare me to Enoch Powell.
Why is the Left so afraid to even talk about immigration?
If immigration is good for the economy – as some studies have suggested – why wouldn’t anyone on the Left want to shout it out from the rooftops?
And if immigration has a negative effect on wages and housing – why wouldn’t anyone on the Left want to shout out about that too?
The truth is that the Left seems to have handed over the whole discussion about immigration to the Right.
Opinion poll after opinion poll shows immigration is the number 1 concern of voters. If the electorate is badly misinformed about immigration – then how can refusing to join in the debate change that?
That’s why I want to see the Left jump into the immigration debate with both feet – no holds barred.
We should talk about the good and the bad aspects of immigration – we should talk about points systems and caps and how much access to benefits immigrants should or shouldn’t have and racism and integration and language and regulations and housing and access to health services and wages – let the discussion be free and open and we should not be afraid.
Because the alternative of allowing the Right to control the agenda on immigration is a prospect much too frightening to consider.
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Please feel free to comment. And share. Thanks:
Pride's Purge 
You have a very valid point. I was surprised to discover from friends who applied to move to Australia that they have a very strict system for allowing people to settle there. I wondered if the left there make a fuss?
I hate any sort of injustice but I’ve been wondering lately about political correctness and how militant it has become. It takes on a whole new sinister meaning bubbling under everything. It’s as though it’s become a Pavlov’s dog reaction where the rational brain does not engage.
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Politicians across all Parties are terrified, and have been for years, of even mentioning anything to do with immigration; they have confused/misinterpret their ‘Commitment to Equality’ statements with the notion this means not discussing anything that refers to race.
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I agree, we also need to ask why Labour is so afraid. Why is Labour so afraid to be Labour? At some stage they need to take a stand and they will find people out there who want to follow ideas, to make changes. Otherwise we may as well call #bedtimefordemocracy
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Reblogged this on RevolutionEyes and commented:
A fine post from Tom Pride. we also need to ask why Labour is so afraid. Why is Labour so afraid to be Labour? At some stage they need to take a stand and they will find people out there who want to follow ideas, to make changes. Otherwise we may as well call #bedtimefordemocracy
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… because Labour needs the votes of racists to get elected, and so can’t afford to alienate them.
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P.S. It isn’t the Left which is afraid to discuss immigration, it’s the Labour party. The two are NOT the same!
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The Australian Electorate are much the same. The Greens and Labor Left want an
increase to numbers but this is not popular with the majority of voters.
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I agree, actually.
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Do you mean you agree with being afraid to talk about it?
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Dead Right!
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Tom Pride – with ‘comrades’ with an non-analysis like this one, who needs eneemies. I suspect that you mean well and want to expose the hypocrisy and lying of the Government. But………..
No ‘labour’ is cheap. It is the employer who decides the price of the labour he employs. People who oppose capitalism support the right of workers everywhere to do two things (at least).
– move globally to find work – combine to attempt to resist any de-valuation of the price of their labour-power.
You correctly describe the current UK position with regard to education, housing, employment, amenities, health care as strained. Working people bear no responsibility whatsoever for this state of affairs. It is entirely a failure caused by the profit -focussed capitalist system, which does not have any intention to allow social life to continue at a humane level if profit cannot be squeezed out of the labour force. So, themessage of your piece this time, (I have enjoyed and appreciated previous pieces) is that any of the “cheap Indian labour” arriving in this country can reasonably be blamed for their preparedness to “accept” lower wages; that they, not Government failure to meet the needs of any sections of society except the employer and tax-avoiding rich, will be to blame.
Those of us ‘on the Left’ cannot alllow this upside-down, powerless-people-blaming attitude to our society to be put forward without challenge. Besides being a totally false analysis of the power-relations in our society, it encourages racism and far-right xenophobic rubbish to continue to spew across our media.
I would be grateful if you would ‘Remove’ this post or at least – re-frame it so that while the lies and hypocrisy of the Government’s attitudes and actions are revealed, NO BLAME IS ATTACHED to the coming “immigrants”, with whom we all need to join to destroy a system which is violently degrading the lives of the majority of the world.
In protest Tom Richardson Middlesbrough
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Tom Pride – with ‘comrades’ with an non-analysis like this one, who needs eneemies. I suspect that you mean well and want to expose the hypocrisy and lying of the Government. But………..
No ‘labour’ is cheap. It is the employer who decides the price of the labour he employs. People who oppose capitalism support the right of workers everywhere to do two things (at least).
move globally to find work
combine to attempt to resist any de-valuation of the price of their labour-power.
You correctly describe the current UK position with regard to education, housing, employment, amenities, health care as strained.
Working people bear no responsibility whatsoever for this state of affairs. It is entirely a failure caused by the profit -focussed capitalist system, which does not have any intention to allow social life to continue at a humane level if profit cannot be squeezed out of the labour force.
So, the message of your piece this time, (I have enjoyed and appreciated previous pieces) is that any of the “cheap Indian labour” arriving in this country can reasonably be blamed for their preparedness to “accept” lower wages; that they, not Government failure to meet the needs of any sections of society except the employer and tax-avoiding rich, will be to blame.
Those of us ‘on the Left’ cannot allow this upside-down, powerless-people-blaming attitude to our society to be put forward without challenge. Besides being a totally false analysis of the power-relations in our society, it encourages racism and far-right xenophobic rubbish to continue to spew across our media.
I would be grateful if you would ‘Remove’ this post or at least – re-frame it so that while the lies and hypocrisy of the Government’s attitudes and actions are revealed, NO BLAME IS ATTACHED to the coming “immigrants”, with whom we all need to join to destroy a system which is violently degrading the lives of the majority of the world.
In protest
Tom Richardson
Middlesbrough
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@ngir – your comment illustrates very well the point I’m making.
You automatically think that if someone is asking for more open discussion on the subject of immigration, it must mean that person is against immigration.
Has it ever occurred to you that someone who is pro-immigration might want the subject to be discussed as well?
How on Earth can you know whether I am for or against immigration if you’re not willing to even have a discussion about it?
In fact, you go so far as to find a blogpost asking for more discussion on the subject so offensive that you would like it to be removed?
Do I really have to explain what is wrong with that?
Sometimes I despair of my fellow members of the Left.
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@Tom Richardson – your comment illustrates very well the point I’m making.
You automatically think that if someone is asking for more open discussion on the subject of immigration, it must mean that person is against immigration.
Has it ever occurred to you that someone who is pro-immigration might want the subject to be discussed as well?
How on Earth can you know whether I am for or against immigration if you’re not willing to even have a discussion about it?
In fact, you go so far as to find a blogpost asking for more discussion on the subject so offensive that you would like it to be removed?
Do I really have to explain what is wrong with that?
Sometimes I despair of my fellow members of the Left.
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Immigrants have been the scapegoat for peoples anger over the ages, this is not a new phenomena.
what is new is that that we as an old colonial country that traded with the rest of the world, now find that we import more than we export.
This new situation came about with the deliberate decimation of our manufacturing base and our economy restructured to solely rely on the Financial sector as the mainstay of the economy.
That meant that service industries were the only other form of employment available to the masses, which is low paid and low skilled.
The transformation that has taken place in this country over the last forty years has been deliberate policy and guided by Neo-Liberal theory, Thatcher’s Cabinet Papers demonstrate and outline in detail the length and breadth of the changes needed to transfer wealth and power upwards, this document went as far as recommending the actions necessary to circumvent the obvious opposition these policies would meet.
This Guardian article explains: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/dec/28/margaret-thatcher-role-plan-to-dismantle-welfare-state-revealed
Ultimately with the economic tensions created by Neo-Liberal economics and the displacement of people due to wars and economic depression, people tend to see immigrants as the problem. With the export of our manufacturing jobs to the far east this has naturally been exacerbated.
The right in politics traditionally fall back on scapegoat-ism as a means of diverting public opinion away from the actual failure of capitalism, but what is also new in Britain is that we no longer have an opposition party explaining the complexities surrounding the economic disaster that we live with, as they are all singing from the same hymn sheet and promote Neo-Liberal dogma as though it were fact.
What we need in this country is a new party that revives the traditions held by the original Labour Party, that propagates a new vision based on the states ability to provide over disaster capitalism, and reaches out to promote the same vision in the parts of the world that have such tragic circumstances that they are forced to look elsewhere to make a living.
That of course is not a short term vision.
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Are you both ngir AND Tom Richardson? — Do you have dual personalities, or dual nationalities? — All very iffy….
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I would be grateful if you would ‘Remove’ this post or at least – re-frame it so that while the lies and hypocrisy of the Government’s attitudes and actions are revealed, NO BLAME IS ATTACHED to the coming “immigrants”, with whom we all need to join to destroy a system which is violently degrading the lives of the majority of the world.
In protest
Do you have to live in Britain to join with and destroy a system that is violently degrading the lives of the majority of the world?
I personally, don’t understand why anyone would want to come here and live amongst such exploiters,warmongers etc., in the western world?
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The above reply was to Tom Richardson.
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“I personally, don’t understand why anyone would want to come here and live amongst such exploiters,warmongers etc., in the western world?”
Then either you are an idiot, or you don’t have a clue what life is like outside your comfortable xenophobic bubble… or both.
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ngir/Tom Richardson of Middlesbrough – You appear to be precisely one of those people who claim to be ‘on the Left’ (as highlighted by Tom) and is afraid of discussing immigration. If you are not, perhaps instead of writing your lengthy reason for hiding/biasing the discussion, why don’t you spend the same amount of time to explain roughly what YOU think would be a viable immigration strategy? I bet you don’t!
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I was not talking about those that are seeking asylum, I’m talking about your average Joe, who would be leaving their fellow countrymen to get on with it without their input at fighting whatever is oppressing them.
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PS
I’m sure you have had the finances to visit, exploit and be waited upon, in the countries that are suffering the most.
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Blimey!
Phew!
Here’s some therapy! 🙂
Willie Dixon-Walking The Blues: http://youtu.be/QpVpupxKeVs via @YouTube
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Other than that…try this!
The US and Ethnic voting – Why white America (and the rest of the West) has to play the ethnic card to … http://wp.me/p12xtq-qH via @Rh156
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BTW Ms Fawkes, you have a problem with your previous bigoted pronouncements…… What would you do with bisexual and homosexual immigrants? Put them in prison AND deport them?
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Jan – Obviously you’re afraid to talk about what you’re afraid to talk about!
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Brilliant, I love the blues.
He sounds like he did the voiceover for Balou the bear off the jungle book! 🙂
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I don’t believe in a white ethnic anything, I would just like to see a world where people would not have to migrate in order to escape, war, oppresion, exploitation or poverty.
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Aaaahhhhhh!
WAKE UP you idiot!
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who are you calling an idiot Finkwoodfall????
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What’s wrong the cat got your tongue??????
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Why don’t you answer, cat got your tongue? – What would you do with bisexual and homosexual immigrants?
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This is a brave article. I would just like to add that immigration and race are not necessarily the same thing.
England is a highly densely populated area with finite resources in terms of jobs and houses. There is a limit to how many people can be comfortably accommodated. Immigrants act as a `reserve army of labour` which push wages down. That is not racist. It is a Marxist criticism of the capitalist state. People on the left should be free to point that out.
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Thankyou Alice Moore, accusations of racism and political correctness to the inth degree are just smoke screens for the capitalists.
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Stop trying to lump together what you perceive as racism with your perversions, most coloured people would be appalled at your support and promotion of perversion.
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ps That was with reference to bisexuality not homosexuality, although many religions would disagree with my acceptance that some people are born homosexual.
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A song for fink and penniewoodentop.
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Look whose talking? Whenever dodgy questions for you to answer come up, you revert back to type and start ranting on about homophobes.
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Ms Fawkes – From your own statements you are a hypocrite as well as a homophobe and a racist. Ask me any question and I will answer plainly……
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“….most coloured people would be appalled at your support and promotion of perversion.”
Which skin colours do you think define “coloured people” and which do not? Are you transparent?…… Apparently so!!!!!!
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Immigration has another aspect.
Since the 1950s we have had mass immigration of a young population and today over half of births in the UK are to foreign born mothers. These generations of immigrants have run successful businesses and educated their children and grandchildren in university to have well paid jobs.
With such a huge rise in young people since the 1950s, the belief that England is an ageing society is untrue.
Contribution to National Insurance when employed is compulsory, so immigrants in work as well as native indigenous have been paying 12 per cent of their wages each year plus their boss’s compulsory contribution of NI.
Immigrants on benefit and indigenous on benefits, both pay the 75 per cent of tax from people to government that comes from stealth taxes and VAT, in or out of work and however long we live.
The poorest pay a 90 per cent tax rate when factor in Indirect Taxes, even if not paying a penny in Income Tax, that only gives about a quarter of tax from people to government.
The ring fenced National Insurance Fund has been full for decades, not needing a top up from tax. As the NI Fund is not a tax, it cannot be emptied by government to use in general expenditure.
So neither immigrants nor indigenous native working poor – waged or low income self employed, chronic sick, disabled, poor pensioners, unemployed, and unemployed over 50s disabled and chronic sick, are the source of the recession, yet suffer the most from austerity.
An immigrant housewife, divorcee or widow or poorest workers, just as much as native English or Celt, ends up with nil state pension for life,
and the bulk of immigrant / native pensioners –
women born from 1953 and men born from 1951
will get a massive reduced state pension to current claimants,
who already have the lowest state pension in the rich nations of the world.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
If Labour want to win big in 2015, instead of no party being able to form a government because so few people will vote, then Labour leaning people of all ages and races might care to sign my petition, in the hope of gaining a u-turn by Miliband and Balls to offer:
– Repealing Pension Bills 2010 – 2014
– Payout state pension at 60 to women who lost it from 2013
– Equalise men’s state pension at 60 in 2015
– Not abolish Pension Credit, SERPS and State Second Pension in 2016
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Chris
So much for the European courts who passed the law that says women as well as men have to work until they are 65 before collecting state pension.
The British Government then added another year to that just to stretch poverty out a little further for those affected and as you rigntly say are planning to raise the pension age further, under the pretext that people are living longer, which is usually the upper classes.
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Many hans make light work – or should that be many hands make this site work!
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