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Sunday, 28th June 2009

Immigration facts and figures

Fraser Nelson 6:32pm

As promised, here’s the full story of those immigration statistics that I obtained from the ONS. In our new e-world, I can pass on all the results  to you – and they’re worth discussing. The figures show the extent to  which Brown’s “boom” was a mirage built not just on debt, but foreign labour. Most seriously, we can see a deep dysfunctionality in the UK labour market. Our system keeps millions on benefits (never less than  5 million have been on some kind of benefits since 1997) while meeting the needs of expanding the economy with a limitless supply of industrious immigrant labour. This means that the direct link between a growing economy and combating poverty is broken – and this is a serious development that demands attention.

The ONS results are here, in a pdf*. The key finding: there are fewer British-born workers in the first quarter of 2009 than Q1 of 1997. The trend of employers preferring immigrants, which we saw during the boom, has become more marked still during the bust.


 

But if we zoom in on the last eight years, the recession simply exacerbated what had been an existing downwards trend of UK-born  workers in employment while number of foreign-born workers in employment has soared.

Without a doubt, immigration has been the largest change of the Labour  years – the ratio of immigrant workers has almost doubled in the private sector and the economy overall as the below graph shows. This means the UK’s the overall mix of immigrants is up there with that of America – a change not taken deliberately, or with any debate, but  something that happened by accident and which ministers are still struggling to understand.

I count myself as a supporter of immigration. But there is no doubt that mass immigration has given ministers the option of ignoring our own unemployed. If we didn’t have this unending tap of motivated workers then Britain would be forced to confront the fact that so many of its workers are being incentivised to do nothing by the welfare state. Here’s what the benefit tally, including ‘hidden unemployment’, has looked like in the last decade – using the DWP’s definition of out-of-work benefits. 

At no point in the boom did the number on out-of-work benefits fall  below five million souls. Almost half have been on welfare for five years or more – and are, therefore, statistically more likely to die than to work again. As I say, were it not for immigration, we’d be forced to confront this problem or our economy would not grow. When I was a business journalist in the late 1990s, I remember writing stories about how bus companies were recruiting in homeless shelters because they couldn’t find the staff. The people in those shelters were being offered structure to their lives, from an employer forced by economic conditions to deal with the greater risk they pose. It was a sign of economic growth addressing social problems – as it should be.

But mass immigration has broken this link. It meant Gordon Brown could actually afford to keep so many million on benefits, as tax receipts  were being generated by comparative newcomers. It was a lot easier than trying to reform welfare. Scandalously, that’s what Brown did. To my mind, it is the most contemptible failure of his time as Chancellor. He had the money, the economic boom, to sort out the welfare dependency that afflicts so many communities in Britain. But he took the easy, short term route. To use that analogy the Prime Minister is so fond of deploying, he walked on by on the other side. Why get your hands (and poll ratings) dirty with welfare reform when you can rely on immigrants to keep the economy growing and tax receipts flowing? And who wants to end up with disabled people chaining themselves to the railings of parliament, as happened when Blair tried welfare reform? Brown took the easy option. And his short-termism has condemned millions to worklessness and poverty who might otherwise have escaped it.

This matters for Cameron, because he will inherit Brown’s dysfunctional labour market – one distinguished by its striking failure to provide that now-notorious Brown slogan “British jobs for British workers”. What if, when the recovery comes, the economy just sucks in more immigrants and the huge surge in dole numbers is never properly reversed?

That’s why immigration matters. You can’t understand the UK labour market, or the pernicious nature of the UK welfare state, without it.

The Brown economic model has spectacularly failed to provide British jobs for British workers – this is yet another one of his empty promises that a Tory government will have to fulfill. But unless the Tories work out how employment, welfare and immigration are interlinked they will be destined to repeat the same scandalous failure of the Brown years.

PS All immigration data is from the Labour Force Survey, a Eurostat-mandated study conducted by the ONS which defines immigrant in its most basic sense – ie, ‘foreign born’. No categoriation is perfect, and this of course captures some Brits like Boris Johnson who were born abroad. I also exclude pension-aged people from the study - it's working-age only. The trend of pensioners returning to work is a topic all by itself. 

*If asked for a password it is FraserNels0n

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JohnOfEnfield

June 28th, 2009 7:16pm Report this comment

As Matthew Paris says this weekend in the Times - Broon is just a constant l***r.

John Page

June 28th, 2009 7:37pm Report this comment

Almost half have been on welfare for five years or more – and are, therefore, statistically more likely to die than to work again.

That old canard again. The likelihood of any one of them dying is - er - 100%. The likelihood of that person working again is - er - less than 100%. QED.

Should there be a time qualification here, such as "in the next five years"?

Statto

June 28th, 2009 8:06pm Report this comment

So anyone who moved here as a child in the 80s or nineties count as Foreign Born I presume.

About a million people, who are British Citizen and who have been brought ip here are in the red part of the graph.

Plus the Boris category.

TrevorsDen

June 28th, 2009 8:19pm Report this comment

Mr Nelson - with timely comments on Brown's Bogus Boom and Brown's Broken Britain to add to your sharp focus on Browns Incorrigible Lies you are shaping up to be a decent columnist!

"statistically more likely to die than to work again" = likely to die before they find work again. You are the one with the canard.

Verity

June 28th, 2009 8:29pm Report this comment

Well caught, John Page!

The Bellman

June 28th, 2009 8:52pm Report this comment

Bravo, Fraser: taken with the merciless exposure of McSnotty's lies over public spending, you are on a roll here (and it even compensates for your mild over-egging of Michael Jackson's legacy...). This is the sort of tenacious, detailed journalism that Britain needs desperately, instead of the infantilised posturing we usually get.

Although the post substantiates what I suspect most people instinctively knew already - but it's nice to see it backed up by figures. Cheap labour and cheap money, which this government's ineffectual regulatory regimes could not control, and which its members' ideological stupidity and arrogance did not permit them to see, was a holiday from history probably more ruinous for the UK than the complacency bred by the collapse of communism in Europe. Whatever 'progressive' bullshitters like McSnotty might believe, human history is not an endless journey to the sunlit uplands of equality and justice; that this buffoon thought he alone had discovered the secret to endless economic growth, and that so many people believed him, seems more laughable by the day.

However, it occurs to me that CCHQ should be undertaking this sort of unglamorous ferreting, instead of booking Dave's tickets for summer concerts and ordering him beachwear from Boden. That they haven't is indicative of the general air of not being that hungry for power, and their reluctance to confront the nasty truth of the mess they will inherit.

Tiberius

June 28th, 2009 8:54pm Report this comment

Fraser, I don't think the Tories have ever not understood the interlinking you refer to. Indeed, one of William Hague's best policies (when Ann Widdicombe was Shadow Home Sec) was to increase control of immigration. But the clever dicks of the Left wanted to know what limits there would be, and whether it applied to asylum seekers, the implication being that the wicked Tories would let the boat full of children sink.

And the public ignored the issue, so in love were they with Blair. Now the chickens are flying in.

NuLab has been like a chav, chucking back the lager while sat back on the grass verge watching the slow train crash that this country has been involved in over the last 12 years, and laughing at vain Tory attempts to warn people off the track. The level to which they will sink is borne out by the detailed investigations you have made, like this one and the spending cuts, but there are others such as the destruction of the pension pool.

Mere words are not enough, I'm afraid.

JJ

June 28th, 2009 8:58pm Report this comment

Surely the "carers" group is a bit different from the others on benefits. They are by definition currently making a contribution to society. Many of them will return to paid work when the system makes the circumstances right

James J

June 28th, 2009 9:21pm Report this comment

The quality of our Political Class is so poor that we all know, in our hearts; this will be filed under “Too Difficult.”---like so much more.

Paul

June 28th, 2009 9:48pm Report this comment

This level of immigration is not accidental, it's another aspect of the cultural war being waged upon us by our arrogant elite. The economic benefit argument has always been a decoy. Surely the state cannot sustain an ever growing clienthood? And how much money is seeping from the economy by being sent abroad? Also, what about immigrants driving down wages?

I'm sure it won't be long before Eastern Europeans will be able to write newspaper and internet columns as well as any born here, and for less money. It'll be interesting if the Bubble will change its tune. Or, if it somehow collectively takes measures to ensure that it remains insulated, will it consider itself to be bigoted?

John Page

June 28th, 2009 9:56pm Report this comment

And see The Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/5673736/New-private-sector-jobs-taken-by-foreign-workers-research-suggests.html

JDR

June 28th, 2009 9:57pm Report this comment

@ John Page Surely the meaning is "statistically more likely to die without working again than to work again".

lawrence greek

June 28th, 2009 10:13pm Report this comment

john page - pointless nitpicking. the stats speak for themselves. and fraser is right, this is another massive issue facing the country, along with declining educational standards, the pensions timebomb, the debt crisis, uncertain energy supply and a discredited parliament. Labour's failures are utterly criminal.

Spotted Dick

June 28th, 2009 10:14pm Report this comment

"I count myself as a supporter of immigration. But there is no doubt that mass immigration has given ministers the option of ignoring our own unemployed. If we didn’t have this unending tap of motivated workers then Britain would be forced to confront the fact that so many of its workers are being incentivised to do nothing by the welfare state."

So you're bolting behind the distinction between a good immigration and a bad mass immigration?

You need to come on board Fraser and welcome, but please don't resort to such specious manouvering.

Andrewof Croydon

June 28th, 2009 10:16pm Report this comment

Immigrants are (eventually) expected to vote Labour. Nothing more to it than that.
You seem to be in denial on this.

Simon Stephenson

June 28th, 2009 10:18pm Report this comment

I think you're addressing the wrong problem here, Fraser.

It's nonsense to say that the expansion to the economy that was fuelled by skilled immigrants could equally have been fuelled by drawing on the ranks of the UK unemployed. It's an absolute pipedream to think that within the unemployed there exists a vast amount of latent resource just waiting to be deployed to produce nett value added for the country.

Let's assume that somehow you get a million of the unemployed off benefit and into work. Their spendable income goes up from benefit of, say, £5k to nett wages of, say, £15k. At this level they'll consume all of this, and possibly more. So UK consumption goes up by a million times ten thousand, equals £10billion. Do you really think that the amount of value-added these new workers contribute will be as much as this? I don't. A major problem at the moment is far too many people at all income levels consuming more than they produce in value-added. This would just exacerbate it.

The chaff that needs to be addressed far more importantly than the unemployed is within the ranks of the employed. The people whose function is to be inserted unnecessarily into the production chain and who add cost without commensurate value. We have an ethos in this country that allows people to assume that what they do must be worth at least as much as they are paid, because otherwise their employers wouldn't employ them. Among those with industrial clout, this morphs into whatever pay they can bully for themselves is justified.

So what with constructed non-necessary costs, plus a total disregard among the population for any linkage between output and pay (apart from when looking at bankers or footballers), I'd suggest we have more important things to worry about than stressing out a lot of people the vast majority of whom are society's unfortunates.

John Page

June 28th, 2009 10:50pm Report this comment

JDR, possibly ... in dealing with statistics it's vital though to say exactly what you mean.

Boudicca

June 28th, 2009 11:00pm Report this comment

And that's precisely why there has been a rise in support for the BNP. This Labour Government is entirely responsible for creating the conditions which have alienated their core working class voters and made many of them turn to a racist socialist alternative.

Our young people are being deprived of a chance in life because of the influx. So many employers would rather have an overqualified immigrant to fill a vacant post than a British school leaver or young graduate. The 'starter jobs' are going to immigrants so they are not even getting a chance to find their feet in the workplace.

Labour is responsible for a lost generation.

Lee Jakeman

June 28th, 2009 11:08pm Report this comment

"I count myself as a supporter of immigration".

Why?

Steve B

June 28th, 2009 11:20pm Report this comment

I saved this link from a few months ago because I thought it might be interesting in this kind of debate.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090304b2.html

Japan - population around 120 million
Number of people on welfare -1.61 million.

Britain is getting it very wrong.

Verity

June 29th, 2009 12:38am Report this comment

Paul, exactly. From Day One of the Blair regime, I said he had declared war on our own people in our own land, in consort with an army of former Student Union Trots/Marxist/Gramscian/One Worlders. I was baffled that others couldn't see it and seemed to think that Tony Blair was actually a Tory in disguise.

Just as they apparently think David Cameron is a Tory in disguise.

John Cheese

June 29th, 2009 2:40am Report this comment

Well, wittily named Spotted Dick whimpers: "So you're bolting behind the distinction between a good immigration and a bad mass immigration?"

Yer.

Simon Stephenson, your posts are way, way too wordy. Dear God!

"So what with constructed non-necessary costs, plus a total disregard among the population for any linkage between output and pay (apart from when looking at bankers or footballers)" ...

I came here to listen to an argument! The five minute argument.

John Moss

June 29th, 2009 8:33am Report this comment

Google Docs not letting me get ot the pdf file.

Chris P. Lettuce

June 29th, 2009 9:07am Report this comment

Was there ever a boom in the first place? The whole country rode on a wave of credit provided by foreign investors who, themselves, mistook our high spending as evidence of a 'boom'. They'll still want their money back, however.

Even people who had no debt were earning their livings from those who did.

And if we take out the effects of North Sea oil, as will actually be happening in the near future anyway, where does that leave us?

Ivan D

June 29th, 2009 9:44am Report this comment

Thank God that there are at least some people round here like Simon who understand basic free amrket economics. It's a great pity that Mr Nelson, the Sage of Old Queen Street, ain't one of them. But let's just repeat this one more time until we're all blue in the face: without the vast influx of job-hunting, wealth-creating and growth-)enhancing) immigration of the last decade, we would *all* be poorer. Even middle class honkeys like Coffee House readers (and contributors).

Borat

June 29th, 2009 10:09am Report this comment

By "foreign born" you count as an immigrant those who moved here as infants and speak with a broad Sheffield accent? Who is doing the spinning?

Cardinal Richelieu's mole

June 29th, 2009 10:13am Report this comment

Impresive analysis, thanks!

The google page to access the pdf demands an email address in addition to the password, no?

David

June 29th, 2009 10:26am Report this comment

I've no doubt that recognition of Ivan's point is the reason Fraser is a supporter of immigration. Nevertheless the point made in this article is a good one. 10% of the population did not benefit at all from the boom years and were supported by the rest of us at a hidden cost that now has to be borne as the hardworking immigrants go home. What I find really startling about these excellent graphs is how stable the hidden unemployment is. It shows that nothing has worked. All the nonsense about helping the disabled and long term sick back to work, the policies directed at youth unemployment and the massive increase in tertiary education to improve the skills base. Brown may have achieved nothing but he has thrown far more money at this problem than will be available over the next 10 years.

James J

June 29th, 2009 10:32am Report this comment

I see from the BNP’s Website that they have a policy of “Workfare not Welfare” in order to deal with the necessary cultural change. Another policy that will appeal to Labour’s core voters who live with the consequences of the failed Sociobabble policies of the last 30 years. I shall have to check their proposals for the Criminal Justice system…

Simon Stephenson

June 29th, 2009 10:45am Report this comment

John Cheese 2.40am

"Simon Stephenson, your posts are way, way too wordy. Dear God! ... I came here to listen to an argument! The five minute argument"

OK.

The vast majority of the public are totally deluded about the quality of UK society and their role in it. They have been allowed/encouraged to become so over the last 50 years, and we are now at the stage when the reality of the situation is too dire for us to recognise it. This denial will result in penal retribution from the rest of the world. We would do better to put our own house in order before others do it for us.

Snappy enough?

Simon Stephenson

June 29th, 2009 10:52am Report this comment

John Cheese 2.40am

"Simon Stephenson, your posts are way, way too wordy. Dear God! ... I came here to listen to an argument! The five minute argument"

OK.

The vast majority of the public are totally deluded about the quality of UK society and their role in it. They have been allowed/encouraged to become so over the last 50 years, and we are now at the stage when the reality of the situation is too dire for us to recognise it. This denial will result in penal retribution from the rest of the world. We would do better to put our own house in order before others do it for us.

Snappy enough?

Simon Stephenson

June 29th, 2009 11:55am Report this comment

David : 29/6 : 10.26am

There are undoubtedly some people on benefit who could, actually, hold down productive jobs. And who fail to do this not because they are being wilful, but because their minds are currently locked in an unhelpful loop.

These people can, and should be identified and helped back into work. This is a win-win.

There are also some who are capable of productive work, but remain on benefit through bloody-mindedness. I think there is benefit, too, from working with these people to help change their mindset. Attempting to force them back into employment, however, won't be helpful.

There are some who would dearly like to work, but who have personal inadequacies that preclude them from obtaining employment. And there are some of these who can be helped to iron out their inadequacies to make them employable. Whether this be training, skills or attitude, there are things that can be done.

But I'm afraid that the truth is that for the great majority of the unemployed it is as impracticable to consider absorbing them into the workforce as it would be to do this with 12-year-old children, schizophrenics or 85-year-old pensioners. You can quote statistics from other countries, but I'd guarantee that there's a hard rump of unemployables in every country, and that this grows over time as the basic level of required job competence grows. More and more people are being left behind, and I think we need firstly to recognise that this is inevitable, and secondly to work to ensure that no one becomes part of this group who doesn't need to.

The key, key, key message is that social and educational resource must be focused on the bottom end of the scale, not on the top. Keep as many as possible from joining the under-class, not worry about those who have the competence to guarantee always to be out of it.

Ivan D

June 29th, 2009 12:08pm Report this comment

Given, Old Queen St toilers, that you moderate all comments, how do you quite so frequently manage to double post? I fear that there's at least one white Briton too many on the payroll . . .

The Bellman

June 29th, 2009 12:49pm Report this comment

@Ivan D: Well, we might "all be poorer", but poorer than what, exactly, or when? Than we are now, after years of an illusory boom? Or poorer than we'd otherwise be in, say, five years' time, when our creditors come calling for the returns on their investments, and taxes and interest rates are whacked up, because the good times aren't rolling in quite the way everyone thought?

Any dependence is a vulnerability: the mobility that brought these fellows here can just as easily allow them to return. What do we do when they decide that the UK is not such a great place to work after all? If they cannot find work and cannot return home, we are on the nail for their welfare; if they do go home, we are shy of a source of labour and taxes to pay for govt spending.

I'm all for wealth, but not unsustainable wealth in the here and now created at the expense of my future wealth.

Simon Stephenson: Your second (and third) post was much better. Thanks.

The Bellman

June 29th, 2009 1:28pm Report this comment

Ivan D @12.08 - Good point. It happens a lot, doesn't it?

Whoa-there!

June 29th, 2009 1:32pm Report this comment

England is a 'multicultural' shambles where no one dares to speak up about anything for fear of repression. It is sad to live through the destruction of this once great nation.

Ivan D

June 29th, 2009 1:50pm Report this comment

How brave of you then, Whoa-there!, to, er, dare speak.

Simon Stephenson

June 29th, 2009 2:21pm Report this comment

The Bellman : 12.49pm

"Simon Stephenson: Your second (and third) post was much better. Thanks."

Seriously?

I've always worked on the basis that if I'm going to assert conclusions, I need to support them with explanations, as well. You're suggesting I could do away with the explanations, and just push the conclusions. And deal with the support only if the conclusions are challenged, presumably. Have I got that right?

It would make me feel like a prep-school master. I don't really want people to accept my assertions because they sound good. I want them to follow the path of reasoning and arrive at their own conclusions. Which would be very nice if they agreed with mine, but more constructive, I suppose, if they didn't. Because that would be the start of a debate.

But I'm always open to serious suggestions.

Zamm0

June 29th, 2009 3:43pm Report this comment

google docs link no workee

John Cheese

June 29th, 2009 4:00pm Report this comment

Simon Stephenson - "I don't really want people to accept my assertions because they sound good."

Don't worry. We won't.

If anyone feels like challenging you, they will not be shy.

Rhoda Klapp

June 29th, 2009 4:40pm Report this comment

Much as I disagree with the immigration debate being looked at as an economic issue rather than a cultural one, there is a problem nobody has mentioned here. That the whole education/training contract has broken down in the UK. Once upon a time firms trained employees to carry out the task. That fell through when newly-qualified employees went elsewhere for the money. Firms turned to hiring qualified people rather than bringing them through. At the same time as a massive source of qualified immigrants became available, tickboxes and target reduced our education system to a travesty. You can't fault the employers. You can't fault the immigrants. There is a solid core of unemployables whom you can fault, but there are also many who find it impossible to get employed on acceptable terms. You can't really fault them either. It's facile to look down on them as useless. It might win your argument in the pub, but it doesn't help solve the problem.

I've heard, from someone in the recruitment business, that there are places where it is useless to send a white candidate for a job. Not in a tandoori restaurant, but for example in a fairly normal council office in a london borough. If that is a common circumstance, things are not going well.

HairyNoddy

June 29th, 2009 6:00pm Report this comment

SS - Surely you're not saying that it's better for the economy for these people to be on the dole than working?

A quick calculation on the basis of £100 benefits per week per unemployed person leaves us with a bill of £25 billion per year.

If they're working, they're reducing the tax burden by the money that they would have got on the dole plus whatever tax they pay.

If you import immigrants to do this work, you still pay the unemployed their money, and the immigrant will probably earn less, therefore pay less tax.

Simon Stephenson

June 29th, 2009 7:47pm Report this comment

Hairy Noddy 6.00pm

Well I wrote at 11.55 that there are of course people on the unemployed list who can beneficially be helped back into work. And of course there are things that can be done in the education system that will keep to a minimum the numbers of school-leavers and college-leavers destined to join it.

But the fact remains that there are a huge number of people on the unemployed list who will never have it in them to justify being paid even the minimum wage. So, whatever we do, as long as we embrace civilisation, their existence will have to be subsidised, either through subsistence benefit, as at present, or by the state paying that part of their wages that can't be justified from the value they add.

Wages are so high, in order to pay for the public sector and the huge costs of structural inefficiencies, that businesses can't afford to take on staff below a certain calibre. Simple as that. And the level of this minimum calibre is rising every year.

There's no hiding place for these people - no way in the society that we have that they can suddenly be turned into nett value-added citizens. So the sooner we accept this, and work out how best to deal with it the better. Faffing around trying to cure an incurable problem is just a waste of effort that could more effectively be devoted elsewhere.

I know this sounds harsh and heartless, but this is the reality, I believe. Now we may decide, as with other things, that we can exist better under a perpetuating myth than under reality. I'd accept this, but the case for doing so must be proven, not just assumed.

One idea I've had for some time - I don't know if it would work - is to deal with the whole question of income through the tax system. Everyone has a code, according to their family needs, etc, and this guarantees a minimum income by taxing, of course, but also paying negative tax to those below the threshold of tax neutrality. Then get rid of the minimum wage, and give social encouragement to companies to employ low-calibre people on salaries commensurate with their abilities. General tax rates would have to be slightly higher, but there would be an incentive for people on negative-tax to find low-paid work, because whatever they were paid, they'd be better off than before. Thus avoiding the benefit trap, and the major objections of businesses to taking on staff at wages they can't justify.

Rob

June 29th, 2009 10:10pm Report this comment

The solution is not to directly tgry to manage the situatin but to do three things. First, eliminate as far as possible any tax, cost, law, or restriction on employment. Eg, the working time directive, all employment law pertaining to part-time work, etc. Second, consolidate benefits to just four; dole, child benefit, sickness benefit and pensions. All benefits non-means tested but taxable to eliminate bureaucracy and to make it worthwhile for parents to live together and to work. Dole should be limited to five years in total which can be taken at half or quarter rate to ease the way back to work. Child benefit paid on the lsst child only, half rate after six years and quarter rate ceasing after 12 years. The main cost of children is the opportunity cost of not working when they are too little to leave and this would prevent people having more than tehy can manage just for the money. sickness benefit should be managed by local authorities who pay for the first three days, general tax the next three days and NI the remainder. Pensions also non-means tested.

Welfare does not end poverty because it encourages worklessness. The first payment is a relief but the recipient soon loses confidence, skills, contacts and is unlikely to give up a reliable benefit for an uncertain and low paid job. Therefor the link between poverty and benefits must end and replaced with a link between benefits and circumstances but time limited, non-means tested but taxable. ld be taken at half rate or . reduce taxes for business

Alf Tupper C.R.O.F.

June 30th, 2009 6:14am Report this comment

Simon Stephenson.

"Faffing around trying to cure an incurable problem is just a waste of effort..." Really?

This problem is that the British are genetically thick? Or that the education system cannot be put right? Or what?

It just seems a very negative statement to make.

Simon Stephenson

June 30th, 2009 11:37am Report this comment

Alf Tupper 6.14am

"This problem is that the British are genetically thick? Or that the education system cannot be put right? Or what?

It just seems a very negative statement to make.

All I'm saying is that making the assumption that everyone can somehow be assimilated into our productive system is bound to lead to mistaken policy, both towards what's needed to keep the system oiled, and about how to handle the people who can't be fitted in.

Always looking on the bright side may be the modern panacea for everything, but there's a difference between hopefulness and blind optimism. With one, you can still make the right decisions, with the other you can't.

Tsz San So

June 30th, 2009 5:33pm Report this comment

Just wondering - if British private sector unemployment went up in the last 10 years, but unemployment benefit claimants did not go up, where did the rest go? Did they all go into the public sector or did they just rot without benefits?

Andy

June 30th, 2009 6:31pm Report this comment

Labour isn't working - again.

Tsz San So

July 1st, 2009 2:03am Report this comment

Can anyone explain to me the issue I highlighted in the above post???? Do the figures tell us more about a rapid expansion of the public sector than British unemployment?

Tsz San

July 1st, 2009 2:08am Report this comment

And one more question - why are jobs held by foreign born workers more recession proof than jobs held by British born workers? (2nd graph)

Ken Johns

July 1st, 2009 4:37pm Report this comment

I’m not exactly sold on the lazy unemployed Briton –vs- Immigrant. This has been an excuse for far too long and existed even before this current shower came to power. Likewise I’m not sold on Globalisation and with it the heady “New Economy” of the early Blair years. The main concentration of our nation’s efforts has centred on a square mile in the City of London for far too long and I knew it would all end in tears.

My memory has not sufficiently diminished for me not to remember the 80’s with graduate engineers of middle age stocking supermarket shelves as the only jobs they could find. Likewise, the headlong rush into the service industry at the expense of manufacturing left Britain floundering without technical skills and workers “factory” jobs were being given away wholesale to the Chinese and Indians. Those jobs that were somehow left were gifted to immigrants who would work for a remuneration that would not support a normal British family. Therefore we are left with a great swathe of our people who are not suited to work within the service industry and the jobs they could have done have been given away.

We need a balanced economy developed around our nation’s broadest skills. This is the only way we can regenerate this country and mend the broken society that Cameron so rightly speaks about.

S. Hempel

July 4th, 2009 2:27pm Report this comment

I hit this page in error. but I would like to say that I hae a flat which we usually rent ourslevesin in South London. while I was ill it was rented trough an agent and he did not check the references. The man who took it gave a telphone number and worked as a night porter form wha t I remember. But he was incredibly secretive. when the boiler went wrong he complained but would not let anyone it
n to mend it. This wnet on and then just befroe his tenacny was due to finish the hother householder said he moved in a fmaly of nine who had just arrived from India an spoke not a work of english.

They were conviced they aere ilegal imegratn. The tenancy was due to stop in three days so i thougth I would ask the police to check . I called them but they said they did nto deal with this. So I ccalled crime stoppers and they said tey didnt deal with this but to ring Lunar House. Lunar house is the plce where all teh imegrats have to go or contact to get passports and they are so inumdated that they simply never asker the phone. I tried for two days. Eventuall got someone who put me onto someone who put the phone down. I gave up.

At the same time the government was passing laws that said that anhone not from this country had to pay £30K tax per person. this meant that all the wealthy "imegrantsW, the ones spending fortune in all teh shops had to pay £60K per couple. The bankers and il peole arranged to return home. this is a disincentivef ro any higher paid or more afluent peole to come and sta here even fro a short while. These higher paid inv=dividauls acutally do not usually stay much longer than three years. They do their job, spend a lot of money and go home.

Teh little indian vanished out of sight with his nine realtions and was never seen again.

why dont you ttr being a memeber of teh public trying tohelp the police.

It is no any one individual imegratn it is tat there are to many alltogether. I neever met the person in quesiton

Ray

July 5th, 2009 6:19pm Report this comment

"... Something that happened by accident and which ministers are still struggling to understand".

Your innocence is touching, Fraser. Do you really think that there was no one in New Labour's inner circles mindful of the fact that both benefit claimants and first-generation immigrants disproportionately vote Labour?

Jason Realty

September 16th, 2009 8:11pm Report this comment

It is obvious that the influx of immigrants has had a very negative effect on the availability of jobs in the UK. We are told that many have been put in specialised areas of work, and that the UK urgently needed graduates for work. There are a huge number of British graduates, in all fields, who have been unable to get work. We have been told that the tax receipts from the immigrant workers increases the public purse. But the greatest majority of immigrant workers come over to the UK, work for the stipulated tax period of six months. They then get their taxes refunded, return back to their own country for six months to return to the UK and repeat the process. There are no tax gains to the UK. We are told that the immigrant worker works harder than his/her UK counterpart. This statement has either come from Employers who are too distant in the work chain to realise the truth or it is propaganda. Having worked alongside a very large number of immigrant workers, and have been in a position to obtain reports from others in the same position as myself - the fact is that many of the immigrant workers know that they are here for a limited time only since their families and loyalties lie only with their own country - their aims are the same as anyone else in their position. i.e. Do as little as possible to gain as much money as possible, but always look as if you are busy doing something. This fools the employers, but not the people who have extra work to do because such people have a habit of missing often.
Can anyone explain why the families who remain in the country of those immigrant workers that are signing on unemployed in the UK, also receive benefits from the UK? Can anyone explain why so many immigrant workers receive food vouchers during their stay here? Or why they are given the cost of vehicles to purchase to enable them to get to work in the UK? We are told that the immigrant workers in employment enrich the economy - how so when any employee can do the same for the economy, even UK workers? Why has it become necessary to build a huge number of housing units that are forecast to reduce huge areas of green belt land? If it is just for the increase of UK inhabitants, surely this would be evidence to illustrate that the population is increasing and that immigration should be severely restricted? In order for the immigrant force to become established in the UK, the Government would have had to spend a huge amount of money - did this money come from the Bank's reserves leading to the crash of many banks? Is the money that has been made available to the newcomers to be used to offset the inbalance of the economy of that country? We were told that prior to these countries becoming part of the EU, that their finances would have to be made to equal that of the western sector - is that why so much money has been invested in the immigration? Either the people have been totally mis-informed or someone has made a huge blunder.

Stephen Harrison

November 13th, 2009 10:36pm Report this comment

IPCC
1st Floor
Oaklands House
Washway Road
Sale
M33 6FS

Dear Sir/Madam

I wish to enter a Formal Complaint concerning the inaction of the West Midlands Police Force/Authority and West Mercia Police/Authority to this reported serious crime. A police force must be free from political restraint and impartial when investigating crimes of this nature committed frankly by their paymasters politicians who are in power as the Government of the United Kingdom. If the Police are not able or unwilling to investigate and prosecute serious crimes of this nature then who can exactly protect a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I am genetically English; I have also been displaced by being deprived of my right to my individuality and culture. The Geneva Convention clearly states that displacement by immigration is a crime against humanity. This can be carried out by language, cultural change which is unacceptable to the indigenous person. The selling of a Christian Church would fall under this “crime”, if it were sold to become a place of worship for an alien ethnic culture or religion. Therefore turning Christian churches into Muslim mosques would be an act of ethnocide as its soul intention would be to deprive the indigenous genetic people of their cultural heritage. Further allowing call to prayer would also cause understandable displacement of an indigenous people as it is a direct assault on their right to a cultural identity and to be able to enjoy their right to individuality. Thus any displacement would be Ethnocide.

The crimes I reported to these Police forces were Ethnocide and Gerrymandering, both are serious criminal acts. If the Chief Constables and The Police generally are to dismiss my claims without care, thought or attention then they are guilty of gross negligence. Statistical Factual Evidence and Also Anecdotal and Video Evidence is Available as are Witnesses to the crime of ethnocide, over 80% of The capital cities population is now made up of people other than those of a genetic indigenous race, this is clear evidence of displacement and this displacement is being carried out in many major cities and towns throughout Great Britain, including Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Luton and so the list goes on and on. The fact that politicians who have openly encouraged mass immigration are not investigated for criminal acts suggest that we live within a totalitarian and police state, where law be it international or local are being flouted with the full cooperation of the chief constables

The crimes I am alleging are Ethnocide against the genetic peoples of Great Britain namely the White English, Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh indigenous peoples of this our homeland.

These examples are not those of a raving lunatic or a racist but of a victim of a criminal act under both the Geneva Convention and The United Nations acts to protect indigenous people from ethnic cleansing.

The fact that No mandate was sort from the people is irrelevant as no mandate can be given for a crime against humanity.

I now wish to move on to my reported crime of gerrymandering again statistical evidence is available to support my allegation that mass immigration is being used to make a significant difference to the voting pattern of an area, by allowing mass immigration the labour government is gaining a substantial sympathetic vote in areas of displacement this is a new form of gerrymandering but is gerrymandering none the less. I understood this to be a crime.

Following is the crime as reported to the Police Forces of The West Midlands and which to date has been ignored.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wish to report to you a case of the most serious crime in the world.

The United Nations acts/edicts on Human Rights; concerning the; Rights of Indigenous people,
to individuality, culture, including cultural heritage.

Under The Geneva Convention; Genocide and Ethnocide.

I also wish to complain that countless people in the Police Force/ Government and Other Agencies, SOCA, Human Rights and equalities commission have conspired to Commit Crimes against Humanity and Ethnocide.

Please investigate this FORMAL COMPLAINT FULLY!

This is a case of Ethnocide and it is happening here and now in the United Kingdom.
Gerrymandering; by the movement of population. Example London is now 80% Ethnic Minorities this is clear evidence of both Ethnocide and Gerrymandering.

Labours plan of uncontrolled immigration policy has come to light and this can be proven in the statistics.

Wikipedia lists and briefly explains exactly the Crime of Ethnocide.

Attacks on Culture, Individuality and Displacement. Positive discrimination could also be seen to be negative to the indigenous peoples so would also be against their human rights. Whilst employment generally has gone up employment among indigenous people has fallen by 62,000 such is the way we the White English are discriminated against.

Put simply it is the cleansing or minoritising of an indigenous population by methods other than mass extermination.

It is a fact that by 2070 the immigrant population will be ahead of the indigenous peoples of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. That year will be the year that the planned for ethnocide is complete.

This is a Crime against humanity according to the Geneva Convention it is an equivalent crime to Genocide and is a form of Ethnic Cleansing. Phillip Dunne MP who is my MP is ignorant as he thinks ethnocide involves being murdered, is doesn’t it involves being made to feel emotion that causes displacement so best you all understand what ethnocide is.

I am reporting this crime to every agency in the UK to expose this crime to the indigenous British People. I am also complaining that the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police have ignored this reported crime.

This is the basis of my complaint, which will reveal if our political masters have created a police totalitarian state within a democracy or not if indeed crimes against humanity as alleged exists then legal action against the conspirators should be taken. These crimes are criminal and not civil.

Yours faithfully

Alasdair MacCorquodale

October 18th, 2010 7:30pm Report this comment

The real issue about mass-immigration is the threat to our indigenous British Culture. I am not interested in the multi-culturalism as practised in the United States.

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