BY BRAD JAMES
Nigel Farage has offered a convenient glimpse of how much better things would be if he were in charge (I’m being sarcastic), from the comfort of the side-lines. For all intents and purposes raging from the armchair – though his excoriation of the government came from an interview – is easy, we can all do it. Also, when it comes to immigration, Nasty Nige is like a dog with a bone, talking as much rhetoric as everyone else as to put him in danger of lockjaw. He seems to also have a rare insight into what entails a normal level of immigration… read on, incredulous reader!
In a recent BBC interview, the UKIP leader said that under the points system of immigration that his party intends to implement, only 27,000 people would have entered the country to work in 2014. Therefore returning the level to what he deems “normal” levels. UKIP regard such an influx of numbers into the country to be between 20,000 and 50,000 a year, but would not impose a yearly cap either.
“Since 2000, we have gone mad, we opened the doors to much of the world but in particular we opened up the doors to 10 former communist countries, and as a result of our EU membership we have absolutely zero control over the numbers who come.”
“UKIP is putting forward a policy that will take immigration in Britain back to normal. Normal was from 1950 until the year 2000.” – Nigel Farage.
Under UKIP’s measures. Anyone wishing to enter the UK as an economic migrant would need to meet the following criteria:
Set up an independent Migration Control Commission, which would set the number and type of highly skilled migrants to be admitted to the UK through an Australian-style points system
EU citizens would be treated the same as workers from the rest of the globe and would have to apply for the highly skilled migrant visa
Unskilled migrants to be banned from entering the UK for an initial five year period, subject to regular reviews by government
Foreign students and asylum seekers would not be included in the restrictions
But asylum seekers without identification papers would be returned to the country they came from
Upon qualifying under the points-based system, highly skilled workers would be issued with a visa valid for up to 5 years
They would not be allowed to claim benefits for the five year period
But once they have completed it they would be able to apply for permanent leave to remain, provided they haven’t broken the law
EU citizens already living in the UK would not be deported and would have “indefinite leave to remain”
Reinstate the “primary purpose rule” – abolished by Labour in 1997 – for bringing foreign spouses and children to the UK. Foreign nationals married to British citizens would have to prove to immigration officers that the primary purpose of their marriage was not to obtain British residency.
*Source: BBC News.
Any potential entrant into our nation would also need a requirement of an earning power of at least £27,000 a year, though exceptions could be made for professions such as nursing. The Conservatives are also pledging to return immigration to levels experienced within the 80’s and 90’s, a shadow of the figure of recent net migration, those remaining in the country less those leaving, stood at 298,000 last year.
The thorny issue of migration will prick the skin of any statesman/woman who gets it wrong and imbue their body with the poison of national ill will. Of course a sensible person, left or right, will agree that some limits need to be affected where immigration is concerned, for logistical reasons more than anything. It is also an honourable vow to promise more training for people already in the country to fill the gap in nursing, but rampant capitalism is being burned by the caustic acid of it’s own success now. According to Marx, the proletariat remain suppressed by the bourgeoisie growing the workforce and being able to draw from an ever larger pool of peasants. But the gap between those workers needing to be qualified is getting smaller, they are running out of those qualified to plug in the worker gap. This is a self-destructive process and a mission impossible, yet unlike the movie, we don’t know how much time we have left until things self-destruct.
