Landmarker

 

EXODUS: Economic migrants from the enlarged European Union

 

In May 2004, Eight new countries joined the European Union. As has been well documented the official forecasts for inward migration to this country was around the fifteen thousand mark per annum.

This week , as the Government's figures relating economic migration were released I'm staggered, truly staggered. Not so much by the gross incompetence of those in the corridors of power who got the figures so wrong , but by the new Labour stooge, masquerading as a cabinet minister put up by the Government to field questions from the media. The questions are many. For, including those who are working here on a self-employed basis total numbers over the two year period is around the 600,000 mark, and this is just the people who have registered!

Let me say at this stage that it appears 97% of our new arrivals are working full time. Fantastic! why else would they be here. Well ask the other three per cent who are not working full time. This amounts to only 18,000 people after all.

The aforementioned 'stooge' was Tony McNulty, a 'Home Office' Minister. This overpaid lummox was effusive in his praise of all these people who are now doing the jobs that no-one else would touch. He kept stressing how these Poles, Slovaks & Czech's et al were contributing to the economy. I do not doubt it for one moment. Although I've seldom heard a Minister extol the virtues of indigenous workers, except of course the 'emergency services' after some disaster or other.

Anyway, McNulty seemed not to worry about the effects on low paid, and low skilled British workers. For a Labour minister he seemed to have a very Tory outlook when it came to the needs of business. All he kept re-iterating was how the 'economy' is benefiting.

IT 'S NOT JUST 'THE ECONOMY' STUPID

How did we manage , as little as two years ago without this massive pool of cheaper labour? How did we sustain an economy that was growing apace, outstripping European competition? Remember as recently as two years ago unemployment was still falling, the outlook was rosy, and historically, interests rates were low. Indeed , they still are.

Then came this influx. An exodus from the east of biblical proportions really. More than half a million people on the move. Has the world ever seen anything like it? Not when they are all heading for the same country it hasn't ! I can't be sure without research but I bet even Ellis Island didn't have the capacity to sort through this many, in this amount of time at the height of North American immigration.

After hearing McNulty enthuse about his new eastern European comrades the BBC ushered in Sir Digby Jones, ex-head of the Confederation of British Industry. He was another one to laud our seeming dependence upon the newcomers. He was guarded when asked about a further influx from Bulgaria & Romania though and at least cocked half a hat toward concerns that numbers might exceed what was 'beneficial' for Britain. He went on further to explain that British schools were turning out teenagers who cannot spell, write or even count ! What a sorry state of affairs. These kids were little more than toddlers when Blair's 'mantra 'education'education'education' was New Labours homage.

These indigenous illiterates are , I would assume, to be condemned to a life on benefit because they are utterly useless to man nor beast, and the revered incomers from the new accession states can count in at least two different languages! So, when they work out mentally that their five quid an hour is, to them a small fortune poor Sharon & Wayne, lowly graduates from the local Comprehensive will use almost all their fingers to work out who gets what from their giro cheque. Presumably they will have two spare fingers left to wave at the establishment which has sold them down the river. This week another survey has revealed that unless a school leaver has five good grades at GCSE then he/she's virtually unemployable. They might as well start running drugs, shoplifting or slit their wrists now.

Unlike the fifty per cent of Brit-youth targeted who are by now running up considerable debts at 'Uni'. That's new media , new generation speak for University. That place hardly any bugger ever went in the days you had to be ultra-bright to get there, or have a minted Mum & Dad. How I hate that truncated expression. UNIVERSITY ! Say it like it is. The shortened version betrays the truth about the whole experience - it has been devalued and debauched, like so many other things.

What a mess we are in. Since the second world war the fantastic welfare state has served many well yet fostered a dependency on benefits for a work-shy minority. The safety net has been abused. We have an underclass now who think the world owes them a living. Well, the world is arriving on their doorstep to take it away. No bad thing you might argue. I'm not so sure. Is the changing nature of our society worth all the possible strife that could be awaiting us around the next dip in the economic roller coaster? Or had you forgotten that boom is inevitable, sooner or later followed by bust?

Leaving aside the economy, what about the social consequences? What about the
grey haired old ladies and retired gentle-folk who see their neighbourhoods changing. Let's face it, the impact of Eastern Europeans is not quite so readily identifiable as the accelerated and mis-managed flow of Africans, & Asians of a different hue. However, nobody consulted anyone here as I recall. Nobody explained to blue collar workers , or even the lowest of the low - the great unskilled - that their wage progress would grind to a historically unheard of halt as employers in all manner of industries fall over themselves to find 'hard-working' Poles to do their jobs.

I have heard several instances where long term employees have been forced out of organisations or undermined to such an extent where they have seen fit to quit, leaving openings for eager beaver eco-migrants rubbing their hands at the prospect of five quid an hour.

Packed into houses six or eight at a time, with council tax, rent and bills spread between them they see this is decent money. The employers are rubbing their hands in glee. They have never come across such a willing group of workers.

And what will become of Poland itself? At a time when new opportunities must be arriving via their EU membership most of the energetic youth, and the parents of abandoned kids have high-tailed it to the good 'ole dis-United Kingdom to graft a living scrabbling around in turnip fields. Is this how the greatest living Pole of our times Lech Walesa envisaged things when he bravely led his 'Solidarnosc' comrades out of the shipyards in Gdansk? I doubt it.

Not only have the brawny and the energetic exited, there are tens of thousand of skilled, and highly skilled people who have hit the highways and skyways to this, the promised land, where teenagers 'cannot count'. Where percentages baffle millions, according to Digby Jones.

My own wife has recently signed up to that ultimate rarity an NHS Dentist, because two Polish guys have set up a practice in town. We cannot find it in our hearts, let alone our gums to rejoice in this development. What does old Walesa back in Warsaw do when he wants a scrape and polish?

It seems the indigenous folk of Britain, or at least those without their own calculator and the odd 'A' level can go stuff themselves. Many of these are 'thick' anyway, they believe. They have been told it for so long they've finally taken it on board. Such a notion will be hard to dislodge. If they are not 'thick' they must be obese. A liability either way.

These same young people, the ones who might not have managed the 'right of passage' of University, and decided to get on the job ladder face stiffer than ever competition. Their modest wages are kept low, due to the expanding labour pool, while their outgoings on energy, housing and transport rise fast, year on year. They might still manage a weekend trip to the pub in the town centre for a few escapist beers, or more likely a full on boozing binge to forget how useless they really are. They might be served by a Czech lass , or mingle with fruit pickers four deep at the bar. Many speaking languages indigenous boy can't understand. And there are other impacts . What hope, for instance have OUR young people of getting on the housing ladder? Perhaps a forty five year interest only mortgage might be the answer. After all we're told we are all living longer (more lies) Another generation enslaved to debt. Their allegedly brighter, more motivated peers also saddled with tuition fee debts and top up loans. The outlook for younger people in this country is not great. The outlook for buy-to-let landlords prepared for multiple occupancy is fantastic however.

If , as has been suggested by some - & I have my doubts - there really are hundreds of thousands of workshy people in Britain who will not work at any price then for goodness sake stop their benefits. Clinton did this in America in the early nineties and it worked! It is obvious that NO-ONE need be on the dole for longer than a few months in most parts of Britain today. Working tax credit ensures a reasonable return for low-earners, especially those with children. I suppose though there will still be a rump of layabouts who will steal or duck and dive to avoid the rigours of regular employment.

No matter. We have our wonderful incomers. But what happens when the economy, as it surely will, finally turns down? Unemployment is rising month on month. What happens when the gravy train hits the buffers?

How many of our new friends will turn sharply on their toes and head back to homelands now bourgeoning and thriving with EU money?

It's a fair question. These people have no loyalty, no allegiance. They use this country as a cash cow. I'd bet many or them despise the place and the excesses of people like you and I. The lazy, idol people of the west, who take (took) security for granted and a good standard of easy living is seen as a right!

They might have a point, they might even have a purpose. Maybe it's all a master Blairite plan to keep us on our toes. To increase insecurity. Islanders are notoriously suspicious of foreigners. Remember? pinch yourself! Yes! you/me we're still part of a great island race. A race that repelled uninvited boarders for a thousand years. Now, the toads at Westminster have cut the drawbridge tethers and we are an island in geographical terms only. All barriers have gone, we are expected to rub shoulders with all and sundry with a happy smile on our betrayed faces.

Betrayed by a political class - of both parties - which has treated the average every day working man and woman - and even their children with utter contempt these twenty years.

So if the economy is of the utmost importance to you. If you like cheap food and if you're happy for house prices to rise upward and upward giving you some notional sense of on paper wealth, driving you ever further toward the inheritance tax threshold. If you're calm about a myriad of the worlds languages and customs in the shopping precinct relax! Nirvana is near.

On the other hand if you liked Britain the way it was thirty years ago, with seemingly managed immigration welcoming in reasonable numbers of black and brown people mostly from former commonwealth countries to work and contribute - most of them anyway - then be fearful. We are now part of a new world. A brave new world which is arriving in your town soon. It is a hard working world because it never progressed to the point we were at even thirty years ago. A world which will eventually level you downwards to bring them upwards. All part of the European dream, which might one day become a nightmare for everyday ordinary folk in this country.

 

Landmarker's earlier social commentaries can be found HERE....>>>>

http://www.landmarker.blogspot.com

 

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