So it seems the biggest losers from the Tories latest immigration policy will be British citizens. Terrified by the jump in net migration numbers (even thought its entirely consistent with the post brexit reality), the Tories have raised the threshold salary at which migrants can apply for a visa. But its now so high, its out of reach of many UK citizens as well (although the rich elites will be unaffected of course).
A large proportion of those net migration figures the Tory press freak out about include UK citizens and their families (as its measuring the net migrant, those coming in v’s leaving and, drum roll, lots of UK citizens enter and leave the UK). This means many families could be broken up, or UK citizens, with their spouse unable to get residency in the UK, might move abroad instead. In general it also means a downgrading of UK citizens ability to travel abroad (as many countries operate a reciprocal system, i.e. you make it hard for our citizens to come into your country, we’ll make it hard for yours to come into ours).
I recall joking once that the Tories would end up restricting the travel rights of Brits. Well that’s not far removed from what they are now doing. Things I’ll say in jest have a nasty habit of becoming Tory party policy. And its clear what they are trying to do. They are hoping to make it so impossible to come into the UK that it will artificially drive down the figures. They can then point to this as a “success” and rapidly hold an election before the economic consequences strike. Then blame the aftermath on labour.
It also highlights the utter hypocrisy of the right and their bigoted views. I was on a forum a couple of weeks back and the usual bigot brigade types were crying crocodile tears about them poor homeless (god bless em!) sleeping on the street, and yet the government is spending millions putting migrants up in hotels.
I say crocodile tears because when someone else pointed out that it would be very easy for the government to restore funding to homeless shelters and build more social housing (in fact this would probably save money, as they are having to accommodate mothers with kids in hotels also, as there’s a chronic lack of social housing in the UK). And they immediately changed tune and said all homeless are drug addicts or just lazy. Now, I don’t doubt that quite a lot of homeless people have a drug problem. But for some its a way of coping life on the street, rather than the cause of their homelessness. Again, if they could be accommodated, or better yet not kicked out of their homes in the first place (a consequence of the Tories rat race social Darwinism), we won’t have this problem.
But I digress. I pointed out (and this got me reported and censored, because they are such little snowflakes they can’t handle the truth) that the only reason why they are having to put asylum seekers up in hotels is due to the massive back lock in processing their claims. At least two thirds of these claims are found to be valid (the unsuccessful third being sent back) and many have family or friends in the UK with whom they could stay with. Many have skills, so if allowed to work, they could contribute and pay taxes. But no, to appease the bigot brigade (who are likely to get spooked if they see someone foreign) the Tories would rather waste hundreds of millions of pounds. The Rwanda policy (that passing a law declaring a country that is on the verge of possible conflict with its neighbour as “safe” will magically warp reality) being just one extreme and sadistic example of this.
But as I mentioned it seems the bigot brigade have no issue with the fact that many of the politicians and the party donors advocating these policies are also either foreign born, tax exiles, or not exactly the full pint of bitter. Fishy Richi had a US green card until recently, spending most of his time jetting between India and the US (a lifestyle he’ll likely be returning too once he leaves office). Cleverly, Pritti racist & Cruella have now brought in legislation that would have excluded themselves or their own family (can we put them all on the first Rwanda flight?). Nigel Lawson and Farage have European passports. Rothermere is a tax exile (how patriotic). Boris Johnson was born in the US and his grandfather was Turkish (he changed his name to Johnson, because Kemal was a bit too foreign for the Eton set). And of course Boris biggest backers were Russian oligarchs, several of whom he made peers.
And the thing is, you point this out and it just goes straight over their head. They are so self centred and selfish, that they are oblivious to their own hypocrisy. And they get away with it because the bigot brigade are so tribal they they will play whatever mental gymnastics it takes to avoid accepting reality (as that would also mean accepting they are a bunch of mugs who’ve been conned and their fragile ego just can’t take that sort of a hit).
And no, before anyone says it, asylum seekers don’t have to stop at the first safe country they visit. Why? Because many Jews fleeing the Nazi’s also faced persecution in other European countries. And ended up getting rounded up when the nazi’s overran the continent. Those who tried to make it further afield, such as to the America’s, were sometimes turned away, often ultimately ending up back in Europe and eventually the concentration camps.
We are in fact seeing something similar play out in Pakistan, where many refugees fleeing the Taliban are now being expelled back to a Afghanistan, largely down to short term domestic politics in Pakistan. That’s why the refugee convention exists and why governments can’t simply decide what and where is a safe country.
And its much the same with everything else the Tories have touched. Anyone remember austerity? And has that brought down the national debt? nope! Actually its gone up since then and the Tories, in 13 years, are yet to return a budget surplus. Has it led to lower taxes? Well yes, if your are a multimillionaire, but not for anyone else. In fact taxes are now at record highs. Meanwhile public services are in a dire state. Which again, they were warned would happen.
Privatisation of public services has just meant crap services that cost way more and can lead to actual crap floating down rivers. Centuries of development from the Victorian era onwards, in the form of sewage, water treatment and public transport have been effectively reversed in the space of a decade thanks to the Tories. And let’s not even mention brexit, which they still haven’t identified an actual benefit for.
The Tories are a tribe. A cult of sadists whose sole purpose is to destroy all they touch, while distracting the public. Allowing their paymasters to bleed the country dry. The only difference between the mob and the Tories is that the mob aren’t as corrupt or greedy. In short the Tory party’s motto is now the same as that of psychopaths “does that hurt? What about now?“
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