Priti Patel and her 8 million

[ardcarp]

In their bid to be hard-line 'take-our-country-back' Brexiteers, the Tory leadership is promoting Priti Patel in her claim that 8 million of the UK population are 'economically inactive'. [She implies lazy layabouts.] She says that EU (and other) workers in the agriculture, building, NHS and care sectors won't be needed any more and that Brits will step up to the plate. Needless to say, those businesses/organisations which rely very heavily on EU labour are quietly furious about it. As I had the temerity to predict elsewhere, the wheels will come off the Johnson/Cummings machine through internal Tory party discomfort, not through opposition parties.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/19/immigration-firms-will-need-to-train-more-uk-workers-says-priti-patel

[Bella Kemp]

I think you're right ardcarp. Providing the main opposition party can rid itself of the absurdistas, the ghastly Tories are creating their own doom.

[DracoM]

I was, like you, gobsmacked: the points system outlined will inevitably put the price up in social care, NHS and education - i.e. precisely those areas that the nation seemed - I say seemed - to suggest it wanted action on in the recent election.

Utterly mind-boggling that one stroke we get a a shortage of labour, an increase in costs for replacing it, and, bob's your uncle, immigration problem solved.

Shame about the care homes, hospital wards etc, the fruit and veg fields etc...........

How far-right a 'solution' is this?

[eighthobstruction]

....you'd have thought they would hold fire till they actually nknow what final EU Deal they get....but then again this may be a message to Brussels....and we drift nearer to No Deal....

[teamsaint]

I think you're right ardcarp. Providing the main opposition party can rid itself of the absurdistas, the ghastly Tories are creating their own doom.

The "moderate " Labour Party under Blair helped, in fact were instrumental in the decision to allow immediate free access to citizens of the A9 countries . If they had used the brakes available, ( as the other major economies of Italy, France of Germany did) to allow a more gradual flow of labour into the country, we might well have avoided the shambles of the last few years.
That decision played right into the hands of the Tories, and the extreme right.

http://theconversation.com/the-huge-political-cost-of-blairs-decision-to-allow-eastern-european-migrants-unfettered-access-to-britain-66077

[cloughie]

Again I think that George Eustice having been an ardent brexiteer will make sure that agriculture in the Duchy is staffed and not stuffed!

[eighthobstruction]

Again I think that George Eustice having been an ardent brexiteer will make sure that agriculture in the Duchy is staffed and not stuffed!

....are saying George Eustrace is going to pass the Duchy on field hand side....

[cloughie]

The "moderate " Labour Party under Blair helped, in fact were instrumental in the decision to allow immediate free access to citizens of the A9 countries . If they had used the brakes available, ( as the other major economies of Italy, France of Germany did) to allow a more gradual flow of labour into the country, we might well have avoided the shambles of the last few years.
That decision played right into the hands of the Tories, and the extreme right.

http://theconversation.com/the-huge-...-britain-66077

Yes but a Brexit choice was not on Blair’s agenda.

[teamsaint]

Yes but a Brexit choice was not on Blair’s agenda.

But that’s not the point. The point is about the effect of his policies on the A8 ( apologies for typo earlier) accession countries, and what, for him, were unintended but quite forseeable consequences.

[Barbirollians]

I see Priti Patel has had to admit that her parents would probably not have been allowed into the UK on this policy - what a nasty hard right piece of work she is .

[mallard fizz]

I see Priti Patel has had to admit that her parents would probably not have been allowed into the UK on this policy - what a nasty hard right piece of work she is .

a delicious non-sequitur

[oddoneout]

The "moderate " Labour Party under Blair helped, in fact were instrumental in the decision to allow immediate free access to citizens of the A9 countries . If they had used the brakes available, ( as the other major economies of Italy, France of Germany did) to allow a more gradual flow of labour into the country, we might well have avoided the shambles of the last few years.
That decision played right into the hands of the Tories, and the extreme right.

http://theconversation.com/the-huge-...-britain-66077

Didn't one Theresa May, when Home Secretary, add to the problem of lack of control by refusing to adopt the control measures available within EU regulations?
There were crops left to rot last year thanks to insufficient foreign workers, and given that the 2020 'allowance' will be I believe 10 000 against the 70 000 seasonal workers agriculture needs, that looks set to be repeated with knobs on. Condoning avoidable food waste in this country while so many cannot afford to feed themselves properly, let alone the suffering millions worldwide is repugnant. The difficulties of getting british workers to do the jobs are longstanding and well known; how are those problems magically going to be overcome in a few months? Even if it were the solution automation doesn't happen overnight.

[mallard fizz]

Didn't one Theresa May, when Home Secretary, add to the problem of lack of control by refusing to adopt the control measures available within EU regulations?
There were crops left to rot last year thanks to insufficient foreign workers, and given that the 2020 'allowance' will be I believe 10 000 against the 70 000 seasonal workers agriculture needs, that looks set to be repeated with knobs on. Condoning avoidable food waste in this country while so many cannot afford to feed themselves properly, let alone the suffering millions worldwide is repugnant. The difficulties of getting british workers to do the jobs are longstanding and well known; how are those problems magically going to be overcome in a few months? Even if it were the solution automation doesn't happen overnight.

our crazy decision to leave the EU will be accompanied by further avoidable food waste. I predict butter mountains, wine lakes and milk wastefully emptied onto fields.

[LMcD]

Didn't one Theresa May, when Home Secretary, add to the problem of lack of control by refusing to adopt the control measures available within EU regulations?
There were crops left to rot last year thanks to insufficient foreign workers, and given that the 2020 'allowance' will be I believe 10 000 against the 70 000 seasonal workers agriculture needs, that looks set to be repeated with knobs on. Condoning avoidable food waste in this country while so many cannot afford to feed themselves properly, let alone the suffering millions worldwide is repugnant. The difficulties of getting british workers to do the jobs are longstanding and well known; how are those problems magically going to be overcome in a few months? Even if it were the solution automation doesn't happen overnight.

Just relax, everyone! Care homes and hospitals can be staffed by fishermen who've had to sell their boats. Patients will be discharged once they sign a form promising to pick crops. This, together with the raising of the retirement age to 80 and the fact that lots of people won't be able to afford to stop working because everything will cost more, should help PP to keep immigration down. However, just in case this masterplan doesn't work ..... don't get old and don't get sick.

[Serial_Apologist]

Didn't one Theresa May, when Home Secretary, add to the problem of lack of control by refusing to adopt the control measures available within EU regulations?
There were crops left to rot last year thanks to insufficient foreign workers, and given that the 2020 'allowance' will be I believe 10 000 against the 70 000 seasonal workers agriculture needs, that looks set to be repeated with knobs on. Condoning avoidable food waste in this country while so many cannot afford to feed themselves properly, let alone the suffering millions worldwide is repugnant. The difficulties of getting british workers to do the jobs are longstanding and well known; how are those problems magically going to be overcome in a few months? Even if it were the solution automation doesn't happen overnight.

Rarely mentioned in these discussions is what motivates, or motivated, the young mostly male unattached SE Europeans to come here to work in arduous, low-paid, long houred agricultural work: the absence of any need to save up for a mortgage, which would be unaffordable over here on those wages, home ownership and associated aspirations not being on the same priority scale in those low income countries. That motivation diminished when they experienced their reception at the hands of those fired up by both booze and the line fed in the media about low wages undercutting domestic job rates, and will soon diminish further once the realisation comes home that they are not wanted, if it isn't already happening as apocryphally reported in other sectors, eg care.