Ugh, you’re right. I am so tired of TMay.
But Javid has seen basically no blowback at all from the Tory membership (if anything the opposite) for wanting to kill it.
It’s basically the entire premise of the Tories’ post-Brexit immigration plan, so it’s hard to see how they can drop it without also dropping their red lines on freedom of movement.
I find your assertion that the Tories have a post-Brexit plan of any kind entirely ridiculous :).
I don’t see how it’s linked to red lines on freedom of movement though - as far as I can tell the hostile environment is about simultaneously enforcing the absolute maximum strictness of the immigration laws as they stand and making immigrants responsible for the incompetent bureaucracy of the home office itself.
Stopping the hostile enviroment policy would still mean EU citizens coming to work in the UK after the cutoff date would require a work permit, but there would be less headaches if there were any problems with the paperwork.
The individual Tories that steer the party have a plan: Make loads of money. Brexit, and the insane policy decisions surrounding it, will be doing that for them.
We might know more after the Chequers meeting on Friday.
Of course, more likely for this government, we’ll know even less.
Brexit horror stories - like that of Inga Lockington (Dane) - get a fair amount of play in Scandinavia. For those who are unaware of the story, Inga is a Danish citizen that moved to England in 1979 (long before free movement was even a thing) when she married her British husband. The lady has lived in the UK since as a permanent resident, serving as a local government councillor for 19 years, and mayor of Ipswich for a term. After Brexit, and some law changes in DK which means that dual citizenship is now possible for Danish citizens, she decided to apply for a British passport. Her initial application was denied because the home office “could not be satisfied that she was a permanent resident”.
I don’t think British people in general are against all EU citizens, but it’s fairly clear that the official government policy is to be as hostile to foreign immigrants/citizens as possible, pretty much regardless of origin.
The shame of it there is certainly a cohort of British citizens that thought they we voting to get rid of all immigrants. These were the people that wandered around expecting people to have gone immediately after the result.
They really don’t understand any differentiation between EU citizens or not and think that anybody from the Indian sub-continent would be on their way.
Also, don’t underestimate the same antipathy that many of the same people that have towards EU citizens where their presence is obvious. Polish/Romanian shops in Lincolnshire have been a source of tension and racist observations.
Racism, in this case, isn’t just limited to a different skin colour.
To quote a Yorkshire farmer that I ran into many years ago ‘I know you people from Richmond (10 miles down the road) are f’ing strange’ when somebody I was with had left a gate open.
Many people voted for Brexit for some genuine reasons but many also voted as they’ve been fed a diet of putting the blame on immigrants by the media (Hello Daily Mail) and politicians (of all stripes).
As Banjax says, they may or may not be against all EU citizens, but a very large proportion are against Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians, thanks in no small part to papers like the Mail and Express running a racist hate campaign against them for many years.
While a part of it is certainly racism part of it is economic effects. Immigration is good for the overall economy, but it holds low skilled wages down and it drives rents up across the board. And telling people with these concerns that they’re racist doesn’t help win the argument. It’s not like the left couldn’t have a compelling story on dealing with those problems if it really wanted to (One might argue Corbyn does, but then he’s pro brexit anyway…)
I said the press’s hate campaign was racist, not the voters. It was (and still is - just look at Rod Liddle’s continuing output).
Agree. One of my fave comedy aphorisms is
“The English hate foreigners and foreigners begin at the end of the street.”
Which if you are English rings with an element of truth. We judge people by region, town. part of town, accent, class, country, religion, what sports team you support and race.
So for those who were not brought up there , yes there is a racist element to the recipe but its not the whole dish as it seems to be in large parts of America we find MANY ways to judge others as well as race :)
Isn’t that the fault of greedy employers and landlords though?
No, you said “a very large proportion are against Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians”. To me that is a clear statement that a very large proportion are racist.
That was in response to the assertion that it wasn’t about EU immigrants. There was an attempt, particularly by UKIP, to blur the lines (eg scaremongering about Turks and refugees), but to the extent that people’s actually economic concerns about immigration motivated Brexit votes, it was primarily about the accession countries.
That chimes with my experience.
I spent 2005-2006 in France, and had never met a Pole or anyone east of Munich before then.
Came back to Stansted airport, ordered a coffee at the Costa, and the staff couldn’t understand me. They were Polish.
One was not amused.
Back to uni for my final year and there were Poles and Polish shops and Polish influenced changes everywhere. Most of these were harmless, some were good (Tyskie in Wetherspoon’s, not a bad beer) and some not so good, like the gangs of polish youths walking around looking to kick off.
To be fair English youths were doing that all the time.
i worked in a Wetherspoon’s that last eyar, and met people of every stripe. polish guys were some of the worst, as in loud, aggressive, and just a bit racist.
Polish girls were some of the best.
Go figure.
I’ve never worked as a plumber etc (i.e. low skilled wage) but I have used them on occasion, and I was let down very badly by one English guy (took my money and ran), and then the next English guy did a fantastic job (high quality job, showed up on time, charged a fair rate) but I understand form my brother’s business, and from various people I know in managerial positions in pubs etc, that they’d almost always rather hire a Polish than an English person, because the Poles:
- show up on time/early
- work like machines
- don’t slack off
This was certainly my experience of my Polish (and other eastern European) colleagues when I worked at Pret-a-manger. Never once late.
I had to help my bro out during the Christmas rush a few years ago, and he took on some temporary help. About half a dozen people, 2 of them English.
Worked slow, chatted alot, went on breaks a bit early (5 minutes extra here and there) complained alot.
So from my perspective the problem is one of work ethic/culture. Them Poles are willing to graft for what is, relative to Polish salaries, a lot of money.
So rather than look inwards and fix one’s own laziness (or even better, become an Employer) just blame the poles.
Easy target with their bizarre language etc.
That pretty much seems to be the universal experience of immigrants.
My own experience with Polish people was in 2000-2002 when several officers joined the nearby NATO base in the Netherlands. They students joined the local international (Primarily US) high school. The girls excelled like no tomorrow and won most academic awards (including English) while the few guys barely bothered.
I think part of the problem is fear. Immigrants work harder and have better motivation then the locals, so in the end, things change. Many people don’t want to compete or work harder for what they have so resent having to.
And the immigrants that are lazy, they don’t emigrate.
And it looks like Leave broke the law several times.
The video of the Leave campaign manager trying to rewrite history is also worth a watch.
edit: But at least the economy is doing ok… oh right
Ha. When even Italy is out in front, you know there’s maybe an itty bitty little problem brewing.
But wait till next year. When of course it will be far worse. The one nice thing is the UK’s economy even with all that banking probably isn’t big enough to crash the world, though I’m sure there will be a global dip.
… Which might be comforting if the UK were the only major economic power trying to tank the world economy this year.
Damn it.