They were the Nasty Party when Theresa May reminded them how some of the public saw them, and the Nasty Party they’ll always be. As long as Priti Patel is in power, that is.
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Friday 10 April 2020
Essential Workers Rewarded - With Deportation
Why Priti Patel, who has for some inexplicable reason been made Home Secretary in the current Government, might not want to subject herself to questioning by the Home Affairs select committee became clearer yesterday, as Sophia Wolpers of London First perused the new points-based immigration criteria from Ms Patel’s department.
“Today gov't decided to publish guidance for the new points-based immigration system. There is no route for essential workers. Maybe it's time to think about awarding them 20 extra points in the system to make sure they will be able to come in the future” she observed, before clarifying what she meant by “essential workers”.
“Many of the workers currently making sure we stay alive, i.e. working in supermarkets, fields or in hospitals, would not be able to be here under [Priti Patel’s] proposed immigration system as their contribution (=salary) is thought too small. I think we need to rethink the system”. So how much of that sector is staffed by overseas workers?
Ms Wolpers had those numbers, too: “on average 50% of jobs in the food chain (excluding hospitality) are held by foreign, mostly EEA (40%), workers. Same goes for logistics and wholesale where the non-UK workforce is 39% or cleaning where it is at 35% on average. Immigrants literally help to keep this country running - from stocking shelves every morning to cleaning hospitals and treating patients”. Do go on.
“Nurses and paramedics with UK work visas due to expire before 1 October will have them automatically extended for a year”. However, “Last month in Parliament, Home Secretary Priti Patel acknowledged the outstanding work of everyone contributing to dealing with the coronavirus and caring for those afflicted by it. She went on to acknowledge the definition of essential workers might need to be reviewed as the situation develops”.
Well, it hasn’t been reviewed. The reward for many of those cleaning hospitals, wheeling patients from the ward to intensive care to theatre to recovery room, serving up their meals, unloading delivery lorries and stacking shelves at the local supermarket, and yes, caring for the elderly and vulnerable in care homes across the UK, is going to be a brusque thank you at the end of the year, followed by the boot of deportation.
Thus the reason why Ms Patel wasn’t keen to explain herself to Yvette Cooper and her cross-party committee of MPs. Peter Foster of the FT was unimpressed. “The timing of this by [Priti Patel] is Just UNBELIEVABLE. Ponder this at 8pm tonight when we're all on the doorstep clapping essential workers … but the govt is sending a rather different message of how they really value many of them”. And he emphasised one point.
“NHS is NOT the issue. Go see how many EEA nationals are propping up private sector care system (avg salary £16k p.a); and we [are] also clapping the drivers and delivery peeps who are making #lockdown even possible”. The Guardian’s John Crace concluded “Dominic Raab busy thanking all the people Priti Patel wants to exclude from the country”.
They were the Nasty Party when Theresa May reminded them how some of the public saw them, and the Nasty Party they’ll always be. As long as Priti Patel is in power, that is.
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They were the Nasty Party when Theresa May reminded them how some of the public saw them, and the Nasty Party they’ll always be. As long as Priti Patel is in power, that is.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet5
Another one wants to pull up the ladder.
ReplyDeleteThis is gonna sound racist but I don't give a fuck, if patel was Indian, she'd be shitting on other Indians to get here. Defintiely the sweatshop owner type...patel's more or less advocated the same for this country, the horrible twat.
Would patel's own parents have qualified as 'essential' under her rules if they arrived here today? I think not.
Would patel have the same attitude towards immigration she does now had she arrived as a refugee from Idi Amin's regime in Uganda instead of her parents arriving in the late 60's?
...This proves patel actually DOES have that attitude. One odious bastard, that.
I understand that she's smirking from home.
ReplyDeleteUgli Patel is merely a tiny cog.....Pffftttt....
ReplyDeleteAn important element of CAPITALIST freedom of movement has always been cheap labour. Always was, always will be. British trades unions have never done enough to combat it - too many right wing placemen and women.
It goes without saying that the Nastzis will promote anything that drives down labour costs and increases profits. Hence casualisation (aka "zero hours" or "gig economy" bullshit) of large chunks of the economy. It really is that basic.
Hence too the organised vilification of a good and honest man like Jeremy Corbyn. One of the darkest events in modern British political history. The current shifty-eyed leader isn't fit to lace Corbyn's shoes, as subsequent events will demonstrate. One glance at his shadow cabinet shows the sell out has already begun. Wait until it gets traction, you've seen nothing yet.
So, yes Patel is a shit. But she's only a small plop in the cesspit of corrupted British politics.
I think there's some conflation going on here. Tim is describing the implications of a policy to kick out foreign nationals who are legally working here already - a policy that doesn't exist. He's conflating that with a policy that relates to who comes to the UK to work from January 2021.
ReplyDelete