Gordon Brown’s latest scheme is aimed fairly and squarely at gaining the votes of Britain’s bigots, while gaining a free source of labour for the Government’s “community work”.
The Chancellor favours requiring migrants to the UK to do free community work for the people they’ll be living alongside and so “prove” they can contribute to society.
He also wants some form of trial citizenship and envisages citizenship being a contract that could be revoked if people didn’t stick to their side of it. (Nothing about what happens if the government or British society fails to stick to their side, though.)
This is appalling, not just because I’m a long-standing immigrant myself who’s managed to find work, pay taxes, support my family and contribute to the UK in a number of ways (including voluntary work as it happens).
It’s appalling because it applies one set of standards to a minority (immigrants) and another to the majority (British-born citizens). Applying double standards is not the way to challenge divisiveness or promote integration as Brown claims his pet schemes will do.
If you’re a British-born UK citizen, then you don’t have to be tested on your English skills and your knowledge of British culture before being allowed to apply for a job or permitted to access government services. (And there are a lot of British citizens who would definitely fail those tests.)
If you’re a British-born UK citizen, then you wouldn’t be expected to prove yourself a good potential citizen before taking your place in society. And what exactly is a good citizen? Someone who knows their place and accepts all the dictats of the government of the day?
If you’re a British-born UK citizen, then you wouldn’t be told you’ve forfeited your citizenship contract and can no longer stay in the country, have a job or access government services.
If you’re a British-born UK citizen, you wouldn’t be expected to work for the government for nothing. Well, unless you were a convicted criminal given a community service order - and perhaps that’s how people like Gordon Brown see immigrants, as petty criminals.
Funnily enough, the Chancellor’s announcement came at the same time that the BBC reported on a survey that found UK workers were fiddling their expenses to the tune of £1 billion a year.
But they’re good citizens aren’t they?
And his plan to force immigrants to work without pay comes only weeks before the Government marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade on 25 March 1807.
But I’m sure Brown can sidestep that paradox as well.
Anyway, instead of repeating what other people will be saying, I’d like to make a few proposals of my own.
- Should all politicians be required to sit tests determining their suitability for office?
- Should all politicians be tested on their ability to speak clearly, honestly and directly answer the questions they’re asked?
- Should being a politician involve a contract that had a trial period, say 12 months, plus the threat of revocation at any time for breaching that contract?
- Should politicians be required to work on community projects alongside convicted criminals for a set number of hours per week? Hmm, I suspect that in some cases they would be one and the same person…
I’m with Douglas Adams on this one - If they want to be in charge they’re not fit to be in charge.
Tests 1 to 4 should get rid of the lot of them.
I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list there’s none of them be missed… wanders off singing to put on the tea
No sugar in mine, thanks, Karen. I heartily agree with all the above. Where do these ideas germinate from? Does he bathe in asses milk or what?
I forgot to mention that I’ll also be required to carry an ID card shortly because I’m a foreign national living in the UK. What’s wrong with my passport? Or my British driver’s licence? Or the umpteen pieces of paperwork that banks and the link are now required to check when verifying ID?
How on earth are the police going to tell the difference between a “foreigner” who needs an ID card and a citizen - who doesn’t (yet) require an ID? Let me guess, hmm, skin colour? Accent? They look funny?
And don’t get me wrong. I’m not singling the UK out - it just so happens to be the country in which I live. A lot of other countries are introducing equally intrusive, iniquitous and divisive methods of identifying and controlling the populous under the guise of “preventing terrorism and crime”.
Very few of the people introducing these measures seem to grasp the paradox of curtailing people’s liberties and freedoms in order to “protect” those self-same liberties and freedoms.
Yes I think we can say the terrorists are winning aided and abetted by the government. At the end of the day we’re much easier to control when we’re divided by fear and suspicion it worked for Hitler after all.
I don’t know how much of the Australian papers you still read (online), but if you don’t recognise the names, google for Vivian Solon & Cornelia Rau. Sometimes, our government makes me feel physically ill …
is it not just you, Stonehead that needs to carry ID with you, it’s that dodgy Aussie bloke again.
I love the way that the government always plays to the fools and then gives them more fuel for their fire. Is not forced labour a form of slavery? or am I just a cynic? We still have such a long way to go if we still see immigrants as secondclass citizens.