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Spinoza.......can I first of all point out that I dont feel I should have a direct view on UK immigration policy. I am not overly concerned.
While clearly.....skilled workers are needed in a country such as Britain...and necessary workers (low paid agricultural for example).......I have from your posts formed the opinion (perhaps erroneously from bits and bobs in your postings) that you are a high earner in the City.
I spent 32 years as a UK civil servant so I suppose its all a matter of taste. Many would claim that this is a particuarly useless way to spend 32 years....Im inclined to agree.........but I am not sure how highly paid people in the City are either "skilled" or "necessary".......they would come a long way behind teachers and nurses in my humble opinion.
Id assume that you derive MORE personally from being in the UK....than the UK derives from your presence.
As you are already on the Electoral list, I fail to see how you and people like you need to be further accomodated by having any more FORMAL input than that.
That would actually give you more formal input than the rest of us.
A bit like saying.
"Thanks for the invite to the party......I would now like to change the guest list....and the menu"
I am all of course in favour of adding a little flavour to the gene pool.
One of the more interesting aspects of working as a very mediocre fraud investigator was the different attitudes to fraud.
For example......a person fiddling tax......is considered a veritable hero in the Daily Mail. Not so ..the person who fiddles employment benefit.
One of the "soft" industries for fraud investigators to look at is.....cash in hand employment......taxi drivers are easy. But also take away restaurants.
Ive seen takeaways being er taken away.........literally moving from say Nottingham to Bristol and a reciprocal arrangement, a veritable network of recipocracy based on extended family connexions.
Migration cant allowed to be a "conservative" or Daily Mail obsession. All of us agree that things change slightly (for the host population) when migrants arrive. Some reject any notion of change to phone Jon Gaunt......Im not worried about being mugged any more than ten years ago............but I do worry about the effect of a low paid economy where genuine reforms hard won by working class people (limit of hours worked, trade union membership, casual working in high health risk jobs etc) can be put into reverse....in the cause of being better for the economy. The exploitation of workers up to and including the sex trade is not good.
Frankly all host populations have been worried by influx of low paid workers. New York in 1850s had worries about the likes of me (Irish). And racists play to those fears.
My chief concern is the two tier economy of Europe......it could be argued of course that Greece, Ireland, Portugal were on the second tier of Europe but the differential in Bulgaria, Romania is off the scale. The effect of that migration is a cause for concern......happily not for me
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