Certainly not wrong in your last comment Al! A whole gamut of our systems and services are failing or broken. These include lack of affordable housing, rising numbers of homelessness and child poverty, the state of the NHS and many associated social services, our public transport system, our education system, our lack of resource when it comes to policing or our judiciary, a broken prison service with laughably poor rehabilitation rates, a hugely under funded military -the list is almost endless and to add into the mix we can throw on top debates around gender or cancel culture/ free speech!Originally Posted by baggieal
But while illegal immigration certainly adds to the burden felt by all of the above, does anyone seriously believe that it is really the root cause of it all?
Privatization (railways, energy, NHS Trusts, Educational Academies) does not by default mean better services. Sending more young people into higher education than ever before whilst cutting apprenticeship schemes ignores the fact that not everyone is academic nor do they need to be. It does not guarantee that they will get better jobs or that we will have sufficient numbers trained in the actual areas we need them in ( Doctors, vets, IT etc) nor does it improve productivity. A whole fifth of our workforce is foreign born-mostly in either the top paid sectors or the lowest. What does that say about us?
Closing Sure Start centres coupled with the financial need for both parents to work has created a generation where too many have poor parenting skills and who too often abdicate their responsibilities which has led to higher numbers of pre-school children not being toilet trained or with speech and language delays than ever before. Changing cultures within education -not helped by parents pushing for their children's "rights" or the impact of social media-have created a generation where, once entering the workplace, too many have a lax work ethic, view challenges to their performance as "bullying", have difficulty in dealing with confrontation, do not like certain rules and genuinely seem to lack the resilience of previous years. Their level of expectation (fostered by today's ease at being able to purchase things on credit and getting them delivered the next day) is also artificially raised. This does certainly not apply to all young people but it does apply to too many.
The failing of all political parties to oversee the transition from traditional heavy industries (coal, steel, car and ship building, manufacturing) into more modern tech orientated ones and instead turn the country to one predominantly reliant on service industries and the financial sector has only increased the North/South divide and our dependence upon imports. Throughout all this, the divide between rich and poor has grown ever wider. Is all this really down to illegal immigration?
I am most certainly not saying that illegal immigration is not a problem that urgently needs solving Al and I'm in agreement with you that charity should begin at home just as I agree with you that any company that offers black market work should face severe consequences. I'm just saying that it is not the root cause of all our ills and discontent in this country and when people like Farage say that it is, we should then question exactly what other policies they have to help turn things around for the better. Trump has successfully cut illegal immigration but even with his "big beautiful" tariffs, there has been no real improvement in the US economy and life for many of the disillusioned who voted for him has not got any better.
Reply With Quote