Thank you Jeremy Hunt…..

[baggieal]

With all due respect baggie you are assuming our authorities are doing their jobs , they aren't .

They've lost 17k asylum seekers for a start , disappeared in to thin air apparently , these are people who possibly have no legal right to come in .

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67567401


It's illegal in this country to claim asylum if you crossed the channel in a small boat .

Guess how many we've deported ?

https://youtu.be/mm36qu0fcGw?si=Dj_YzCR2lE1vX3E2

Let me think - ZERO!

Spineless government and had no balls to really tackle it!

[baggiematt]

With all due respect baggie you are assuming our authorities are doing their jobs , they aren't .

They've lost 17k asylum seekers for a start , disappeared in to thin air apparently , these are people who possibly have no legal right to come in .

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67567401


It's illegal in this country to claim asylum if you crossed the channel in a small boat .

Guess how many we've deported ?

https://youtu.be/mm36qu0fcGw?si=Dj_YzCR2lE1vX3E2

Do you honestly think that a country of about 66 million without putting microchips under skin can realistically track all people in the country and stop all illegal migrants?

17k feels like a low number to me considering how tall that ask is.

I imagine I could catch a plane to any country that I have family in and hide out while the authorities try to find me. I couldn’t legally work there, gain citizenship or claim benefit but I could hide there if supported.

There’s no simple solution to this, it will happen and we just have to accept that.

[baggieal]

Do you honestly think that a country of about 66 million without putting microchips under skin can realistically track all people in the country and stop all illegal migrants?

17k feels like a low number to me considering how tall that ask is.

I imagine I could catch a plane to any country that I have family in and hide out while the authorities try to find me. I couldn’t legally work there, gain citizenship or claim benefit but I could hide there if supported.

There’s no simple solution to this, it will happen and we just have to accept that.

That’s the problem Matt - the majority of people do not accept it!

From my own perspective - whatever I say won’t change things but none of them will ever come to my town so why should I care!

[Omegstrat6]

Hunt is a typical Tory with policies that hit the poorest hardest. A cut in NI will hit public services that the poorest in society depend upon most and is on top of the cuts already being made to these by many local councils due to budgetary issues.

Most people, I'm sure, would rather have less waiting times for GP appointments or ambulances for example than paying less NI which will surely result in only a further deterioration of such services. Whilst tax cuts elsewhere certainly might be helpful for businesses or for many struggling financially, maybe the only way to balance these would be by increasing taxation on the highest incomes?

As for immigration, I do believe that it is a genuine issue but that far too many are deflected by well worn tropes about illegals abusing the benefits system and taking jobs off "British people". I'm not saying that this does not happen at all, just that it is a very tiny part of the picture.

Net immigration in 2022 was up to a record of 745,000 which illustrates how woefully poor the record of the Conservative party has been (back in 2010 Cameron promised to get the then figure of 250,000 down to below 100,000). The Brexit argument over better control of our borders worked out well too didn't it. 😃

In 2022 nearly a million people came to live in the UK. Of these about a quarter were from India, then Nigerians, Chinese, Pakistani and Ukrainians. Around 4/10 of these came to study which only really benefits the universities who increasingly rely on the fees paid by foreign students. Doubtless some then go on to work in the UK but not all. About 1/3 came to work, overwhelmingly in either the health or care sectors with visas in this area rising by 150%. Of the remainder, many came as family for existing residents. This latter, surely, is one element of immigration that needs looking into as much as any concerns around illegal boat people?

As I understand it, there is still a "shortage occupation list" that allows companies to bring in foreign workers and pay them 20% less for doing these jobs. Labour-quite rightly in my view-wants to scrap this system, arguing that it not only leads to clear exploitation (and encourages human-trafficking) but gives employers more of an incentive to hire from abroad. The latter isn't only about the lowest paid jobs in cleaning or care but also impacts on jobs requiring qualifications.

Getting the UK workforce back into shape is seen by most as a key part of reducing immigration but whereas the Tories are happy to continue with low paid gig economy and simply squeeze benefits so that the least well off are forced into the lower paid jobs currently done by immigrants, Labour would prefer that all jobs had basic rights and protections and paid a decent minimum living wage that would actively encourage more people to take such jobs and therefore end the need to recruit from abroad. For the better paid jobs it would encourage British companies to invest in training existing staff rather than recruit already qualified, but cheaper, staff from abroad. In simple terms, it is stick versus carrot but the stick is always cheaper-though it comes with its own price. As most managers come to realise, increased productivity generally comes from a combination of the two.

As for the boat people, the numbers have fallen since the 45, 755 of 2022 but continue to be an issue. Most asylum seekers come from Afghan, Iran, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan alongside Ukrainians fleeing conflict. A major problem is the management of the system itself with a backlog of more than 175,000 at an estimated housing/provisions cost of £8 million a day!

Once, eventually, processed between Jan-March alone in 2023 40,000 were sent back. This was 48% more than the year before and mostly due to a rise in the rejection of Albanians and Romanians. The main driver in our issue with these in the first place though was the failing of the government to agree a deal with the Albanians and Roamanians regarding return of these illegals-something other European countries like France and Germany had done several years previously.

To put it in perspective, the UK has the 1/5 highest number of asylum seekers behind Germany, France, Spain and Austria. Immigration is therefore a big issue right across most of Western Europe. It certainly needs dealing with but I'd argue that it is far more complex than just being about illegal boat people. Yes, these need to be dealt with (more investment in border controls and dealing with the smuggling gangs, better management of the asylum application process) but surely there should also be more scrutiny paid to those allowed in as family members and-perhaps most importantly of all-far more effort into improving productivity of the UK workforce in order to negate the need for such a hefty number of immigrant workers. The latter, whilst undoubtedly very costly, is surely the only long term answer.