Immigration and schizz

Of the many afflictions by which one might conceivably be inconvenienced, a poor memory is one for which one will receive only a transitory sympathy. Sure, people will acknowledge your disadvantage but, perhaps understandably, they'll feel more sorry for themselves than you when you forget an arrangement or event..

And so it was, today, when I had completely forgotten that Dan and Abi's grandmother - "Ouma" - was flying in from Cape Town for a surprise visit. Although, to be honest, their mum was more resigned than angry when she found that I was as surprised as anyone that the kids would need to be back with her early this afternoon. 

Thus, I found myself with a few hours to spare before my chum Dean turned up for a few beers and a curry. Rather than simply loitering 'round the cottage, I decided that I'd go and do the waterfalls walk at Ingleton. And so, having passed the "Are you on your own?" from the ticket man, I parked up and set off at a fair pace, determined to see how quickly I could get 'round.

It all went very well, I must say, and I made good time up the western side of the Twiss, before striking east across to the River Doe. Along that path is this ice cream wagon. I didn't stop there, today, but last time I was up here - with the Minx and the kids - we stopped for drinks and ice creams and I remember that the guy serving in the van was Polish.

To be honest, we don't get that many Polish people up here but, like most other places, they seem to end up doing the jobs that no one else wants to do. And I appreciate that this leads to some bad feeling. Not, as far as I can tell, from the people who don't want to do the jobs, but mostly from those people who do have jobs and think that British people should be doing the crappy jobs that are left over.

Now, I don't think that British employers are thinking to themselves "Hm, I'd rather employ a Polish (or other EU "immigrant") to do this job than an English person", they just need someone to do the work. And the fact is that those jobs are, typically, not that well paid or are quite demanding. But people come into Britain from the EU willing to do those jobs - jobs that are otherwise unfulfilled - and so they have them.

But the don't "take" them; they aren't stealing those jobs from someone else. The are the only people willing to do them. So, why don't they go to British people? Are they really all just lazy? Of course not. In fact, in those places where a guaranteed minimum income has been introduced, it has been seen that by ad large the only people who don't work are those who physically or mentally can't, those looking after small children, and those who are caring for other people.

So let's stop buying into the right wing narrative about people who are just lazy and living off benefits.

Of course, some people are caught in the benefits trap, whereby the benefits they receive mean that it's not worth them going out to work. And if you think about it, that just goes to show how our benefits system has a better idea of the cost of living that the 'minimum wage'. If we want people to move from benefits to working, then the minimum wage has to provide for more than the bare minimum provided by benefits. (At this point, some people will typically mention those on benefits who can afford cigarettes and televisions: those people are beyond rational argument.)

The bottom line is that we need the minimum wage to be a living wage, and to treat those on benefits with compassion and not contempt. Which, for a start, means we're going to need a whole new bunch of newspaper proprietors.

But, you know, while UKIP might have attracted a large share of racists and lunatics, it also reflected a growing problem, largely in the south-east of England and that is related to over-crowding. EU workers are not "benefit tourists", they make a net contribution to our society. And at least some of the tax money they generate needs to go into housing, schools and hospitals, to cater for these new members of our society. 

The problem we have is not the people who come here to work, it's the government that takes the tax income from these people and uses it to subsidise those non-tax paying companies - hello Starbucks, Boots, Amazon, Google, Apple et al - rather than spending it on the facilities that are required to accommodate our increased population.

You might be surprised to hear me say it but I wish that UKIP had earned the 50 or 60 MPs they deserved for their share of the vote. There is a problem that needs to be addressed but it's not to do with immigrants taking our jobs, it's to do with the facilities that we need to accommodate them, facilities that they pay for through their taxes. That voice - the voice of the people suffering from overcrowding - is not being heard due to our crappy voting system yet those problems need to be addressed. Let's just be very clear that race is not the problem and that racism is not the answer.