Lies, Damn Lies

Electoral change and Immigration

A hateful moment last night. David Cameron will be or next prime minister. Unlike some lunatics on the left, I don't think that this is avoidable. Theres a very, very small chance that the lib dems will garner enough support to break through. Theres an even smaller chance that Labour are going to reverse everyone's dislike of GB. The notion of a third place labour party ruling in coalition is absolutely absurd, and it really speaks of the arrogance that many labour voters have gathered. The country can't have one government for a sustained period of time, and while I'm not happy about the prospect of a conservative government, at least it will be in a hung parliament.

Of course, the conservatives have given little evidence that they've changed, and have given me two main reasons to still be fearful about their government.[note, actually looking through their manifesto in detail gives me countless reasons to dislike them. They really are still the same old party...]

1- Cameron and his party are obsessed with maintaining the current electoral system, despite obvious evidence that we need a change. Its almost guaranteed that Labour will get less votes than the lib dems, yet get more seats this election. Thats absurd. If Cameron gains enough power, however, I don't think he'll support electoral reform.

2-Immigration. Last night both the conservative and Labour party spouted hateful, pandering nonsense. And they wonder why the BNP is doing better. Fearmongering is not a sensible political tactic. Lets look at the lib dem's policies, shall we?

"Immediately reintroduce exit checks at all ports and airports."
"Secure Britain’s borders by giving a National Border Force
police powers."
"Introduce a regional points-based system to ensure that migrants
can work only where they are needed. We need to enforce any immigration system through rigorous checks on businesses and a crackdown on rogue employers who profit from illegal labour."
"Prioritise deportation efforts on criminals, people-traffi ckers and
other high-priority cases. We will let law-abiding families earn
citizenship. We will allow people who have been in Britain without
the correct papers for ten years, but speak English, have a clean
record and want to live here long-term to earn their citizenship.
This route to citizenship will not apply to people arriving after 2010."

They also have excellent things to say on asylum seekers, as we do not treat them terribly well right now.

So, the lib dems plan is

A-making sure that anymore illegal immigration is kept to an absolute minimum
B-Dealing with illegal immigrants in this country so that we can actually make a profit from them, rather than keeping them in the shadows.

If Cameron is correct about his 600,000 figure, then NOT doing this is far worse, because then we have 600,000 people draining the system. Illegal immigrants will not pay tax, and will not have fair wages, thus damaging our economy. Deporting 600,000 people would be impossibly difficult, and ridiculously counter productive.

So the lib dems are saying "been here 10 years? Speak decent English? Want to join the system? Good, well you can, but you have to pay taxes."

That is brilliant.

Note that this policy is a one time measure. It would not extend past 2010, so anyone claiming that this will lead to a rise in illegal immigration is just lying.

Gah. In a world with any sense and decency, every party would be adopting this sodding policy, rather than attempting to smear Clegg for it.

Labels: politics., rant

posted by Mr K @ 9:48 am