bojo is king, brexit is on, stuff is fvcked, tomorrow starts here -- new govt new thread new battle

is there any fairly wealthy country itw that's done a good job, or even sincerely tried to cut immigration? this is why matthew goodwin types, or indeed anyone raising the Legitimate Immigration Concerns feel like such bad faith actors - regardless of what the public think, cutting numbers doesn't seem to be on the table. across the world immigration is used as a way to expanding state & capital control, from migrant south asian construction workers in the gulf states dying in unsafe working conditions, to ethiopian domestic servants being effectively imprisoned and abused the households they work for in lebanon, to india making second-class citizens of millions of muslims by using concern about illegal immigration.

Kind of embarrassed to say it cos you put my own self-negation in perspective but I've really enjoyed your contributions on here and other political threads ogmor, you're inspiring and a model poster tbh.

^ cosign, even when we happen to disagree.

Yeah I haven’t got much to add (except we should consider a 77 thread for some of this stuff).

steady on, my only good posts are about john fahey

Incorrect, kind sir.

(was going to do an 'Ogmor Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday' pun but that seems... problematic)

get in the queue behind tracer

_has anyone on here read Superforecasting or wtf is was called?_

...

It but it is one of those pop-psych books that could just be a long-ish article.

Good to hear that while unemployment is at a record low, we do have 8.45 million people who are 'economically inactive' that businesses will be expected to upskill and train. I'm not sure that we'd want to risk distracting these people from their state of pure breatharian meditation - the latent psychic powers might pose some disruption to the rest of the happy workers.

"he uses german militarism as a successful example of what he was talking about at one point which made me laugh"

Manstein-splaining!

Both the unions in my workplace (PCS and Prospect) are hopeless when it comes to traditional Union stuff like better pay and conditions, they are good at making a lot of noise and bluster and caving in at the earliest opportunity tbf. However PCS are apparently good at supporting staff members with complaints and grievances - or, to be more accurate, they have one or two people who are good at it, I'm not sure I'd give the union itself much credit. As far as I can tell the only area where the unions are allowed, or prepared, to flex their muscles is internal recruitment. Here they have insisted, in the pursuit of complete objectivity, that the employer is not allowed to take into account an employee's work record, attendance record etc, but must base the entire process on the interview. The fact that you are an absolutely useless cunt, who can't do their job, wanders in late every morning, is on the sick for half the year cannot be used against you in the recruitment process - because that would be unfair on useless cunts.

hoo boy, some quality "should black musicians be allowed to suggest that racism exists?" debate on the Beeb tonite

PCS is full to the brim with trots

The three things that should be taken as given itt:

- Brexit is bad
- we’re all gonna die
- Blobby

The three things that should be taken as given for the subjects of this thread:

- fishhook is real
- all commentators are bad
- it doesn’t suit anyone in the British media to give a shit about anti-black racism unless they’re riling up the gammons for a bit of racebaiting

is there any fairly wealthy country itw that's done a good job, or even sincerely tried to cut immigration? this is why matthew goodwin types, or indeed anyone raising the Legitimate Immigration Concerns feel like such bad faith actors - regardless of what the public think, cutting numbers doesn't seem to be on the table.

Cuts in volume tend to be precipitated by economic problems - Australia cut skilled migration following the 2008 financial crisis and has increased it as the economy has grown again. But yes, the objective is very rarely to manage numbers downwards, it’s to control the type of migration. Ideally, the theory goes, you could turn immigration on and off like a tap, and filter for the exact profile of migrants you want to ‘recruit’. May is a real outlier in that she was motivated to cut for the sake of cutting, irrespective of the economic impact, and had to repeatedly be pulled back by more ‘pro-business’ colleagues.

The U.K. is massively hamstrung by not producing anywhere near enough people who can work a computer to keep a tech / services economy afloat or enough people in the caring professions (or willing to stay in them) to support an aging and sickly population. I guess theoretically both of those things could change with domestic investment but it doesn’t look like anyone is particularly interested in doing that.

Was listening to a deputy manager of a care home on the radio earlier saying she doesn't qualify for the minimum "living wage" because she is under 25.

https://i.postimg.cc/bww4cPG1/0-F887-CA2-DCBF-461-B-8-F09-7627394-DA77-E.jpg

lol this was delivered to us...and I didn’t get one

There’s a CONGRATULATIONS YOU WON pop up attached to that, argh

It’s this (this was not my opinion btw, I just found it cringe)

This messaging from Starmer... could be a fascist slogan? pic.twitter.com/Pjs5LtAgOz

— Socialist Dad (@shirleymush) February 19, 2020

more Alan Partridge than Goebbels

unity ? yeah right.. keep telling yourself that dickhead!

Omg

More than unimpressed by this literature from the Keir campaign today. Pointless policies, vacuous statements, and an unnecessary addition to my recycling. Finally am I really supposed to put this poster in my window?! pic.twitter.com/ppjI3coqN1

— Simon Darvill (@simondarvill) February 19, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H5esfSC4F4

*This* is integrity!

The word pledge belongs in the Elizabethan age tbh.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERKTGlxXsAAW7Ll?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

!!!

he's just missing some raybans

I know this is far from the most important thing here but in some industries - eg the care industry - Patel's announcement today seems to be putting a heavy burden of training on businesses and other organisations that would otherwise be able to import skilled labour. And there's no guarantee the individuals concerned will stick the jobs out in any case.

How long before they start forcibly moving unemployed people around the country to meet skills shortages? It's the logical extension of what they're talking about here.

Wait you got one too?!

no it's the same one you posted.

If Patel thinks carers are "economically inactive" citizens wait till how much bigger the social care bill gets without them. She's fucking vile poison.

didn't the 2015 Corbyn election leaflet have a similar (slightly less cringey) slogan on the envelope? "warning: contains a new kind of politics" or something?

"Wait you got one too?!"

just received my integrity package in the morning post and got an email from Allin-Khan, this shit is getting live!

ah yes, immigrants - they do our shitty menial jobs, therefore we must tolerate them #votelibdem

So Priti, @patel4witham
Who’ll fill the coronation chicken sandwiches?
Who’ll dig cauliflowers out of freezing muddy Cornish fields?
Who’ll wash the hospital bedpans?
Who’ll clean our offices at night?
Who’ll feed, bathe and care for our most vulnerable?
Asking for a friend...

— Caroline Voaden 🔶 (@CarolineVoaden) February 19, 2020

that tweet is NAGL but she got monstered by Julia Hartley-Brewer so now I don't know what to think

culture wars eh?

xxp who will cleanse the piss from our diamonds?

talking of the diamonds of piss I was reminded of their forgotten leader the other day when some senile old cunt in the Lords was making a modest proposal regarding the grey squirrel question!

For the record, this kind of talk is extremely common among Eastern European immigrants.

Which talk, Pom?

Lazy Brit talk?

The idea that EE workers are “cheap” labour and therefore seen as lesser?

That without low-wage labourers from foreign shitholes (as per Donnie Trump), Britain will fall apart.

Here's hoping. It is weird to go to Scotland and be served with people with Scottish accents in cafes etc.

Osbourne came under fire when she attempted to criticise Donald Trump’s controversial proposed immigration policies by asking: “If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?”

It goes without saying that the meaning of such statements varies wildly depending on who's uttering them.

qq for pom, and do tell me to fuck off if too personal, but do you get a lot of this yourself? I only ask as I assume you have a Romanian name but if you speak English w/a Canadian accent then I wondered if people treated you differently (and if they were more likely to “well I didn’t mean you”, etc).

I don't mind at all, gyac. I do occasionally hear 'wow, your English is surprisingly good for a Romanian', even after I tell them my family moved to Canada when I was 7, but most people I've encountered are either too closeted in their xenophobia to verbalize such thoughts (I do get weird looks when they hear my first name, though) or simply overlook the side of my identity they dislike. At the pub I have occasionally spoken with not-racist-but types that don't even bother going through the 'well I didn't mean you' motions. The assumption is usually that my (white) Canadian side supersedes all else so they can get away with saying whatever they want. All in all, my wife – who speaks English with a thick French accent – has had more run-ins with gammons than I have.

Just to be clear, as my either/or was needlessly categorical, the majority of people I've met here did not come across as even remotely racist or xenophobic. That said, I have met some English folks who are defiantly anti-Tory and anti-racist when it comes to Eastern European or BAME communities but who have some really bizarre views about the Irish and the Scots in particular, whose legendary 'intolerance' towards the English is utterly terrifying to them, to such an extent that they would never dare set foot in Ireland or Scotland for fear of getting their asses whooped.

I've known a few normally ungammony ppl get very butthurt about Irish/Scots/Welsh cheering against the English football team.