Damian Green’s new plans for immigration. Awful or disgusting? You decide.

It has been a while since I have had a real bee in my bonnet on something political. My blog has been filled up with other interests including the ‘lighty lighty’ show as some people call it but no more (well at least until the next blog) as Damian Green is proposing some new rules for immigrants and they are shall we call it flat out repugnant. Yes I like that word. Let’s call it that.

The immigration minister utters these words, “We need to know not just that the right numbers of people are coming here but that the right people are coming here. People who will benefit Britain, not just those who benefit by Britain,” so let’s look at those two sentences for a moment.

Firstly I’d argue that there is no ‘right number’ but who are exactly the ‘right people’ of which he speaks. People who will benefit Britain sound good but we need more context. Does Mr Green have anything more he’d like to add?

Well according to various reports he does. People who will be allowed into the country will be able to demonstrate that they can earn upwards of £31,000 a year. Yes this is the criteria he wants us to work by at border control. To benefit Britain you must be able to earn a good to very good salary. How Tory. Deciding that money is the key factor in all of this. It makes me want to vomit in my own mouth.

Nurses don’t earn over that salary so they clearly won’t benefit Britain. Teachers don’t earn over that salary so clearly they don’t benefit Britain. Etc. Etc. Money is not the be all and end all and these proposals are more abhorrent that most the government have drawn up recently. It panders to Middle England who don’t like the foreigners because they just don’t and think that they all live on benefits and also to other areas who believe that the foreigners are taking all their jobs.

Well here is a fact that many overlook. We are still in the EU. That isn’t changing any soon. No siree Bob. So anyone from the EU can and will continue to move over to the UK whenever they so desire. That isn’t changing. The only way that changes is if we leave the EU and that is about as likely as fans of Portsmouth Football Club waking up tomorrow to hear that Sir Richard Branson has bought the team and invested 100s of millions of pounds and is planning a new stadium floating in the middle of the Solent which fans will have to get a Virgin Ferry for. Not happening folks.

So we have to deal with those coming from outside the EU only. Benefiting Britain is not just about the economy. The economy is not the be all and end all. Do we turn away artists who want to relocate to the UK and live a quiet life? Many of them won’t be able to demonstrate that they earn over a certain threshold. Life is about more than money but woe betide anyone actually saying that in this current economic climate where the government are trying to scare us into thinking the end of the world is nigh. Oh no. Everything is all money, money, money.

Am I finished? No.

There is another proposal on the table. Another idea Green and his staff have cooked up. How about the idea that no British person can bring their spouse into the country if they are from outside the EU unless they earn a minimum of £25,700. That sounds like a great idea does it not?

Oh wait. No. No it does not. It sounds extraneous. That is what it sounds like. So to live in Britain you must be able to either fall in love with a) a Brit, b) an EU citizen or c) a non EU citizen who can earn a good salary. Are you freaking kidding me? This is completely nuts. Completely nuts. Love is what love is. You fall in love with who you fall in love with. Whether they earn money or not shouldn’t come into the reckoning. I know of several couples who are married where one isn’t an EU citizen and who wouldn’t have fulfilled this criteria. So for that reason should they not be allowed to be happy and settle in this country?

I despair sometimes. I really do. This to me is not good on any level and should it become law then it will be a sad day for us all. We like the foreigners in the good times as they can do all the jobs that we don’t want to do but in the bad times we want them gone. We still don’t want to do those jobs as we prefer not to demean ourselves for a pittance of a wage but we still blame the foreigners. It is all their fault. Everything is their fault. Sometimes we should look at ourselves in the mirror and think and wonder where our drive has gone.

At the end of the day we are all human and no-one is better than the next person. When you start ranking prospective immigrants on potential salary then you are basically saying that you are a better person if you earn more and I simply can’t abide that sentiment.

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