Blair did warn us to expect a nasty right wing campaign and so it begins. Weasel words like “controlling our borders” are well understood by C1’s and Labour’s white working class Chav voters whom Tebbit won over for Thatcher in the 80’s. These are crucial voters, without them you can’t win the election. Guido is the son of immigrants and understands the meaning of this language, it says “we”ll keep ’em out”.
So what is the party’s actual policy? Can you read between the lines? Are you thinking what they’re thinking? (But not saying out loud).
- Bring in high-tech, electronic border controls with fingerprinting of all visa applicants so we know who is coming in and out of the country. Wo sind Ihre Identifikation Karten?
- introducing a new points system. No points, no visa, the arrow points that way…
- insisting on financial bonds for those categories of migrants where there has been evidence of abuse to guarantee they return home. No poor huddled masses here…
- ending chain migration so there is no automatic right to bring in more relatives. Grandma can stay in Lahore…
- no right of appeal for those applying to work or study here from abroad. Nothing to learn here, go home..
- only allowing the skilled workers we need to settle long term in the UK, with English tests for everyone who wants to stay permanently. No speaka da lingo, no staya here..
- lock-up more failed asylum seekers. We’ll show you a political prison.
- fast-track processing of all unfounded asylum seekers with electronic tagging if needed to stop people disappearing before they leave UK. Ball and chain for you.
- ensure monthly removal rates exceed the number of unfounded applications so the backlog is progressively reduced. Send ’em back.
- All refugees will initially be granted temporary rather than permanent status. Then we’ll send em back…
Britain refused asylum to hundreds of thousand of Jews in the 1930s, condemning them to the camps. If it were not for the fact that in 1941 Britain redeemed itself, by standing alone against the Nazi war machine, that would be an eternal national shame. For the above policies, Charles Clarke should be ashamed of himself.
See for yourself:
www.labour.org.uk/news/controllingourborders
