A living wage

Polly Toynbee correctly points out that the type of immigration that Brexiteers focus their hate on is poor Europeans willing to leave their home and families to work for wages and in conditions that no born-Briton, capable of "sucking on the tit of the British Welfare State" as one Leave diatribe had it*, would even consider. The best way to reduce that kind of immigration is to raise wages or cut benefits.

After all, in the Good Old Days - before the Evil Empire took over Europe and we were engulfed by red tape wrapped around wonky bananas and foreign-looking people speaking in a funny language - in those days it was honest, hard-working British families that would drown on tidal flats while working for a gang boss.

However, instead of doing it the easy way - say, raise the minimum wage - we have to do it the difficult and incredibly expensive way. Abandon all our free trade deals, force highly-trained NHS staff to leave, lose lucrative financial business (such as Euro clearing), pay bungs to foreign (!) firms so that they don't do a runner...

So, immigration. The current thinking of the government has been leaked (I half expect some Brexiteer to demand the newspaper responsible to be closed down - and string up any judges that disagree) and it is written in very reasonable language.

There will be identity cards, limited job-related work visas, minimum income requirements and heavy restrictions on family members. All for very sensible reasons, clearly explained: Fairness, Britons should come first, no dodgy benefit-tourists to apply. Unfortunately - as free movement will be restricted right after exit - we will have to leave the single market immediately, with no transitional period.

Crowd-pleasing, and who could object to such reasonable ideas, even if it does require us to step off the cliff-edge (oddly, that is never explicitly stated in the document). But does it address the issues that Leavers voted about?

Will it help our NHS? What highly-skilled specialist would want to come under such rules? What trained nurse will apply? So wards will close and waiting lists will get longer. The Vote Leave promise of £350 million a week for the NHS was dumped as soon as they won.

Will it create jobs? We already have full employment. Even the Leave campaign admitted that we are in for some economic problems as we exit the EU, so jobs will be destroyed rather than created.

Will it increase wages? The plan is to allow low-skilled immigrants in for short periods. These are the people who do those necessary but nasty jobs - low-paid and often temporary. These are the only jobs where immigrant workers do seem to affect wages. So no wage increases then.

It should please Farage though - he won't have to share his train carriage with foreigners as they won't be able to afford the ticket, not on their wages.


*Actually I think they were trying to demonise immigrants, but the number of British citizens on benefits is far far greater, and figures show that immigrants pay more into the system then they take out.