Sunday 2 May 2010

Some Thoughts on Brown’s “Ally MacLeod” Moment

5 Days to go - UKPR Average – Con 35%, New Lab 27%, Lib Dem 28% (UKPR Projection: Con short by 43)

Sorry for not blogging about this until today – i only caught the full horror late on Wednesday night, Thursday was all about the “Leaders Debate”, etc etc.

1)  Brown’s time as Prime Minister is over – Brown displayed a catastrophic error of judgement in thinking that his encounter with Gillian Duffy was a complete disaster, which was compounded ten fold by the “she’s some sort of bigoted woman” comment.  The encounter went well for both sides.  Ms Duffy gave her opinion, which despite the snide views of come of the commentariat, which was articulate and certainly not bigoted.  She certainly did not go on a “see dem foreigners” style rant which would be the norm for the pond-life in Paisley (which was in evidence on Saturday night – but more on that later…).  She articulated her opinion in a reasoned way, and Brown reciprocated.  All in all it was a score draw.  That Brown could describe the meeting as a disaster shows how out of touch he is.

2) Immigration is not THE problem, our Welfare State is the problem – Short of asking everyone who has entered the country legally or illegally we can only speculate.  However we do have an existing issue with our Welfare Stare, where there is a class of people who exist on benefits and have no desire to get off of benefits.  This system is possibly the reason why people are desperate to get to the UK by any means – even by signing up to be smuggled in by criminal gangs.  We are seen as a soft touch here, it figures that our soft benefits system (allied to the law which forbids asylum seekers from working) attracts migrants here.

3) Why aren’t British workers upping their game? – in amongst the furore surrounding the whole “British Jobs for British Workers” slogan, one thing was missing, what are Britain's unemployed doing to get work.  People do come here and pick up jobs, but it is the jobs which local people do not want, or are ill equipped to do.  Myself and my fiancée holiday in Scotland on a regular basis, yet most hotels are staffed by foreign workers who are charming, friendly, gregarious and frankly damn good at their job.  Does anyone reading this imagine that some of our school-leavers today would perform to the same standard, never mind win the opportunity to.  For some people there seems to be a laziness allied to the belief that the world owes them a living.

4) Racism is such an easy trap to fall into discussing Immigration – People have prejudices, you have prejudices, i have prejudices (mainly involving not liking Greenock Morton Football Club or the Old Firm very much).  We keep these promises hidden, but when immigration comes up for discussion, they seen to pop out.  Both of the “main parties” sailed close to the wind last week when attacking the Lib Dem’s sensible policy of giving citizenship to people who have been here for 10 years who we previously missed.  Also some people still thought that Gillian Duffy was racist,  when she referred to “these Eastern Europeans”.  It is a verbal tightrope, and one where care must be taken.  After all, the BNP are past-masters at making racism seem normal.

The last point is pertinent, especially after the events of Saturday night when myself and my fiancée witnessed a young person go up to a couple and verbally abuse them.  “Asians” he shouted pointing at them “go home” he continued.  When we accosted the blundering ape, his defence was “This is a white country – WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT”.  This took place in Paisley town centre, and also shows that the problems with this country are not caused by hard working migrants desperate to make their way in the world, but with lazy young white people who are determined to piss everything up the wall.

No comments: