Gordon Brown to admit ‘mistakes’ on immigration after BNP TV furore

Gordon Brown will concede today that Labour has made mistakes on immigration as he defends the benefits of workers coming from overseas.

The Prime Minister is expected to echo remarks by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, who said last week that some parts of Britain are disproportionately affected by an influx of foreigners.

In his speech today Mr Brown will say that the door is being closed to hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship’s officers from outside the European Union. He will also say that UK the population will not, as predicted, reach 70 million in the next 20 years.

“A few years ago we had to allow into the country — and we benefited from it — very highly skilled medical staff,” he has told a newspaper. “We have now done a huge amount to train a new generation of medical staff in our country. We are now looking at how we can close the skills gap in this country so we can take occupations off the list where we need to recruit from abroad. Immigration will fall.”

In the interview with the Daily Mail he explained that one of the reasons that immigration would fall is “the tightening of the new points system” which, he said, will continue to tighten over the next few months. “One of the reasons for the points system is to make sure that nobody without a skill will come into the country. We are looking at the kind of skills we as a country need.

“We don’t want as an open economy to stop businesses being able to recruit where it’s an entirely specialist area. Companies keep telling us that this is absolutely important to their future.

“This is not an arbitrary cap. We are going to be setting out a programme for making sure that we in Britain can train our British young people and British workers who are looking for jobs.”

Mr Brown will insist that Labour now has the right strategy for managing immigrants seeking work, even at a time of rising unemployment. He will acknowledge that mistakes have been made in the past. The speech will be seen as a response to the furore over the appearance on the BBC’s Question Time of Nick Griffin, the BNP leader. His fellow panellists were criticised for failing to defend the principle of migration. There are suggestions that the party could come third in today’s by-election in Glasgow North East.

Mr Brown’s remarks come days after the Tories accused the Government of trying to deceive voters over a plan to relax immigration rules.

Last month the Office for National Statistics suggested that the UK population would rise from 61 million today to 71 million in 2033. The Prime Minister is expected to promise better skills training for Britons at further education colleges in order to make them better able to beat competition from migrants.

He will highlight sectors, such as as the care industry, where he will acknowledge that more can be done to ensure jobs do not go to people from overseas. However, the approach risks reviving memories of the “British jobs for British workers” slogan in his speech to the 2007 Labour Party conference, which some colleagues suggested was inflammatory. European law prevents vacancies being reserved for Britons. Downing Street defended the speech later by insisting that he was referring to greater skills training rather than a dramatic new policy initiative.

The Prime Minister will point out that employers can recruit a migrant to a job that is not on the official list of shortage occupations only if they first go through the “resident labour market test”, showing that no qualified settled worker can fill the post.

From next year all jobs must be advertised to UK workers in job centres for four weeks rather than the current two before people from outside the EU can be hired.

Mr Johnson set out four key principles for debate last week, including that all immigrants should learn English. Distancing himself from his predecessors, he said ministers had ignored for “far too long” problems in the immigration system that led to huge backlogs of asylum seekers and foreign national prisoners. continues here

The death of retirement: Law that means employees must stop working at 65 may be axed

The compulsory retirement age could be scrapped under a review by ministers to let older employees work until later in life.

A retirement revolution is set to remove the rule that careers must end at 65 and bring in a 'flexible' system to delay the end of careers.

Labour's decision to reconsider compulsory retirement in a review next year was made in the face of two test cases which are about to be decided in the High Court - and which may force ministers' hands.

Workers in their late 50s and 60s have become increasingly unhappy at the law that says companies and employers may sack a worker who reaches 65 without paying redundancy or compensation.

But more than 1.3million are working after their retirement age and the figure is rising at the rate of almost 100,000 a year.

Those who take advantage of retirement age reforms and work beyond 65 will not be able to claim a state pension - available at 65 for men and 60 for women - until they do stop work.

However, they will keep paying national insurance to build up pension contributions towards a better state pension when they do retire if they have not yet contributed enough already.

The rise in employees working beyond retirement age is encouraged by firms like DIY retailer B&Q which employs many older workers because of their honesty, diligence and politeness.

It has also been driven by the failure of Britain's once-admired company pensions system, which has seen the numbers of employees who can retire on a reliable final salary pension fall.

Growing numbers who are at the mercy of less generous pensions and the vagaries of the stock market are looking to work until an older age to make up for their lower pensions.

Ministers were due to review the retirement age in 2011. The decision to bring changes forward was announced by the Department of Work and Pensions in a 'Building a Society for All Ages' paper.

The paper also promised a review of the law to help grandparents, who have no legal rights over their grandchildren.

Minister for pensions and ageing Angela Eagle said: 'It is time to look again at this. Some people prefer to take early retirement, others prefer to keep working. We want to give older people flexible retirement options.

'The Government is responding to the changed economic landscape. The different circumstances today - for businesses, and for individuals coming up to retirement - suggest that an earlier review is appropriate.'

She added: 'As Britain's demographics change, it is sensible that we have the debate on what works for business and individuals. The retirement laws need to reflect modern social and economic circumstances.'

But pressure groups for the elderly were less impressed.

Michelle Mitchell of Age Concern and Help the Aged, the charities that have brought test cases in the High Court and the European Court of Justice, said: 'The Government's decision to bring the review of the default retirement age forward by a year represents a step in the right direction.

'But a review is not enough. 'The Government should immediately put a stop to an arbitrary and unfair rule which stops people from working, simply because of their age.'

Gordon Brown said yesterday: 'Evidence suggests that allowing older people to continue working, unfettered by negative views about aging, could be a big factor in the success of Britain's businesses and our future economic growth.'

But ministers may also be motivated by the need to cut spending and soaring public debt.

Delaying the payment of state pensions to millions of workers who may choose to work on well past 65 could save the Treasury billions of pounds each year.

The paper on retirement ages was release just a day before Labour's long-awaited Green Paper on care of the elderly.

That is expected to propose a cutback in means testing and state help for everybody who needs a care home - but at the cost of possible new taxes or contributions and the withdrawal of benefits for the elderly like attendance allowance.

The Government said it will hold a 'summit' in the autumn to see how the role of grandparents can be strengthened following parental separation and divorce.

At present grandparents have no legal rights over grandchildren, a position highlighted earlier this year when grandparents in Edinburgh objected to being ignored by social workers who handed their grandchildren over to a gay couple. continues here

British jobs for foreign workers: Experts reveal 70% of new jobs taken by migrants

More than seven out of ten jobs created under the Labour Government have been taken by foreign-born workers, experts revealed last night.

The percentage of new jobs taken by those born overseas is the highest of any of the major economies analysed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The Conservatives said it was yet more evidence that the Government had failed to deliver 'British jobs for British workers'.ministers have continued to hand out work permits to non-EU nationals in record numbers...

The internationally-respected OECD said that in the first ten years of Labour rule, employment rose by around two million jobs.

But it said 'almost 1.5million of this was accounted for by persons born abroad' - 71 per cent of the total.

In the U.S., immigrant employment accounted for 58 per cent of new jobs. In France, it made up less than 20 per cent of the total, and in Ireland and Australia less than 30 per cent.

Over a ten-year period, only Luxembourg saw more of its new jobs taken by migrant workers, the OECD said.

Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green said: 'Yet another of Gordon Brown's soundbites has proved to be false. This Government has created British jobs for foreign workers and all his pledges about new job creation are shown to be bogus.'

Around a third of the migrant workers arrived here on controversial intra-company transfers, the OECD said.

The system allows international companies to transfer their staff to the UK for supposedly limited periods.

But the companies did not have to advertise the post in the UK first and staff can stay for up to three years, plus a possible two-year extension after which they can apply for settlement.

The OECD figures cover the period from March 1997 to March 2007. But, since then, ministers have continued to hand out work permits to non-EU nationals in record numbers.

In 2008, as the country slid into recession, 151,635 were issued. The document lets non-EU workers take or keep jobs here, despite hundreds of thousands of Britons losing theirs.

Unemployment rose by 290,000 from December 1, 2007 to November 30, 2008, to reach 1.92million.

In 2007, when the economy was growing, 129,700 work permits were approved. In 1997, the year Labour came to power, 42,800 were handed out.continues here

There we have it, yet will you, the tax-payer, the provider, still vote for these reprehensible parties, for make no mistake, a government under the conservatives will make no change, as we live and breathe they are robbing us and our children. Vast portions of the country are blighted by poverty, unemployment and crime, pensioners who have paid into the system all of their adult lives now face penalisation, as the government betray them and steals from them in their twilight years. On the other end of the scale, the young face a truly horrific future, denied jobs and housing, forced to live amongst alien elements and discriminated against by their own government, its time for change, isn’t it?

I would ask readers to investigate nationalism, to discover what it offers for you the people; I would hope that once you have discovered its true stance not that offered up by the owned press, government funded front organisations and other thugs that you will help to overthrow this tyranny. As they plundered the public purse, they invited just about anybody else to do the same, reading the duplicitous press, one is given to understand, that it is merely eastern Europeans that arrive here to rob us blind, regrettably that dear reader is but the tip of the iceberg.

Many eastern Europeans still adhere to white culture, hold a terrific work ethic and proclaim a traditionalist outlook in religious affairs, this makes them fair game for the press, fair game for the liars and shapers within what passes for the journalistic profession, is it any wonder that the printed press is dying, any wonder when one can for now, find truth online. Unfortunately the internet is a limited tool, its capabilities far and away overrated, certainly information is there should one look for it, however, it is mixed up with other information, that put out by cranks, fools, idiots and of course state sponsored propaganda is ever-present.

A major draw-back is that the fight against this tyranny, ongoing now for some time, has retreated from public view and nationalism, once prevalent within working-class communities is now a spent, warped or indeed forgotten cause. Today no organisation lays claim to true nationalism, no organisation adheres to traditional concepts today nationalism must speak only to a limited audience. To my mind there must be a true organisation, an organisation that adheres to nationalist principle that will not place emphasis upon divisive, archaic, superfluous nonsense, the origins of which, lie with the self-same alien elements that poison our nation today.

Further, any organisation that speaks for the people must hold a race-realist outlook, yet be willing to fight evil in any quarter, for it must always be remembered, that non-whites are merely a tool, a way in which the state can silence nationalistic opposition. Should real nationalism ever grow again, should this hypothetical organisation appear then it must consider Islam as it would any alien ideology, it must resist temptation to pander to raving Jewry, resist the temptation to follow the agenda.

Currently any immigration on a mass scale is detrimental, of course non-white immigration threatens on many levels, yet even mass white immigration bodes ill, we simply cannot support any more and they the political elite, the chattering classes and misguided or malicious egalitarians, will not give us peace.

Foreign IT workers swamp UK at three times the rate of dot-com boom

Nearly three times as many foreign IT workers entered the UK last year than during the dot-com boom, new figures reveal.

Despite the economic downturn, 35,430 UK work permits were issued to non-EU IT workers in 2008, compared to 12,726 in 2000 when the UK was gripped by a massive IT skills shortage.

The huge intake from abroad is leading to thousands of UK IT workers being laid off, according to the Association of Professional Staffing Companies.

It said the figures show that the severity of the economic downturn and 'tougher’ new immigration system introduced last year had 'barely dented' the influx of non-EU IT workers coming to the UK.  

Ann Swain, chief executive of APSCo, said: 'It seems crazy that with the economy in a severe downturn and thousands of IT workers having already lost their jobs, we are still bringing three times as many foreign IT workers to the UK than during the dot-com boom when we had a chronic skills shortage.

'The economic slowdown and supposedly 'tougher' new points based immigration system seem to have had very little effect on slowing the influx of foreign IT staff into the UK.

'A few years ago this may have been overlooked, but with IT jobs much scarcer, this is now a contentious issue.'

The vast majority of non-EU IT workers coming to the UK - 80 per cent - are classed as intra-company transfers, which is where companies relocate IT staff between offices in different countries.

There is currently no requirement for companies to advertise vacancies in the UK before bringing workers in on intra-company transfers.

In light of the significant increase in unemployment in the IT sector in the UK, APSCo said the Government should review this rule and consider making companies tap into the UK labour market first.

Most of the foreign IT workers are software engineers and systems analysts.

'They are not coming here to answer phones on help desks, but are taking highly skilled and well paid jobs,' said the association.

According to APSCo, 'offshoring' IT jobs to low-cost overseas locations, which is likely to accelerate during the downturn as organisations look to cut their budgets, is eroding the IT skills base in the UK. 

This was making it easier for organisations to justify importing IT skills from abroad, it said.

'Offshoring has eaten away at the bottom rungs of the skills ladder, making it much harder to get the experience needed for the mid-level jobs which foreign companies are bringing workers into the UK to fill,' said Miss Swain.

'If anything we are going to see more entry-level IT jobs sent offshore in 2009 as recession bites.  continues here

Losing your job is not so bad says bishop

Being made jobless in the recession can come as a relief, a senior Church of England bishop has claimed.

Those sacked 'seem to be relieved to get off the treadmill and to be given an opportunity to reconsider what they really want out of life', the Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard Chartres said. 

Dr Chartres suggested that the credit crunch could give Britons a chance to 'reboot our sense of what a truly flourishing human life consists of'. 

The third most senior figure in the Church added: 'It is difficult to know whether to sympathise more with those who have lost their jobs or those who are left carrying even greater loads with higher targets and fewer colleagues.' 

Unions reacted sceptically. 

A TUC spokesman said: 'You don't have much time for finding yourself when you're living on £60-a-week jobseeker's allowance.' 

The praise for unemployment from the Bishop contrasts with the message put out by some of his colleagues, who have tried to sympathise with the problems faced by those thrown out of work.

Last month the Church published prayers for the recession which acknowledged the pain and confusion of redundancy, and yesterday Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu expressed his concern for 'individual hardship and families in need.'

Dr Chartres, however, said that redundancy could help ease the 'crack-berry culture' shared by many workers in his diocese.

'The 'crack-berry culture' is dangerously addictive and switching off from it is notoriously difficult,' he said; 

The bishop said his diocese was trying hard to help those laid off in the slump.

Around 150,000 people in the diocese, which covers London north of the Thames, including the City.

Bishop Chartres, whose job is not under threat because of the downturn, is paid a stipend of £57,040 a year.

However, he does not have to pay a mortgage. The bishop and his family live in a 'see house' provided free by the Church in the Old Deanery, a grade one listed Wren house next to St Paul's Cathedral.

The apartment was refurbished for him at a cost of £300,000 in 1995.

Dr Chartres, a father of four, responded to criticism of the cost of his housing by saying the accommodation used by his bachelor predecessor was inadequate and that he needed a larger residence fit for 'a public person involved in public life', rather than an 'office wallah' in a 'suburban villa'.  continues here

Volatile mix of jobs and race will give ministers the jitters

A politically explosive mix of unemployment and immigration figures sent a shiver of apprehension through government ministers yesterday. 

With both issues right at the top of the electorate’s concerns, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) news release on levels of foreign employment was certain to raise alarm. 

Only hours after British construction workers started a wildcat strike at a Nottinghamshire power station, the ONS revealed that the number of British citizens in work had fallen by 234,000 while the number of foreign workers had risen by 175,000 during the year to December. During the same period the number of workers who were born abroad rose by 214,000 while employment of British-born workers fell by 278,000. The ONS subsequently disclosed that of the 3.8 million foreign-born workers, 40 per cent are now British citizens.

It appears easy to interpret the figures as showing that foreign workers are replacing British workers. 

The impression of foreigners taking British jobs was strengthened by the breakdown of figures into some national groups. Employment rates for British citizens, and those from most EU countries, America, South Africa and Australia, either fell or showed small increases. In contrast, employment rates for Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis rose by 5 per cent. 

However, although the figures appear startling, the total number of foreign-born workers has increased at the same rate as employment, up by 290,000 to 5.4 million. Overall, therefore, the change is zero. 

The increase in employment rates in the Pakistani-Bangladeshi communities started from a low base, with only 48 per cent now in jobs compared with almost three quarters of the population as a whole. 

Many of the new workers born in the Indian sub-continent will have grown up in Britain and attended school and university here. The figures also mask the increase in employment rates among Asian women. 

Although the Government has insisted on attracting primarily skilled workers vital to the economy, the ONS figures show that the biggest increase in foreign-born workers has been in the lowest-skilled occupations. 

Foreign-born workers accounted for a fifth of total unskilled jobs, up from a tenth in 2001. Over the same period the proportion of foreign-born workers in full-time employment across the workforce has increased from about 8 per cent to almost 14 per cent. 

Although the Government played down the significance of the foreign workers, the latest figures show that during the same period the numbers of work permits granted to people from India, Pakistan and South Africa almost doubled. 

Almost 50,000 work permits were issued to people from India compared with 26,000 in 2007, according to figures released to Parliament last month. There was also a big increases for Pakistan — up 3,270 from 1,545 — and South Africa, 4,870 compared with 2,890. 

The Home Office said last night that it was unable to explain the increase but changes to work permit regulations could account for some of the rise. 

Tim Finch, head of migration at the Institute of Public Policy Research, said: “The figures are showing a drop in UK-born people of working age in work and a rise in foreign-born people in work. But they do not explain what lies behind the figures.” 

Tony Travers, a public finance expert at the London School of Economics, said: “It is an unhelpful coincidence to publicise the statistics in this way, at this time. If it is the ONS demonstrating its new independent status it would be an awkwardly political-looking way of doing it.” 

The row over the figures reflects the birth pangs of a new system of releasing official statistics intended to separate the figures from political comment. A number of rows over the release last year of crime and immigration figures highlighted how difficult it was for Whitehall and politicians to come to terms with a regime in which figures are released free from “spin”. Sir Michael Scholar, a former permanent secretary, who is now head of the statistics watchdog, attended the weekly meeting of Whitehall permanent secretaries yesterday to discuss the importance of abiding by the new regime for releasing figures. 

The decision to publish a separate report on figures for “UK born and non-UK born employment” was taken by Karen Dunnell, the chief statistician, in the lead-up to the release of the unemployment figures. The ONS said that the decision was taken in reponse to public interest in the topic in an attempt to avoid any confusion. “We reviewed our previous practice given the topicality of the issue,” a spokesman said, adding: “We want to make sure the picture is clear from us.” 

The ONS said that in most cases, those who wanted to find out how employment among those born in the UK and overseas had changed would have to do their own sums before the ONS estimates were published alongside the population figures. A spokesman said: “Since calculations are not straightforward, we decided to publish estimates by our standard techniques. The aim is to help public information and avoid potential confusion if alternative statistics were published.” 

The ONS emphasised that the decision had not been taken lightly. “Don’t think that we did not consider very, very fully whether or not to do it,” a spokeswoman said. The ONS said that the underlying data published in the release were already published inside and outside government. 

“Given the level of interest in this aspect of the labour market, and since calculations are not straightforward, we decided to publish estimates by our standard techniques,” a spokesman said. The aim is to help public information and avoid potential confusion if alternative statistics were published.”  continues here

MILLION NEW JOBS GO TO MIGRANTS AS SLUMP DEEPENS

NEARLY all the 1.34 million jobs created in Britain in the past seven years have gone to immigrants, a bombshell report reveals today. 

Yet official Government figures confirm the number of British-born jobless has remained virtually stagnant in the same period.

The shocking analysis comes ahead of dire unemployment figures to be published tomorrow.

As the recession deepens, the jobless total is expected to soar towards two million and those on Jobseekers’ Allowance are tipped to exceed one million.

Last night critics said the research shattered Gordon Brown’s infamous promise that his Government would create “British jobs for British workers”.

Thousands of vacancies are offered abroad before being advertised in the UK, denying the British jobless a chance to apply.

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: “This is yet more evidence that completely undermines Gordon Brown’s unwise proclamation that he would deliver British jobs for British workers.”

The research into the UK jobs market since 2001, published by the think-tank Migrationwatch, shows that 1.08 million out of the 1.34million new jobs created since 2001 have gone to non-UK citizens. Many were taken by around 500,000 eastern Europeans who have arrived since 2004.

Although 253,000 of the vacancies were taken up by UK nationals, the vast majority were naturalised citizens rather than native-born. The number of UK-born workers in employment fell by 62,000 during the period.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said: “From the point of view of British-born workers, the damage to their prospects has already been done at a time when jobs of almost all kinds are at a premium.” He added: “This must have been staring the Government in the face for a long time, yet even last month they described the east European migrants as ‘helping to fill gaps in the labour market’.

“Rather than come clean about the effect of massive immigration on the prospects of British-born workers they have been spinning the statistics and camouflaging the true position with tough talk about immigration.”

Tory Nicholas Soames, co-chair man of the Commons Cross-Party Group on Balanced Mig ration, said: “The Government has been pulling the wool over the eyes of the public.”  continues here

Recession and job losses could start in months, say bosses

Britain is on the verge of a recession and the number of permanent job vacancies is falling, two reports warn today.

 
The British Chambers of Commerce describes the outlook as 'grim' and warns that a recession could start within months. 

It says it has uncovered evidence of a 'menacing deterioration' in the economic outlook. Another report, from the accountants KPMG, shows that the number of permanent job vacancies fell in June for the first time in five years.

The number being put into permanent jobs by recruitment agencies fell at its
sharpest rate in more than five years. The British Chambers of Commerce also said it fears for workers' jobs over the next 18 months, predicting up to 300,000 could be affected. 

This is equal to 550 losing their jobs every day, including weekends, by the end of 2009. 

David Frost, director general of the business lobby group, said there is 'a real risk of recession in the coming months'. He said: 'The outlook is grim. We believe that the correction period is likely to be longer and nastier than anticipated.' 

Nearly 5,000 firms took part in the research for the BCC report. Low unemployment has been a feature of recent years, but official figures have started to show that the jobless total is beginning to increase. 

The number who do not have a job - but want to work - jumped 38,000 to 1.64million in the three months to the end of April. 

The KMPG report, published jointly with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said there is worse to come. 

Alan Nolan, director of KPMG, said: 'This really is a sobering set of figures proving the credit crunch has finally taken its toll and is now severely weakening the UK jobs market. 

'Many employers now seem to be accepting the inevitable - they will have to cut costs by laying off people because their businesses won't be growing as much as they could have expected a couple of months ago.' Thousands of redundancies in the City and the housebuilding sector are just the start, he added. continues here

But lets keep importing immigrants shall we, because the British worker doesn’t matter, lets saturate a diminishing job market with cheap labour, lower wages, place more pressure on housing and undermine our whole infrastructure.

Number of foreign workers hits 2million but Britons are increasingly jobless

NICK MCDERMOTT

The number of migrant workers in Britain has topped two million for the first time, official figures have revealed.

A 75 per cent increase in workers from abroad since 2001 has seen the total number of foreign-born employees rise by more than 850,000 in the last six years, while their British born counterparts dropped by 500,000 in the same period.

The decline in the number of UK workers has been matched by an unprecedented influx of migrants from Eastern Europe.

Since May 2004, when the EU expanded eastwards, 700,000 have registered with the Home Office to work here. The figures are likely to fuel suspicions that some British workers are being forced out of the jobs market by migrants.

Official figures from the Labour Force Survey show the number of foreign workers had risen by 861,000 in the past six years to a total of just over two million.

The figures were revealed in a parliamentary answer to Conservative MP James Clappison, a member of the home affairs select committee.

He said: "Ministers are really out of touch with what is happening in the jobs market.

"The Government has overseen a significant increase in the employment of foreign citizens but have had much less success in creating jobs for British citizens."

The real number of migrant workers is likely to be much higher, with an estimated one in eight employees now born outside this country.

The Labour Force Survey does not count those who live in hotels, hostels, boarding houses or caravan sites. Nor does it include temporary workers who have been living at their address for under six months.

Analysis last year showed that migrants have taken four out of five jobs created since Labour came to power......Article conts (-)