Brexit and British Immigration Policy

After listening to Theresa May's somewhat lacklustre 'big Brexit speech', I thought it was notable that she was happy to say she wants control of the UK's borders but unwilling to specifically address free movement. As the UK is not part of schengen - where one can travel without showing a passport - technically we currently have control of our borders, but obviously not control of free movement. I think it likely that she still plans to use the free movement issue as a bargaining chip in negotiations, but would be very disappointed if it is allowed to continue once we leave the EU. Optimistically, we could achieve a much better immigration system, that allows talent into the country without putting pressure on low-skilled jobs or constraining ourselves to arbitrary numeric targets.

This relies on us ending total free movement with the EU, and having a fair immigration policy that doesn't discriminate against the rest of the world. Politicians (except idiots like Corbyn) would never totally open the UK's borders and job market like this to the rest of the world - but somehow, with Europe, this is fine. Such lack of requirements to immigrate provides incentive and ability to low-skilled workers, from countries with lower wages and working conditions, to move and better their life - an understandable choice, but one which takes jobs and opportunity away from low-skilled natives, who are thus more likely end up dependant on the state. Indeed, due to the low wages, low-skilled immigrants tend to also end up reliant on the state.  Instead of this, wouldn't it be better to give preference to highly skilled immigrants, in high demand sectors, and not give preference to Europeans - rather grant immigration to the best people for the jobs, regardless of their nationality?

It should be imperative in our immigration policy that we give priority to those working in high demand sectors, and with high levels of education. As part of this, we should once again allow international students (only with good quality education), who have already had time to integrate into British culture, to remain in the country after graduation to find work here. Such jobs tend to be well paid, or provide services essential to the wider society, and thus immigrants in these roles would contribute to the UK instead of drain it. Not only do better skilled immigrants contribute more to the economy, they are also more likely to integrate well into their adopted society and culture, which would likely help to ease tensions with the native British.

Also key to a successful immigration policy is successful integration of immigrants into the wider community - essential to this is a knowledge of the local language. Currently, we require people to take a language test when applying for citizenship - but the language requirement is low - and offer English lessons to those struggling. Rather than fixing the problem once someone has arrived, we should be doing the opposite - making it a requirement to know English before someone is allowed to enter the country for an extended period of time. Without a working knowledge of English, it is difficult to access services and communicate with anyone except other immigrants - causing further isolation of immigrant communities, and creating a seemingly insurmountable barrier to integration.

Beyond these common sense immigration policies, we must also consider the spousal-visa route, which is often alleged to be open to abuse. Primarily, a requirement that anyone applying for a spousal visa should have a good knowledge of English (and the marriage obviously not be a visa wedding) would ensure those immigrating through this route have a good chance of integration.

The Casey Review, however, highlighted the problem of 'a first generation in every generation' - by which the child of immigrants will marry someone from their parents' country, and their child will do the same; this problem seems to be most prevalent in communities where cousin marriage is traditional, and leads to further segregation and isolation of new immigrants and their communities. I propose a simple solution: to make cousin marriage illegal in the UK, and to stop recognising international cousin marriages. Aside from the issues around integration, such incestuous relationships, particularly over many generations, reduce IQ and lead to an increased likelihood of genetic problems in offspring. This is not good for individuals or society, and should be actively discouraged in national law and through immigration policy. Harsh but true.

Finally, a return of seasonal workers permits for agricultural work - at least in the short term - is essential to keep our farming sector productive for the next few years. Seasonal agricultural jobs are low-skilled and low-paid, but hard work; even before free movement within the EU, farms were often staffed by foreigners to help with the harvest. I hope with time, agricultural technologies will improve to reduce this need for manual labour, but it is also imperative that we encourage native British to enter into agricultural work and hopefully improve the industry. Indeed, in all sectors which we 'require' immigrant labour, we should be looking at why there are not native British to fill these posts - and encourage education in these areas to fill such emerging skills gaps.

We need a streamlined immigration policy, that prioritises growing our highly skilled sectors, with immigrants who want to contribute to and integrate into British society - as most already do. We should be opening our country to the best of the world, instead of anyone who fancies it as long as they are from Europe.

British citizenship is a privilege. Let's keep it that way.

For reference, I found this interview with Dr. Tino Sanandaji a good insight into the immigration issues we currently face in Europe.

For more insight into the integration problems faced in the UK, read the executive summary and full Casey Review here

Let's talk about NYE in London

- and how abysmal the 'beefed up' security was compared to last year.

For the big fireworks display at New Year's, rather than allowing hundreds of thousands of tourists to camp on the bridges from midday for the best view, tickets are now sold for the good viewing areas. As people still live within the ticked areas, residential streets are supposed to be shut off to the general public, so we can drink our champagne and laugh at the plebs who can't afford a riverside house, so our street isn't ruined by tourists and their bodily fluids. To do this, they put up a couple of metal barriers and a couple of (untrained) 'security' staff at the top of the road, to guide visitors to the proper areas. Last year this worked well, this year was different.

By 11:30pm, we noticed strange people walking and running down our road - upon going out to investigate, we we told by the sole teenage boy on the gate that he had been 'overpowered' and had 'no radio to get help'. I grabbed some staff from nearby gates, had them radio for assistance, and cleared the street of the 30 or so teenage strangers that had invaded. As it approached midnight, however, more kept appearing - another 40 being simply let through the barriers - and climbed over the fence to the closed park, before ripping a hole in it to get through more easily.

The fireworks were fantastic - apart from Mayor Khan't feeling the need to have a booming voiceover reminding us that 'London is open', rather ironically as all the good pubs had closed at 5pm so they didn't have to deal with drunk tourists.

Being still pissed off about all the trespassers, who did more damage to the park fence when breaking out of it, I spoke to the gate supervisor who had managed to turn up during the event; she told me they were chronically understaffed, and didn't have enough equipment like radios. Although we had 'the most police ever' patrolling central London, as they all had jobs to do and places to be, they were also essentially understaffed and could only leave their beats for proper emergencies. There was nothing they could do.

Why does a few trespassers wanting to watch the fireworks bother me?
Because if some teenage yobs can get through the barriers and break into the park so easily, what is there to stop a terrorist doing the same? What if there had been an actual security situation? The guy supposed to be manning the gates could barely be older than 20, had no security training, and no radio to ask for backup. In a year when the security was supposed to be the best ever, it is simply unacceptable that the fireworks event organisers can get away with such shoddy management.

The homeless problem in central London is not just about housing

Upon returning to London after Christmas, I was greeted with the rather un-festive news that there had been a fatal stabbing across the road from my local pub, quite literally metres away from Charing Cross Police station and Trafalgar Square. Just after 7am, a homeless man had been killed outside the day centre right around the time they serve breakfast.

The problem of rough sleeping in central London has got to endemic proportions - with one in 25 of the Westminster population being homeless - residents will tell you, it was only a matter of time before someone was killed like this. Lining every street around the central London area are hundreds, if not thousands, of rough sleepers; almost all have mental health and addiction problems, there are constant fights, and many residents have had to call ambulances to treat overdosed addicts on our doorsteps. Whilst there is much talk of the housing crisis in London - with rising rents and property prices crippling those on low (and even medium) wages - by the time someone is sleeping rough on the streets in the centre of London, they need more help than just a house.

Imagine for a minute, you were made homeless: if you did not have the opportunity to stay with friends or family, had no recourse for state assistance and nowhere indoors to sleep, what would you do? Would your choice be to hide in a quiet park, or sleep in the alleyway next to the busiest streets in the country? Keep a low profile and try get back some sense of normality, or sit on a street corner in Soho begging for change? 

Let's be honest here - for someone to be on the streets in central London for months or even years, it's because their addictions and/or violent behaviour has got them kicked out of every hostel and they get more money for drugs begging to tourists - not just because 'houses cost to much'. The presence of so many rough sleepers on the streets of central London represent more than just a failure of housing - there is a deeper failure of mental health and social services that have allowed so many to end up addicted to drugs and sleeping on the streets. Rather than more hostel beds & council blocks, we need more beds in rehab and mental health facilities, and assistive accommodation that helps treat people's problems rather than just putting a roof over their head; being practical, this will never be located in central London. 

Hiring the Night Czar

The mayor's office has come under some scrutiny for the appointment of Amy Lame to the new position of Night Czar, and the creation of the additional job Chair of the Nighttime Commission after the applications (and interviews) had finished. I spent a good portion of my Wednesday morning watching the GLA Oversight Committee grill the hiring committee about the process of appointing the Night Czar, which (as expected) was a travesty. You can check out the associated documents here or watch the meeting here.

What is a Night Czar anyway?

Initially, the role of Night Czar was to work with key stakeholders to develop "a vision for London as a 24 hour city", a strategy for implementation, and a best practice guide for councils - as well as overseeing research into the nighttime economy and supporting existing projects - chairing the Nighttime Commission, working 2.5 days per week, for a £35,000 salary.

Indeed, this was the job description until after the interview process - when it was decided that the role was 'too large for one person' and, should instead, be spilt into the Night Czar and the Chair of the Nighttime Commission. The former is to develop the vision, the latter to work with the councils - now we have two 2.5 day/week £35k/year roles, up from none under Boris.

From Wednesday's meeting, the Czar will be spending the next 6 months developing a "vision" for 24 hour London, and the remainder of her 12 month contract developing a strategy, maybe commissioning a few bits of research along the way. It seems that the Czar is mostly expected to go around and meet with international counterparts to 'learn best practice' and be a nice media figure to keep Londoners happy (and make it look like Mayor Khan is improving things)

Have the Mayor's office or the Nighttime Commission thought of any specific goals they want the Czar to achieve? Any measurable targets? Any areas of focus?

No. They're not even sure what budget will be allocated to the role.

How did they choose who got the job?

The role was first announced back on the 18th of August, just a week after the closure of iconic nightclub Fabric, fuelling publicity for applications; overall 189 were received, an "unprecedented" and "exceptional" number according to HR. Prior to the announcement of applications, the Mayor's team had also discussed people they wanted (and would encourage) to apply for the role - it was not confirmed if Ms. Lame was on this list, but I suspect she was. From the applicants, 38 were put on the long-list, and 9 interviewed - with interviewers admitting they suspected the journalists applying only did so for the story, not because they wanted the job. Of those interviewed, most of the notes include recommendations and support from key stakeholders and business leaders and extensive knowledge of licensing laws and working with councils; Ms. Lame's interview notes, in comparison, suggest the interviewers were more impressed by the fact she is a queer activist celebrity.

It was only after the interview process that the hiring team, in consultation with the Mayor's office and legal advisors, decided to split the role - not because they decided the amount of work had doubled, but because they decided it was actually two roles. Incidentally, the only two people scored above 25 by the Deputy Mayor at interview were the Night Czar herself, and whoever will be announced as Chair of the Nighttime Commission. These were also the only two interviewees informed of the change in job role of Czar, and the creation of the Chair's position. 

Is it common for a job role to be changed so much after interview without the application process being rerun? No, in fact, the hiring team cannot name another instance where this has happened. 

Why is Amy Lame a controversial choice?

Is the fact she's payed through her company (rather than being a direct employee) as big an issue as implied by the media? To me, no, not really. It's become so common to do in London that no-one really cares. I would like to know who her accountant is though, because I would also like to pay no tax (presumably through clever legal avoidance schemes).

She's not a fan of Conservatives - calling them "Tory scum" and "cunts" amongst other insults and threats of mild violence, on Twitter. This is problematic, when many of London's councils she is expected to work with are run by the Conservatives; indeed she wrote to them apologising for her comments and assuring them of her desire to work together - but only after they had written to her with their concerns. The Mayor's office, prompted by the GLA Oversight Committee, has now asked her to remove the tweets - although she continues to like posts made by others in support of her sentiment. Did they know about this before hiring her? Yes and no - she told them at interview that there may be controversial statements due to her work as an activist, but the Mayor's team never bothered to google her to find out what those were... 

Aside from her dislike of right-wing political views, Ms. Lame seems to have little industry experience, aside from performing queer comedy and running a gay night at a pub. I'm sure these were entirely successful ventures (although her company has registered a loss for the past 7 years), but there is much more to London's nighttime economy than gay clubs. It seems that there were several well respected industry figures interviewed, and I hope that Ms. Lame will work closely and take onboard the views and ideas of the wider nighttime community. 

I'm sure there'll be more to come...

University should be free...

...but we really need to reconsider what counts as a university and what counts as a degree.

With another round of protests over university fees, from the National Union of Students, this weekend, it is clear that the issue of tuition fees is far from over. Whilst students want free eduction, the costs of university must be payed by someone - and if university education is indeed of benefit to wider society it seems reasonable that this be covered by the taxpayer. Unfortunately, with many graduates failing to find skilled or well paid employment, it seems that much university education has no benefit to wider society.

When Tony Blair said that 50% of school leavers should go onto university, he neglected to consider the fact that far fewer than 50% of available jobs are for graduates. This has led to a proliferation of soft degrees, in subjects that would have had no place in education 15 years ago, accepting students with low academic ability - resulting in graduates who may have paper qualifications (along with a mountain of debt) but still fail to find meaningful employment. Surely these young people would be better served by schemes to help them into employment and in-work training at 18, allowing them to start earning a wage (rather than accumulating debt) and gain demonstrable skills valuable to employers and industry (instead of a piece of paper providing limited assurances of subject knowledge).

I don't think the taxpayer should cover the cost of someone with two C-grade A-levels to study Event Management for 3 years - when it seems obvious that one could gain better knowledge of managing events by working in the industry for 3 years. Indeed, it appears that many of these vocational degrees simply take the cost of staff training away from companies, and push it onto future employees - if all current undergraduate degrees were 'free', this cost would be pushed onto the taxpayer instead.

Some high-skilled vocational subjects - such as law, medicine or dentistry - cannot be taught entirely on the job. With healthcare graduates providing a clear, long-term, benefit to wider society - and fierce competition for places, ensuring only the best can study - it makes sense to subsidise medical education. For law, this is broadly similar as lawyers work partly in the public, and partly in the private interest - due to the huge profits made by private law firms, it seems reasonable for private industry to contribute to the education of future lawyers, as they currently do through post-graduate education in the form of bar schools - although the costs could be better split between government and industry.

Traditional university subject study, reserved for the most academically qualified, has never served solely to provide an in-depth knowledge of the subject - university education more importantly develops critical thinking skills that prove invaluable outside of academic study in high-skilled and managerial roles. The uncomfortable truth is that only a minority of school-leavers possess the aptitude to develop such skills - at least through the blunt instruments of essays and exams in university education. Lowering the quality of undergraduate education, to accommodate the less academically able, only devalues the achievements of the few who are - and forces them to further study, and further debt, to distinguish themselves from the rabble.

If university education returned to the preserve of only the best and the brightest - with most school leavers helped by in-work training and apprenticeships - I'd be more than happy for university to be free for students.

Are pupils too stupid to understand Shakespeare?

Lord Kerr has been coming under criticism for calling the general public stupid; superficially this often appears true, but to anyone bothering to look, it is obvious that this is a failing of the British education system rather than a lack of potential.

As case in point, I look to Shakespeare - whilst high school pupils study a different play each year, getting them to engage with the literature has become ever more difficult. To try and increase engagement and understanding, liberals have even produced emoji game versions of the texts - with the hope millennials are shallow enough to be fascinated by this. Unfortunately, simply shoehorning small pictures into the texts will do nothing to increase understanding.

I'm still optimistic enough to believe that most millennials, and even (hopefully) generation Z, are not actually stupid - but when it comes to understanding and appreciating historical literature a knowledge of the cultural background of the texts is essential, but fundamentally lacking in our education system. Slowly but surely, education and discussion of our island's history, philosophy and culture has been eroded; without knowledge of such reference points, how can pupils be expected to gain a depth of understanding?

Whilst Britain may have become a mostly secular society, historically Christianity was a central tenant of British thinking and culture, and still forms the basis of our legal and moral codes - a fact that seems to have been forgotten in the push for multiculturalism. Even when reading more modern texts, such as Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia - indeed most British literature up to the mid-20th century - it would be impossible to recognise or appreciate the philosophical themes without a reasonable working knowledge of the Bible. With little to no education in the development of Christian philosophy through the Middle Ages and Reformation, we cannot expect teenagers to appreciate Shakespeare, nor blame them for being stupid when they leave school.

The short-sighted methods of teaching Shakespeare are indicative of the problems with the British education system at large. Until it can be fixed, Lord Kerr will continue to have good reason to call us stupid.

BBC - Brexit Bullsh*t Corporation

If you read the BBC before going to work this morning, you might think that the government is leaking like the DNC, and has no plan for Brexit. If you checked the news later, maybe you found out it's more accurate to say 'Deloitte thinks the government has no plan for Brexit, and wants them to hire lots of Deloitte's consultants to fix this'. They might very well be correct - the British government has woefully bad track record when it comes to planning most things - but the BBC's biased reporting of the issues is the real problem.

Here's their article at 8am referring to the source of hysteria as "the leaked Cabinet Office memo - written by an un-named consultant and entitled "Brexit Update" of 7 November". By 1:30pm, they had clarified that "a spokesman said the "unsolicited document" came from an external accountancy firm and had "no authority"". Guido properly clears things up, and lets us know this accountancy firm was Deloitte - presumably letting Mrs. May et.al. know they have plenty of six-figure-salaried consultants at hand to help the government sort out the mess created by the referendum.

Do you think that BBC (and Times) journalists didn't know the memo wasn't from the Cabinet Office, as they suggested, just sent to them? Looking at the current political climate, I'm sure a lot of people are writing to the Cabinet to let them know they don't think the government knows what it's doing. We all know they don't know what they are doing.

Whilst the source of this hysteria, The Times, can somehow still find readers to voluntarily pay for its so-called journalism, it is the British public in general paying for such disingenuous reporting from the BBC. Standards of journalism have fallen so low there that it is an insult for them to receive public money - when taxpayer funding dries up, I wish the BBC journalists luck in finding new positions...