Extremism always depends upon the setting up of a 'hate' figure: a group in society who are vilified, rightly or wrongly. That is why I find this passage in George Osborne's speech this morning so worrying:
That's why the fourth part of our economic plan is about reducing immigration and capping welfare.
Migration, when it's controlled, is an important part of a successful economy.
But uncontrolled immigration, of the kind we saw over the last decade, brings pressures on public services and leads to abuse of our welfare system.
That's why we've tightened the rules so people can't just come to this country to claim benefits - and it's why for the first time we've introduced an immigration cap.
What follows in social security is bad too, but the aim is clear: vilification of the 'other' is now policy.
We've been here before.
It never ends well.
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“Extremism always depends upon the setting up of a ‘hate’ figure: a group in society who are vilified, rightly or wrongly”
What, like the vilification of the “1%”?
I have not noted them being hated
Have you?
No, Richard. Indeed – they can QUITE well look after themselves, given the fact that they’ve captured the legislatures, executives, and the majority of the business and academic communities in most of the developed world (and probably in the developing world too). One never needs to feel much sympathy for bullies – except for their limited self-centredness of vision!
I probably do, but slightly less than their flunkies and enablers.
Cough cough, in Latin the word “sinister” means Left. Are you sure you are Right about this? In that most accurate and reliable on sources film “Carry On Cleo” the visiting Roman Legionaries (they stayed for a too short 400 years) marched to the orders “Sinister, dexter, sinister dexter.” Infamy infamy, they’ve all got it infamy.
the ‘infamy quote’ comes from “Don’t lose your Head”, a carry on film about the French Revolution. Osborne would be an aristocrat-and sit on the right of the King-from which the term derives. But he’s still a villein
Now now Richard, you know he’s only doing the bidding of those “high” above him:
” What I am describing is a world where all attempts at maintaining ordinary integrity and basic morality, have been set at naught; where the lunatics have taken over the asylum; and where there are no standards of honesty and decency left.
Recent years in the financial sector have demonstrated how this absence of ethical morality and commercial integrity has been allowed to permeate throughout the entire body politic, right up to the very top floors”
http://rowans-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/how-far-down-scale-of-integrity-do-we.html
Part of the EU-India Free Trade Agreement (now delayed until after Indian elections) was provision for workers to be imported into the UK from India but who would not be protected by UK employment legislation.. effectively insourcing the workforce instead of outsourcing the factory to India.
Is that what George Osborne is thinking of when he says ‘controlled migration’?
Owen Tudor of the TUC says that the unions have managed to negotiate the numbers of ‘insourced’ workers to 30k but that is still 30k too many and has implications for collective bargaining etc..
This seems similar to Qatar where incourced, cheap labour is building the stadia for their world cup in appalling conditions. Good old Blighty, were are really setting our sights high!
The working classes were smashed during the miners strike, we must rebuild class consciousness, working class must establish their own party and own tv and newspapers. the rich are taking candy from babies. Millipede and his ilk of marsxist/communist whores must be dethroned
But the ‘welfare cap’ is a policy very well supported and crosses party boundaries. I know some on the left might not like that fact, but more than a few who identify themselves as ‘left’ think it is a good idea.
I work in a town where the average wage is anywhere between £19K – £22K (depending on how you measure the boundaries) and for those working there is strong support for the cap. Even the local MP – not Blue Mob – concedes that the cap is popular and quite fair.
Again, I suspect the welfare cap crosses tribal boundaries and the Labour Party know that and will not rescind it.
So they’ll pay a fortune on alternatives
Agreed. Besides, in keeping with this Government’s peerless record on forecasts, the odious IDS said the withdrawal of Housing Benefit would result in landlords lowering their rents (most of the £26k Cap being made up of Housing Benefit paid to usurious landlords). And what do we find? Why, the big landlords now refusing to rent to people on HB. So much for lowering rents! And where will these people who can’t get rented accommodation go? Into very expensive, but low-grade local Authority B&B’s – often 1 room for a family, and miles from where the occupants need to look for work, or to stay in the work they have. A dog’s dinner. This WILL result in more Government expenditure, I’m sure.
Agreed
@Andrew Dickie “… the odious IDS said the withdrawal of Housing Benefit would result in landlords lowering their rents…” Sounds like flawless economic logic. But
The multi-millionaire owner of a big portfolio buy-to-lets was interviewed on the telly the other day. He said since house prices have increased so much, he has to put up the rents.
In a low wage, debt-slavery economy, welfare has to bashed by this neo-liberal mob to divert the anger of the low-paid from the real causes of their difficulty. The low paid will need to see ‘others’ being crushed so they don’t feel as badly off as their wealth is ripped-off them by corrupt banks and housing scams. Politicians cannot sink lower than this mendacious, callous dumbed down explanation of a more sinister reality -you’ve clearly swallowed the guff Allan!
“But the ‘welfare cap’ is a policy very well supported and crosses party boundaries. I know some on the left might not like that fact, but more than a few who identify themselves as ‘left’ think it is a good idea.”
It always is….until those same people that decry those claiming benefits have to claim benefits themselves.
It is always the others who are work shy wasters, not themselves! They are fully deserving of their benefits.
It is always a great idea to curb benefit spending, until it is you that finds themselves having to claim benefits, then strangely their opinion does a 180 degree turn and they go completely off the idea of benefit curbs!
But that’s only because the
Labour party have allowed the neo-liberal Right to control the narrative. Politicians and the media have for years colluded in the conflation of a gross caricature compounding every extreme of fecklessness, anti-social behaviour and criminality as short-hand for the lower classes. Having grown up on a council estate (Mum still lives there) it is not a stereo-type I recognise. The same people would have us believe that this is largely down to genetic inferiority.
What is being done is EXACTLY the same as what was done to the Jews and Gypsies in Germany in the early 1930’s. Recognise it for what it is. It is a policy of de-humanisation that precedes and facilitates something far more terrible.
Those on a lower wage will soon be seeing their own version of the welfare cap, as working tax credit #benefit# is lowered.
Quite so John, (although I suspect that will be in the round of cuts scheduled for after May 2015). It is difficult to find figures for the modal average wage but I have seen estimates of £15-20k.If that’s right (I suspect here in the West Midlands that’s optimistic) it suggests that the majority of the working population are reliant on ‘benefits’.
Don’t expect they’ll be in a hurry to publicise that one before an election.
I think that WTC is exhausted at a combined wage of just over 15K
CTC doesn´t however….
Quite frankly, I would like someone to sit down, for a few years, and calculate exactly how much is paid out in each sort of benefit and to who.
Certainly, after a quickish glance, I think it is going to be a monumental task. Probably that is why universal credit is proving a pain…especially as both WTC and CTC are going to be ¨amalgamated¨ into the UC system, if they ever figure out how that is going to work; if.
Certainly, it will be an education to many just what is a benefit, and how much it is, and to who it is paid.
Richard
An unintended? consequence of the new cap on immigration is the impact on those who have a greater human and moral right to enter the UK than citizens of Eastern European countries. You see, this cap is directed not at European citizens, but at the descendents of those English-speaking people who fought for our freedoms in the two World wars and later conflicts — namely citizens of commonwealth countries.
Banning the very same people who are largely very well educated young and English speaking, and thus easily assimilated into our social and business environment, in the name of political point scoring, is a serious error of judgment.
In addition, to vilify a minority group — those on benefits and out of work — by blaming them for our current financial woes is to raise the spectre of Germany 1933.
What does [sinister] Osborne desire?
In Bertrand Russell’s Nobel lecture in 1950 “What Desires Are Politically Important?” he stated
“All human activity is prompted by desire.”
“But man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that he has some desires which are, so to speak, infinite, which can never be fully gratified, and which would keep him restless even in Paradise.”
Four in particular are “acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity, and love of power”.
Without effective oppositional force (LibDem, New Labour, Fourth Estate et al) Osborne’s desires are unlimited and will seek for his caste;
“Acquisitiveness” – exponential asset building [debt for the rest].
“Love of power” — insatiable.
Whilst “rivalry and vanity” besets them apace.
Osborne’s desire = neoliberal ambition.
How can anyone justify uncontrolled immigration?
Surely having some control has to be a sensible step – the key issue is what the controls are!
No one is justifying uncontrolled immigration
Please do not make false claims
So you don’t advocate uncontrolled immigration and so when Osborne says
“Migration, when it’s controlled, is an important part of a successful economy”
You’d agree with him?
Question then becomes, what controls would YOU recommend be put on immigration? If all you do is criticise others’ plans without saying what you would do, your criticism is pretty hollow. It becomes a childish “Osborne is a Tory, Osborne has said something, I will criticise what Osborne has said” reaction.
There is a big difference between sensible controls and vilifying the immigrant
You once again avoid the question. What ‘sensible controls’ would you put in place? Your criticisms of any proposal on immigration are meaningless unless you say what you would do.
On another blog you criticised Osborne for lack of detail. Where is your detail? Or is it that you don’t know what you would do and are just automatically naysaying anything put forward by Osborne?
We have controls in place
We do need to vilify those who come into the country as a result
“How can anyone justify uncontrolled immigration?
Surely having some control has to be a sensible step — the key issue is what the controls are!”
But isn’t zero limits on immigration the ultimate in free market thinking? That anyone from any other country can go to another country and trump the wages of the indigineous population of that country by offering to work for less?
Strange how the state has to control things when it suits certain branches of capitalism, isn’t it?
Spot on Stevo
Work for less as long as its legal. We have the great minimum wage. However I suspect some are working for less. I am not sure this is fair to anyone really. We all are hurt, even if it means them not paying enough tax.
What the UK needs to do is get some hope back into schools. Some feel their only chance is being a pop star. No everyone can sing, even though this is also true for the latest bands.
Getting the schools teaching about subjects needed, even in the retail field. This might excite a younger group of people. Then the foreign workers wont be needed in the UK.
No more Mr Nice Guy eh?