Hazel Blears has become the latest member of the Cabinet to fall in behind the frankly bonkers idea that legal migrants should be charged extra to live here on top of the taxes they pay.
I’ve written before about what a discriminatory and divisive idea this is. But on top of that – this is just a ridiculous idea. £50 each is hardly going to make a big difference – for example, the police in Cambridgeshire say that migrants cost them an extra £1million a year. I can’t imagine that there are 20,000 legal migrants every year into Cambridgeshire; and on top of that, what about schools, hospitals, dentists, wear and tear on roads, binmen… all the other public services?
What the government needs to do is not attack easy targets like legal migrants, who obey the rules and work hard for a better life, but instead focus on the real problem – the fact that significant numbers of people come here illegally, break the rules and do not pay their fair share.
This is where I have a lot of sympathy for Boris Johnson’s idea of an earned amnesty for illegal immigrants. They’re here. There’s no realistic way that all (or even most) of them will ever be deported, and frankly they often do horrible jobs which need to be done. Showing a commitment to a way of life, being part of society, and – yes – paying taxes are all reasons that I can see an argument for negating the fact that they broke the law in the first place by entering Britain.
It’s something that deserves rational consideration – unlike yet another ‘British Jobs for British Workers’-esque headline.
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