Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Popularism and the Labour Party
This morning's Independent highlights the latest attempt by Ed Miliband to recover some traction after his party's disastrous showing in the Eastleigh by-election. They say that the Labour Leader Ed Miliband is planning to toughen his party's policy on immigration today by promising that Labour will cut the number of people coming to this country to take low-skilled jobs:
In a party political broadcast devoted to the sensitive issue, Mr Miliband will admit that the previous Labour Government got it "wrong" on immigration and failed to understand people's concerns.
He will announce that, if Labour regains power, English language teaching for migrants would be given greater priority and all state workers in face-to-face contact with the public would have to be able to speak English. Labour would also bring in measures to reduce the UK's "pull factor" for people coming in to take up low-skilled jobs, following criticism that they squeeze out British workers.
What he does not say is how he will achieve that whilst staying within the European Union. More to the point this sort of popularism does not help make the case that immigration can be good for our economy and bring clear benefits to the country.
We have to get the balance right, ensuring wherever possible that immigration flows meet our economic and workforce needs, however having the opposition leader appealing to the lowest common denominator in this way will not help that objective.
In a party political broadcast devoted to the sensitive issue, Mr Miliband will admit that the previous Labour Government got it "wrong" on immigration and failed to understand people's concerns.
He will announce that, if Labour regains power, English language teaching for migrants would be given greater priority and all state workers in face-to-face contact with the public would have to be able to speak English. Labour would also bring in measures to reduce the UK's "pull factor" for people coming in to take up low-skilled jobs, following criticism that they squeeze out British workers.
What he does not say is how he will achieve that whilst staying within the European Union. More to the point this sort of popularism does not help make the case that immigration can be good for our economy and bring clear benefits to the country.
We have to get the balance right, ensuring wherever possible that immigration flows meet our economic and workforce needs, however having the opposition leader appealing to the lowest common denominator in this way will not help that objective.
