THE COMMONWEALTH, IMMIGRATION AND JOBS

There have been concerns in the EU Parliament that Commonwealth citizens should have their right to voting in the UK removed, even ones resident in Gibraltar. Again, this is a big indicator that the EU is looking to absorb us within the boundaries of "Fortress Europe".

Shortly before the Treaty of Lisbon was signed, a proposal was put forward to "pool resources" (doublespeak phrasing again) to create "joint embassies" worldwide, for example, allowing a small EU country to use a consulate belonging to a larger member, or for member states to use an embassy of another member state where their own country doesn't have diplomatic representation.

However, this also makes a very clear step towards an EU intrusion into UK consulates, since they also want to standardise rules and procedures. So not only do they want into our borders, they want to extend tendrils of authority and influence through our diplomatic system, eventually overwriting it altogether.

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The Government recently stated that all non-EU unskilled workers would be banned "for the foreseeable future". Bear in mind that "non-EU" covers all of the Commonwealth Nations, Japan, Canada, and the USA. It severely restricts our oldest alliances.

The number of unskilled migrants from outside the EU is already restricted, with only about 12,000 permitted to take jobs in the UK in the past year under existing sector-based and agricultural schemes. That will be reduced to zero, with all migrant jobs in low skilled sectors expected to be filled by workers from Bulgaria and Romania.

The government are also in the process of looking at proposals halving tourist visa times from six to three months, and families might have to pay a financial deposit to ensure relatives outside of the EU are leaving on time. That also biased on poorer families; it's suggested that it might be a £1,000 bond, just to have someone VISIT.

What do you think that's going to do for tourism?

But that doesn't seem to apply to people coming from other EU member states since they are covered under the Schengen Agreement, essentially opening up the borders to 6% of the world population, while heavily restricting the other 94%.

This suggests that our economy will be made heavily dependent on tourism from the continent, doesn't it?

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The Government is also in the process of unveiling its new "points based" immigration system for non-EU immigrants. It's based on a number of factors, such as qualifications, previous earnings, age, UK experience (not job experience), for entrepreneurs a certain level of wealth, for investors a certain limit of investment in the UK, etc...but it includes in its purview of "unskilled work" all professions that don't require a degree, but do require other qualifications; chefs, labourers, etc.

It is heavily biased towards "financial and public services, education and health, IT and business". The "unskilled" jobs would again be heavily biased towards immigrants from the EU member states - but then those workers would be covered by the EU regulation stating that they can work for minimum wage equal to the minimum wage back in their own member state.

I can see that small businesses will find it much harder to sponsor workers from non-EU nations, but there are no restrictions on EU immigrants. Civil rights groups have also voiced concerns because that inherently tips the balance towards predominantly white nations; they are suggesting this form of immigration control is actually quite racist. A lot more racist than an Englishman wanting to fly the Union Jack or the St George Cross in England.

How it reinforces "British" values and interests when we tell Australians and Canadians that they can't work in the UK is beyond me.

And in any case, the same problems with minimum wages will occur with workers from the Commonwealth nations as it would with natural born workers. Businesses would likely prefer to employ workers from the EU member states instead of ones from the UK, just because they'll always be able to pay less.

It's like outsourcing, but on our own soil, within our own borders...and we've seen what outsourcing has done to the UK job market.

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They are also making a big deal about cracking down on criminal immigrants, and on the surface you'd think that's a good thing, but they are "tightening up" on people with an "unspent" conviction, so that no-one who has been jailed for 30 months or more can be given citizenship.

So under those rules, surely that implies someone who has been jailed for 29 1/2 months CAN be granted citizenship?

How tough does that really sound now?