Politics Thread 5

[Drumstick]

Net migration to the UK from countries outside the European Union has hit its highest level for 15 years, the Office for National Statistics says.



Figures show 261,000 more non-EU citizens came to the UK than left in the year ending September 2018 - the highest since 2004.

In contrast, net migration from EU countries has continued to fall to a level last seen in 2009.

The figures are the last set before the UK is due to leave the EU next month.

And separate figures released by the Home Office show the number of EU nationals applying for British citizenship hit an all-time high last year, rising by 23% to about 48,000.

'Complex decision'

In December, the prime minister said the government was sticking to its longstanding ambition to bring net migration down to the "tens of thousands".

In the year to September, a total of 627,000 people moved to the UK and 345,000 people left the UK - a net migration of 283,000, ONS figures show.

Jay Lindop, director of the Centre for International Migration at the ONS, said: "Decisions to migrate are complex and a person's decision to move to or from the UK will always be influenced by a range of factors, including work, study and family reasons.

"Different patterns for EU and non-EU migration have emerged since mid-2016, when the EU referendum vote took place."

Overall, net migration, immigration and emigration figures have remained broadly stable since the end of 2016, the ONS said.

Immigration minister Caroline Nokes said the UK was continuing to attract and retain highly skilled workers, including doctors and nurses, but was "committed to controlled and sustainable migration".

"As we leave the EU, our new immigration system will give us full control over who comes here for the first time in decades, while enabling employers to have access to the skills they need from around the world."

She added that the government had "always been clear" it wanted EU citizens to stay and the EU Settlement Scheme, which allows EU nationals to apply to stay, made that simple.

The ONS report also showed:

• More citizens from Central and Eastern European countries known as the EU8 - which includes Poland, Slovakia and Lithuania - are leaving the UK than arriving. This pattern differs from all other EU countries
• The number of people coming to the UK for work has fallen to its lowest level since 2014 - this follows a fall in the number of EU citizens arriving to work
• More people are coming to the UK to study, with non-EU student immigration at its highest level since 2011

Madeleine Sumption, from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the data showed Britain was not as attractive to EU migrants as it was a couple of years ago.

"That may be because of Brexit-related political uncertainty, the falling value of the pound making UK wages less attractive, or simply the fact that job opportunities have improved in other EU countries," she said.

She added that EU net migration happened to be unusually high in the run-up to the referendum, so at least some of the decline would probably have happened even without Brexit.

Diane Abbott, Labour's shadow home secretary, said: "Once again the number of migrants coming here vastly outstrips its unworkable 100,000 net migration target.

"Its policy is not really about reducing numbers but allows it to maintain a constant campaign against migration and migrants."

She criticised the immigration bill currently going through Parliament and accused the home secretary of promising more business access to overseas workers, at the same time as effectively removing all their rights.

Marley Morris, of the Institute for Public Policy Research, a centre-left think tank, said the "marked fall" in EU net migration meant the government needed to "act now to reassure EU citizens and contain the economic damage".

"It must ramp up its communications campaign on settled status, send a strong message to employers that rights must be protected, and clarify its proposals for a no deal scenario."

A couple more charts at the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47400679

thingsarelookingprettygood.gif

[BID0]

longstanding ambition

[Moggy]

longstanding ambition

Even with a racist Prime Minister they still can't get immigration down to the levels that they want.

[BID0]

longstanding ambition

Even with a racist Prime Minister they still can't get immigration down to the levels that they want.

I wish they would just come out and say the benefits of immigration and "tens of thousands" is completely unrealistic for a country our size

I mean... it's not even close to what the levels are imagine if your job involved creating goals that decades later you could say "it's okay they're longstanding ambitional targets". That's the dream.

[Moggy]

longstanding ambition

Even with a racist Prime Minister they still can't get immigration down to the levels that they want.

I wish they would just come out and say the benefits of immigration and "tens of thousands" is completely unrealistic for a country our size

I mean... it's not even close to what the levels are imagine if your job involved creating goals that decades later you could say "it's okay they're longstanding ambitional targets". That's the dream.

But the racist PM has to appeal to her racist base. "Yes we have been in power and promising a cut in immigration for 9 years, but we really will try and get rid of them all soon! Why do you think I deported the Windrush generation?"

[KK]

There's definitely something very odd about YouTube's search engine and suggestions. How on earth can I search for "Alan Partridge" and the 12th result down - the one solitary anomaly in the entire search - be...



I've never watched his channel on this computer, I've not searched for him on YouTube, I have certainly not watched a video of him on this browser or computer in the past year, I'm not signed in to Google, and yet somehow it's pushing his channel in a completely unrelated search.

[Moggy]

There's definitely something very odd about YouTube's search engine and suggestions. How on earth can I search for "Alan Partridge" and the 12th result down - the one solitary anomaly in the entire search - be...



I've never watched his channel on this computer, I've not searched for him on YouTube, I have certainly not watched a video of him on this browser or computer in the past year, I'm not signed in to Google, and yet somehow it's pushing his channel in a completely unrelated search.

#freetommy #kingofourhearts #ucanthandlethetruth #establishmentstitchup

[Garth]

YouTube is awful for that kind of thing.

[Tafdolphin]

Yep. I opened the switch YouTube app without logging in and about the third recommended channel down was Tommy Robinson. It's strawberry floating awful.

[Irene Demova]

I've tailored the gooseberry fool out of youtube so I don't see that stuff but it took deleting my entire watch history and from then on deleting anything from it that seemed to cause nazi gooseberry fool to pop up in the recommends (usually it's anything tagged comedy).

It's the only way to stop it constantly turning up stuff in recs+searches

[KK]

Booking Richard Madeley for the Alan Partridge themed episode of This Week, putting him in the 1994 Knowing Me, Knowing You intro, and then having him do an entire Through The Keyhole inspired segment.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Booking Richard Madeley for the Alan Partridge themed episode of This Week, putting him in the 1994 Knowing Me, Knowing You intro, and then having him do an entire Through The Keyhole inspired segment.

I had it on in the background and was half watching it so was a bit confused by what was going on

[Squinty]

I also got that recommended video. I've never searched for Tommy Robinson.

I always get vocal coach reacts to style videos popping up as well. I hate those react videos.

[Irene Demova]

twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1101583952484225024

for some reason the bbc political editor isn't as bothered by islamophobia as she is by anti semitism

[Moggy]

twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1101583952484225024

for some reason the bbc political editor isn't as bothered by islamophobia as she is by anti semitism

She tweeted it didn’t she?

It’s a pretty bad look that whenever anti-semitism in Labour is mentioned, Labour supporters jump straight to “WE’RE NOT AS BAD AS THE TORIES!” and/or “IT’S JUST MEDIA BIAS!”.

[Lagamorph]

twitter.com/dansabbagh/status/1101514356095926272

[Irene Demova]

Moggy I'd like to see all forms of racism called and am not pleased to see BBC staff or your own post immediately soft pedalling racism purely because it is from a different political party to the one frequently in the news for it.

The accusation that pointing out the BBC's political editor soft pedalling racism is an act of political point scoring is quite frankly disgusting.

[That]

It should be pointed out, and investigated and punished, when a member of Labour says something racist.

The unusual and perpetual media circus that surrounds that has arisen because the right are deliberately pushing a narrative that Labour are the "real" party of racism in a conscious effort to deflect criticism of the inherent racism of right-wing policy and ideology, both in the abstract and as actually practised by the current Tory government.

It's a perfect strategy because the typical leftist is appalled by any kind of racism and will attempt to investigate and purge it when pointed out, generating a lot of noise (and justification for the complaint) in the process. The same strategy would not work on the Tories because they simply collectively shrug when it is pointed out they are racist.

If you criticise this strategy - which is an attempt of right-wing racists to allow their own racism to fly under the radar - you can of course be accused of apologising for racism, which makes it very difficult & uncomfortable to discuss. Again, this wouldn't work in reverse, because Tories do not care if they are accused of apologising for racism.

Renewed vigilance against racism on the left is of course a good thing and worth vocally supporting. From what I've heard it certainly seems like Labour needs to be faster and more decisive with its investigations when this comes up, and that was worth learning. But the months of clearly disproportionate coverage, the deflective narrative, the way actual hardened far-right racists in the Tory party get to publicly tut at Corbyn and no-one is critical of their hypocrisy -- that's not progress, that's pure string-pulling and game-playing, and it's being done to allow racism an easy ride in the government, where it can do the most damage.

[Moggy]

Moggy I'd like to see all forms of racism called and am not pleased to see BBC staff or your own post immediately soft pedalling racism purely because it is from a different political party to the one frequently in the news for it.

The accusation that pointing out the BBC's political editor soft pedalling racism is an act of political point scoring is quite frankly disgusting.

I’m soft pedalling racism?

The issue of anti-semitism in Labour is used for political point scoring by both sides. The Tories use it to discredit Labour but Labour use it to discredit the media.

A story posted by the BBC’s political editor about Tory Islamaphobia immediately gets jumped on by Labour supporters as “see, the Tories are worse!”. I’d agree that the Tories are worse on racism, but it’s a bad look to immediately use it as a way to downplay the known problems in Labour, rather than hitting the Tories.

I’m not downplaying racism, I think Labour has an issue it needs to deal with and actually acknowledge, rather than pretend it’s just the media. And Labour could sort it out, they are basically good people with good intentions.

The Tories under Theresa May are a lost cause, they are not good people and don’t have good intentions. I just hope enough people realise that at the next election.

[KK]

A memorial stone at the site of Strasbourg's old synagogue has been vandalised, the deputy mayor of the eastern French city says.

Alain Fontanel tweeted a picture of the marble slab after it was knocked off its plinth, calling the attack a "new act of anti-Semitism in our city".

The memorial stands at the site of the synagogue, which was burned down by the Nazis in September 1940.
Last month dozens of graves were desecrated at a nearby Jewish cemetery.

Swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans were spray-painted on the graves. President Emmanuel Macron visited the cemetery in Quatzenheim, about 20km (12 miles) east of Strasbourg.

He expressed his "total determination to fight anti-Semitism in all its forms".

After the latest incident in Strasbourg, Mr Fontanel said: "Sadly, history repeats itself." He said city officials and police were doing everything possible to catch the attackers.

France has the biggest Jewish community in Europe, about 550,000 people.

Statistics published last month showed a rise of 74% in the number of anti-Semitic attacks in France, from 311 in 2017 to 541 in 2018.

Jewish groups have also been warning that a rising far right across Europe has been promoting anti-Semitism and hatred of other minorities.

Crime data from Germany released last week revealed that anti-Semitic offences had increased by 10% over the past year - including a 60% rise in physical attacks.

Attacks have been blamed on both the far right and Islamists.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47427718