In the video below, Andrew Marr asks Corbyn whether open borders has become extremely unpopular with Labour’s working class voters, which is a plain truth (here, here, here, and here).
His answer?
Corbyn’s response: no, it’s all a conspiracy by the right-wing newspapers and (apparently) there are no significant downsides to mass immigration of any kind (such as, for example, overpopulation, soaring housing and rent costs, holding down of real wages, competition for scarce employment, and destruction of a nation’s cultural and social cohesion).
Corbyn is also delusional if he thinks effective Keynesian fiscal policy will be possible in Britain with an open border policy, for the more prosperous a country becomes, the more it will simply become a magnet for mass immigration from Europe, which in the process will defeat the whole purpose of fiscal policies to create full employment.
Corbyn’s defence of free movement of people and capital within the EU is a defence of the worst aspects of neoliberalism, being, as it is, a central plank of laissez faire ideological poison and the destruction of the state’s right to regulate and control capital.
That Corbyn is being passed off as a “socialist” marks the final transition of UK politics into farce. First, it was New Labour that betrayed Britain with its neoliberalism and war criminality (the full extent of the betrayal can be read in Tom Bower’s Broken Vows. Tony Blair: The Tragedy of Power. Faber & Faber, London, 2016).
Now the Corbyn-led Labour party is in favour of devastating policies that will strip Britain of its political independence.
Even worse, Corbyn admits that there is no upper limit to mass immigration into Britain while it’s in the EU, and, once again (apparently), there must be nothing but open borders *forever* in Britain.
Corbyn represents the TINA of the left.
This man’s mad fantasies will ruin the Labour party. In fact, the mainstream left in Europe is doomed if it continues to be run by people like Corbyn.
No. Corbyn is mostly probably secretly hoping for a Brexit. He's just taking the Donald Trump approach of saying what he needs to in order to further career. His saying that there are no limits to immigration in the EU is clever politics. It tells voters that there are no border controls in the EU, and those pro-EU advocates who say that Britain can control its borders inside are wrong.
ReplyDeleteAhh, the clever politics argument. I hear the same theories with regards to Podemos in Spain and Pablo Iglesias' secret desire to leave the Euro. The reality however, if these leaders truly believe this, they best act like leaders and come out and argue to the fence sitters the benefits of these actions, otherwise it won't happen.
Delete88% of current EU immigrants would fail the tests to obtain a work visa!
ReplyDeletehttp://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/reports/potential-implications-admission-criteria-eu-nationals-coming-uk
"Overall, therefore, most EU-born workers—like most workers of all origins—are not in jobs that meet the criteria for Tier 2 visas. Because EU workers are underrepresented in high-paying graduate jobs, a lower share of those who are already living in the UK are working in jobs that meet the occupation and salary thresholds described in this report, compared to the average across the UK labour market. In 2015, 19% of people born in EU countries and working as employees in the UK were in a skilled job earning more than £20,000. Many of these people had been living in the UK for several years and thus may have different skills and experience compared to people who are newly arriving. They have also had longer to enter skilled employment. The share of newly arriving EU born workers who had arrived in the UK in 2010 or afterwards and who were in graduate jobs earning £20,000 or more was lower, at 12%."
His leadership is proving catastrophic... but not for the reasons New Labourites claimed it would be.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a TINA?
ReplyDeleteI predicted here that if Corbyn long remained leader he would destroy Labour. I cannot tell if he has done so or if the Brexit vote has given Labour the gift of his ouster in time.