I have to say that the cover of the February 20-26 edition of Public Finance (‘Saving Private Finance’) has to go down as the best and cleverest to date. The image of Gordon Brown wearing a steel helmet is almost iconic, and almost certainly prophetic. Absolutely brilliant.
But I have to take issue with Carey Oppenheim’s piece (‘The blame game’, February 27—March 5). Oppenheim defends vigorously the notion that British people’s jobs are not being usurped by migrant workers. But it must surely be simple mathematics that if 1 million migrant workers were not in this country, the jobs that they are occupying would be freed up to be taken, in principle, by unemployed people — except where there truly are skills gaps.
Oppenheim says, and she is not the first to do so, that a great many of these jobs are ones British people do not want to do. The reason for this is the over-generosity of the welfare state. Benefits have been continually handed out to unemployed people who are quite capable of working. A labour gap resulted that was filled by migrant workers.
Despite government protestations to the contrary, unemployed people seem to have the option to take handouts and do nothing. The government does have the power to remedy the situation, if it really has the will, but it has already missed an opportunity over the past 11 years.
One solution would be to say ‘your benefit will be removed if you refuse this job’ and then actually do it. Actions need to follow the rhetoric.
Oppenheim also claims that migrant workers have contributed greatly to our economy. To some extent, the opposite of her argument is true because large volumes of cash have been haemorrhaging abroad as migrant workers send funds home.
So where do I agree with Oppenheim? It would be unfair to blame the current economic mess we find ourselves in on migrant workers. A number of this group will have been more economically dynamic than their British counterparts and others will have filled vital skills gaps.
Overall, however, I cannot accept her main premise that we must not fall into the trap (her words, not mine) of thinking that there would be more jobs for British-born people if we could keep immigrant numbers low. Her analysis of the numbers just doesn’t add up.
Martin Thomas, Bristol
