“If we give migrants no jobs *and* no benefits then they will resort to "living off the land", this time by the thousand, not ones and twos.”
All the more reason to restrict the influx to sustainable levels. We're told they are needed to come here to work (mainly to do the jobs that the UK's underclass will not). To suggest we must “give” jobs (which may not exist or which they may not be capable of doing) or money (which has to be borrowed) to people who arrive here with no visible means of support is the economics of the madhouse. It would do even Jeremy Corbyn proud.
“Provide jobs or pay compensation for failure to provide jobs. End of.”
Who is it you are suggesting must make this provision or these payments, exactly, Togo?
“What's even more annoying, hypo, is that NJ's incredible rant against a significant proportion of British people will be perceived as "pro-British",…”
I thought I was quite controlled actually, Jim. But of course my views are pro-British. The UK government’s first responsibility lies towards the people of the UK. Only if and when it discharges those responsibilities fully should the needs and wishes of foreigners be considered. MPs are not elected to play “…an important part [in] trying to improve living conditions worldwide”. That is not their brief. I did not raise the issue of the world’s poor living off the land and I did not suggest it was unfair that the UK’s “poor” could not do likewise because of vicious capitalism. I did not first mention the ridiculous notion that the UK’s “underclass” (which I think, by my definition, Hypo is confusing with the low paid) is unable to live off the land and is forced into a life on benefits.
It has not just recently been discovered that Foreign Aid is being misappropriated on a massive scale. It’s been evident for decades. But even if it was not, the UK comes first. It is no use saying that there’s plenty of cash for both. There is not. Money is having to be borrowed on a huge scale to sustain public spending. Until that borrowing reduces to zero and the UK’s public services are not under threat, Foreign Aid (or development, or whatever you want to call shovelling huge sums of borrowed cash into deep holes) should be completely off limits.