The Labour Government

[BlueAnorak]

Immigration overall is plummeting under Labour - if it follows the current trajectory could soon reach net zero. In fact industry has been complaining that it is going down too fast & they can't recruit workers to which Shabiba Mahmood has said " Well stop paying shit wages & you will attract British workers to fill those roles". This was all reported on Andrew Marrs channel on LBC. He had on his show a reporter from the Times (think it was Andrew Nelson) who was nodding in agreement when Andrew Marrs was saying this. And the Times is hardly a friend of Labour. Even though there was 1000 reportedly coming over on boats Marrs said this is 20 per cent down on last year.

Aslum numbers aren't dropping though are they? Just workers originating from the EU.

Net migration to the UK - Migration Observatory

An overview of net migration in the UK – defined as the difference between immigration and emigration of people moving for at least a year.

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk

 

[Ban-jani]

Have you paid into the system all your working life? Did your parents and their parents pay in too?
Have you had to be funded for ESOL? Have you been homeless and in need of housing? Do you have an unknown past where any crimes are unknown, including serious ones? Have you had to be funded to learn new skills? Have you had to have an interpreter paid for in every contact with a public official (interviews/appointments that take twice as long as the norm)?
Or did you just work in an unskilled job where no English was required and it was cash in hand for less than the NMW and no NI or tax paid?
Did you enter the UK because France or wherever rejected your application to stay there because they found your reasons for asylum unjustified?
Or did you fabricate being gay after being advised to do so by an immigration lawyer? You know...that thing Labour has acknowledged is happening.

People on both sides are being exploited and you are condoning it.

Not surprised nobody replied to this post. It can’t be defended so they’ll run away and ignore it.

 

[Vic]

Not surprised nobody replied to this post. It can’t be defended so they’ll run away and ignore it.

Oh, were we supposed to take it seriously?

 

[Ban-jani]

Oh, were we supposed to take it seriously?

I’d love to see you try and argue against her points, you won’t though.

 

[Vic]

Aslum numbers aren't dropping though are they? Just workers originating from the EU.

Net migration to the UK - Migration Observatory

An overview of net migration in the UK – defined as the difference between immigration and emigration of people moving for at least a year.

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk

Yes they are.

The latest available data shows a slight decrease in the number of asylum applications to 76,700 in the year to March 2026.

 

[Vic]

I’d love to see you try and argue against her points, you won’t though.

No point arguing against such prejudice, as if all those points were true of every asylum seeker.

 

[mackenzie]

No point arguing against such prejudice, as if all those points were true of every asylum seeker.

You see? It's this kind of answer that is turning traditional left wing voters away from the Labour Party.
I gave you a list of where asylum seekers put an added strain on public services and I get accused of being prejudiced. The stock answer that is seemingly trotted out by idealogues ad infinitum.
My father was a union shop steward in the engineering industry, and his father was a union activist in the printing industry for all of his working life. I too have been a union member all my career. I have never been prejudiced in my life.
It's not me that's losing the plot, its you and your ilk.

 

[Ifwecouldjust.......]

You see? It's this kind of answer that is turning traditional left wing voters away from the Labour Party.
I gave you a list of where asylum seekers put an added strain on public services and I get accused of being prejudiced. The stock answer that is seemingly trotted out by idealogues ad infinitum.
My father was a union shop steward in the engineering industry, and his father was a union activist in the printing industry for all of his working life. I too have been a union member all my career. I have never been prejudiced in my life.
It's not me that's losing the plot, its you and your ilk.

MODS ..... Can we combine this thread with the

Middle East Conflict

and

US & Israel attack Iran

and

Russian invasion of Ukraine

and

The RSF, The UAE and the killings in Sudan

and

India / Pakistan conflict.


etc etc etc .

 

[blueinsa]

No point arguing against such prejudice, as if all those points were true of every asylum seeker.

Prejudice?

Can’t argue so attack the messenger time again I see.

 

[MouldensChippy]

Interesting line from the latest Mandelson tranche yesterday.................... ;-)

Pat McFadden’s complaint that “every meeting I have [with Labour MPs] is who we can tax in order to pay benefits to others”

 

[Vic]

You see? It's this kind of answer that is turning traditional left wing voters away from the Labour Party.
I gave you a list of where asylum seekers put an added strain on public services and I get accused of being prejudiced. The stock answer that is seemingly trotted out by idealogues ad infinitum.
My father was a union shop steward in the engineering industry, and his father was a union activist in the printing industry for all of his working life. I too have been a union member all my career. I have never been prejudiced in my life.
It's not me that's losing the plot, its you and your ilk.

I'm sorry for using the word "prejudice" (though I've no idea why union membership is proof of not being prejudiced).

But you've repeated the reason why I dismissed "the list" (of where asylum seekers put an added strain on public services). I'm objecting to the implication that this is true of all asylum seekers. And a lot of things on the list are political choices, e.g. that an asylum seeker can't work while their application is being considered so has to "put a strain" on public services rather than working and paying tax, especially when there are jobs that they would do that Brits won't.

I will test your basic attitude though. Which asylum seekers do you like?

The new shepherds of Spain: African migrants take up a neglected rural trade

A government program in Spain is training African migrants as shepherds to tackle rural depopulation and job shortages

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Pingu the Penguin]

Interesting line from the latest Mandelson tranche yesterday.................... ;-)

Pat McFadden’s complaint that “every meeting I have [with Labour MPs] is who we can tax in order to pay benefits to others”

Pretty embarrassing stuff in the latest tranche of files

 

[threespires]

Interesting line from the latest Mandelson tranche yesterday.................... ;-)

Pat McFadden’s complaint that “every meeting I have [with Labour MPs] is who we can tax in order to pay benefits to others”

Didn't McFadden come up under Mandelson originally? Not sure i'd trust him as far as I could throw him and if/when Reform get in, the likes of the McFaddens will get straight on to blaming a fictitious left bogeyman for their failures rather than taking responsibility and admitting that they had neither sufficient interest and/or courage to even try to fix what is wrong with this country.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

Interesting line from the latest Mandelson tranche yesterday.................... ;-)

Pat McFadden’s complaint that “every meeting I have [with Labour MPs] is who we can tax in order to pay benefits to others”

Me, for one. £8.5k in tax since November. We were all bemoaning the benefits and PIP wankers being out on the piss all the time in the cricket club on the weekend. A pair of self employed 60yr olds, one a carpet fitter and the other builder, both laughed out loud and said they hadnt paid that much tax in their whole working lives. And proudly so. Go and get some tax off these cheeky bastards would be a good start

 

[We've got Guardiola]

You see? It's this kind of answer that is turning traditional left wing voters away from the Labour Party.
I gave you a list of where asylum seekers put an added strain on public services and I get accused of being prejudiced. The stock answer that is seemingly trotted out by idealogues ad infinitum.
My father was a union shop steward in the engineering industry, and his father was a union activist in the printing industry for all of his working life. I too have been a union member all my career. I have never been prejudiced in my life.
It's not me that's losing the plot, its you and your ilk.

Asylum seekers cost the UK economy around £5-10bn. That's < 0.1% of total GDP, 0.33% of total government spending.

We will collectively spend more money this year laying a single mile of track for HS2 than we will on asylum seekers.

I'm not in favour of asylum or the cost but honestly you are blaming the wrong thing and the wrong people.

 

[threespires]

Have you paid into the system all your working life? Did your parents and their parents pay in too?
Have you had to be funded for ESOL? Have you been homeless and in need of housing? Do you have an unknown past where any crimes are unknown, including serious ones? Have you had to be funded to learn new skills? Have you had to have an interpreter paid for in every contact with a public official (interviews/appointments that take twice as long as the norm)?
Or did you just work in an unskilled job where no English was required and it was cash in hand for less than the NMW and no NI or tax paid?
Did you enter the UK because France or wherever rejected your application to stay there because they found your reasons for asylum unjustified?
Or did you fabricate being gay after being advised to do so by an immigration lawyer? You know...that thing Labour has acknowledged is happening.

People on both sides are being exploited and you are condoning it.

I think these are valid points but they have to be placed in context. The UK already has one of the highest asylum rejection rates in Europe and it's mostly an inefficient processing system that inflates the costs not the volume of people.

With an efficient system the cost of asylum seekers based on our current numbers would be maybe £1-2 billion now that's a lot of money but to put it in context...

The tax avoidance of about half a dozen big US tech firms costs us about £2 billion

About 60% of small businesses in the UK dodge some tax and that costs us at least £4 billion

Trade barriers with the EU are costing us about £35 billion a year

Not equalising taxes on capital gains with working is costing us about £13-14 billion a year

That's before you consider that AI could either hugely improve or destroy the UK economy depending on strategy and policies.

That's just to name a few of probably a dozen or more bigger issues but my point is that as a nation we've become obsessed with discussing one of the smaller issues we have, at the expense of much much bigger issues.

Improving the efficiency of the asylum system should be a priority and that should be got on with, cause it was previously left in an absolute state.

But we as a population need to get our heads up and discuss the bigger things that might actually help fix the country.

 

[Vic]

Asylum seekers cost the UK economy around £5-10bn. That's < 0.1% of total GDP, 0.33% of total government spending.

We will collectively spend more money this year laying a single mile of track for HS2 than we will on asylum seekers.

I'm not in favour of asylum or the cost but honestly you are blaming the wrong thing and the wrong people.

Half the guys laying the track will be immigrants. Last time we had engineering at our local station two of them were from Fiji.

And a lot of those billions are down either to Brexit or to the Tories' /Jenrick's deliberate go-slow on dealing with asylum applications.

 

[Vic]

I think these are valid points but they have to be placed in context. The UK already has one of the highest asylum rejection rates in Europe and it's mostly an inefficient processing system that inflates the costs not the volume of people.

With an efficient system the cost of asylum seekers based on our current numbers would be maybe £1-2 billion now that's a lot of money but to put it in context...

The tax avoidance of about half a dozen big US tech firms costs us about £2 billion

About 60% of small businesses in the UK dodge some tax and that costs us at least £4 billion

Trade barriers with the EU are costing us about £35 billion a year

Not equalising taxes on capital gains with working is costing us about £13-14 billion a year

That's before you consider that AI could either hugely improve or destroy the UK economy depending on strategy and policies.

That's just to name a few of probably a dozen or more bigger issues but my point is that as a nation we've become obsessed with discussing one of the smaller issues we have, at the expense of much much bigger issues.

Improving the efficiency of the asylum system should be a priority and that should be got on with, cause it was previously left in an absolute state.

But we as a population need to get our heads up and discuss the bigger things that might actually help fix the country.

Oh dear - we've opened the floodgates now on why no-one answered the post...

I don't think we actually got the "why do they all come here?" nonsense, but stats help: "Compared with other European countries, the UK received the 5th largest number of asylum seekers in the year ending March 2025 (109,343) and the 17th largest intake when measured 'per head of population'."

And (it's the Labour government thread) asylum applications to the year March 2026 are 12% down on previous year.

 

[Vic]

From Attila the Stockbroker

Today Southern Rail, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Northern Rail come back into public ownership - at least the track operation does, I believe the trains themselves are still privately owned, which is bollocks, but it’s a start.

It is a hugely popular measure, which is why the billionaire media haven’t mentioned it, in the same way that if a government minister gets free football tickets it’s all over the media but when Farage gets a £5m bung there’s tumbleweed. The kind of government I want to see would end such biased nonsense once and for all.

It is completely ridiculous for any infrastructure essential to the efficient functioning of human society to be run on a for-profit basis by the super-rich.

Public transport should be in public hands. Council houses should be built by councils. Water and sewage services should be run by central government. Information sources (newspapers, news websites, etc) should not be owned by private individuals , but by co-operatives and trusts, like the newspaper I write for is.

There can be no political democracy without economic democracy.

 

[mosssideblue]

Me, for one. £8.5k in tax since November. We were all bemoaning the benefits and PIP wankers being out on the piss all the time in the cricket club on the weekend. A pair of self employed 60yr olds, one a carpet fitter and the other builder, both laughed out loud and said they hadnt paid that much tax in their whole working lives. And proudly so. Go and get some tax off these cheeky bastards would be a good start

How much were they each turning over annually?