Britain is hooked on cheap labour, says richard ehrman, though we would never admit it
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Last year around a third of a million foreigners are reckoned to have settled in Britain, and those numbers are making the natives uneasy. Are we being swamped, or are we really running out of home-grown workers to serve our Starbucks and pay our pensions?
The Government now says that it is going to restrict the flow, with its new entry system based on skills. If you live in London, that might seem like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. A quarter of the capital's population is already foreign-born, and British workers have all but vanished from huge swathes of its economy.
But inner London has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, nationwide there are 2.8 million people claiming invalidity benefit, and a third of those aged 50 to 65 are no longer at work. What is
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| In theory we should have easily enough people to get the job done – but in practice they can’t be found |
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more, at least a million of these supposed invalids claim they would like to work, and older people regularly say they want to remain active for longer. In theory we should have easily enough indigenous workers, but in practice they can't be found.
Most of us say immigration should be limited, but in fact we are hooked on it. Businesses won't raise their wages to tempt more British people back to work. The middle classes want obliging Polish plumbers and cheap Indian restaurants. The Government cannot face the flak involved in forcing people off benefits, and is secretly relieved immigrants keep wage inflation down.
Even those who say they want work but cannot find it do not seem to mind too much. Living on benefits or working in the black economy may not be great, but for most of them it clearly beats a low paid job in a hotel. When it comes to immigration, we British are magnificently hypocritical. 
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Raspberry for the Common Man
