There was a classic example of pro-mass immigration reporting from Mark Easton on last night's BBC News at Ten.
We had:
(a) Mark quickly asserting that "it's fair to say" that Corby's prosperity relies on EU migration.
(b) His use of vox pops which found a 2:1 majority in favour of mass immigration.
(c) A further assertion from Mark, this time stating that a slowing of EU immigration is already having a bad impact.
(d) The use of a business manager who backed Mark's thesis.
(e) The use of someone from a think tank who also backed Mark's thesis, and
(f) No opposing voices, other than Vox Pop 1.
And also note that (g) the think tank in question - the IPPR - wasn't labelled 'left-leaning'.
All in a day's work for Mark Easton!
Here's a transcript:
Huw Edwards: Let's stay with Brexit because the Cabinet has been discussing what should happen to immigration to the UK after Brexit. Ministers agreed in principle that highly-skilled workers from all over the world should be prioritised and EU nationals should not be given preferential treatment. But some business leaders fear that accepting fewer low-skilled migrants from the EU could damage the economy. Our home editor Mark Easton sent this report from Corby.
Mark Easton: Corby's been described as England's fastest-growing town. Thousands of EU migrant workers, particularly from Poland, have seen its population and its economy expand rapidly in recent years. Now, it's fair to say that the prosperity of this town is reliant on often low-skilled workers from Europe, but the pace of change has also created real tensions here. With Government ministers suggesting special treatment of EU workers will end with Brexit and a squeeze on low-skilled migration, do the people of Corby think that's good or bad for the town?Vox Pop 1: I think it's a good thing, actually, because I think we've got enough unskilled workers. We could do fair enough with people that's got skills, but I think we've got more than enough of our own.
Vox Pop 2: They bring more money in as well as us. I mean, we've got a load of people that work in care in our place at work, Eastern Europeans, and they do the amount of stuff what we do.
Vop Pop 3: It would be detrimental to the town. I talked to a neighbour the other day who runs a job agency and he said he's looking for 600 staff, all various jobs, skilled and unskilled, can't get anyone.The corrugated sheds which typify Corby's economic expansion already struggle to find the people they need because of a slowdown in European migration. In this one, the boss says making it more difficult to recruit would pose real challenges.John Temple, General Manager, Tablecraft Ltd: 50% of our workforce is migrant European workers. So that is, you know, if you take those away from us, then we're going to be struggling to find good people.
Mark Easton: Well, why don't you train up British workers?
John Temple: We will train up anybody who comes to work for us. We get very few people from the UK wanting to come and work in this environment.Corby's migration has been a focus of particular study for analysts at the IPPR think tank, who reckon the Government's proposed limit on low-skilled migrants would mean many potential workers from the EU would be unable to get a visa to work in the town.Phoebe Griffith, IPPR: Our estimate would be that about 80% of the people living in Corby today from the European Union would not qualify to be working, to come to work in Corby in the future.Corby's steel industry was forged from the imported muscle and sweat of Scottish labour. When that declined, new growth came with arrivals from Eastern Europe. Now, this resilient town, like many, may have to reinvent itself for a new chapter. Mark Easton, BBC News, Corby.
We know Easton is one of the worst ideologues working for the BBC. He doesn't wear his ideology lightly (while quaffing champagne and closely studying his pay cheque) like most of them. Nope, he really believes in the PC Message and "shaping the nation" with his broadcasts (and as for his idea of a "nation", well we know - England need not apply).
ReplyDeleteThis item is no exception.
Of course it starts off with a wrong premise...if you double the size of any town you are going to increase the size of its economy. But are you increasing the prosperity of the UK citizens who live there? That is the test I and I think, still, most UK citizens want to see applied. Of course that is a complicated test. But for me, it is the only really valid one. But the BBC - down to the lowliest of reporters - is more interested in overall GDP, global businesses and the welfare of migrants. You hardly ever hear the term "UK citizens" or "British citizens" except in some negative story about Brexit. Otherwise the concept of seeing things through the lens of UK citizenship is completely absent.
Of course, you will nearly always get company directors to approve of policies that deliver economic growth through population increase and low wage workers. The UK is famous throughout the world for its short-sighted approach to economics.
The question Easton and others at the BBC never ask is this: "If mass immigration is so vital to economic growth and development, then why don't the fast growing economies of countries like South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and India allow mass immigration?" It's a question that never gets asked or answered.
If we really have a town in central England where 50% of the workforce is migrant, then we really should be ashamed as a nation of 65 million, with a proud history of labour, business, innovation and technology. Something has gone terribly wrong with our economy if we are in way reliant on migrant labour to that extent and now is the time to start fixing things.