What a strange week in the world of jobs and unemployment.
On the one hand ConDem are proposing that jobseekers should prove that they've spent so many hours a day looking for work, on the other hand ConDem are also proposing that companies should reveal the numbers of foreign workers whom they employ*.
Anyone see an obvious link there?
For the easiest first, yes, some companies - far too many companies - use cheaper, foreign labour, and cloak it under the excuse of no skilled Britons, Britons are workshy, all the usual bag of make believe. Politicians allowed it to hapen though, and continue to do nothing.
But, whereas the actual numbers may make for an interesting story if true figures are revealed, what will ConDem do with it?
Are they going to order a quota of Brits must be employed with a company? Surely they could, there's precedent with equalities legislation demanding public bodies employ a given number of minority staff, and allowing them to discriminate (positively of course!) in order to reach these targets.
Will they extend that to, for example, all those food shops on the high street where you'll never, ever see a white face other than as a drunken customer?
Of course not, they'll do nothing with the figures, indeed they'll probably choose to hush them up just to hide the reality of the mass scramble for jobs which has seen the British worker disenfranchised.
It will be a pointless paper exercise, and change nothing, it will cost our money, and it will not get one more Brit into a job.
Even if they did do something like that, are they going to boot everyone out of Britain - including those EU workers who enjoy free movement of labour - or just boot them on to the dole queues?
Take your guess, what's your answer, prizes to be won. Only, not if you're British. On the one hand you'll have no jobs, on the other you'll pay for foreigners with no jobs. In fact, either way, you'll probably end up winning both those booby prizes.
Waste of time, move along, nothing to see here, more hollow and pointless shenanigans from the ConDem conspiracy.
Which, brings us to jobseekers having to put in X amount of hours a day in order to get benefits.
Is someone going to check, we've staff and money in the benefits system to do that?
Do companies keep records? I've worked a number of places where speculative CV's went in the bin, no reply sent back. For speculative phonecalls you get a polite sorry, nothing at the moment, send your CV (and read above for what happens when you do).
If companies do keep records, are they going to want to put up with random DSS spotchecks adding to their running costs?
Will we stop the benefits of anyone who cannot speak English, therefore has no chance of meeting the hours requirement since they are unable to communicate with employers on spec?
It's unworkable, and it's beside the point.
God knows how many foreign workers we have now, between legal and illegal not even the government knows, but we do have over 2 million unemployed.
British jobs for British workers, it's as simple as that.
Want to reduce unemployment? Make hiring of foreign workers uncompetitive (eg a tax on companies for using foreign labour). Impose stiff penalties for those using illegal foreign labour - such as jail sentences, not trifling civil fines from UKBA.
Train British people to do British jobs, and create a system whereby British people get priority to do British jobs.
Of course, we can't, Europe won't let us, equalities law won't let us, the human flood will continue and the British worker will become increasingly marginalised and unemployed.
And, all the while, we'll be told it's because the British worker is too workshy or too stupid.
Some may well be, but anyone believing that applies to 2 million people (less whatever of that is foreign unemployment claimants) needs their heads read.
Britain suffers from a surplus of workers and a deficit of jobs - and yet still continues to import workers!
Tackle that, or else any benefit reforms to force people to spend X hours seeking jobs are pointless, the jobs are not there, they've already been taken.
Most of Britain wants to work, those who won't should be penalised - but measures like this are idiocy when the simple fact is that many Britons are denied the chance to work by a moronic system which makes foreign labour more attractive and in plentiful supply, not to mention an education system which is broken.
It is not the unemployeds fault that the labour market is flooded with foreign workers, and that the economy is collapsing.
Why penalise them when it is the politicians, ConDem and Labour alike, who should be having their benefits stopped for not putting in the hours on what should be their primary concern, namely that of caring for Britain and the British people?
*Seems even a day is a long time in politics, looks like ConDem have already dropped the idea between it airing on Monday morning, and this article being posted Tuesday evening.
What a strange week in the world of jobs and unemployment.
