It is quite clear that, as things stand, anyone in Romania or Bulgaria will be able to celebrate New Year’s Day by coming to live in Britain. We are after all brothers in arms in the EU. Given that the average net wage in Romania is £275 a month, with many earning far less, while in the UK families can trouser up to £500 a week tax free on benefits you do not need the brains of Lloyd George to see what is going to happen next. Yet our political elite seem either not to care or not to have an answer and so they resort to lies and smears.
Is it unreasonable for you and I to object to the idea that Romanians and Bulgarians will in very large numbers make a sensible economic choice and move to the UK? Are we racists for objecting? Of course not. The fact is that the UK has mammoth debts and is running a huge budget deficit. So having to pony up vast amounts in benefits for folks from out East is beyond our means. We cannot afford it. This is not an argument about race simply basic economics. Britain is going bankrupt and this could accelerate that process.
The political elite seem finally to have twigged this despite being warned about the looming problem for a long time by, among others, the good folk at UKIP. The response has been pathetic. There was a plan floated to distribute millions of leaflets (cost unspecified) to hand out in downtown Bucharest and Sofia warning that Britain was a horrible place with nasty weather. Er… words fail me.
Now we are told that the Government will force Romanians coming here to get private medical insurance so as not to overburden the NHS. Does this Government think we are stupid? GPs are told they must allow anyone to register. Are they now to be told that that this means anyone from Upper Volta, Mali, Greece, Turkey and any other country on this planet except Bulgaria and Romania? Go straight to the Human Rights commission, do not pass go, collect a load of wonga in compensation. And, apart from anything else, it would be illegal under EU edicts. The Evil Empire will not allow this plan to get off the starter’s blocks.
There are only three solutions to this:
1. Tell the EU to stick its rules where the sun don’t shine and say that we will not allow anyone from outside the UK to enter this country without proof they have a job and see what the EU says.
2. Tell the EU to stick it altogether and leave.
3. Change the benefit rules for ALL new claimants of benefits after 31 December 2013 irrespective of where they were born so that you cannot claim any welfare payments at all or gain access to social housing until you have paid 5 years NI contributions and then allow unlimited immigration.
Naturally as someone who wishes to see wages driven down and the UK become competitive I would go with option three (and at the same time abolish the minimum wage and increase the thresh-hold at which you start to pay tax to £20,000.).
Naturally Call Me Dave and the pathetic Conservative party will do none of the above. Nor will Call Me Dave tell us whether one of the changes he will demand from the EU before giving us a referendum is one allowing us to boot out welfare claimants from outside the UK. Instead we will be fed a diet of silly suggestions, lies about how many Bulgarians are expected and nothing concrete done to stop this next step towards the bankruptcy of Britain. Another day to despair.