I saw a tweet whilst browsing
the other day and it
struck me that
it was a throw away statement
that actually, when you dig
deep, could have far reaching
ramifications for a large industrial town in the North West.
I was intrigued (some would say I need to get a life …) about what this tweet could mean. I therefore decided to investigate. A theme began to emerge supported by a second tweet I saw later that day.
The Labour Party have without doubt moved to the far left of their raison d’étre of center left socialism established by their most successful Premier Tony Blair. Their manifesto is, to an awful lot of people, simply frightening. Promises to borrow many hundreds of billions of pounds for a free giveaway extravaganza together with serious tax hikes is enough to cause anyone a sleepless night or two.
But what about local levels? I have no connections whatsoever to St Helens in the North West. A large industrial town known for glass production, it is like many others suffering from lack of investment and sustainable jobs. Unemployment in the town is at 4.4% which is higher than the national average of 3.3%. 20.2% of people who live there are on a benefit of some kind against a national average of 13.5%.
Education is not good in the town, 27.9% of the people educated in the town leave school with no qualifications. People having very good health in the town are below the national average and people in very bad health are above the national average.
So, what was the tweet that intrigued me enough to research this town?
Councillor John Fulham (Labour) tweeted:
“20,000 refugees to come to St Helens in 2019, they make a significant contribution to whichever country they choose to live”
My question, following from the foregoing is, where are they going to live, how will the good people of St Helens educate, medicate and offer sustainable worthwhile employment to this large number of people who will suddenly descend on this less than prosperous town? What planning is taking place for this influx? How much is it going to cost?
I looked into the available housing. St Helens Borough council have ceded their management of their 12,000 or so houses to a company called Helena Housing. I cannot find out how many houses are empty, or what is the housing waiting list numbers. But I bet there are not enough houses lying empty to house 20,000 people.
Various housing associations operate within the town, it did not go unnoticed and I make no allegations or correlation about the fact that Councillor Fulham is a board member of the Torus Housing association that boasts 20,000 dwellings worth an estimated £400 million.
So, for me that simple, virtue signaling tweet opened up a whole can of worms that goes to prove that sudden, unplanned-for mass immigration, under the convenient banner of refugees, is a folly that not only can the country as a whole not afford but towns like St Helens most certainly cannot afford.
Bearing in mind the convention that refugees claim asylum within the first country they arrive at where they are safe. I ask: why are they coming, how many more are coming to which towns and cities and at what cost? Surely it is better that refugees are assisted by us via the overseas aid budget in the safe country they have arrived at whilst their claims are determined.
No, I am not a racist, nor am I xenophobic. I am a realistic pragmatist. I believe, as we have seen in other northern towns where large numbers have been settled in one go and all at once such as Middlesbrough and Sheffield, that no significant contribution is made, that it is nothing more than an enormous drain on beleaguered social services and their budgets and resources. To set the tone of a warm welcome and orderly settlement you can bet your last pound of welfare that the local people will be knocked off housing waiting lists and an awful lot of interpreters will be recruited.
The second tweet that caught my eye is a bit more frivolous but nonetheless worrying when you think about it. It surrounds Lord Alan Sugar, him from Apprenticeship fame and one of Great Britain`s industrialists. He was on Good Morning Britain and once again repeated in his forthright manner that if Jeremy Corbyn gets into power, he will leave the country and take all his family with him. Questioned as to whether this decision was based on the threat of paying more tax, he denied it strongly. He said he was afraid for his granddaughters. It is important to note here that the noble lord is a Jew. Whilst he did not make any reference to this you have to wonder if that is the real reason behind his threat.
So, what was the tweet?
Owen Jones the very far left Guardian columnist and TV pundit tweeted a copy of the video of Lord Sugar talking about leaving on GMB. He stated on the top of the tweet:
“Celebrate good times come on”
He was just being his usual nasty self, but again his tweet exemplifies Labour far left thinking and ethos. What he has disregarded is the fact that Lord Sugar annually pays £52 million plus in personal taxes to the inland revenue. Together with his corporation tax and employer’s contributions it’s a sizeable chunk to the coffers.
Times that contribution by a few multi-millionaires leaving and you soon realise just why socialism at its very extremes just does not work.
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