This is just political posturing. It is not skilled legal immigrants that are the problem but rather illegals and parasitical "refugees"
Britain tightened the rules to regulate entry of skilled non-European workers in the second phase of the biggest overhaul of immigration policy for a generation. The strict new criteria announced on Tuesday require British employers to prove they cannot fill skilled posts with resident or European workers. Non-European skilled workers will need to have a firm job offer in hand even before they apply for visas. Skilled non-Europeans would also need to speak fluent English and earn the equivalent of 24,000 pounds in their home country in order to have any chance of entering Britain legally to work. The new rules were announced by Immigration Minister Liam Byrne as a "system (that) means British jobseekers get the first crack of the whip and that only the skilled migrants we actually need will be able to come".
Tuesday's announcement comes barely eight weeks after Britain formally inaugurated an Australian-style points-based system in the hope it would have "one of the toughest borders in the world" by year-end. On February 29, rules governing the controversial, existing highly-skilled migrants programme were overhauled and a new licensing system put in place for employers wanting to recruit from overseas locations outside Europe.
The February changes dealt with Tier 1 of the immigrant worker category. Tier 2 is the second of five tiers due to be rolled out over the next 12 months. It will be introduced along with Tier 5, for temporary workers such as musicians, actors and sportsmen. Tier 4, which covers students, will follow at the beginning of 2009.
The government has already said that had the new rules been in force, 12 per cent fewer skilled non-European migrants would have entered the UK last year. The Home Office said that in the 12 months to September, 65,000 skilled workers from outside the EEA - the European Union plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - entered the UK. The new criteria, it said, would have trimmed that figure by 8,000. The government's analysis also showed that its tighter rules could have shaved off skilled and temporary non-European migrants by roughly 20,000 people last year.
On Tuesday, it was also confirmed that low-skilled non-Europeans, officially categorized as Tier 3, would no longer be allowed to enter Britain to work. The UK said it would only ever allow entry to this tier of non-European worker if specific shortages are identified that cannot be filled from the domestic or European labour force.
The crackdown on immigration policy and implementation also includes some of the toughest penalties in the world for employers who break the rules and illegally hire non-Europeans. The government said that in the first 80 days of the new immigration regime, 137 British companies were issued with Notices of Potential Liability worth almost half a million pounds for illegally employing non-Europeans. This is more than ten times as much as the entire number of prosecutions last year for the same offence.
The minister said, in what is increasingly seen as a root-and-branch reform of Britain's so-called open-door immigration policy: "Illegal jobs are the root cause of illegal immigration... fines make up just one part of the biggest shake-up of the immigration system for a generation. With the introduction of compulsory identity cards for foreign nationals later in the year, there can be no excuse for not checking the identity of those applying for jobs."
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UK: Little old lady deemed a violent patient
The usual mindless British bureaucracy.
A retired schoolteacher who was found by social services to be a "medium to high risk" of causing violence has forced a council to review its assessments of the elderly. Ada Tremlett, 81, who is barely 5ft tall, needs two walking sticks to get around and was recovering from a broken wrist when she was deemed "potentially dangerous" by social services staff.
The warning was disclosed when the grandmother, whose late husband was a policeman, opened a file left for carers sent to her home. She complained and has forced a review of the way old people are assessed and also the re-training of social service staff.
"I was horrified," said the mother-of-two. "I am an 81-year-old woman with no history of violence, who has never been in trouble or anything. "I cannot believe that the council is putting my future care at risk." Mrs Tremlett, of Tiverton, Devon, complained to Devon county council and has won a complete apology.
The pensioner was referred to social services by her local hospital after she fell and broke her wrist. As part of the assessment, the health visitor filled out a two-minute, risk assessment form. The answers are given on a scale of one to 10. The score is then added up to determine if the patient is a low or high risk of violence.
Mrs Tremlett said: "I remember the questions were slightly odd. I thought it was a joke. You just have to look at me to see I am not a risk to anyone."
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Bratton for Britain: "The man who cleaned up the streets of New York is to help mastermind Boris Johnson's crime crackdown in London. U.S. police chief Bill Bratton will advise the new Tory mayor on how 'zero tolerance' of graffiti, fare-dodging and other minor crimes can prevent more serious offending. The move underlines Mr Johnson's determination to wage war on youth violence and anti-social behaviour. It chimes with David Cameron's promise to fight back against social breakdown and is further evidence that the capital will be a test-bed for a future Tory government. Yesterday Mr Johnson proposed the creation of up to 100 weekend clubs, involving 'competition, discipline and punishment', to help troubled teenagers. The 'respect schools' will offer youngsters activities such as football and boxing alongside academic subjects to help them perform the 'handbrake turn' needed to put them on the path to educational achievement. Mr Johnson will today flesh out his manifesto pledge to tackle crime on public transport, with patrols on buses and Tubes and a ban on drinking alcohol on the Underground."
Good ol' gun-free Britain again: "A gunman involved in a dramatic shotgun siege in one of London's most exclusive suburbs is dead after exchanging shots with police. British police say the gunman died after trading fire with officers while holed up in a house in a wealthy west London neighbourhood. Police marksmen laid siege to the house in Markham Square in the affluent area of Chelsea for four hours today after reports of a man firing shots in a house there shortly before 5pm (0200 AEST). Armed police exchanged gunfire several times with the man who later died, a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with force policy. The spokesman said he could not say whether the man was shot dead by officers because an investigation was being opened by Britain's police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission."
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