Gransnet forums

News & politics

Cameron fails on immigration

(98 Posts)
trisher Thu 27-Aug-15 18:37:14

So DC has failed to reach his target for immigration. If the government was a school it would probably be in special measures as failing. What should we do with this failing government?

trisher Sat 29-Aug-15 16:38:13

thatbags the promise was made in 2010 with the proviso-"if we don't do it vote us out." So 5years and 3 months!!!

POGS Sat 29-Aug-15 17:01:47

So trisher did you raise this thread as you feel there are too many immigrants .

I refer to my post of 15.15 because I am confused.

durhamjen Sat 29-Aug-15 17:04:45

Why can't we criticise him for not reaching his target and for being a bastard about immigration? That's not hypocritical.
I do not want him to stop refugees coming here. I certainly did not encourage him to give that target.
He was a fool for stating that target.

Ana Sat 29-Aug-15 17:11:16

You should be 'celebrating' the fact that net immigration to the UK is at a record high, though dj. Jeremy says so.

So really you should be thanking DC...

durhamjen Sat 29-Aug-15 17:14:49

I am, Ana. We can take them all. Doesn't stop Cameron for being a fool and making promises he can't keep, as trisher said.
Just a shame the British population didn't take him at his word.

Ana Sat 29-Aug-15 17:18:41

That's probably because people tend not to vote for a party for one reason only...

thatbags Sat 29-Aug-15 17:22:48

In that case, I beg your pardon, trisher. I thought you were talking about this year's manifesto pledges.

thatbags Sat 29-Aug-15 17:26:11

Nobody has said you can't criticise DC for not reaching a target , etc. I asked for a link to what was actually said. No-one provided a link. I went in search of one and found what didn't sound like an actual target to me. What I found was not what was being talked about but I was not to know that from the OP.

Now, I am about to go in search of what he said five+ years ago.

suelowe Sat 29-Aug-15 17:28:02

Maybe they were swayed by the suit !!

whitewave Sat 29-Aug-15 17:29:31

grin that will be it!

thatbags Sat 29-Aug-15 17:40:25

What the Conservative Party Manifesto of 2010 says is this (p32):

"Immigration has enriched our nation over the years and we want to attract the brightest and the best people who can make a real difference to our economic growth. but immigration today is too high and needs to be reduced. We do not need to attract people to do jobs that could be carried out by british citizens, given the right training and support. So we will take steps to take net migration back to the levels of the 1990s – tens of thousands a year, not hundreds of thousands."

"Take steps to..." does not read to me like a promise to reduce the number in question by a certain amount within a given space of time. It is much vaguer than that, as I expected it would be. I would expect the same vagueness in any political party manifesto. Manifestos are about aims, not promises.

POGS Sat 29-Aug-15 17:49:57

DJ

I think you have helped me decide. I will stick with my initial view that it is basically a thread for attacking the government rather than concern for immigration quotas.

Your idea of hypocrisy is different to mine . If you feel immigration is not an issue you would be feeling relieved any perceived quota has failed, irrespective of the pros and cons of how it got there.

Calling Cameron and Tories bastards does seem a trifle hysterical and it's not the first time it has been said recently. It says more about the person who says it than the person on the recieving end .

thatbags Sat 29-Aug-15 17:54:25

All the blether about leaving the EU is part of this "taking steps" malarky because, as QT has pointed out, with regard to EU migrants there's nothing the government can do anyway without leaving the EU.

African or other non-EU migrants are a separate issue. The government does have some control over that and this is why there are camps of migrants at Calais. Our government did not sign the Schengen agreement.

trisher Sat 29-Aug-15 18:13:27

I raised this thread to see what weak and feeble excuses would be dreampt up by the rampant right and their idiotic supporters

thatbags Sat 29-Aug-15 18:21:18

And so you could make uninformed—and often incorrect, I am certain—judgments about people's rampant right-wingness and idiocy, no doubt. Hey ho.

Says more about you than anyone else.

POGS Sat 29-Aug-15 18:21:30

Blimey I was right then.

durhamjen Sat 29-Aug-15 18:36:21

Cameron's only other job was PR. He's managed to fool a lot of people into thinking he made promises he didn't, and would solve the immigrant crisis by reducing net migration to the tens of thousands.
Not everyone who voted for him for that reason had the nous to work out that he did not really mean what he said, or what they thought he said.
Neither did the people on here, who think they know what he meant now, but are not sure, a hundred days after his election.

Ana Sat 29-Aug-15 18:39:22

Eh? I think we all know exactly what he said back in 2010 dj, thanks to thatbags.

What is your point, exactly? That the electorate (or at least the part of it that voted Tory) is both thick and deaf?

trisher Sat 29-Aug-15 18:40:40

The clue was in the words "failing government" you had to be a bit dim to miss it!
Uninformed- the posts inform me
Incorrect-perhaps- all judgements may be.

Ana Sat 29-Aug-15 18:42:34

'Dim' doesn't really equate to 'idiocy', does it?

durhamjen Sat 29-Aug-15 19:12:03

You might know exactly what he said, but you do not know exactly what he meant.
You do not know exactly what he wanted people to believe.
According to the migration observatory, immigration has been in the top three concerns of the majority of the British public since 2010. Why? It wasn't before then.

thatbags Sat 29-Aug-15 19:14:55

I don't understand your post, dj. This may indeed mean that I am thick, in which case it would be kind of you to explain what you mean more clearly, as you have asked others to do in the past.

At no point on this thread have I indicated whther I think we have a failing government at the moment. Like many another British citizen I'm just sitting it out grimly in the hope that in five years' time there will be a change for the better. What I have been doing on here is seeking clarity. I have found some, no thanks to anyone but myself smile.

#critical analysis

thatbags Sat 29-Aug-15 19:16:04

Re your most recent post, dj, I suppose you are the exception who does know what he meant regardless of what he said?

This gets more amusing by the minute!

durhamjen Sat 29-Aug-15 19:17:52

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/61d3b368-4ca8-11e5-9b5d-89a026fda5c9.html

The Financial Times must be wrong, too, trisher.

Ana Sat 29-Aug-15 19:25:17

Don't you just love the way they talk over anyone who interrupts the flow of anti-government invective? hmm