Anyone who thought that Prime Minister David Cameron would come up with a big idea to address the pressures caused by immigration in Boston will have gone away disappointed after this appearances on local radio and television last Friday.
He was speaking after the publication of Boston Borough Council’s Task and Finish Group report on the social impact of population change – which first met in March and in total held eight “evidence” gathering sessions on how the issue could be addressed.
The Prime Minister’s solution to reducing immigration is simple – local people should get back into the fields and take the jobs currently being done by migrants – which will send them packing if work is no longer available.
 “I know that there’s been a long standing tradition of people coming from Eastern Europe to the eastern part of our country and taking part in seasonal schemes, and obviously those should continue,” he said.
“But I do think there’s a broader question that we should ask as a country, when we’ve got people who have been unemployed for long periods of time – what can we do to get them the training and the motivation to do those sorts of jobs. We do need to ask people and help people to get into the jobs that are available. I’m all in favour of having a country where we welcome immigrants, but it’s ridiculous that we have quite so many people coming in when we have so many people sitting at home unable to work.
“All I would say about the immigration issue is this: We have controlled and limited immigration from outside the EU. We put a cap on it. In terms of immigration from within the EU, the real answer is to reform our welfare system. If we have a welfare system that encourages and pays people to go out to work rather than stay at home, there’d be more British people in those jobs, and actually there’ll be fewer people coming from the rest of Europe to do those jobs. So that the real answer”
It may be the answer – but a big problem to overcome is the perception – or as some say, the reality – that local people no longer want to do this kind of hard work.
Interviewed on the radio, David Frost of Produce World - which includes Marshalls in Boston – said the firm employs almost 300 … 60% of whom are from a migrant background.
“From our point of view, when we advertise for  vacancies  in the area, the vast majority of applicants are from a migrant background – so without that population we would struggle to fill some of our vacancies.”
His view was echoed by local farmer Nicholas Watts, who said: “It would be nice to have more English people working with us, but many of those unemployed don’t seem to want the jobs like potato grading and vegetable cutting. They either want to be behind a wheel or in front of a screen.”
Asked whether it was the physical work and the dirty work that was putting them off, he replied: “Yes, I think so. We’ve got out of that frame of mind in this country. A lot of people have, anyway.
“When we want people to come and work on the fields, we might get one or two English workers, but they don’t seem to last very long – they don’t seem to want that kind of job. It’s not in our normal person’s work ethic to start bending down and  picking vegetables.”
Such comments contradict many opinions expressed by local people who are out of work, but say they have been priced out of the market by lower rates to migrant workers – and they have not gone down well locally.
Dean Everitt – the man whose propsed protest march led to the establishment of the council enquiry – has written on the group’s Facebook page: “As the council haven’t really given us anything in this report I’m looking at options. I feel a static protest is the way forward at this time,  and  I will be contacting police this week.”
He said that he was looking at Sunday 18^th November – a year after the postponed first march – as an appropriate date, and said that he had e-mailed Boston police and was awaiting a reply.
Interestingly, the  28 recommendations from the Task and Finish Group’s deliberations make much of controlling drinking in public places and curbing the presently unrestricted growth on licensing applications to serve alcohol.
We will be looking at the report in more detail during the week – but with so much going on can’t give a specific date.
In the meantime, let us have your comments.
 

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