JUST WILLIAM: Numbers and Context

Hello, and thanks very much for reading this week’s column – it’s good to be back after a little absence!

The end of May is always an exciting time – lots of sports are beginning their summer season, and we’re in the thick of the flat season – and it’s especially exciting for those who love greyhound racing, as the Greyhound Derby starts on Thursday!

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THE POLLING STATION | Big Ron’s Running

 

Numbers and Context

Tonight, and tomorrow, you’re likely to read and hear a huge amount about that most discussed political issue: Immigration. Namely net migration, because the official number for the ONS net migration statistics is reportedly going to be 700,000.

That sounds like a big number, out of context. It might well be. And it’s sure to be used as a political football that will give Rishi Sunak plenty of headaches.

But before that number comes out, it’s worth digging into the details: Both of who arrives here and what they do.

I make this point because at PMQ’s (today/yesterday) depending on when you’re reading it, Keir Starmer went on the offensive regarding immigration, with such quotes as:

“The Prime Minister stood on three Tory manifestos. Each one promised to reduce immigration. Each promise broken.”

“If anyone wants to see what uncontrolled immigration looks like all they’ve got to do is wake up tomorrow morning and listen to the headlines…”

“They’ve control of the economy, they’ve lost control of public services and now they’ve lost control of immigration,”

The attack line here of the Tories losing control of the numbers is a familiar one – Labour have used it many times on different political issues.

However, on immigration, it makes little sense for Labour to be pushing hard on net migration numbers. Firstly, a large amount of arrivals arrive here to work. Below is a list of the Top 10 occupations for work visas over the last year:

It’s often claimed that we should aim to have more British people performing such jobs. And whilst upskilling UK workers is a good target to have, the amount of training involved for those industries takes several years, and with a wage crisis in the healthcare sector to boot, recruiting from home has been a major challenge.

Add in fee paying students (72,893 last year)– who are vital for the UK universities sector – and then schemes for refugees and others, and it becomes clear that worries about a headline number can be rather misleading in the grand scheme of things. It’s something worth thinking about.

No Wifi, No Party

Speaking of things that move fast, trains are a particular passion of mine – as anyone who follows me on Twitter or knows me in real life will be able to tell you. This is despite living in a country where travelling by rail is a far more expensive and stressful pursuit than it should be (again, if you’ve been to mainland Europe you’ll know what I’m talking about).

One of the saving graces of train journeys – and a great advantage they have over going by bus, car or plane – is that you have the ability to work and stay connected (including for leisure if that’s your thing) thanks to wi-fi on trains, which may not be perfect but is still a major advantage.

Well, that might not be the case in future, as Wifi for train passengers in England may be axed as the government seeks to cut costs following difficulties in recent years (namely the pandemic, which decimated numbers). Now whilst there’s been a hit to passenger numbers and revenue, I cannot think of a worse response to financial measures than removing one of the big advantages that railways have on other methods of transport.

Not forgetting the fact that data contacts for train companies cover more than just passenger wi-fi – meaning we don’t know how much money would be saved by axing internet access for passengers – it’s impossible to know why a Government increasingly focused on productivity (and getting workers ‘back to the office’) would try to make the lives of those who use the railways *even *harder. Answers on a postcard.

Red Light Ideas

Speaking of transport ideas, here’s one from a man hoping to be the next Mayor of London. Dan Korski, looking to impose a radical shakeup of London’s roads, has explored switching off red lights between 10pm and 7am with amber flashing lights to ease the flow of traffic. The idea is supposedly meant to make sure people aren’t sitting at deserted junctions with red lights late at night – which is surely a great measure considering that nobody drives in London, one of the world’s biggest cities, late at night. Right?

It Was The Blob That Did It… or was it?

If you’ve watched the news in the past week or so, you’ll know that Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been having a wild time of things. Over the weekend it emerged that she was caught speeding last year and asked officials for advice on arranging a private course.

That’s led to a considerable amount of press coverage and another big political headache for Rishi Sunak, although some aren’t seeing the big issues, with several Tory MPs describing the issues as a ‘witch hunt’, with Sir Edward Leigh telling the Commons that: “We used to have proper scandals about sex or money.”

So, with that in mind, I wonder what they make of the news in the Independent yesterday that Braverman failed to formally disclose years of previous work with the Rwandan government. One could argue the timing of that was less that fortunate for her, considering that this morning Rishi Sunak – desperate to keep the focus on all things government – decided to take no further action over the speeding points.

Meanwhile Boris Johnson – remember him? – is involved with not one, but two, but three legal dramas after being referred to the police again over lockdown breaches (apparently found in his diaries by the Cabinet Office, and handed to the police) and then ditching his Government appointed lawyers due to a supposed breach of trust.

Such events have led to attacks on The Blob’, a bogeyman term used to describe the Civil Service and also so-called liberal elites more widely, by senior Tories.

Making up such enemies is a heavily used method of distraction, but one has to wonder: Perhaps The Blob would be less menacing if… senior politicians followed the rules?

LATEST Whitehall blob 'gobbling Right-wing Tories like Pac-Man' https://t.co/xkMMK30fQy

— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) May 24, 2023

WILLIAM KEDJANYI

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