Amid warnings of anti-Polish violence in market towns and rural villages, a new study reveals Britain has three times the claimed number of unemployed people, with 1.7 million diverted off the official jobless count onto other benefits. More than enough to get the right-wing media frothing at the mouth.
Not everything, however, is as bleak as it seems. The employment study reveals that jobless figures have fallen sharply in the most deprived areas of the country, and rebuts the idea that EU migrants are somehow 'stealing' jobs from indigenous workers:
"The surge in migrants from the EU, especially Poland, appears to have occurred not so much because there are no unemployed to fill job vacancies but rather because the migrants are better able or more willing to fill the jobs that are available."
In an ideal world there would be no economic migration; every country would have full employment and every worker a living wage. In the meantime, jobs for the British means more investment in education and skills training and higher salaries for undesirable work - the kind of dirty, dangerous and menial labour on farms and in factories that we all, as consumers, ultimately benefit from. The question is, are the market town malconents willing to foot the bill, or are their nationalist principles just another mask for prejudice?
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