Here comes the forth reich

It has been a dreadful week in British politics.

Mainly because its been the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. West Midlands, not Alabama.

I cannot remember such a lurch to the right by a mainstream party. Ever.

Let's start with Amber Rudd. She said:

"Now, the British people sent a clear message in the referendum. There can be no question that recent levels of immigration motivated a large part of the vote. But concerns about immigration did not just spring up out of nowhere. Twenty years ago levels of immigration weren’t really an issue in British politics. As net migration has risen, that has changed. I’ve seen why as a Member of Parliament for Hastings and Rye. Hastings is a seaside town that has experienced relatively high levels of migration over the past two decades. That’s led to legitimate concerns around the pressures put on housing, public services and wages. The Prime Minister recognised this, and took action to reduce net migration in the areas she could when she was in my position. And now as Home Secretary it is my responsibility to do the same, and to make sure people’s concerns are addressed. As you know, the Conservative Party was elected on a Manifesto commitment to reduce net migration to sustainable levels. This means tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands.

And my commitment to you today is that I’ll be working with colleagues across Government to deliver this. But I am also here to level with you Conference… This will not happen overnight. Leaving the EU is just one part of the strategy. We have to look at all sources of immigration if we mean business.

Now, a lot has improved since 2010. From annual net migration under Labour rocketing almost five-fold. The Conservative-led coalition stopped 875 bogus colleges bringing in overseas students, tackled abuse of student visas, and reformed the family system. And I would like to recognise my predecessor’s action in driving these changes through. Since then she has been freed from the shackles of the Coalition. Without Nick Clegg and Vince Cable there to hold her back she, passed new Conservative legislation to make sure that immigrants heading to these shores are going to make a positive contribution. My job is to press on with implementing this legislation.

So today, I am announcing that from December, landlords that knowingly rent out property to people who have no right to be here will be committing a criminal offence. They could go to prison. Furthermore, from December, immigration checks will be a mandatory requirement for those wanting to get a licence to drive a taxi. And from next autumn, banks will have to do regular checks to ensure they are not providing essential banking services to illegal migrants. Money drives behaviour, and cutting off its supply will have an impact. However, the difference between those arriving and those leaving is still too substantial. I believe immigration has brought many benefits to the nation. It has enhanced our economy, our society and our culture.

This is why I want to reduce net migration while continuing to ensure we attract the brightest and the best. Because it’s only by reducing the numbers back down to sustainable levels that we can change the tide of public opinion … so once again immigration is something we can all welcome. So, I can announce today, we will shortly be consulting on the next steps needed to control immigration.

We will be looking across work and study routes. This will include examining whether we should tighten the test companies have to take before recruiting from abroad. British businesses have driven the economic recovery in this country, with employment at record levels. However we still need to do more … so all British people get the opportunities they need to get on in life The test should ensure people coming here are filling gaps in the labour market, not taking jobs British people could do.

But it’s become a tick box exercise, allowing some firms to get away with not training local people. We won’t win in the world if we don’t do more to upskill our own workforce. It’s not fair on companies doing the right thing. So I want us to look again at whether our immigration system provides the right incentives for businesses to invest in British workers.

We will also look for the first time at whether our student immigration rules should be tailored to the quality of the course and the quality of the educational institution. I’m proud that we have world-leading centres of academic excellence. It’s a testament to our country’s proud history and our top universities’ ability to evolve. But the current system allows all students, irrespective of their talents and the university’s quality, favourable employment prospects when they stop studying.

While an international student is studying here, their family members can do any form of work. And foreign students, even those studying English Language degrees, don’t even have to be proficient in speaking English. We need to look at whether this one size fits all approach really is right for the hundreds of different universities, providing thousands of different courses across the country."

So naming and shaming companies who emlpoy large numbers of EU citizens, and reducing the number of students coming to this country to study. Don't call me racist she says. But we will. I will.

And then there is the new glorious unelected PM:

"Just listen to the way a lot of politicians and commentators talk about the public. They find your patriotism distasteful, your concerns about immigration parochial, your views about crime illiberal, your attachment to your job security inconvenient. They find the fact that more than seventeen million voters decided to leave the European Union simply bewildering. Because if you’re well off and comfortable, Britain is a different country and these concerns are not your concerns. It’s easy to dismiss them - easy to say that all you want from government is for it to get out of the way.

Because it took that typically British quiet resolve for people to go out and vote as they did: to defy the establishment, to ignore the threats, to make their voice heard. So let us have that same resolve now. And let’s be clear about what is going to happen. Article Fifty – triggered no later than the end of March. A Great Repeal Bill to get rid of the European Communities Act – introduced in the next Parliamentary session. Our laws made not in Brussels but in Westminster. Our judges sitting not in Luxembourg but in courts across the land The authority of EU law in this country ended forever.

The people told us they wanted these things – and this Conservative Government is going to deliver them. t is, of course, too early to say exactly what agreement we will reach with the EU. It’s going to be a tough negotiation, it will require some give and take. And while there will always be pressure to give a running commentary, it will not be in our national interest to do so. "

A lot of it is bollocks of course, empty promises about getting good deals, telling Europe and other countries what Britain wants and getting it. Having our cake and eating it. But restricting immigration, and apparetly forcible repatriation for even EU national that have lived here for decades. Such things echo what was seen in Germany in the 1930s, and I don't use such words lightly. It is a shocking turn for what was once seen as a beacon of democracy and fairness. Not any longer, hatred of outsiders, people with accents and anyone non-white will become entrenched in all levels in society.

Already acedemics are being restricted as to what projects they can and cannot work on. Scientists are being locked out of research projects as British funding is unclear.

There is no opposition, as Labour has spent the summer fighting among itself, and is no better now that seems to be over with there having been no change in leader. A part happy in being dogmatically right (or left) and being in permanent opposition, offering no real choice from the extreme rhetoric we heard in Birmingham this week.

Our only hope now is reality.

Reality that things will not be so easy negotiating with the EU, the rest of the World Trade Organisation, even triggering Article 50 isn't going to be easy. Threats and court cases in Northern Ireland are already underway; threats that unless approval from the devolved assemblies and Parliaments, it won't be constitutional. And then there is Government Lawyers assertion that it is within the PM's powers to trigger Article 50 without consulting or even informing Parliament of what the eventual aim is of Brexit.

Without opposition, the PM can say Brexit means whatever she likes, and there is no challenge. If it goes through, there will be an almighty power grab by Government, the power to amend laws without consultation of Parliament. That is what the Great Repeal Bill is. It is horific, but then there is reality.

It would unconstitutional, even in a country with no constitution, and there will be plenty of cases taken to the high court challenging everything that the Government does or wants to do.

What we can say with some degree of certainty, that whatever deal Britain comes away with in trading with the EU, it will be worse for Britain that what we have now. It can't be anything else, the Chancellor has said this week, that it might take 20 years for any benefit of Brexit to filter through. And then there was the plunge on international markets of the Pound, and no one really wanting to support it. At airports and ports now, the exchange rate is 1:1 or even less, and will get worse. Much worse.

Companies like Nissan are rethinking investment and whether to keep existing factories open, until they know what the deal with Europe might be. We might not know that for two, five or ten years. Banks will flee London, heading from Frankfurt or Paris. Some have left and many are planning.

Reality is the only thing to stop it; and reality means compromise. SOme kind of transitional agreement may come into force at the end of the two year Article 50 period, with Britain paying into the EU, abiding by the rules, a memeber in everything but name. Such agreements can go on for years. Decades. And it is this that is being quietly discussed.