Another Week, Another Scapegoat

Apparently its all down to those illegal immigrants.  That's the message I've been getting from Tory party central of late.  Their plans to cut benefits to young people - it's because too many illegal immigrants are fraudulently claiming these specific benefits.  Falling standards of living?  Well, according to the Foreign Secretary, that's down an influx of illegal immigrants as well - that's why we have to fight them on the beaches, or at least, in Calais.  Because if any more of them come here then we'll all have to take pay cuts or lose our jobs and houses.  It really is pathetic - just another set of scapegoats on the Tories' seemingly never-ending merry-go-round of scapegoats.  The fact is that these benefits cuts and this country's falling living standards are an integral part of the government's economic policy - it's just their public rationale for it all which keeps changing.  First of all it was because of the need for austerity which, in turn was because of the economic crash supposedly caused by the Labour government's allegedly profligate spending.  Then the disabled, the unemployed and other benefits claimants fault - they were are evil, idle and worthless according to Tory propaganda.  Now it's down to illegal immigrants.  What next, austerity is essential because of the threat of alien invasion?  The mind boggles.

Sadly, a significant proportion of the public seems to buy this nonsense, never questioning why austerity's raison d'etre keeps changing, instead just meekly accepting further misery and changing the focus of their hate.  Hate which, of course, should be directed at the government, but with their shield of right wing media deflecting it all, they just sail on, continuing to implement their neo-liberal agenda.  An agenda which has at its heart, in case you've forgotten, the belief that we in the West need to 'harmonise' wages, living standards, employment practices and the like with 'emerging' economies like China and India.  Obviously, in practice 'harmonise' means that our wages and living standards have to fall to their level and working practices resemble their sweat shops, with no health and safety, no employment rights and certainly no worker representation.  It's interesting that China has become the neo-liberals preferred model for the future of capitalism - a communist dictatorship which effectively practices state-sponsored capitalism.  Moreover, with all those recent currency devaluations - along with other problems - China is looking less and less like a suitable role model.  But who am I kidding - it is all the fault of those bloody immigrants really, isn't it?