{"id":2177,"date":"2014-11-10T14:25:32","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T14:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2177"},"modified":"2014-11-10T14:25:32","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T14:25:32","slug":"obscene-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2177","title":{"rendered":"Obscene narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Tories and their Ukip prot\u0102\u00a9g\u0102\u00a9s run on an empty platform of hatred against our country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most oppressed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfrom migrants to the working poor to ethnic minorities and the disabled.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn a cynical bid to distract voters from the real culprits of economic crisis\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthemselves\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe political and moneyed elite will stop at nothing to weave spurious narratives about their pet scapegoats.<\/p>\n

 
\nOne of the most common narratives\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe migrant worker (usually eastern European) draining the public purse and stealing UK jobs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas been exposed as one big lie in a new study by University College London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\nFar from being perennial benefits tourists, migrants, in fact, have contributed billions to the economy in the past decade, the study found.<\/p>\n

 
\nEuropean migrants made a net contribution to the economy that amounted to \u00c2\u014120bn from 2000 to 2011. Migrants from countries which made up the EU before 2004, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, contributed \u00c2\u014115bn more in taxes than they received in welfare, while eastern European migrants again contributed more than their fair share by \u00c2\u01415bn.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn response to the study, Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis report smashes the hate-fuelled lies being peddled by Ukip, the Tories and their friends in the media.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTheir lies are a desperate attempt to shore up their votes and shift the blame for a crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c caused by the failed, ideological economics of austerity–on anyone but the cosy, out-of-touch political elite itself,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nTurner compared the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bobscene narrative\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of migrants \u00e2\u20ac\u015btaking our jobs, stealing our houses, living off welfare and swapping our communities\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 to the same lies peddled against ordinary working people who are struggling to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bJust as hateful language of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098deserving’ and \u00e2\u20ac\u0098undeserving’ poor, the ‘shirker and the striver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 was exposed with the working poor struggling on low pay, zero hours contracts, little security and the destruction of much of the social solidarity offered by the welfare state and public services, so too does this report show migrants are not the problem,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner explained.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe \u00e2\u20ac\u015bobscene narrative\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner speaks of, however, was not dispelled in reports of the UCL study in the shameless right-wing press.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn an obvious attempt at distorting the study\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s findings, the Telegraph<\/em>, for example, ran with the headline, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Immigration from outside Europe cost \u00c2\u0141120bn.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/a> The paper cherry-picked one fact in the UCL study \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that, since 1995, non-EU migrants used \u00c2\u0141120bn more in welfare than they contributed in taxes.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut the newspaper failed to mention that there was a likely reason for this cost \u00e2\u20ac\u201c many of those counted in 1995 had already been in the country for some time and had been paying taxes. This cohort aged and simply required public services in line with what an ageing population requires. The authors note that the \u00c2\u0141120bn would likely have been nullified by contributions made by this cohort\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s children.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Daily Telegraph<\/em> also failed to put the \u00c2\u0141120bn figure into its proper context. Over the same time period, the UK-born population made a negative contribution that was almost five times greater than migrants \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00c2\u0141591bn. This fact was presented toward the end of the Telegraph<\/em> article, only as an afterthought.<\/p>\n

 
\nTurner hoped that the report would help dispel myths so that working people understand the true source of their eroded living standards and the solutions needed to tackle them.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe reality is we need a million new social homes, not so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098affordable\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ones,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need proper funding for our NHS, schools and services, and direct investment in our communities and infrastructure providing decent, secure jobs on negotiated rates of pay to get workers off benefits and into jobs paying taxes.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n“It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not rocket science,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the six richest nation on our planet, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be fooled into thinking we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to do it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we can!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tories and their Ukip prot\u0102\u00a9g\u0102\u00a9s run on an empty platform of hatred against our country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most oppressed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfrom migrants to the working poor to ethnic minorities and the disabled.   In a cynical bid to distract voters from the real culprits of economic crisis\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthemselves\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe political and moneyed elite will stop at nothing to weave spurious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[153],"wps_subtitle":"Lies about migrants exposed in new report","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions\/2179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}