All those who are regular visitors here will remember that a few weeks ago we reported that Singapore is considering a reduction in the number of immigrants allowed to work and live there. http://tinyurl.com/y95tz4n

Apparently a debate on this topic is going on and the government is trying to address people’ concerns about immigration.

A high-level commission said that Singapore must limit the influx of foreign workers and develop the skills of its own population to keep one of Asia’s richest countries growing.

The commission representing the government, corporate and union leaders warned that Singapore’s economic growth will slow to between 3 and 5 per cent a year over the next decade even if the immigration reforms are implemented.

Growth has averaged about 7.5 per cent a year since 1961. “We’re not against foreign workers,” said Lim Swee Say, secretary general of the National Trades Union Congress and a commission member.

“But like wine, too much is a bad thing, and it dilutes focus from productivity.”

The Singaporean unions are standing up for the interests of their own members, unlike British unions who supported the replacement of British workers with cheaper foreigners.

These anti-immigration feelings are shared by members of Singapore government also.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in a report:

“We cannot increase the number of foreign workers as liberally as we did over the last decade, or else we will run up against real physical and social limits”.

Several proposals have been made, such as gradually raising the levies firms must pay to hire foreigners in order to restrict demand and raise productivity among locals and foreign workers already in Singapore.

Other proposals emphasise Singapore’s efforts to reinvent itself in the face of competition from China and India. In recent years, the government has promoted new industries such as pharmaceuticals, private banking and casinos by lowering taxes and providing other incentives.

The enormous influx of foreigners in recent years has become a sore point to Singaporeans who fear that newcomers are competing for jobs and pushing wages down, and the reason the Singapore  government has announced steps to reduce housing, health, childcare and educational benefits to foreigners that hold “permanent residency” status. This comes before a general election that will likely be held this year.

So not only is Singapore taking steps to protect Singaporean jobs but it is also working on an industrial policy aiming to create new industries.

Can we say the same about Britain?

We know the answer to that question!!!

Anyone with eyes to see knows the answer. Our Unions and Government want the destruction of our wealth creating manufacturing sector (not that we have much of that left).

What nationalists should bear in mind is that, regardless of any change in immigration policy, this debate is taking place in a country that is not democratic, where the press is heavily censored, freedom of speech curtailed, and opposition almost non existent and criticism rarely tolerated.

So we have an autocracy that listens to the concerns of its own citizens and a country like the UK, supposedly a democracy, where anyone daring to speak about immigration is harassed, silenced and in some case prosecuted.

Some say that the reason Singapore’ People’s Action Party has been in power since 1959 is because of its ability to stay in tune with the electorate.

I think it’s true; but what we can say for sure is that NuLabour is desperate to cling onto power by any means possible, this includes the smearing of opponents, using Soviet style bullying tactics learned in the Fabian school of education  and the encouragement of electoral fraud.

Be warned we have traitors amongst us.

GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS

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