We all have moments where we realise painfully and suddenly that we are officially old. I turned 40 earlier this year, and so I had two such moments just this week.
The first was while watching the new Katie Price documentary where the producers ask the model to explain what Page Three was, because a significant proportion of her audience will have grown up without that institution. I am old enough to have written newspaper columns about whether topless models on the inside page of a national newspaper should continue, let alone be able to explain it in the same way I tell my children about dial-up internet or phones plugged into the wall.
A second and even more horrifying moment was when I realised I had run out of digits on which to count the number of times I’ve written about a proposal to restrict foreign nationals from living in social housing.
This idea was doing the rounds when I started my career as a young reporter on Inside Housing magazine in 2009. It is still doing those same rounds today, and will continue long after older women won’t even know who Katie Price is, in order to explain her to younger girls. Every year or so, one politician or another pops up to suggest that local people should be given priority on the council house waiting list, in the sort of tone that suggests no one has ever thought of this before, or indeed that it isn’t already what happens.
Back in 2010, for instance, I covered a row between the then housing minister Grant Shapps and his Labour shadow, one John Healey, over who had announced changes to council housing allocation criteria. Healey, who had just finished being housing minister in the Labour government, was cross Shapps had basically reannounced “freedoms I gave councils last year, so they can already choose to give greater priority to people with local family links”. Then again in 2013, the Tories were bruised after coming third in the Eastleigh by-election, and so announced “tough new housing rules to control immigration” which would allow councils to “give priority to local people when allocating their social housing”.
The latest permutation of this zombie policy comes from the Conservatives, who want to remove social housing eligibility for foreign nationals who don’t have EU settled status. It is slightly different to the rule tweaks listed above, because it wouldn’t just be for new applicants, but for existing tenants, who would have six months to leave their homes. The Tories say this could affect around 230,000 households.
It’s worth looking at what the eligibility for social housing is right now, just in case you missed it the last 50 times someone pitched a change to the rules. The criteria vary from council to council, but all prioritise people with local connections, who are homeless or living in highly unsuitable conditions currently. Foreign nationals with settled status qualify for housing, but that doesn’t mean they will be anywhere near the top of the list, with 89 per cent of lead tenants of new social lets being UK nationals. Refugees can also qualify, with Afghan nationals and Ukrainians the most common new tenants.
The policy would have an impact, undoubtedly, but less on the pull factors attracting new migrants to this country and more on people who have been living a settled life in Britain for decades, contributing to society and very much fulfilling the description of the “good immigrant” that voters don’t include when they talk about who they do or don’t want to be here. In practice it would be cruel, and lead to increased homelessness. It would certainly get attention. But it would not solve the problem it purports to focus on. And so the main value of Kemi Badenoch’s policy announcement is surely the attention it grabs for the Conservatives, momentarily.
The Tories are trying to compete with Reform UK, which has accused its rival of producing a pale imitation of its own policy to ban those who also have EU settled status. While all British politicians have to take immigration seriously, the problem with producing copies of other parties’ policies is that it tends to just make voters think that they could have the full-fat version if they went for the party that originally came up with the idea.
The longer-term impact of the recycling of these policies is that they make voters weary of the idea that politicians can ever change anything. They spend a lifetime talking about doing something that has largely already been done, and not making the big changes that would really help the public feel that any party is capable of getting reasonable control over immigration.
The Tories didn’t manage that in office, and so they’re back talking about distractions. Like a glamour model trying to overcome her loneliness with more plastic surgery, it’s not very convincing. Unlike Katie Price, though, they won’t get much sympathy from those watching.
Hence then, the article about badenoch is pressing the cruelty button in a desperate bid to be heard was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Badenoch is pressing the cruelty button in a desperate bid to be heard )
Also on site :