Sure, a couple of participants didn’t try very hard to take part. One didn’t even turn up for his trial job at all. But most really did, and largely motivated by a visible sense of frustration at being unemployed. I came away feeling that both residents and new arrivals to Wisbech are caught up in much bigger problems arising from economic demands for cheap and flexible labour in often back-breaking conditions. It is migrants, rather than locals, who are inevitably willing to provide it, but can either be blamed for that?

After that prog was a lively Newsnight interview which saw Immigration Minister Phil Woolas pitted against his Conservative counterpart Damien Green… and also facing a dressing down from a local unemployed man called Paul from Wisbech, who had taken part in the main show with gusto. Paul was angry and said he’d been let down by the lack of support in getting him back into work - comments which Woolas dismissed, insisting that the government is already providing adequate support to get the long-term unemployed in the UK tooled up for jobs. You could practically see Paul’s blood start to boil as he started shouting at the minister that none of this support had come his way.

Green’s response to Paul was even worse - he talked pompously about the importance of forcing lazy ’scroungers’ off benefits and into work. With such political responses, it is no wonder that the ‘blame the migrants’ argument holds some currency among unemployed people in areas like Wisbech, however unpleasant it may be.

Can we ask the Local Government Association to clarify what the situation really is?

About the way the press is reporting the statements made by Council leaders on the impacts of migration, here’s how the Daily Express have chosen to run the story (www.express.co.uk/posts/view/158620/We-just-can-t-cope-with-immigration-boom-say-councils).

It’s interesting that the latter part of the story introduces a bit more balance into the picture, with the quote from the Local Government Association person saying that immigration brings billions into the UK economy each year, but the problem is that these benefits are so poorly distributed. So how do we move what is essential a criticism of the bigger system up from the sub-text into the headlines?

Any ideas?

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/158620/We-just-can-t-cope-with-immigration-boom-say-councils

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2010/February/tougher-rules-for-foreign-stud

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8502896.stm