More Unintended Consequences
Agriculture depends on seasonal labor because you don’t keep hired help on when there is nothing for them to do. In the US farmers have become dependent on cheap workers from Mexico to harvest crops, and sheep farmers in Britain have been dependent on Australian shearers. Thanks to the Global War on Terror™, that labor force is no longer readily available.
Australian Broadcasting writes that the UK knocks back Australia’s baa-rmy army
Each year, Britain relies on hundreds of Australian and New Zealand sheep shearers who work on UK farms in the summer.
But strict new visa requirements have stopped the flow of workers into Britain from outside the European Union.
The UK is now faced with a critical shortage of shearers and the prospect of serious health and welfare issues that emerge if sheeps’ fleeces are not cut.
…
It used to be a matter of a simple work permit and a nominal fee.
It is now $500 for the shearer, another $350 for the farmer, a mountain of paperwork, a trip to a UK visa processing bureau and a biometric identity card.
British immigration lawyer Phillip Bath says the reality is that Australians should probably forget about that annual sheep shearing trip to Blighty.
Because the seasons are flipped in the two hemispheres, a sheep shearer can work the Australian herds, take a break, and then work the British herds at the start of the Australian winter. This pattern enables the shearers to make good money in a profession that is definitely a field for younger workers.
Just as Florida has been relieved of foreign tourists, the UK has been relieved of the skilled workers needed for a major industry. The net result is another win for the terrorists – think about it.
4 comments
You scored yourself a hole-in-one there Bryan! 😀
Couldn’t agree more. I won’t hold by breath waiting for the day when the majority of Americans actually realise that thanks primarily to their ignorance and irrational fear of the past decade, they have in fact been aiding and benefiting terrorism, and will eventually suffer the consequences, if they aren’t already.
Stupidity is it’s own reward.
One of these days I’m going to write a comparison of the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest. One of the things that is obvious is that the Quest is going to get the international teams, while the Iditarod becomes more isolated, and it is as a result of the the visa policy. It is too much trouble for international teams to jump through all of the hoops to get to the US.
There are already international organizations rescheduling conferences for Canada and Central America from the US because it is too difficult for members to get into the US. The same will happen in the arts.
The US is isolating itself, and the UK also done it to some extent, in the name of terror prevention. I was traveling to the UK regularly when the IRA were going batshit crazy and no one considered this stuff necessary. No one went crazy because I changed planes in Shannon before entering the UK.
These actions are ramping up fear, and that happens, the terrorists win.
Many years ago, I had to visit Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. I was warned that it wasn’t a good idea to go from Singapore to Malaysia, as I would be stopped and asked hard questions. Better to go to Malaysia first then Singapore, or Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore. The Malaysians and Singaporeans don’t get on very well, but Singapore tends to be much more civilized about it. 😉
And yes, I traveled around the UK in the 80’s and had no problems. I would have to think long and hard now.
Whatever happened to common sense? Hell… Even enlightened self-interest should tell people this is all a very bad idea!
To paraphrase an old saying… It’s a case of cutting off your own nose because you don’t like your face. 😉
The people in charge have lost their collective mind to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that the people at the top weren’t all that bright to begin with.
Frightened people are easier to control in many ways, but there is a real danger that those who are really crazy will explode from the fear, because their paranoia is being fed by the government.
It wasn’t that long ago in historical terms, World War II, that the government was calming people down while, in the case of Britain, very real and deadly bombs were dropping on their houses.
The new attitude is a total waste of time and resources. It doesn’t work. It can’t work, but they continue to do it because some fool wrote a movie script in which it did work. We have government by screenwriters.