Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Ignorance is bliss
Ignorance is a wonderful thing. It alone can supply the power to defy reality.
The consensus among most Tory and Labour politicians, and the braying tabloid-reading masses, is that there is too much immigration. It turns out that there is probably nowhere near enough.
Vladimir Spidla, the EU's employment and social affairs commissioner, said in an interview with Reuters that the EU's active labour force will be 20 million short of the levels required to sustain growth and pay for an ageing population by 2030, even with substantial inflows of migrant workers. By 2030, there would be almost 40 million more EU citizens in their 80s or older, which alone would require 80 million new jobs to help pay for their pensions and healthcare.
Apart from the Guardian, no British media appear to have covered this story - not unless you count Personnel Today. But then it's not what people want to hear.
Still, the poverty-stricken pensioners of 25 years hence can at least console themselves with the thought of a racially pure dotage.
