Give fruit-picking jobs to northerners, says Tory councillor

[Loki]

Give fruit-picking jobs to northerners, says Tory councillor

Unemployed people from the north should replace Romanians as fruit pickers rather than claim benefits, a leading figure on the Local Government Association has said.

Cllr David Shakespeare said if unemployment continued to rise, then northerners should come south to get work on farms.

‘The north may replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards… and that may be a good thing,’ he said at a meeting on Thursday last week.

Mr Shakespeare, from Buckinghamshire, is leader of the Conservative group at the LGA.

Barnsley East Labour MP Michael Dugher wrote to prime minister David Cameron on Monday calling for Cllr Shakespeare’s resignation.

‘Do you appreciate how out of touch, insensitive and insulting these comments are?’ he said.

'Doesn’t it just demonstrate that the Tories are still the same old nasty party?'

A party spokesman said the comments were ‘unacceptable’.

Cllr Shakespeare later claimed what he said was not intended to be taken seriously and apologised if anyone was offended.

The comments came during a discussion about whether or not underprivileged areas would suffer from plans to redistribute business rates.

[Loki]

And ... here is a hilarious parody:


SOUTHERNERS RELUCTANT TO EAT FRUIT PICKED BY NORTHERNERS

FRUIT picked by northern people would have to be washed at least three times, southern people said last night.

As a senior Conservative councillor was lambasted for suggesting northerners work for a living, everyone south of Birmingham said that was fine, but they would prefer it not to involve food.

David Shakespeare, Tory group leader on the Local Government Association, said northern types could 'replace Romanians in the cherry orchards' painting a glorious picture of happy, smelly, tattooed workers frolicking in the berry farms of rural Hampshire.

But senior Labour figures said fruit picking was demeaning to hundreds of thousands of people who had the skills to withstand a series of crackdowns on incapacity benefit fraud.

Tom Logan, an architect from Stevenage, said: "If you think I'm eating fruit that's been handled by a northerner, you must be out of your tiny mind.

"I thought we had all agreed they would be used for picking up litter. Can we please just make a decision and stick to it?"

Helen Archer, an accountant from Hatfield, added: "Not lovely cherries, please. I don't want to have to boil them in salt water and Dettol.

"I suppose it could possibly work with apples, but they would have to be clearly labelled as 'picked by northerners' and have some government-backed guarantee that they were not carrying lice or rickets."

A spokesman for work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan-Smith stressed that Mr Shakespeare was not speaking for the government as there was no way he could possibly have seen the original email.

Margaret Gerving, a retired headmistress from Guildford, added: "You do know that they spend all day with their hands up their own anuses.

"And they think that toilet paper is filled with invisible witches."

[The Lawspeaker]

Employing their unemployed kin and countrymen (for at least minimum wage and offering them a place to stay and a place at the table) would always be preferable over employing foreigners.

[SwordoftheVistula]

The parody is hilarious, but the 'outrage' over what should be a common sense policy is worrisome (employing people from their own country, instead of employing people from a continent away and paying other people to not work)

[Bloodeagle]

I say they should force the unemployed to do these jobs or else they would be denied any further services.

If the economy was not in the toilet and everyone was working white collar jobs, then I would have prisoners out picking the fruits before I brought in foreigners to to do it.

[Wyn]

‘The north may replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards… and that may be a good thing,’ he said at a meeting on Thursday last week.

The reality is that a so-called northerner wouldn't put up with half the crap a Romanian does. Which is one of the reasons immigrants are hired en masse in the first place.

Of course it isn't actually a bad idea, and it needn't stop at northerners at all. Plenty of less qualified natives would probably look for that kind of work if a. they thought they would be hired (employers in this area hire Romanians etc. for reasons that suit them, an English 'northerner' probably wouldn't get a job fruit picking if they tried) and b. it wasn't solely associated with immigrants (which is itself a by-product of the immigrant-only hiring policy).

Cllr Shakespeare later claimed what he said was not intended to be taken seriously and apologised if anyone was offended.

It's a shame when a grown man apologises for saying something he knows lots of others should be saying.

[SwordoftheVistula]

The reality is that a so-called northerner wouldn't put up with half the crap a Romanian does.

They would, if they had their choice between picking apples and starvation. Their ancestors even a couple generations ago put up with a lot worse

[Wyn]

They would, if they had their choice between picking apples and starvation.

Of course. But what I meant was that immigrants - by and large - will work for less and won't put up much of a fight if treated poorly.

Their ancestors even a couple generations ago put up with a lot worse

Me and a friend were discussing this not long ago. It really is astounding to consider how different a male in his mid twenties is in 2010 compared to his grandfather when he was at that point in his life. A lot of "I'm too good to do that" types exist these days.

[Peasant]

Where the hell do you find these mythical fruit and veg picking jobs? I want one in the summer.

Not down south though.

[Beorn]

I'm all for doing any days work for a decent days wages, but it seems people are forgetting a few points here:

1) You don't receive a decent days wages.
2) It isn't the responsibility of an Englishman to move for work when work is freely available with the halt and removal of immigrants who plug up the job market.
3) Fuck the Tories! Let's have that lovely foreign aid. Fuck Haiti! Fuck India and Pakistan! Fuck the EU! And every other little weasel country our government deems worthy of our urgently needed money.
4) GRRR!!