Sid
You state
Just to take one area, unemployment. By being much tougher on immigration it would have provided the opportunity to be more creative for the unemployed.
They are tough on immigration.Asylum applications have fallen dramatically and refusals have risen.There are,in many peoples eyes, too many asylum seekers detained including women and children yet this government has continued to lock em up until removal arrangements have been made and the applicants legal avenues are all closed and exhausted.
Yes it could be even stronger.For instance why is it that we require visas for USA Australia and New Zealand but their nationals do not require visas for the UK. So the fair answer is to make all visa requirements reciprocal.
Also the number of people refused visas to visit ,study or work in the UK has risen.So sorry will have to disagree with you on this point.
Sid states"Jobs that are going to foreigners should be going to British workers first. No real steps have been taken in 13 or more years to redress this imbalance. So while foreign workers come here and send their money home, UK residents are drawing benefits. This is NOT the fault of the migrants, but of successive Governments that have allowed this practice to continue. I expected a Labour government to be very active and innovative in this whole area, but they have done nothing of note in their time".
Most of those jobs have gone to EU nationals Poles in particular.The EU allows the free movement of labour plus they normally undertake jobs that Brits would not entertain. A recent report from farmers,daff growers etc claim their businesses would have gone to the wall had it not been for foreign labour.So we could end up cutting off our noses to spite our face. The only answer would be to withdraw from the EU which I am totally against.What would happen to all our overseas expats that earn a living abroad...Nigeria for example...
While there are UK residents out of work and there are vacancies (and there are hundreds of thousands of vacancies today), the JobCentres should be empowered to force benefit seekers to go to work, where they can obviously.
The Job Centres require unemployed youngsters upto the age of 24yrs to retrain or in many cases attend courses or risk losing their benefit.Anyone unemployed over a certain period loses their benefit forthwith. So Job Centres do have power to get the country back on its feet.
There are no quick fixes.This government operates Sure start,free nursey places so mothers can return to work sooner they hve introduced Tax credits so that by going back to work your pay is topped up and allows you to get out of the benefit trap.These are just a few schemes in operation that have been introduced by the labour govt.