http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7356990.stm

housands of restaurant workers have gathered in London to protest about recent changes to immigration laws.

Some comments were made by some of the BBC readers basically saying that local
people will be able to job and training should be provided. Perhaps. But will the consumers
also accept that this means higher prices or… err.. Inflation ?

Ethnic restaurants meal are generally about 10-20% cheaper than a all over the board restaurant such
as Presto etc. In London China town, one can have a meal for £3.50 - £4.00 (plus services etc). The cheapest meal in those ‘above board’ restaurants tend of be around £8.

The stark, cool, cruel reality is that when it comes to labour intensitve services/production, one’s quality of live can only be built on the less quality of life of others. There is a choice here - accept the reduction of the majority’s consumer’s quality of life in the name of fairness, or close your eyes and hope the status quo stays the same. Most people just don’t bother to find out the truty, or pretend not to know the truth.

Even Marxist leaders like Stalin, Lenin and Mao has not quite choose to live in the same one bed flat with barely any furniture or consumer goods in it.

I also saw in local newspaper that a Sour Chef is hired for £22k + tips. A chef would be paid over £30k pa. A typical chinese takeaway may have a turnover of around £2k per week or £108k pa ex VAT. Say material cost 35k, rent and rates, electric etc £35k, that is left with £48k for labour. If a chef cost £30kpa (err. 33k after including NI cost), there is not much left for the owner. The solution is of course that the shop can raise prices as we are now fully proper, but how many consumers will say, OK, we accept that.

It is far better to license the so-called category 5 short term labour to meet the demand so that these people have some basic protection, and would still be better off than working in their own country (who despite all the complains about British employer exploting their staffs, provide worst working condition than British employer. There are countries out there where death at work is something totally ignorable).

Work and trade, not aid, will help people in 3rd world out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7383493.stm

reported that an significant increased number of raids and fines have been issued after the new anti illegal working regime became effective on beginning of March 2008.

The new system is akin to a parking fine system where BIA (Border and immigration agency) handed out on the spot fine of up to £10,000 pounds per illegal worker to employers who employed illegal immigrants (apparently, first time offenders are usually spared.)

The target has now changed from targeting illegal workers to targetting employers as BIA now believes working is the pull factor that leads people here. They have finally becomes smart. Also, as with any profit making schemes (we all know how eager councils parking officers are in issuing parking fines), we can also be sure that these enforcement actions will be carried out rigorously and frequently.

A resatuarant owner was seen in BBC (in an attached video of an article) saying that “I will have to close, otherwise I can lost every penny that I have. It is just not worth it”.  As most restaurants are operated in the form of sole proprieter rather than a Ltd, this is indeed the case.