Saturday 29 November 2014

The reintroduction of slavery into modern Britain

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I have been blogging about slavery for a few years now

http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=slavery

In particular the reintroduction of slavery into modern Britain, introduced by the Leftist use of inverted-racism as a political cosh.

http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/why-are-british-unworried-by-re.html

I suggested that there would be 'thousands' of slaves in modern Britain - but it seems like I underestimated:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11262320/Theresa-May-says-tens-of-thousands-held-as-modern-slaves-in-Britain.html

As many as 13,000 people in Britain are being held in conditions of slavery, four times the number previously thought, it has been revealed. In what is said to be the first scientific estimate of the scale of modern slavery in the UK, the Home Office has said the number of victims last year was between 10,000 and 13,000. They include women forced into prostitution, domestic staff and workers in fields, factories and fishing boats. Data from the National Crime Agency’s Human Trafficking Centre had previously put the number of slavery victims in 2013 at 2,744. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said the scale of abuse was “shocking”. Launching the Government’s modern slavery strategy, she said: “The first step to eradicating the scourge of modern slavery is acknowledging and confronting its existence. The estimated scale of the problem in modern Britain is shocking and these new figures starkly reinforce the case for urgent action.” The Modern Slavery Bill, currently going through Parliament, aims provide courts in England and Wales with new powers to protect people who are trafficked into the countries and held against their will. Scotland and Northern Ireland are planning similar measures. But outlining the strategy for government departments, its agencies and partners, Home Secretary Theresa May said legislation was “only part of the answer”. The “grim reality” is that slavery still exists in towns, cities and the countryside across the world, including the UK, she said. “The time has come for concerted, coordinated action. Working with a wide-range of partners, we must step up the fight against modern slavery in this country, and internationally, to put an end to the misery suffered by innocent people around the world.” The Home Office said the UK Border Force would roll out specialist trafficking teams at major ports and airports to spot potential victims, and the legal framework would be strengthened for confiscating the proceeds of crime. Aidan McQuade, director of charity Anti-Slavery International, questioned whether the government’s strategy went far enough. He said: “If you leave an employment relationship, even if you’re suffering from any sort of exploitation up to and including forced labour, even if you’re suffering from all sorts of physical and sexual violence, you’ll be deported. “So that gives an enormous power in the hands of unscrupulous employers. And frankly the protections which the government has put in place are not worth the paper they’re written on in order to prevent this sort of exploitation once they’ve given employers that sort of power.” The new estimate is based on a statistical analysis by the Home Office chief scientific adviser, Professor Bernard Silverman, which aims for the first time to calculate the "dark figure" of victim numbers who are not reported to the law enforcement agencies. "Modern slavery is very often deeply hidden and so it is a great challenge to assess its scale," he said. "The data collected is inevitably incomplete and, in addition, has to be very carefully handled because of its sensitivity. " 
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This report makes it clear that 13,000 slaves in modern Britain must be an underestimate. When I was born there were no slaves in Britain - but fifty years of dominant and accelerating Leftism have succeeded in re-establishing slavery - as a permanent feature. 
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The newspaper report also makes it clear that slavery is here to stay - because the government is more concerned about the 'sensitivity' of the data (i.e. not mentioning that these new slave holders are recent migrants and immigrants) than actually abolishing slavery.
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The whole tone of the report makes it clear that eradicating slavery is a long-term, bureaucratic 'project' of the type which is guaranteed not to solve the problem - but instead feed-off the problem: to create and entrench a bureaucracy which 'addresses' 'issues around' slavery. 
If the British government wanted to eradicate modern slavery as a genuine priority then there would not have been any modern slavery in the first place; if they wanted to eradicate slavery as a priority they would just go-ahead and do it in - what? - four weeks, a fortnight? Given the will, it is trivially easy; and has been done many times and in many places
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But by placing racial sensitivity as a higher priority than eradicating slavery, the Leftist establishment in the mass media, government, civil service, educational and legals systems, police and military... they will perpetuate slavery in Britain forever - because it was the inverted-racism of Political Correctness which caused modern British slavery in the first place. 

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And ZERO HOURS - a euphemism for slavery.

Bruce Charlton said...

@tlf - Actually, I think it's very different from slavery - or, at least, in Britain today a zero hours contract in practice is qualitatively different from slavery in practice.

Bruce Charlton said...

The re-emergence of slavery is yet another example of modern incompetence. Something which was possible 200 years ago has become in practice impossible to a modern government. It is pathetic, and the excuses for failure are pathetic cubed.

Nicholas Fulford said...

Illegal immigration makes those immigrants vulnerable to exploitation by their "employers".

Two problems exist to create this situation. The first is the problem of illegal immigrants - however they end up in the country. The second is the power to exploit that this gives to those who use people as slaves. The fear of deportation is exploited to coerce obedience. It permits slavery to occur.

So what is the solution?

Severe punishment for "snakeheads" is essential, as is a means to break the coercive power given to them by fear of deportation that is common amongst enslaved people. This requires some change to policy so that enslaved people have a path to becoming landed immigrants.

Anonymous said...

@Bruce Charlton " zero hours qualitatively different" - at least slaves have security - zero hour contracts tie workers to an employer without offering them any guarantee of work. It's a shocking development in our world that IS enslavement. I just, last week, heard the stories of the abuse care workers receive on zero hours contracts. It is evil. It is not called slavery - but should be.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Fulford, you are mistaken. The only means to eliminate unsanctioned migration is to utterly prohibit any adjustment of status for immigrants unlawfully remaining in your country. Crush all hope, and none will make the attempt.

Regarding so-called snake-heads, penalties should be so severe that escape to war-zones is preferable. When traffickers attempt suicide upon discovery, you're headed in the right direction.