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| I see Nigel Farage has
managed to create a bit of a fuss again. Personally I don't know what everybody's getting so het up about though. Just to remind you Nigel has suggested that employers should be allowed to show bias to employees of a particular nationality rather than choose on merit. On paper I can understand how people might think that Farage is been racist here. But if you think about its a bit of a step forward in Nigel's thinking. After all in his world you don't select people for jobs based on what country they come from. No you pick them based on what school they attended. So I see it as a step forward for Nigel to consider people from state schools. Or am I misreading what he's suggesting? Being serious for a minute though I don't think Farage has thought this through. Firstly is he implying that British worker's can't get jobs on their own merit? Not a very positive message is it? Secondly if an employer is allowed to select employees on nationality instead of merit what's to stop them selecting non British employees (for example if they felt Polish workers were more efficient and cheaper). Thirdly what he's suggesting sounds to me very much like positive discrimination. Very similar to the suggestion that employers should show bias to under represented demographics (for example women in the boardroom or black coaches in top level football). I somehow suspect that he would be very much against such a thing - and as luck would have it here's an article where he discusses the very subject. Ultimately though of course Nigel doesn't intend to implement any such rule. In fact its a dog whistle signal intended to ingratiate himself with the voters. In other Farage related news I see he's letting his true colours show on the NHS. Apparently the NHS nearly killed him and so it should be privatised. Hopefully this won't backfire on him next time he has a plane accident and needs an ambulance. **
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the 10th anniversary celebration for the Doghouse in Halifax. This isn't as dodgy as it might sound. The Doghouse are not for profit live music promoters based in Halifax. Without being patronising to Halifax it is a bit off the beaten track for gigs. I think its a real credit to the organisers to have consistently put on good shows for 10 years. The audience always seem enthusiastic as well. I don't think I've ever been to a Doghouse gig which hasn't featured some enthusiastic dancing at some point or other. They support local talent both from Yorkshire and the other side of the pennines plus they attract bigger names on occasion. I've personally been to a number of great gigs at the Doghouse over the years. In fact I wrote a review for Sandman magazine of the first ever time I visited the Doghouse back in 2008. Here for the first time on the web is the unedited version of my review (the editor took most of the first couple of paragraphs out presumably because it wasn't talking about the music). Saturday's gig was as good as ever. A brilliant performance from Post War Glamour Girls was the highlight but all the acts we saw were impressive. For more information about the Doghouse take a look here. |
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