Dani Garavelli: Poetic round of applause leaves behind a bitter taste

By Dani Garavelli
Published 19th Apr 2020, 07:59 BST
Updated 19th Apr 2020, 11:08 BST
Comment
It emerged that picking fruit was more of a skill than the Tory government had suggested. Picture: GettyIt emerged that picking fruit was more of a skill than the Tory government had suggested. Picture: Getty
It emerged that picking fruit was more of a skill than the Tory government had suggested. Picture: Getty
Remember those days – a few weeks/a lifetime ago – when Brexit was all we talked about. Deadlines and trade deals and a points-based immigration system which the government assured us would be the foundation of a high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy.

The points-based immigration system is still visible on government websites, like an ode to pre-coronavirus folly.

“For too long, distorted by European free movement, the immigration system has been failing to meet the needs of the British people,” it reads. “We need to shift the focus of our economy away from a reliance on cheap labour from Europe and instead concentrate on investment in technology and automation.”

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Tell that to the 150 Romanian workers recently disgorged on to the tarmac at Stansted Airport from a special charter plane; these fruit and vegetable pickers, so frequently derided, are now being praised as part of the “Land Army” that will save our crops from rotting in the field.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs put out an appeal to create a home-grown Land Army, but it appears some indigenous workers are less willing or able to live away from home or undertake such back-breaking toil.

Though 32,000 Britons signed up for the scheme, only 4,000 made themselves available for interview, and only 500 have been employed. Even if enough were willing, the farms could not rely on a purely homegrown workforce because new starts would need to be trained up. Apparently picking fruit requires skill after all.

Nor was our pre-coronavirus bigotry confined to EU citizens; the people featured in that disgusting Nigel Farage Breaking Point poster weren’t from Poland or the former Baltic states – they were from across the world: the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, the Far East. All countries without whose citizens our NHS and our care homes could not function at this or any other time.