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<p><i>Alistair Carmichael's "The week in Parliament":</i></p>
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<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
If there has been a theme to the events of Parliament in the
last week it has been on immigration – and the Conservative
Party’s ongoing disintegration. Between the government’s
flailing attempts to rescue its “Rwanda” scheme – pouring yet
more money into an immoral and unworkable plan – and its plans
to cut regular migration with harsh and counterproductive new
rules, Rishi Sunak’s goal appears to be cruelty at all costs,
no matter the harm to our economy or health service.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">Astonishingly,
for many on the Tory right even this does not appear to be
sufficient, with Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick quitting
dramatically in protest at the Rwanda scheme – not because it
was too ridiculous, but because it was not ridiculous enough.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
<strong>Human consequences of Tory prejudice on family visa
restrictions</strong></p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
Amongst the many other populist postures outlined in the
government’s “plan” this week was a hike in the minimum income
required for British citizens who want to bring a foreign
family member or partner to live with them, from £18,600 to
£38,700 a year. That is not just more than double the previous
requirement – it is higher than the median salary for every
part of the UK, bar London.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
I cannot help but reflect on what this new threshold could
mean for people in the isles. I have already heard of people
being affected by the changes and I fear more will appear in
the days to come. This is the human face of the consequences
of Tory prejudice.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
In the isles, we all know someone who is an immigrant to the
UK, or who is married to one. They are valued members of our
community, as much as anyone else. The government’s measures
announced this week will not change that fact, but they risk
discouraging future generations from joining our community. In
the long term we will all be the poorer for that.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
Over the years I have helped hundreds of constituents with
immigration issues, helping people to bring their families
back together or secure visas for their spouses. That is just
a part of the job of a constituency MP but those successes,
when they come, are some of the most rewarding.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
I shall challenge the proposals in Parliament in any way
possible and I would urge anyone affected to contact my
office.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"><strong>Crippling
visa restrictions on fishing workers</strong></p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
There are of course more specific harms caused by the new
rules, particularly for our fishing industries. Having
hammered fishermen earlier in the year with their sudden
imposition of new rules on visas for deckhand workers, this
week the government doubled down.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
A hike in the salary requirements to secure worker visas is
bad enough, but it comes on top of inflexible rules which
demand that these workers pass stringent English language
tests, a point I <a
href="https://click.ngpvan.com/k/74885733/442939139/1748100591?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9MSUJVSy9MSUJVSy8xLzM4NTM1IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjZjZmYmI0LWNhOTYtZWUxMS04OTI1LTAwMjI0ODIyM2YzNiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicmljYXJkaWFuQGNsYXJlbW9udHN0cm9uc2F5LmNvLnVrIg0KfQ%3D%3D&hmac=9aqan9xDgez9cHGH_9ysRM0eKtGLZQ7m4po6OcQBo4g=&emci=fc28f14d-ca96-ee11-8925-002248223f36&emdi=5cf6fbb4-ca96-ee11-8925-002248223f36&ceid=397233"
style="text-decoration: underline; color: #2b59c3;">highlighted
in Parliament on Tuesday.</a></p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
This is not about any inability to speak English. This is
about barring people – whose valued skills have nothing to do
with language – on the basis of their ability to talk about
Shakespeare.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
I have heard of one local skipper in the isles who tried the
language test himself and failed – because of the speed of
typing required. If a native English speaker cannot pass such
a test it suggests that something is not quite right here.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
The Home Secretary is completely clueless of the needs of
island communities. For the sake of a newspaper front page
today he risks crippling the fishing industry for years to
come.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"><strong> </strong></p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"><strong>New data
on poverty shows two child limit must be scrapped</strong></p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
The two-child limit – a rule brought in by the Conservatives
which blocks additional child credits for children after the
first two – has long been a sore point across the country. <a
href="https://click.ngpvan.com/k/74885734/442939140/-1746055891?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9MSUJVSy9MSUJVSy8xLzM4NTM1IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjZjZmYmI0LWNhOTYtZWUxMS04OTI1LTAwMjI0ODIyM2YzNiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicmljYXJkaWFuQGNsYXJlbW9udHN0cm9uc2F5LmNvLnVrIg0KfQ%3D%3D&hmac=9aqan9xDgez9cHGH_9ysRM0eKtGLZQ7m4po6OcQBo4g=&emci=fc28f14d-ca96-ee11-8925-002248223f36&emdi=5cf6fbb4-ca96-ee11-8925-002248223f36&ceid=397233"
style="text-decoration: underline; color: #2b59c3;">Analysis
by End Child Poverty</a> this week has found that 250
children in Orkney and 260 in Shetland are affected by the
two-child limit policy. The overall child poverty rate in
Orkney is 20.1%, while in Shetland it is 15.4%.
</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">These figures
point once again to how absurd the two-child limit really is.
If people need help they need help regardless of how many
children they have. You cannot imagine a parent being turned
away at a hospital if their third child was ill or denied
access to a school.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
This policy is a punishment on children through no fault of
their own. It is past time the government saw sense and
scrapped the limit outright.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"><strong>Challenging
the indiscriminate loss of journalists in Gaza</strong></p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists have found
that 57 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Gaza
Strip since the 7th of October – the worst period for the
killing of journalists since the start of records in 1992. I
raised these figures in Parliament on Monday, to call upon
foreign office ministers to challenge the Israeli government
on this unacceptable situation.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
The response was lacking, to say the least. If the government
does not think that killing 57 journalists doing vital work in
Gaza is “indiscriminate” then I dread to imagine what would
qualify in their eyes.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
Journalists in conflict zones cannot be considered legitimate
targets. That so many have been killed in these attacks at
best suggests a scattergun, haphazard approach by the Israeli
military. If our government cannot stand up for restraint then
we can only expect to see more of these losses.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"><strong>Scots
Trad Music Awards recognised in Parliament</strong></p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">
And finally – on a happier note, I was glad lodge
parliamentary motions this week recognising the winners of the
Scots Trad Music Awards. It was an opportunity to single out
the success of the Orkney Folk Festival as “Event of the Year”
and Mhari McLeman, long-time volunteer at the Shetland Folk
Festival as “Traditional Music Enabler of the Year”, as well
as the success of Skipinnish song “The Clearances Again” – a
piece which gained attention as a protest against the
SNP-Green governments HPMA proposals. Twenty years on and the
Scots Trad Music Awards go from strength to strength, as does
the Scottish folk scene.
</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">Folk music is
part of the fabric and furniture of the isles – it is always
worth recognising those who maintain and build those
traditions. The award to “The Clearances Again” goes to show
the power that music has to move and motivate people – long
may that continue.</p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;mso-line-height-alt:16.8px">As ever, if there
are any issues that you would like to raise with me, please do
not hesitate to get in touch - and for specific casework
matters you can contact me at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:alistair.carmichael.mp@parliament.uk">alistair.carmichael.mp@parliament.uk</a>.</p>
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