GREAT BRITAIN: LOSING ITS BEST AND BRIGHTEST - DUE TO LEFTISM

TIMES OF LONDON:

In all the anxiety about migration, which is an infuriating new euphemism for immigration, little is said about emigration. Yet just as immigration has hugely increased, so has emigration. In particular, large numbers of skilled Britons are emigrating. Perhaps that doesn’t mean much and perhaps, in the churning melting pot of 21st-century globalisation, it doesn’t matter much, but it is striking.

According to new figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Britain is going through the biggest brain drain of any country and its biggest exodus for more than 50 years; one in 10 of our most highly skilled graduates has left and no other nation is losing so many qualified people; overall, only Mexico has more emigrants.

There are now more than 3.2m British-born people living abroad; of them 1.1m are highly skilled university graduates, according to the exhaustive OECD report. Of these professionals, more than three-quarters have lived abroad for more than 10 years.

Their most favoured destinations, rather unsurprisingly, are North America, the Antipodes, Spain and France. Figures from the Office for National Statistics for 2006 show that 207,000 Britons left that year - one every three minutes.

UK TELEGRAPH:

Britain's exodus is far higher than any of the OECD's other 29 members. Germany has lost only 860,000 highly-skilled workers, America 410,000 and France 370,000.

The OECD found that 27.3 per cent of those emigrating had health or education qualifications, 37.7 per cent had humanities or social science degrees and 28.5 per cent were scientists or engineers.

Britain has a shortage of graduates in many of these fields and universities have long warned that some of the brightest hopes are being lost to higher salaries abroad.

The report cited research suggesting that 62 per cent of the world's "star scientists" live in the US, primarily because of the efforts made by American research universities to attract them.

Danny Sriskandarajah, a migration expert at the IPPR think-tank, said: "There is a long-term trend of British people lured abroad by a slightly better lifestyle.

SO HOW'S THE LEFTIST LABOUR PM GORDON BROWN GONNA STEM THE FLOW? HE ISN'T. UNBELIEVABLY, HE'S GOING TO RAISE TAXES EVEN MORE:

I have never known so many City friends get so angry about anything as they are now over the Government's tax proposals for non-domiciliaries. One Canadian trader friend, who has worked on and off in the UK for 15 years and is now with a big European bank, told me last week that if ministers go through with the £30,000 levy on "non-doms" then he will return to Bermuda, where he has worked for the past few years.

He's well paid by most standards – if not City ones – with a basic salary of £100,000 a year plus the same again as a bonus. He has a small house bought for his retirement in Vancouver, which he lets out, paying tax on the income in Canada. Under the new rules he will have a choice: pay a £30,000 levy, or become liable to UK tax on the rental profit. If he doesn't declare it as worldwide income, he pays the £30,000. He already pays the same income tax on his £200,000 as you or I would.

My trader friend lives outside London, spends a fortune on train travel into the City, sends his daughter to a private school and pays for his family's healthcare. You can see why he is angry; he's not a drain on the state, quite the reverse, as he has more to spend on goods in this country than most. He says many of his non-domiciled City colleagues are also contemplating leaving.

I know many others – French and US bankers and Moroccan hedge-fund traders – who say this will tip them into quitting the UK too. Quite apart from the extra money they may have to pay, they are being made to feel unwelcome.

I don't believe these are empty threats. All these people are highly educated, sophisticated and well travelled; they are the new international nomadic tribe, which migrates easily to the best work. While they may prefer the lycée in Kensington for their children, they would be equally at home in Dubai or Dublin.

About 40 per cent of all investment bankers working in the City are estimated to be non-doms; that's about 40,000 people. Of these it is estimated that about 70 per cent of the City's senior talent is non-domiciled while even more of the younger graduate recruits are foreign, many of them having studied in the UK. How this group is going to be treated under the proposals is crucial because they could find themselves paying the levy after only three years working if their period in education is included in the seven years.

• HISTORY IS REPLETE WITH EVIDENCE FROM ALL QUARTERS THAT SOCIALIST POLICIES SUCK BIGTIME:
• PRE-REAGAN USA, PRE-THATCHER UK, PRE-DENG XIAO PING CHINA, THE USSR, MUGABE'S ZIMBABWE, FIDEL'S CUBA, THE KOREAS AND HUGO'S VENEZUELA, TO NAME BUT A FEW!
• HIGHER TAXES AND SOCIALIST REDISTRIBUTION SCHEMES ALWAYS FAIL,
• YET LEFTISTS LIKE BROWN AND HILLARY AND OBAMA STILL PROMOTE THEM.

WHY!?

• IN PART IT'S DEMAGOGUERY: THEY TRY TO EXPLOIT CLASS-WARFARE AND STIR UP COVETOUSNESS IN ORDER TO GET ELECTED.
• (THEY PROMISE TO TAKE SOMETHING AWAY FROM THE OTHER GUY AND GIVE IT TO YOU.)
  
• AND IT'S PART DISTRUST OF THE FREE MARKET AND OF THE PUBLIC:
  
• THEY THINK THAT AN ELITIST GROUP OF WELL-MEANING LIBERAL GENIUSES (A POLITBURO) CAN MAKE BETTER DECISIONS AND EFFECTUATE BETTER OUTCOMES THAN THE FREE MARKET.
• REALITY PROVES THAT A FREEMARKET IS THE MOST EFFICIENT AT THIS - IN ADDITION TO BEING THE MOST MORAL POLITICAL ORDER.
  
• BUT MANY IN THE PUBLIC HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED BY THE LEFT-WING DOMINATED ACADEMY, AND THE LEFT-WING DOMINATED MSM.
• THEY FEEL THAT A BENEVOLENT DICTATORSHIP - A NANNYSTATE - IS SAFER AND MORE SECURE THAN TRYING TO HACK IT INDEPENDENTLY, ON ONE'S OWN.
• THAT'S WHY THEY WANT A PATERNAL NANNYSTATE.
• AND THEY VOTE FOR THE DEMAGOGUES WHO PROMISE THEM ONE.
• LIKE HUGO CHAVEZ. LIKE HILLARY AND OBAMA.
  

IT'S TIME EVERYONE GREW UP, ACCEPTED THEIR OWN INDEPENDENCE FROM THE STATE AND STOPPED LOOKING FOR A NANNY.

AND IT'S TIME THE LEFTIST POLICY-MAKERS STOPPED THE DEMAGOGUING AND STOPPED RAISING TAXES.