It is clear that whatever this new piece of legislation contains and however it will actually operate that if I was a very wealthy but unskilled person who wanted to bring in a few million pounds or dollars or possibly Euros, that I could ignore all of the criteria that this image sets out and move into Central London or wherever I wanted to go. Indeed if I was prepared to give a few hundred thousand or one or two millions to the Conservative Party that in due course I would be given a place in the House of Lords or some other opportunity to benefit from my money, even if I had no skills and was not willing to adopt any other criteria.

By the same token if I am British and want to retire in Europe or indeed elsewhere, that our Government won’t object to that, even though their desire to end a free movement seems to be very straightforward based on this tweet. One cannot imagine Nigel Lawson being called to return from France or indeed any of the other people who are well known and who live overseas being sent a message to ask them to return to the UK because our Government and apparently the British People want them to do so. Along with Nigel Lawson of course there are other people such as James Dyson and Jim Ratcliff who have moved out of the UK even though they want barriers closed down for other people. I wonder what impact that will have on this law?

Over many years I have had the privilege to meet many people from many nations who have come to the UK for a wide range of reasons. A great many of them had very substantial skills, but an equally large number either had no skills or were certainly being invited to work in settings where the skill requirements were not measurable. A large number of Australian people helping to serve people in pubs in London was one classic example.

The problem is this sort of material will get used by certain people who are looking for an excuse to threaten people from other nations. As for defining skills or ignoring the need for skills when it comes to wealthy people. That will all be happening behind closed doors. All of this sadly is diminishing the value of a nation that once upon time, not many years ago was willing to stand up to defend the weak and the vulnerable people throughout the world.