One of many “interesting” pieces of news coming out of the Tory Party conference is that the government wants to force companies to declare how many foreigners they employ. This is apparently intended to shame companies into employing more British workers. A few thoughts come to mind.

Firstly, is anyone bringing a case against the government under the Equality Act? Because the last time I looked discrimination in employment on the basis of ethnicity was illegal.

Second, as far as my own companies are concerned (all of which have precisely one employee, me), I would like to declare that we are 100% foreign owned and staffed. I do this for a number of reasons:

• We all know that when the Tories say “British” they mean “English”
• My boyfriend is American, and his chances of ever getting to live here with me have just gone from slim to zero
• I can recognize a scapegoat strategy when I see one, and I know all too well that when one group of scapegoats has been exhausted another will have to be found. LGBT+ people are always high on the list of possible “others” to be denounced
• And quite frankly, who would want to identify as British right now? The country is on a fast track to becoming an international pariah

I am reminded that Iain Banks destroyed his British passport in protest over the Iraq war. Goodness only knows what he’d be thinking right now if he were alive to see this.