Tax numbers have no bearing at all on your right to work. If you work legally in the UK for a while then you get a national insurance number but if you then leave and your work visa expires, your national insurance number remains as an identifier.
Checking for right to work has been legally required for over a decade. Checks in the formal economy are now routine. Can sometimes be a nuisance, like for my friend who doesn't have a passport and his driving license was issued before those went photographic.
Someone who is prepared to pay people smugglers to help them cross a border illegally may not choose to restrict themselves to working in "the formal economy".
"Illegal working and streams of taxis - BBC gains rare access inside asylum hotels"
I have never seen a report of a business ending because of a fine. I have seen reports of hospitality business having to close because they lost their alcohol licence, where the licencee employing illegal immigrants was deemed not to be a fit and proper person.
On paper, the punishment for hiring illegal labour is £45k per worker for the first offence and up to £60k for repeat offences[0]. That's enough to ruin a small business.
Whether or not these laws are actually enforced is another matter. [Insert obligatory reference to Turkish barbershops]. But I've been asked to show ID at every job I've ever had, so companies obviously care about it even if the risk is low.
It's a popular stereotype in the UK (although it only seems to have arisen in the last year or so) that "Turkish barbershops" are a front for money laundering.
They're certainly suspicious: all across the country, high street retailers are going bust, and yet somehow all these barbershops, nail salons, takeaway joints etc are staying in business, able to afford prime commercial real estate even though you never see anyone in there getting their hair cut or their nails done.
I don't know why the Turks in particular are being singled out, but that's the meme. The "American Candy Stores" in London are another famous example.
There's an old saying where I'm from that the barbershop is the safest line of work because everyone needs their hair cut.
Where I am, admittedly in the Netherlands but I grew up in the UK and haven't noticed a huge difference, nail salons are always quite full when I pass, and I see food delivery drivers almost every time I look out the window. Similarly the barbers always seem to have clients. Could be the time of day you look?
Just going to throw it out there that it's a bit disconcerting to see these kind of criminal stereotypes associated with a certain people on HN.
In the town I live there are 3 (or 4) barbershops - one Turkish and the rest are British - I don’t notice any difference, they all have a long queue on Saturdays but empty in the middle of a working day.
Recently the prime minister delivered a speech and then later walked the entire thing back saying that he hadn't read it before delivering it. A man who has declared that he is nothing more than a text to speech engine probably doesn't have a plan.
I hurt my arm a while back and the ER guy didn't spot the radial head fracture, but the specialist did. No big deal since the treatment was the same either way.
When I was growing up, it was extremely common for left wing artists to rework and subvert corporate art. It is sad to see activists now so limited in their imagination that their strategy is to run to tell the corporate lawyers. If you wish for more corporate control of intellectual property, well I'm sure the Republicans and the Democrats will both be happy to oblige.
> When I was growing up, it was extremely common for left wing artists to rework and subvert corporate art.
For as long as there has been corporate art there have been artists and activists subverting it. Before corporate art, the same thing happened with religious art.
> It is sad to see activists now so limited in their imagination that their strategy is to run to tell the corporate lawyers.
This isn't a case of people tattling to Nintendo because some random person drew a comic they didn't like. This is people wielding what little power they have against the State.
> If you wish for more corporate control of intellectual property, well I'm sure the Republicans and the Democrats will both be happy to oblige.
I don't see how this cedes more power to corporations either. This doesn't involve or require Nintendo to flex some power they haven't used many, many times before.
" The best magicians make it look like magic even when you know how the trick is done. "
Agree with this. I remember being the 'skeptic kid' at a birthday party long ago. The magician involved me in a trick everyone could figure out but it was done with charm and I was completely delighted.
