Here is the news article:
Following the government’s new measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, pubs, restaurants, cafes and gyms have closed their doors.
With almost everyone working from home, it really feels like the country has ground to a halt, as the need to “flatten the curve” of new infections becomes even more urgent.
The only people who remain at work are those on the government’s newly published essential "key workers” list.
From health to the food industry, these workers are on the front lines to keep Britain working in these incredibly challenging times.
But many of these jobs weren’t considered valuable just a few weeks ago. Remember when home secretary Priti Patel unveiled those shiny new post-Brexit immigration controls in February?
Patel’s new guidelines were modelled on the “Australian points-based” system and unsurprisingly, it was awful. Under the proposed new rules, those earning under £25,000 per year were not be allowed entry to the UK unless the government deems there to be a shortage in the particular sector.
But others earning under the £25,000 benchmark were deemed “low-skilled” (this is how Patel described them during an interview with BBC Breakfast). She even admitted, in a later chat with LBC Radio, that her own parents – who migrated to the UK in the 1960s – would not have been able to move here under the new rules.
It turns out that many of the workers deemed “key” during the coronavirus pandemic were also deemed “low-skilled” just a few weeks ago.
“Low-waged” doesn’t equal “low skilled” at any time. But there’s a significant correlation between jobs on the Department of Education’s new list of essential “key” workers (whose children can still be educated because they’ll still have to work) and jobs that wouldn’t meet the government’s salary threshold according to February’s guidelines.
As Britain embraces this new way of life it’s important to remember that many of the “key” workers on the front lines were deemed too “low skilled” to be allowed into the UK to work just a few weeks ago.
Here’s a list of 10 “key” jobs that wouldn’t have made the cut: