Effective Government
No one is asking the airlines to replace immigration policy. I think the point here is not about being racist or xenophobic, I have made no mention of race, colour or creed the only issue here is passport. It would be racist to assume that having a British passport assumes anything other than that you are British. This issue here is about non EU passport holders. Many other countries put their nationals first and we don't which is why our economy is slowing compared to the other major European nations.
I have no problem with a controlled immigration policy that works on a points system whereby only those people of significant economic or educational, etc benefit are allowed to apply to live and work here. Before you tell me that we have a fair system, please tell me why asylum seekers and economic migrants queue up in France to get to UK having travelled from places like Eritrea, Iran, India, etc if their lot was so bad they would be content to be out of their home country where they have left to avoid war, pestilence, famine or maybe just a lack of prospects. Why would they choose UK over France, Germany, etc could it be because we have the weaker immigration policy.
The caveat should however be that work permits are ONLY given when a British airline can demonstrate that they CANNOT fill their cockpits with a qualified British or EU passport holder (in that order)
i.e. I genuinely believe that you should turn down a suitably qualified national from ANY country other than Britain with 4000hrs in favour of a 2500hr British pilot for a Captains position as an example.
I assume that the government that you talk of is the same government that allows the DfT and CAA to do nothing about the appalling attitude of security staff at our major airports which causes many of us daily misery. The same government that sends our troops under equipped to war. The same government that squanders money on people too idle to help themselves which it could spend on those who actually deserve helping and the same government that is meant to be watching over people like Haringey council. Is this the government of which you speak because their track record of doing the right thing at the right time is hardly glowing.
Would be nice if they got tough on newly qualified CPL debt, tough on the causes of newly qualified CPL debt...