Who killed the great British curry house? (2017)

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/12/who-killed-the-british-curry-house

28 30 3 years ago

paxys3• 3 years ago

In fact, Khan was one of many curry house owners who backed Brexit in 2016, in the hope that exiting the EU would bring more favourable terms for south Asian immigrants. The president of the BCA, Pasha Khandaker, explicitly urged the association’s 4,000 members to vote leave, while the then employment minister, Priti Patel, told British Asian voters that by voting leave, they could “save our curry houses and join the rest of the world”.

This part is hilarious and telling. I will never understand how politicians so easily get people to vote against their own interests.

DC-32• 3 years ago

Was it wrong? As I understand, South Asian immigration to the UK has increased since Brexit.

paxys3• 3 years ago

Yes it was wrong, and the article being discussed points out exactly why.

Aromasin• 3 years ago

See quote from article:

... Since the Brexit vote and the subsequent collapse of the pound, independent food outlets of all kinds have been hurt by rises in rents, rates and food prices. Meanwhile, in families that run curry houses younger generations have moved away from catering to more lucrative jobs in medicine or tech. So long as there was a ready supply of new onion choppers from Asia, the exodus of upwardly mobile offspring did not affect curry houses too much. The real blow came when a harsh new politics of immigration came in, which made it harder for skilled south Asian chefs to work in the country, just as the wider British public were changing the ways in which they consumed curry...
... It is now dawning that under Theresa May’s government, the prospect of more Bangladeshi chefs being granted work visas is more distant than ever. A law that came into effect in April 2016 states that a skilled chef from south Asia must earn £35,000 or more a year, after deductions for accommodation and meals, to come work in a British restaurant that also offers a takeaway service. (The figure is only slightly lower for restaurants without takeaways.) Lord Bilimoria, the entrepreneur behind Cobra beer, is part of an all-party parliamentary group lobbying to reverse the law, which he calls “ridiculous” and “discriminatory”. No ordinary curry chef earns £35,000 (the industry average is £22-25,000 but the cooks who marinate lamb chops and mix raita get less)...

In short, while axing immigration from the EU we also made it impossible for any working class migrant outside the EU to cross our borders. I'm sure all these worker shortages in agriculture/industry/hospitality/services/healthcare/construction are doing wonders for our nations' economic growth...

wrp• 3 years ago

It would be helpful here to have an explanation of how this story fits with the actual increase of immigration since Brexit.

gettodachoppa• 3 years ago

Why do you act like it's a given that it's in a British citizen's interest to increase immigration? This goes for British citizens of South Asian descent. What have they got to gain?

I'm always surprised to see people with this "we need endless immigration or you won't have diverse restaurants" mentality. And it's always coming from the most privileged people in society, and always condescendingly talking down to people who don't vote like they do. (i.e. people like Guardian writers and you)

floren• 3 years ago

"Vote against their own interests" almost always means "vote contrary to my preferences, the imbeciles".

paxys3• 3 years ago

Rtfa. Restaurant owners voted for brexit in the hopes that it would help them import more cheap labor. Surprise – the exact opposite happened.

logifail3• 3 years ago

Since the Brexit vote and the subsequent collapse of the pound

Is there any kind of agreed definition of "collapse"? Currencies rise, currencies fall. The GBPEUR rate today (1.15) appears to be almost exactly the same as it was in early July 2013, almost ten whole years ago.

nmcfarl• 3 years ago

The GBP USD rate went from 1.6245 on Jan 1 2013 to 1.25 today - which is a drop. Perhaps this is what is being focused on.

But your comment is dead on - this doesn’t feel like a collapse it feels like currency fluctuations, at least from the outside.

purpleflame12572• 3 years ago

Some amount of that is also due to the strength of the USD. The Euro was trading higher then as well.

NeoTar• 3 years ago

Looking immediately before the referendum vote and afterwards, the pound fell from 1.3039 to 1.1639 over two weeks - a loss of ten percent which can pretty much directly be attributed to the vote.

When this article was written in January 2017, the pound was at about 1.15, which would have been down from 1.35 a year before - a loss of around 15 percent.

Looking over a broader time-range, before the financial crisis in 2008, the pound was roughly stable at around 1.45 EUR. This fell during the recession years, but was reaching 1.40 levels again in 2015. Since the referendum it has consistently been between roughly 1.20 and 1.10.

So, in summary - there was a fall (not sure I'd necessarily say a collapse) in the value of the pound as a direct response to the Brexit referendum. However the pound had been low (c. 1.15) in value since 2007, apart from a bump in mid-2014 to mid-2016

logifail3• 3 years ago

Looking immediately before the referendum vote and afterwards

Umm, Cameron announced that he would propose to hold a referendum on EU membership if his party won the next general election way back in January 2013 [0]

The GBPEUR midrate at the end of that month was 1.167 [1]

Doesn't look quite as much of a story if one were to write about the British pound "plunging" from 1.167 when the possibility of a Brexit was first mentioned to, umm, 1.15 the day after the vote, does it?

BTW, I fully appreciate that the immediate movement due to the outcome of the vote was large, but there were a lot of expectations baked in, Cameron also promptly resigned after "losing" the vote, and political shocks like those aren't necessarily what you look for if you're hoping for a strong currency!

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jan/23/david-camer... [1] https://www.xe.com/currencytables/?from=GBP&date=2013-01-31

Lastodon• 3 years ago

Not exactly a collapse, and a fall was always going to be the case; Brussels was always going to absolutely murder the first country to leave, as an example to the other states.

LatteLazy• 3 years ago

Are you missing a figure my friend?

The lowest rate I see in July 2013 is 1.48 (NOT 1.148). Todays rate is 1.24. Down 17%?

The usual rate was somewhere around 1.6 pre-Brexit, down ~25%. I think that's a bigger shift than ever seen outside of (other) catastrophes...

https://www.dailyfx.com/gbp-usd

logifail3• 3 years ago

Are you missing a figure my friend?

We're talking about two different currency pairs, I quoted GBP EUR rates, you're referencing GBP USD rates... ?

YeGoblynQueenne• 3 years ago

I couldn't understand why an article (that I posted) about the decline in popularity of British curry houses would be flagged until I read the comments and realised what an idiot I was to not see the opportunity for a political flamewar over a bit of takeaway.

Good job HN. Next time, let's make toilet paper orientation an issue of identity politics.

Who killed the great British curry house? (2017)

Related Stories