The government’s piecemeal and reluctant concession to exempt for one year care workers and NHS workers from the usual high fees for their visa applications has come under criticism from the cross-party Home Affairs select committee. Such criticism is well deserved: the policy is mean spirited, not only in its exclusion of many very low-paid key workers, but in the way it divides such key workers. That division is either the result of a deliberate policy decision or a disturbing oversight. The only conclusion that can properly be drawn from the policy is that some key workers are in the Home Office’s eyes more key than others.