Pan-European immigration to the UK currently runs at around 50,000 a year. A third of the net immigration – that is the number of migrants that arrive in the UK minus the number of British citizens who take advantage of the ‘free movement of peoples’ to go and live elsewhere in Europe, and indeed the world. There are fears that this number could rise to 100,000 when (and if) Bulgarian and Romanian workers are able to access the UK employment market.

Nicholas Soames and Frank Field, both ex-ministers, are concerned that these 100,000 people, so keen to obtain employment that they are prepared to travel across the continent, learn a foreign language, and live away from their family and friends, have an unfair advantage against the estimated 1,000,000 young people in the UK who do not have jobs. They say:

Most migrants who come to the UK to work take low-skilled jobs, as we saw following the earlier wave of Eastern European migrants.

Indeed they do. They clean the toilets at Stanstead airport. They queue for mini-buses in the grim early morning British weather for the chance to pull carrots out of the East Anglian soil. They stand for hours gutting bloody chickens in Herefordshire warehouses. They collect together in windswept sidings in Swindon, anxious to be one of the chosen few given the chance to throw the occasional bucket of water at a British Rail train. Some of them stand at traffic lights, keen to earn a few bob by scraping the dead flies off your windscreen. They swab the floor after the Billingsgate fishmarket has finished for the day.

They go home to shared rented rooms, sometimes ‘hot-bunking’ with other Eastern Europeans who have just left their warm bed to work a different shift. They pool their money and cook mass nutritious meals together – aye – sometimes they do take advantage of the fact that our population is so far removed from their lifestyle that we keep ponds full of their favourite food, Carp, just for the fun of catching it and then putting it back for someone else to catch….

Those (currently 50,000 a year) individuals are apparently solely responsible for preventing a tenth of our unemployed youth from being gainfully employed cleaning toilets, digging carrots, gutting chickens, and swilling fish guts. They magically ’get’ these jobs before our youngsters have had the chance…

In order to prevent them doing so, Mssrs Soames and Field wish to reverse the free movement of goods and people in the UK sector of the European Union.

Quite apart from the retaliatory action that is likely to be taken by other European Countries regarding the free movement of European citizens to their shores, I wonder whether Mssrs Soamees and Field can point to even one unemployed British youngster who wishes to take up any of these soon-to-be-available jobs?

The only outcome of their desire to control European migration that I can foresee, is a nationwide shortage of those neatly washed and lined-up-like-sardines carrots, toilets at Stanstead airport being awash with the vomit of returning inebriated hen parties,  a nation forced to return to the days when chickens were sold still feathered and staring at you from the hangman’s noose, and an increase in road traffic accidents created by a million brand new Volkswagen Golf’s (on hire purchase) with their windscreens encrusted by deceased Tipulidae.

Your thoughts on the logical outcome of this proposed policy?

Furor Teutonicus
March 31, 2013 at 20:22

XX I wonder whether Mssrs Soamees and Field can point to even one
unemployed British youngster who wishes to take up any of these
soon-to-be-available jobs? XX

WHY are the given the choice?

I will work for crap Eastern Europe wages, when my landlord charges crappy
East European rent!

miss mildred
March 31, 2013 at 11:22

When I did Open University in the seventies the year after Mr Wilson
started it…..bless him! I got grants for fees for all the 7 long years I
beavered away at it. There were a lot of discussions then about immigration.
Heated discussions at tutorials. It is the main topic that has not gone away.
Like Communism has profoundly changed apart from the Korean madman…..we argued
about that. I got hair dryered by the tutor for saying immigration would turn
into colonialisation by the back door. We would not be able to kick them out,
as we had been turfed out, or extracted ourselves from so many places round
the world. We left a lot behind of benefit and a lot of cultural destruction
in some of those countries. In many of those places no European would survive
for long….we are not welcome and would be harmed if we stayed unprotected.
Now, piled on top of that, we have to face wholesale immigration from a
crumbling EU. The next wave may be very traumatic for us. We made a good
decision not to join the Euro, but still have to bale out other overspenders,
after our own crass Blair/Brown overspending, to fool us with the good life,
on tick, for a few heady years. What fools we were in the noughties to take
the bait….what is done is done!

Ed P March 31, 2013 at 00:44

Why do we condone low-paid jobs? As usual with imperfect laws, the minimum
wage legislation conveniently allows these mundane jobs to be filled legally
at well below the set minimum. So, it’s not the British couch-potatoes at
fault, but crap law which means they’re trapped on benefits. Would you take a
job for less than your benefits? Nor would I in their position.

davidb March 30, 2013 at 23:20

Its happening in all the “richer” member states. I was repeatedly accosted
by East European women asking if I spoke English on a recent trip to Germany.
I always said no – cos they looked like beggers, not lost Americans . I read
in Spiegel and the Economist too I think – about bogus asylum claims in
Germany. The Dutch are voting for parties that want to stop Turks coming in,
the Norwegians seem to have a problem with rape from among followers of the
religion of peace. Its the unintended consequence of free movement rules in
the EU that probably had more to do with the free movement of second home
owners and skilled workers before the accession of dirt poor countries in the
Balkans.

Is it likely that anything will be done about it? Not a snowballs chance in
Hell. But I must say, all the crappy jobs were done in London and Paris 35
years ago as I recall before I took a less PC view of immigration.

JOHYN MALPAS
March 30, 2013 at 23:09

Is not the plan to do away with all European natiomalities. And have a
‘United Europe’ .
Seems to be nearing the acheivement of this – well better
than Napoleon and adolf.
Meanwhile they have made you all stifle yourselves
because you nowadays dare not say you do not like certain types of
foreigners.

adams March 30, 2013 at 20:51

We are no longer talking about immigration now . What is happening is plain
ethnic cleansing . The English and soon the Welsh will be marooned in a multi
racial transit depot NOT of their making . Anna is talking about cleaning
toilets . You could not make it up .

robbo March 30, 2013 at 19:56

There wasnt any mass migration from 1066 to 1948, until the bloody labour
government gave commonwealth citizens british passports, if you want to learn
about british history research alan wilson and baram blacket

Wendi March 30, 2013 at 20:02

That was it, independence of those African countries – under Harold
Wilson’s government I think – kinda back-fired in the long run even though
no-one could have predicted it at the time…

Mudplugger
March 30, 2013 at 21:25

Although guilty of many other things, it’s unfair to blame Harold
Wilson’s government for this one.
Dismantling the ‘empire’ and giving
independence to all the remaining colonies was a pre-requisite commitment
for obtaining American support during WWII and the process began long
before Wilson took over in 1964.
True, it wasn’t necessary to grant a
general freedom of access to Britain as part of the deal, but that bit was
driven by short-term commerce, not long-term strategy, governments of both
parties blindly bowing to the immediate demands of industry without
thinking it through.

Wendi March 31, 2013 at 09:43

I never knew that was a prerequisite for the Americans for giving
their support towards the end of the WWII but I do remember the press on
many Indian families being granted UK citizenship during Wilson’s term,
maybe it was during the sanctions on Rhodesia and when it was finally
granted independence and the whole shabang became Zimbabwe. The UK under
Wilson was fun, I never had a beef with him – it just became a
horror-show under Thatcher!

The Jannie March 30, 2013 at 19:33

Yes, it makes sense. It therefore hasn’t the slightest chance of
happening.

Cascadian March 30, 2013 at 17:27

Perhaps Messrs Soames and Field could apply their considerable “intellect”
to the question of getting the million native layabouts into employment by
assisting Mr Duncan Smith.
A work-for-welfare scheme would cure a multitude
of the problems that ails yUK, without impinging on immigrants doing some of
the unchoice jobs that the natives are allergic to.
At any given moment,
there are millions of miles of yUK highways, city streets and public spaces
that urgently need litter removal, hedge and grass trimming, chewing gum
removal, graffito removal, vomit sluiced away or heaven-forbid snow removed
from pensioners walkways. This work is of a nature akin to the former Forth
Bridge paint job, it would never be complete, thus full-time employment is
assured for the cost of a fluorescent vest, a pair of workgloves and some
basic handtools. Idle hands being employed would also very likely reduce the
petty crime rate.
The true utility of the suggestion is that there is
literally no-cost involved, the proposed workers are already being paid by the
state (thats you, not the government).
I wonder if they can be persuaded to
support this “nasty” proposal.

Wendi March 30, 2013 at 17:28

That makes a lot of sense!

Mewsical March
30, 2013 at 18:37

Yes, it does. God forbid they should pay attention, though.

Wigner’s
Friend March 31, 2013 at 09:03

The Unions would not le tthe labour party support this and the
ilLiberals would see it as a coalition killer.

Cascadian
March 31, 2013 at 18:48

Then the obvious response is do not vote liebour, conmen or
dim-eral. Ignore the unions, their lazy municipal and road workers are
paid to do a portion of this work, strange how they never get round to
do it.

Mewsical March 30,
2013 at 16:45

When I was about 11, I was taken to a political rally in a neighboring
village. I don’t remember who was speechifying, but it was an election year,
1959? I was utterly bored, didn’t really understand what the politician was
talking about of course. Question time arrived, and my companion, nudged me in
the ribs and said “Ask him about immigration.” I stuck up my hand, was invited
to speak, got to my feet and said, “What about immigration?” He blustered a
bit, and had no answer. I could hear sniggering from my companion. I guess
things haven’t changed that much. They didn’t know then, they don’t know now,
and so it goes.

Mudplugger
March 30, 2013 at 18:00

That goes to the source of the problem. In the 1950s & 60s British
manufacturers made a fatal short-termist error. They needed more cheap
workers in the post-war boom to produce their goods, so they brought the
workers to the work. Just imagine if they’d done it the other way round, and
taken the work to the workers.

They could have set up remote factories in the Third-World, close to
where the raw-materials originated, they would have employed many thousands
of locals, which would have driven the economies of those under-developed
nations, thus encouraging more development and employment, causing their
growing populations to stay home to work, instead of emigrating. Those
nations would thus have raised taxes and been able to develop better
infrastructure, thus further sustaining their growth.

And Britain would have been spared the challenge of accommodating vast
volumes of low-grade population at a time when vast volumes of low-grade
population is the last thing a developed country needs. Instead, Britain
would have moved on from metal-bashing and used its global language and
networking benefits to establish higher-value operations in trading,
sciences, professional services, expertise etc. Great thing, hindsight.

binao March 30, 2013 at 18:58

The other option MP was to modernise to increase productivity and
quality.
Not enough took that route either.

binao March 30, 2013 at 15:16

We’re going through a massive and uncomfortable change in population and
culture for no other reason than some half arsed politicians in Westminster
and Brussels have a dream of a European paradise. Regardless of the
consequences. Which are beginning to bite everywhere.
Has any other trading
bloc tried such a thing except by military conquest? Ever?
As if we hadn’t
learned our lesson about migration when we dismantled the Empire.
I don’t
want hear about how, long ago, we migrated en masse, it’s now a different more
populous and developed world; nor about the needs of our ageing population,
because growing the population eternally by migration isn’t a practical
answer.
I’ve moved around a bit here and abroad for work, so I’m well aware
of the benefits as an individual.
This is different, it’s undeclared social
engineering on a continent sized scale.
Just a view.

Wendi March 30, 2013 at 16:40

Maybe the problem stems from a combination of factors – a) the result of
what happens when one ‘strong’ country conquers others with lots of useful
raw materials in their lands untapped by the natives and creates an ‘empire’
and, when it inevitably all goes south and some of the by now educated
natives think the benefits of their country’s resources should be used in
their country and not that of the conquerors, the conquering country has to
leave those previously conquered countries with many now educated in their
language and ‘owing’ citizenship to those still loyal to the originally
conquering country. A bit convoluted but… b) I believe English is the
mandatory 2nd language taught in all schools in the EU as it’s the common
language of global commerce (ROC and Asia aside) so many non-UK citizens
would try their luck in the UK if they can speak some English – and –
although most non-EU emigrants would undoubtedly rather travel to N America,
the UK is the obvious 2nd choice but, unfortunately, it’s neither
geographically large enough to handle the volume nor prepared for the
necessary sociological logistics. It’s my understanding that most of the
‘continental’ EU countries have relatively strict non-EU immigration quotas
in force and that those who risk their families’ life savings and their
lives to sneak into the EU via Mediterranean countries on ‘pateras’ from the
African north coast (and survive the trip) are rounded up and sent back to
their country of origin.

binao March 30, 2013 at 18:49

Not just language and colonial links, part of it is that despite our
gripes, Britain is still a pretty good place live. You won’t starve, it’s
a very tolerant society, freeish healthcare at point of delivery, few
firearms and softy police, by international standards.
Yes we’re too
small for what’s happening, yet the state has become so large it is an
obstacle to anything except spending money, talking, and consuming
forests.

jaded March 30, 2013 at 14:43

The difference between people leaving and arriving might actually be a
small number but what sort of people are coming and going?. Leaving-brain
drainers,retired OAPs with money,decent folk.Arriving-mostly low skilled,no
ties to this country,lots of criminals.It’s not a balanced figure.
Before
you all start shouting about “lots of criminals”,read any big city local paper
in the crime section or CCTV most wanted.
I write from experience.
Get
the lazy fat chavs off benefits and get them doing the jobs our new “vibrant”
incomers are doing.

drsolly
March 30, 2013 at 13:59

My grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe. If they hadn’t been
allowed to come here, I probably wouldn’t exist as they, and my parents, would
have been murdered by the Nazis 40 years later.

So I’m a bit biassed on this subject.

But it seems to me that it’s immoral and unethical to restrict
immigration.

Mudplugger
March 30, 2013 at 14:37

If the EU’s fantasy state of all member countries having identical
economies, identical currency, identical welfare systems, identical
healthcare etc. had already been achieved, then any migration between them
would not raise questions.
The trouble is, that dream-state will probably
never occur, and certainly not in any living child’s lifetime, so the
current situation of dramatically different states of maturity means that
the magnetic attraction of the established states will continue for those
living in the less-developed ones.
Small scale immigration, such as your
grandparents’ move, has always been accommodated and rarely created
problems, progressively bringing different skills and cultures to be blended
into Britain, but the effect of the EU’s mad open-borders approach is one of
sheer volume, beyond the scope of any nation to absorb without unacceptable
stresses.
I don’t accept ‘immoral’ or ‘unethical’ – it’s about achieving
and maintaining the greatest good for the greatest number of your people,
which should be the target objective of any national government. That has
not been the case with the UK government since 1973.

Lucozade March 30, 2013 at 14:39

drsolly,

Re: “My grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe. If they hadn’t
been allowed to come here, I probably wouldn’t exist as they, and my
parents, would have been murdered by the Nazis 40 years later”

For those reasons it definitely would be unethical to restrict
immigration, I suppose a line always has to be drawn somewhere with
everything though….

Unless we just say we’re all from “Europe” and not Britain etc….

Ted Treen March 30, 2013 at 14:42

“But it seems to me that it’s immoral and unethical to restrict
immigration.”

Not quite. It may be illegal and unethical to restrict genuine
asylum-seekers and political refugees (with exceptions for people like Hamza
and Qatada) there is nothing immoral OR unethical about restricting ECONOMIC
migration, especially where an alien culture is to be established and paid
for by the rest of us.

Contrary to the left’s vilification of anyone questioning unbridled
immigration as “Racist”, sensible discourse with all manner of indigenous
Brits would show that very few give a damn about race or skin colour – it’s
having an alien culture foisted upon them against their wishes and those
same Brits being asked – no, ORDERED – to change their way of life to suit
the incomers.

It’s just a recipe for trouble.

Mina Field
March 30, 2013 at 16:14

@Ted Treen
‘Ordered to change our way of life’

Thanks, you’ve summed up my feelings there in that short line.

Clot Hilde March 30, 2013 at 13:51

Ah, the legendary fruit and vegetable shortages of pre-97 before we were
saved by our kindly east European benefactors in a sort of reverse Berlin
airlift (this time coachloads of Poles parachuting into the Fens, each nobly
armed with an asparagus cutter.)

I say legendary because they never happened. We had fruit and vegetables,
clean toilets, taxis and so on before uncontrolled immigration.
Mildly
cheaper cauliflowers are a high price to pay to live in a country modelled on
Terminal 3 after the fourth fog bound day.

This is vaguely reminiscent of the Guardian, which runs articles on odd and
even days about 1) how there are no jobs due to the Tory Cuts and 2) the
immigrants are necessary and only coming to do the jobs British people won’t
do…

Demetrius March
30, 2013 at 13:05

As someone who did clean railway carriages once, albeit a long time ago, as
well as other manual labourer jobs, they were done for the money and not the
joy of it. Had a generous state given me enough to avoid it I would have
grabbed it and stayed in bed instead of getting up at 6. a.m, or 6 p.m when on
long night shifts. As I have tried to point out, all humanity is related and
all those with blue eyes are alleged to have a common ancestor from the area
of the Black Sea not all that long ago. Migration has been the norm down the
ages. But in the past it was one thing, with many millions now on the move and
more millions likely to, it raises a lot of difficult questions. Especially in
territories who rely on major imports for food, energy and basic consumables
to sustain their populations.

Jonathan Mason
March 30, 2013 at 13:25

When I was a student in the late 60s and early 70s I usually worked in
agriculture in the summer holidays. This was usually picking hops, (though I
also did potatoes in October), a task formerly done by large numbers of East
Enders who went and camped on farms in Kent, but by the time I was doing it
the work was much more automated. Nevertheless I spent hours walking with a
billhook and chopping bines until my hands were a mass of scratches and I
could hardly move my fingers. No doubt Health and Safety regs these days
would provide gloves. After a year and a bit of this I was promoted to
driving a tractor, which I did with great elan and in an incredibly
dangerous manner, making skid turns on muddy tracks by using the
differential brakes. These tractors did not have rollover cages, and in
retrospect I was lucky not to be killed.

We lived in hop pickers huts, which were very primitive accommodation
without running water. The money was good and after a couple of months one
could walk away with close to a hundred pounds.

I presume this work is now done by immigrants, but in my time the labour
force was all British.

Tina Wills March 30, 2013 at 12:27

Check facts, join dots, Wize Up.

Since the 19Hateys globalized, deregulated, pirate-ized
RayGunomic/HagThatcher unleashed beast-of-greed, Anglo Fraud-Market
ongoing.

Inevitably causing criminal subslime Wall Street hitting the wall, with
worldwide toxic fallout for the forseeable future. Little Britain/England is a
3-decades long gone myth.

For vast global corportions with budgets bigger than some countries there
is only one workforce to use or abuse at will – the poor people of planet
Earth – Globalistania PLC un-Limited.

Facts checked, dots joined, Wized Up.

Ted Treen March 30, 2013 at 14:31

Whilst I would not whole-heartedly endorse your comments – especially the
description of our last truly great PM as ‘Hag Thatcher’ – I cannot but
concur that there is some truth in the kernel of your post in that
globalised corporations are too often anti-humanitarian, anti-libertarian,
and I believe the magazine Rollin Stone’s article of Goldman Sachs which
opened with:-

“The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s
everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire
squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood
funnel into anything that smells like money.”

is one of the (probably) most accurate of published items.

Tina Willis
March 30, 2013 at 18:02

Thanx Ted.

Tina Willis
March 30, 2013 at 18:13

Tho facts checked, dots joined, Wized Up, also means.

That raving-Right/Wrong-un inhuman alchemist sold Brits cheap,
HagThatcher is ‘Great’ only for wet wee boyz with no ballz needing a
typical NaZty bully nanny telling them wot to think when to speak and
what to say.

We blame her ‘wet’ cabinet plus Denis, and as Learned Lefty Frankie
Boyle rightly says, paraphrased, “Glasgow has already planned
street-parties for when she goes (any century now) with a deep hole dug
to throw her straight down for diggin’ Satan’s coal straight off the
shovel.”

Meanwhile the criminal undead shoud be in The Tower not The
Lords.

LoL.

ivan
March 30, 2013 at 19:05

Spoken like a true leftie liberal rampant zealot.

binao
March 31, 2013 at 09:19

Always think there are two sides to these things, and many of
todays sneering class warriors weren’t born when MT was trying to
reboot Britain from anarchy and collapse. I don’t say she always got
it right, but it was an essential turning point.
My personal
experience of the ’70s were of a nightmare in industry. Where any
traditional skills were involved, attempts to introduce new technology
and methods necessary just to survive were resisted; unrest was
encouraged as part of overt political warfare. Add in rabbit in the
headlights government, the oil crisis in the early 70′s, roaring
inflation, and international competition, and we fell off a
cliff.
What a waste.

jonseer March 30, 2013 at 19:49

Urrrrr. Big deal!

Tina Willis
March 31, 2013 at 12:35

Ivan, Binao, Jonseer.

Like La Raccoon (but unlike many post-modern mouse-mounties/keyboard
kommandos), this classic balanced-liberal has lived right-and-left from
the Warrin’ 40s – To Date. The ’72 OLPEC/Oil & Mid-East Crisis caused
and sustained (as now) by raving-Right/Wrong-uns, Anglo/US-UK grossly
mismanaged Weapons & Oil interests, created the late-70s collapse of
post-WW2 economic, egalitarian hopes.

By ’74 Labour had as much chance of stopping the IMF avalanche as lying
HagThatcher had of delivering her ’79 cynical insult to St Francis, ‘To
Bring Harmony Where There Is Discord’. Tell one, always tell a BIGGUN. How
do U know when they lie ? Their lips move.

By ’68 (pre non-Brit Media Monsta Murdoch) Labour kwikwit-P.M. Wilson
nailed them and their unbalanced 90% raving-Right/Wrong-uns press-media
for alltime, “You stop lying about us, and we’ll stop telling the truth
about you!”

Put that in yer Harold Wilson pipe and smoke it !

binao April 1, 2013 at 19:30

Thanks TW, not sure at all what you’ve said, but this wrinkled and
declining war baby has no ideological attachments or delusions, having
grown out of youthful socialism until being finally forced to
discontinue even latent union membership in the early ’80s.
In the
absence of studies due to work, I can only base my views on what I’ve
seen and experienced. And I’ve been around enough to know that life is
rarely much like media reporting, nor as simple as any talking head
academics or politicians would have us believe.
For what it’s worth,
as a wet young appie I actually thought people were going to work for
nothing as per ‘Backing Britain’ under slippery Harold.
I don’t think
anybody was as foolish when they heard DC’s ‘all in it together’.

Tina
Willis April 1, 2013 at 20:47

Thanx binao.

This ungullible, still fiesty, balanced war-babe hasn’t grown out
of anything. While still trashing naieve Dumbed Down Brits’ 90%
raving-Right/Wrong-uns ongoing so transparent im-propaganda lies.
Perpetrated and perpetuated not by mere elected M.Ps./P.Ms. puppets
and pawns, but clearly by their 90% raving-Right/Wrongs-uns devious
backup spivs & thugs, indispensible bent-press/media. Quote the
Admiral Insurance TV-ad. great Cockytoo Parrot, “Ur nothing without
me!”

From Anglo U.S. 1880s Hearst, to Anglo UK Harmsworth/Rothermuck,
Aitken/Beavershit, and now Anglo UK & US Alien Murdoch
Mind-Rape.

The Anglo 4th/Filth Estate nailed early by Edmund Burke 1787
Irish-UK Whig, “There are Three Estates in Parliament, but, in the
Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sits a 4th Estate more important far
than they all”. And, a century on, endorsed and enhanced by, among the
greatest Brit-kwikwits, playwright, poet, bon-viveur, raconteur,
intellect, and humanitarian, victim-Ireland’s own special Brit-victim
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, c.1897, “In old days men had the
rack. Now they have the Press. That is an improvement certainly. But
still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralizing. Somebody — was it
Burke? — called journalism the 4th Estate. That was true at the time
no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has
eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords
Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to
say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism.”

Wilde about the boy. And coincidentally, no industrialised, mass
produced ignorance bent-media crap in Non-Anglo mainland Modern-EU
with far less institutionalised discord – it’s no coincidence ! Tho
inevtably now EU victims of BIG bent-Anglo Wall Street hit the wall
’08, with toxic fallout worldwide for the forseeable future. What an
Anglo Fraud Market bent-£ega$y for our great great grandchildren.

Don’t Dumb Down – Wize Up

me March 30, 2013 at 12:10

When employers find it difficult to recruit for a particular job then the
normal reaction should be to increase the pay and benefits until prospective
employees find the position attractive.

Apparently that’s why we have to pay BBC autocue reader 6 figure salaries
anyway.

Daedalus X.
Parrot March 30, 2013 at 11:48

Not many people voted for this mass immigration malarky, whether it was
from within or from outside the EU. It is a madness, especially when we are
one of the most densely populated nations, and that despite the huge areas of
uninhabited parts of Scotland. We have a worsening infrastructure that is
under increasing strain from the mass immigration that all three parties have
foisted on us. For instance, I can’t get a doctor’s appointment for my son
anytime earlier than two weeks, my other son’s class has a polyglot collection
of classroom assistants (paid for by us) to assist the many children with
little English. And we live in Cambridgeshire by the way, not in an inner
city.

Decades of increasing benefits, falling educational standards and attacks
on the family unit and old fashioned independent attitudes have produced a
generation of youngsters who are less well educated than many immigrants, have
a worse work ethic and have had any get-up-and-go discouraged by the Fabian
ideology they soak up at school and from the likes of Aunty BBC.

If you are going to brand our youth as feckless and as being inferior to
the East Europeans, ask yourself if Polish youth would behave differently if
they were subjected to the same Pavolvian conditioning for decades.

These conditions are destroying our youth and we can’t just label them as
feckless, abandon them, and then step on their prone bodies while we welcome
the nice shiny new batch of immigrants. We have a duty to try to rescue our
young somehow.

What is wrong with rolling things back to how they were before 1997?
Drastically reduce immigration, lower the benefits, bring back better teaching
and, somehow, get that get-up-and-go attitude back.

I don’t remember there being a shortage of British-born toilet cleaners,
car washers, bar staff and so on pre 1997. Although I can’t comment on
carrot-pickers and chicken-gutters having never encountered anyone from those
professions.

What is the alternative? Let things carry on as they are to where one
logical conclusion will be that the only way for British-born people to get a
job is to compete with the impoverished living conditions and hot-bed and
hot-house with other British families? Or the other alternatively where most
of the British-born are second generation benefits lifestylers and the only
people in work are immigrants and then the magic tax money tree becomes bare
and worse follows?

Lucozade March 30, 2013 at 12:29

Daedalus X. Parrot,

Was everything that great before 1997?

Ted Treen
March 30, 2013 at 14:12

No, not Utopian perhaps, but in the whole, a damned sight better than
it is today…

Lucozade March 30, 2013 at 11:48

Wendi,

It sounds a bit like Europe is becoming the ‘country’ rather than the
individual countries within it.

I had noticed a lot if people seem to go to Germany to study sciences and
I.T from all over….

Wendi March 30, 2013 at 11:18

Seems to me that should this policy be enforced that the current Brit
unemployed will have to move their butts and take the crap jobs providing the
benefits system were considerably shaved down so that many of the lazier louts
had no option if they want to eat. Plus – ‘Free enterprise’ and less ‘Big
Brotherism’ seemed to get us all by back in the ‘60s & ‘70s, I don’t see
why it shouldn’t now!
Many of the Eastern European immigrants that came to
Spain over the last decade or so have returned to their countries of origin as
being preferable to now having to rifle through the garbage outside the
supermarkets to survive although many of those with qualifications in the
pharmaceutical, nursing and medical professions have been absorbed
successfully into the Spanish system. Meanwhile, over the last couple of years
some 400,000 Spanish under 30s, many highly qualified and desperate to find
work, have left for other EU countries – IT and sciences mainly to Germany –
the US and Latin America, with a recent report stating that some 70% of
Spanish youth see their futures working outside Spain. On the flipside, the
government is blithely offering official residence permits to ANY foreigners
from anywhere on the globe if they purchase property worth a mere €160,000 –
Spain has definitely gone to the dogs and has no viable future!
One thing I
don’t understand is why the UK government hasn’t made it mandatory for all
immigrants to take English classes and their permanent residency be dependent
on their passing an English literacy test within two years of arrival. I know
that’s a requisite in some of the Nordic countries and it makes a lot of
sense.

Jonathan Mason
March 30, 2013 at 12:17

One thing I don’t understand is why the UK government hasn’t made it
mandatory for all immigrants to take English classes and their permanent
residency be dependent on their passing an English literacy test within two
years of arrival. I know that’s a requisite in some of the Nordic countries
and it makes a lot of sense.

Probably because if people are not literate in their own language, then
they won’t pass a literacy test in a second language. Same problem with
Mexicans in the US.

Incidentally it must be of immeasurable benefit to agribusiness and
chicken gutting factories to have this source of very cheap labour
consisting of people who don’t take time off sick or to take the child to
the doctor’s. (Probably this is why the Tories are for it.) There is no need
for second language literacy. I remember an orange juice factory in Florida
where nearly all the lower level employees spoke only Spanish. All you need
is a couple of foremen who are bilingual (they can be second generation
Mexicans), and maybe one person in human resources, but most of the workers
are contracted by agencies, so it is no show no pay.

Wendi March 30, 2013 at 15:47

In that case perhaps either literacy in their own language should be a
prerequisite to UK immigration or basic ‘literacy’ in English should be
mandatory!

I didn’t know that many Mexicans in the U.S. were illiterate in their
own language and find it surprising since Spanish is a very easy language,
being spelled phonetically, unlike English…

Jonathan
Mason March 31, 2013 at 03:36

No, but it is true. When I first learned Spanish I was surprised to
find that I was more literate in Spanish than many native speakers.

But remember that many Mexicans are in the US to do unskilled jobs,
so they are not the cream of the crop, and often come from rural areas
and may be members of native American indigenous or mixed race groups.
The government of Mexico recognizes 68 distinct indigenous Amerindian
languages (from seven different families, and other four isolated
languages) as national languages in addition to Spanish.

Come to think of it, a lot of native born US Americans are
functionally illiterate too. For example when I worked in a hospital,
even though employees were supposed to be high school graduates and
therefore classified as literate, often the wrong patient chart would be
brought with the patient because people could not properly distinguish
adequately between similar names like Robinson, Roberson, or Robertson
and knowing the people concerned, I don’t think it was simply
carelessness.

In theory requiring literacy in a home language might be a good idea,
but it would be extremely difficult to monitor the proofs in a wide
variety of languages, and there would probably be problems in
implementation if the family included a mentally retarded child or an
older grandparent, or a member who used sign language. (There is always
a problem with everything.)

Usually when people don’t learn the language of an adopted country it
is because they can’t. What conceivable advantage might there be to not
learning the second language? For example, you might not be able to get
a driver’s license or ask for something when you are a patient in a
hospital. (However in Florida you can take the test in Spanish and have
the questions read aloud to you.)

Mudplugger March 30, 2013 at 11:13

It’s also significant that the Government only measures and reports ‘net
immigration’ – that is, in-comers minus out-goers.

Imagine the scene, there’s 1 million dirt-poor, illiterate, fertile Eastern
Europeans and Sub-Continenters coming in, which provokes 950,000 indigenous
Brits to depart for other lands. That’s only a ‘net immigration’ of 50,000, so
the policy is apparently a resounding success.

Then just contemplate the impact on the overall economy and culture of the
UK if that pattern repeats for a few years – strangely they never say anything
about that.

Immigration can be a good thing, but it should only ever be dictated by
‘national need’ – if we need some skills or types, then that’s fine, but if
we’re just importing volume, then covering up for its impact by paying
benefits to the natives for consequent worklessness, then that’s a recipe for
disaster, and it’s happening. Regrettably, under the EU’s barmy rules, there’s
little we can do about much of the problem – until we get out, that is.

Ted Treen March 30, 2013 at 14:09

As politics can be defined as “The art of replying to a question without
answering it”, why should anyone expect veracity, candour and rationale from
the denizens of Westminster, Whitehall & Downing Street?

Roue le Jour
March 31, 2013 at 05:23

It’s potentially worse than that, Mudplugger. The figures for those
leaving are ‘official’, i.e. those that have formally notified the Revenue
of their departure. Nobody knows how many have really left.

John M March 30, 2013 at 10:57

While Anna’s generalisation about an element of indigenous youth may be
fair comment, she seems unaware of the apparently large number of Romanians
filling the limitless vacancies for Big Issue sellers.

Chris Morriss
March 30, 2013 at 11:55

I agree. This article seems remarkably naïve for the normally cynical
Anna!

Lucozade March 30, 2013 at 12:01

John M,

I had my phone stolen by a bunch if Romanians, I think they were probably
Romanian because they called Romania on it a number of times and ran up a
huge bill. They were going about asking people for money in McDonald’s when
they did this.

I do think it’s probably an exaggeration that the unemployment problem is
mainly down to immigrants as a lot of them are prepared to do work that many
British people (especially those who’ve trained at something) consider
‘beneath’ them, though in some instances like the one described above,
perhaps some of the British could benefit from taking a leaf out of some
Eastern European immigrants book….

belinus March 30,
2013 at 10:47

You destroy a nation in what is called colonisation by diluting the nation
with mass immigration, I do believe they call it multiculturalism.

belinus March 30,
2013 at 10:46

I believe the future problem comes in the fact the EU are set to allow some
30 million African’s into Europe who will come here if they do not change the
benefit entitlement for EU migrants…

JuliaM March 30,
2013 at 10:41

A lovely picture painted of those who work all hours god sends, faithfully
paying their taxes. What about those who come over to take a job as ‘cover’
for participation in other, less salubrious and far less law-abiding and
tax-paying employment opportunities?

Joe Public
March 30, 2013 at 17:16

Such as this:-

“Members of Romanian gold robbery gang jailed”

http://www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/10321685.Members_of_Romanian_gold_robbery_gang_jailed/

jonseer March 30, 2013 at 19:42

I am on the side on Chinese judicial thinking here. And it will come
about here within perhaps 20 years. The only way to discourage
opportunists.

Backwoodsman
March 30, 2013 at 10:40

Bit of an uphill strugle this. Until the problem of the gilded youth of
Cambridgeshire finding it beneath their dignity to do the field work their
educational attainments fit them for is addressed, expect no progress.

Ted Treen March 30, 2013 at 14:05

And for those who are trying genuinely to find positions, our wonderful
joined-up-thinking politicians have decreed that you can’t get your state
pension until you’re at least 175, the older people (Yes, I’m one of the
lucky ones who WILL get his pittance at 65 in Jan 2015) are not jumping off
the employment ladder now, so everyone’s NOT moving up a rung, so there are
no vacant steps on the bottom for youngsters to join!

I’m honestly beginning to believe that there’s something about No. 10
and/or The Palace of Westminster that effectively lobotomises those who
habitually go there.

Surely they can’t ALL be morons, can they..?

ivan March 30, 2013 at 18:53

Yes. It is the main requirement of being a politician.