conversation on a bus

I think you were very brave to interrupt them - you could have got poked in the eye for your efforts! Or worse! - but I'm not surprised by the one sided view gleaned from the media. I read five daily newspapers online to compare their opinions and the slant or tweaked 'facts' is sometimes gobsmacking! Trouble is, we all have our favourite dailies and we rely on those to be truthful and tell us what we need to know...

.. and they had probably misunderstood what they read anyway.

Oh it happens all the time "GrannyA"! It drives me mad, Some people just enjoy hanging on their predudices and do not chose to look at any facts.

The worst example I heard was on a bus I took from town to collect my car from a service. We passed a site that had been cleared for building.

When a women mused on what was going to be built. A "red neck" middle aged male said, "It's going to be a Mosque I have seen the plans." More muttering from the woman. This was in a town with a less than 2% immigrant population.
A sheltered housing unit rose happily on that site.

Another mischief making lying G*t!

I hear a lot of this living in an inner city. The most recent example was on a bus into town there was a young woman of Asian appearance with a small child on her lap. She was tickling him and playing with him and the woman next to me said quite loudly 'they seem to love their children though don't they?' - almost as though she was talking about an alien species.

I was interviewing a candidate for a job, and she started grumbling about how her son couldn't get a job,and didn't get much benefits. She then started telling me about her neighbours (Polish) who were not only on copious amounts of benefits, but had been given a car by 'the social'. I said that this could not be true, surely? She assured me that everyone knew this went on. She did not get the job.

Hi GillT57
Was the ladies response in answer to a question posed by you as part of the interview?
Was she declined the job because of her ignorance of the social security system and fear of immigrants due to the scaremongering of the press?
Much of the insensitivity arises from both ignorance and fear.

KatyK It's clumsy and patronising in the extreme, but just maybe, that woman was acknowledging with some surprise that Asian women are not so unlike any other mothers. She could have been downright abusive.

My Dad (born 1915) was prone to rather clumsy remarks like that. He was of an era before politically correct language was thought of but he was not in any way racist. He was always polite and a very kind and generous man.
He considered the frailty of others and usually avoided outright condemnation of anyone on the basis of not knowing what they had experienced in life.

Apart from Freemasons that was, he had a thing about the undue influence of such cliquish groups.

His remarks about my sister's overbearing and emotionally abusive, alcoholic ex husband was that "he was very vulnerable."

OMG! I am beginning to see where I am coming from.

yes the languages you hear on a bus today can vary from English, east enders soap type talk, to east European to Chinese the later on the buses between Oxford and Bicester Village retail site.
Mick

Bicester shopping village is apparently one of the most popular visits in the UK for Chinese tourists. Especially the Clarks shop. Can only assume this is because it is a handy pit stop for coaches, on way to and from Stratford.
I'e really struggle to come up with an interview question that would deliberately elicit an answer like that But people say all kinds of extraordinary things in interviews. Particularly 1:1

The general willingness of people to believe racist propaganda never ceases to amaze me. Not just those who are uneducated or poor or downtrodden but professional people such as nurses, teachers, etc.

I have listened time and time again to c**p like this and think you were very brave GA to speak.

I wonder if the woman on the bus was confused about benefits. It's true that Polish people working here with children in, say, Poland, can claim child benefit for those children. However, rightly or wrongly, i think our government are trying to stop it.

pettalus It's a popular anti immigrant myth, not confusion! If the Polish are paying UK Tax and NI then you have to consider that they are entitled to it.

Must have been a day for it GA
A 'lady' voicing her opinions to another had a list and barely drew breath, Amongst other things, including most of the above, I overheard:
'Lesbian couples wanting babies, how odd, still I suppose the child would have 2 mothers'.
Then I nearly fell off my seat when after a long diatribe she said:
'I had a boyfriend (Mother said be in by 8:30) then we got engaged, got married and THEN had sex!'
She was sitting directly behind the driver who must have heard all but remained impassive!

It was recently reported that benefits and tax credits are paid for 50,000 children living outside the UK but within the European Union, at a cost of £55 million a year. Only four other EU countries have this arrangement.

Of course, the amount paid is worth more in the Polish economy than it is here and you certainly can't blame people for claiming if it is available.

However, the Government think the situation is unfair and are trying to withhold payment to any child who is not living in the UK.

In these straightened times, when we are having to make many cuts in our own services and benefits system, the situation does concern me and I would probably like to see an end to payments to children abroad.

I hope that doesn't make me racist!

I think what many fail to recognise that the same or similar sentiments are being expressed about the indigenous population by the immigrants, but in most instances we cannot understand what they are saying.

But if someone is paying UK tax and getting child benefit for what can be proved to be their children abroad they are still entitled.
After all the UK is not paying for education and health services for these children we actually "get off lightly" in that situation.

IMO There does need to be some reform of the traveling to the UK to seek work legislation.

Nellie - Yes I agree re the lady's remarks on the bus. I worked in a government institution for over 30 years. We had political correctness drummed into us on a daily basis, so maybe some of it has stuck! I realise that some of the older generation say things we never would, in a perfectly harmless way. It's just their way. I just felt for the young woman really, as the lady's remarks were quite loud.

Alan Bennet used to say that he got most of his inspiration from listening to women talking on buses and in tea shops. Presumably not the racial stuff though.One thing I have never understood about talking on buses is that , given that a lot of people can easily overhear you, nobody seems to have any shame in discussing anything [and I do mean anything.]It's in public for Heaven's sake!

A bit like on a public forum

Joelsnan

Yes, I too hear remarks such as these. I think its only natural that some people living in areas where there are lots of immigrants feel overwhelmed and get the feeling that the whole country is being taken over by foreign cultures (this isn't racism). Stories of terrorist plots and actual attacks, and the knowledge that some immigrants actively wish us harm do not help. People who live in areas where there are not large numbers of immigrants will not feel bothered at all as their lives are not impacted and they will look at other aspects of immigration, such as the financial benefit or otherwise.

I do think there is a difference between talking loudly on buses, and putting words on here though Kiora. You can really intimidate and upset people on a bus with overheard remarks.We all choose on here what threads to look at, and if we don't like what we read we can put our own opinions into the posts.

That's one impact, I feel anyway, of this ever more multi-cultural and almost anally politically correct society - you always have to wonder if you'll upset someone before you express your feelings, however unintentionally.

The good thing is that, in our urban areas at least, they are such a melting pot that in a couple of generations all this will be a dead issue.
Little boy in the doctors surgery here with fantastic afro hair said hello to me, his mum was, I am guessing from a Pakistani family and had a strong N Wales accent. Multicultural even out here on the fringes.