Wish list for Britain

Sorry I meant 40 years

NO but I did on and off for over 4 years, I listen everyday to Radio 4, watch BBC TV and visit regularly. I am very well informed. Why shouldn't I be?

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, MargaretX, but I was under the impression that you didn't actually live in the UK.

oh vampirequeen thank you so much for changing the tone of this thread although it will be an uphill job.

As to immigrants, perhaps the first step would be to remove the immigrants from the hospitals and see who was left to nurse, advise and operate. Then all the cleaners and agricultural workers.

Vampire queen has stated it all perfectly. I'm glad that I myself have a more liberal outlook on things. It must be awful having all that hate and intolerance to cope with on a daily basis.

I don't think all the ills of this country can be blamed in immigrants and foreigners.

Society started to fall apart in the seventies and eighties esp after Maggie's famous 'no such thing as society' speech. In an ideal world everyone would be self sufficient but we all know that can never be the case. The young, sick and elderly will always need some support and there are many people who genuinely cannot find work.

I'm not blaming all our ills on Maggie (though my heart wants to lol) but she did go a long way to dragging along this path. Successive governments have played their parts too.

I think it's time for someone to be very brave and bite the bullet by looking at the country's spending as a whole. We need to decide on our priorities which I hope would be education, the NHS and the welfare system and make sure they're adequately funded before we start on everything else. Taxes would probably have to increase. Of course it will never happen because it would be unpopular and whoever did it would be punished at the next election.

So as I've nothing to lose here's my basic manifesto (of course it won't cover everything):
Properly fund education, the NHS and welfare system.
Link the price of energy charged to the consumer to the price paid by the provider
Limit the profits that can be made by the water companies and demand a minimum level of service
Encourage the unemployed to take any job available regardless of whether they think it is 'beneath' them by means of the carrot and the stick. The system doesn't help those who want to find work and doesn't chase those who don't.
I'm open to immigration but there should be tighter rules....they can't be taking a job that could be done by one of our unemployed.....they must learn to speak English asap even if this means we fund English lessons in the short term......child benefit can only be claimed for children who are proven to live in the uk with the claimant.
Ensure the road system is fit for purpose and improve the public transport system even if it means taking railways and bus services back into public ownership.

That's my starter. I know I've missed out the armed services and host of other things but I'm sure others can add to it.

Since last year we are providing HIV treatment free to all foreigners visiting this country. It costs between £8k and £18k pa to treat those patients we already have depending on the drugs. It may cost more to bill the foreigners but I feel it is profligate. I thought the recent bill was a move to nudge people who might be HIV risk to a safer lifestyle .

Farmo

Janthea, have been watching and reading forum topics but not done anything about anything yet. You have finally brought me to my feet (so to speak!).

Can't sit back any longer - what heartfelt statements you have made and I have to agree with almost everything you say. As someone who was so proud of her country and has always done everything she can to keep the Great in Britain I am in despair at what is happening.

Wherever one looks, it seems like there is some other tragedy going on to reduce respect/tolerance/common sense and the rest. Our laws, our education, our banking systems, our (former wonderful) NHS, our religious beliefs - so many watered down to almost meaningless trivia. I feel so, so sorry for our children and our grandchildren - it is bad for us but a 1000 times worse for them.

As to immigration - we always need hard-working immigrants (my own paternal grandparents were immigrants themselves and built up a successful business employing many) - but what is happening now and has gone on for the last 10 years plus has to be wrong - too many to be incorporated into the lifestyles of their new country. Whereas we can't blame recent immigrants for what is the problem here in the UK now, it certainly is a part of the problem and certainly causes great concern amongst the rank and file of us.

Whatever political party comes into power at the next election, just hope and pray they do something - but I fear the worst.

greatnan I never said children were misdiagnosed because of immigration. I said the system was overburdened because of all the immigrants and this could cause problems. No body blamed the immigrants, just the extra pressure on the health and educations services that could cause problems.

I doubt very much that any child has been misdiagnosed because of immigration!
The huge majority of English schools are not swamped by children whose mother tongue is not English. When the Vietnamese arrived the children proved to be extremely bright, and the Chinese sweep the board at internationl chess and maths contests.
Sorry, I feel that blaming immigrants for all the problems in Britain is just not borne out by the facts.

I taught in a school with 24 different languages and although it caused me extra work it did not affect English speaking children in any way.

glammanana There's a very good infants near where my DD lives, but she doesn't want to send my GD there because 90% of pupils are non British and English is not their first language. She has friends of all nationalities so it's not because of race, but she doesn't want my GD to struggle and be kept back with non speaking English pupils who will take all the teacher's time.

janthea so many good points raised,my gripe last week was DD telling me that at the school my DGCs attend they are funding an interpreter for a second year for a family who have been in the Country 3yrs as the parents refuse to speak English at home,whilst they have the right to converse in their own language at any time I do feel that they should allow their children to embrace the education they are receiving and help them in some way.