Are you ready to welcome the apparent flood of bulgarians and romanians....

You get it in Australia too bluebelle - Western Australia there is a common belief that Pommie migrants are smelly.
And there is a very strong anti-asylumn seeker policy.

While I hold no brief for "The Daily Mail" or other red tops, I do feel that the media as a whole should be held to account for whipping up all the worrying nationalistic fervour that has emerged over the past few weeks.

We have already seen, on this thread, the power of unsubstantiated information and individual, anecdotal evidence can have. It has degenerated into accusations of GNetters being "London centric" and believers in "The Guardian" only - thus classifying and segregating us into factions which did not originally exist in reality. Sounds horrifically familiar, looking back in history. Microcosmically speaking, of course!

For heavens sake, why can we not consider this issue without castigating each other? We are old enough, and have seen enough, and are, I think, intelligent eonough surely, to be able to engage in debate based on fact rather than our own issues force fed by media generated frenzy?

The evidence seems to suggest not!

True! It is amazing how all the dissension can be stirred up, isn't it?

Great post Ariadne. It is such a pity that so often a discussion here turn either to the sublime or the ridiculous, with no common sense in between. Sad- and really gets us nowhere at all. Many issues need solutions- thinking outside the box, cooly, calmly and with the least prejudice as possible.

The regular DM versus Guardian pendulum is just so sterile.

Ariadne, your post has pleased everyone, thanks.

Have I missed something - I haven't picked up any one advocating increased, or mass immigration. My own posts have acknowledged the strain on public services, including housing and especially on people on lower incomes, competing for what little work is available.

The problem are the lazy scroungers in the uk who are not wanting to work. We all know of single parents with wide screen tvs and new sofas paid for by our taxes. the immigrants are keen to work and don't care what they do. None of our teenagers would want to go fruit picking or washing dishes in a hotel.
also we are taught in school to seek work that is worthwhile, our teachers scorned us if we did not aspire to being teachers, nurses etc and we are also taught to want to buy a house and therefore run up a lot of debt, the immigrants live in sub standard housing and are grateful.
By the way I work in a low paid job-no results no pay and sometimes work all day for nil or maybe £2.00 an hour and I know what its like to scrimp

???? Everyone , surely not , but WYT !!

Blimey!

On thinking about it cactus60 your working conditions sound awful. Surely £2 an hour is illegal!

WYT???

cactus that is appalling!

Has this tidal wave of Eastern European immigrants arrived now?

Btw when I lived in West London (until May last year), a hugely mixed part of the country which included Eastern Europeans and which has had a huge Polish community since the end of World War II, I never encountered any "single parents with wide screen televisions and new sofas paid for with our taxes". And would it be okay if they were married parents?

Just for the record, the Daily Mail obviously gets up lots of people's noses but by far and away The Sun is the best-selling newspaper in the country. What is it saying about this terrible influx of sub-humans?

So be it ! Hmmmmmm

yes Im a market researcher, I go door knocking and have lots of abuse to put up with. If I don't get anyone to do my surveys I get nothing. Im not selling anything just asking peoples opinions but I get treated like dirt, that's why Im rather bitter. The public really hate me

They don't hate you, they hate being called to the door to answer questions, cactus!

ABSENT, I'm not against people having nice tvs or sofas etc, I just think they should work for them no matter what their nationality is. I have to save really hard to afford anything, and I don't care if anyone is married or not. I just think that workers should get the respect they deserve and after all people on benefit are less deserving than those of us who work.

Please don't let us get into a debate about which people on benefits are deserving or undeserving.

Aren't working tax credits available for thise who work but earn a small amount?

It can't be easy doing that kind of work and having to face people's irritation at being disturbed. That is why I try to be reasonably polite to cold callers when I answer the phone.

Tax credits are for people who work 30 hours at least if you have no small kids, I don't do 30 hours most weeks so I don't qualify. Its ironic that those who work more hours get the benefits

cactus60 You did specify single parents as if that was one of your criteria for defining scroungers.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1486766_10153711206565454_200499333_n.jpg

See all those Bulgarians arriving at heathrow!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1486766_10153711206565454_200499333_n.jpg

Oh no! Will they be wanting our pensions...?

Descending on Wimbledon,so I hear !

London - centric, eh?