Immigration: the reality

Yes all valid good points of course Mamie I just question why the Labour Party abandoned the white working class, especially after all the closing downs of the mines, steelworks etc. I do not blindly follow any political party but the damage done by industries closing down was then followed by a decision to allow many to come here and work long hours for well below the minimum wage. No provisions were made for these people. Something I would not have expected under the Labour Party.

Trouble is PPP that I think it is a global problem. Mechanisation and globalisation plus the development of the knowledge industry means that the traditional working class jobs have gone and there are very few replacements. Putting everything into service industries works when economies are booming but not in recession.
The problem is the same here in France; industries lasted here because people carried on buying French for longer, but that is changing now.
I have no idea how you solve it.

Creating a few industries would be a good start. We used to be the best in the world [or considered so.]I think a lot of people would like to buy from goods made here in Britain.I certainly would. It wouldn't be cheap, but anyone who can afford it would like to.There are a few companies around who make things here still [think Hotter shoes] but there could be more.

You're all heart, Ana and Holly.

rosesarered we are creating new industries such as writing computer games. But we not producing enough programmers in our education system.

Unfortunately every time some new industry starts, such as in green energy, it gets the rug pulled out from under its feet.

Do you really think it's fine for someone to leave the UK for five years, durhamjen, then come back and expect to claim benefits straight away?

Yes, I do. How many expats work away for five years, lose their jobs, then expect to come back and claim benefits until they get work? He probably paid his taxes, etc., all the time until he took his wife back home to die.
Both my sons have EU partners. If they went back to their countries of origin, their partners would be able to apply for benefits.
I think you will find that that anomoly was not supposed to happen, but once more a law has been changed by this coalition government and has not been thought through.
Not surprised you criticised, though, Ana. I think that if I said black, you would say white.
Like I said, you're all heart. I presume none of your family have been in a similar situation.

Verging on a personal attack there, durhamjen. The question I asked was perfectly valid. You say he took his wife back home to die, but then he stayed for five years - how did he support himself while he was there?

I don't think your example of the 'unfairness' of the rules is valid, that's all, nothing to do with being heartless or lacking in compassion for those truly deserving of it.

So how do you decide who's truly deserving of it? I would have thought a British person who took his wife back to her European country of origin to die should be deserving. You obviously do not. Shame his wife took so long to die.
It did not say what his wife died of, but quite often it takes people five years to die of cancer, for example. Took my husband less than six months, but it's difficult to say in all cases.
The problem is that when the government changes the law, it quite often catches people out who they do not expect to be caught.
I have two grandchildren with an English father and a Danish mother, both born in this country. The oldest one is Danish, his sister is British, because the law was changed in between them being born.

Oh, have it your own way, durhamjen. Obviously anyone who disagrees with you is either unreasonable, heartless or a rabid Tory...

Well said, Nightowl.
PPP, the Labour Party did at least bring in the minimum wage, which is a start. The problem now is that there are far too many companies who can get away with not paying it by charging spurious charges to immigrants.
If we only made people pay the taxes they should we would not have this problem.

www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/phil-miller/serco-on-stand-death-of-us-tourist-in-uk-immigration-detention?utm_source=OurKingdom+Weekly&utm_campaign=d653721ad8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cb5cf7dd0a-d653721ad8-407838737

What's that link for? It isn't written very well - was he American or not? I don't even understand what's being reported in that article.

I don't understand the message that is being portrayed in that article either.

But one of the posters on here seems to think that Serco is the worst firm in the world, according to another post I read by that person. Whereas in fact, Serco employees are in the main conscientious and hardworking in my (admittedly limited) experience.

Yarls Wood?

Out of over 120,000 employees worldwide.

www.sfo.gov.uk/press-room/latest-press-releases/press-releases-2013/g4s-and-serco-investigation.aspx

Remember this? Still ongoing as far as I'm aware.

120,000 employees are not working with immigrants and asylum seekers, fortunately.
These are
https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/24/asylum-seeker-accomodation-poor_n_5203225.html&sa=U&ei=hEqnU-mLIqGW0AXOxYDoAQ&ved=0CA4QFjAE&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNFMU73qEPzu-BtqIqzMX950wmaiJA

As we keep being told there isn't enough money to go around, why should it be spent on improving those facilities? The first thing that popped into my head was the young girl who can't have a £10,000 operation - I'd give it to her first before asylum seekers - surely that accommodation has to be better than what they left behind or they wouldn't stay in it.

We cannot be all things to all people all of the time - there will always be some who go without.

The de-registering of patients to make room for new ones, surely there could be some flexibility? Most of the new patients will be fit, young men (seasonal farm work) able to travel that little bit further should they ever need to.
Yes it's the Daily Mail.....
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2665295/Widow-aged-95-kicked-GPs-register-make-way-migrants-Doctors-cope-towns-soaring-population.html

This problem could have been foreseen. The training and recruitment of GPs takes about 10 years, which places the problem firmly in the time of the last government.

They knew immigration would increase, they knew the consequences, but they obviously didn't plan ahead. I remember reading years ago we were heading for this crisis.

Too busy invading Iraq and cosying up to that idiot Bush to get to grips with domestic issues?

The last government never did seem, to me, that keen on planning ahead on the domestic front.

TB too busy raising his international credentials profile with future employment in mind before handing over the poisoned chalice?