Hang on. I didn't say you were a massive racist! I simply pointed out that it was you, and only you, that typed potentially derogatory terms. Yet another poster who puts words into other's mouths; words that were never said ('gear grind'). Maybe best we leave it now.
Just in case anyone fancies improving the funding situation for the statue... https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-head...ow-1&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
Out of interest if you had gone round the city centre and there was a lot of Americans . Australian s, Canadians and New Zealand people instead of the people you mentioned would you have had a different reaction . Would that have been more favourable because English is their language ?
Sorry Ed your way off the point there I know what GFAW means . So do many other people I’ve met who won’t go into town , some of the older ones are ‘scared’ . Some of it is out of accepting change , unfamiliarity , others are fearful of the people sat around or hanging around insmall groups not appearing but be going anywhere or having anything to do . People are suspicious of this behaviour as it was not evident until recent years when we have received more people from foreign parts . If any of you on here go into twin in the day regularly do you really think this ‘ behaviour’ is appealing, it does not look good . The vast majority of these people are shabbily , scruffily dressed due to their status. It cannot be compared with London where the ethnic population is not far off a half and is a long established make up , with many having been able to build a life due to the opportunities . Those opportunities are rare here - there lies the problem they will remain poor like so many already in this city . The point is why bring poor people to a poor city , they won’t be placed in In those lovely leafy towns s of the South in such numbers .
Had I come across so many Americans, Aussies, Canadians and New Zealanders then I would still have been "shocked", "gobsmacked", "astounded", and I would almost certainly have posted to ask what the heck was going on (assuming I didn't already know). But there wasn't. My further reaction might then depend on why they were there. Too hypothetical. Let's stick to the facts, which is what my OP was.
I would have thought have they got lost. Hull doesn’t feature on the itinerary of visitors from those countries.
The scruffiest people I see in town every day are speaking with a Hull accent! I also see far more groups of British kids and smackheads than I do groups of people 'from foreign parts' but maybe I am looking in the wrong places. I carried a ladies shopping for her the other day on the estate opposite my offices as I cut through to town. She was from Iraq and said many of the people in her block of flats are immigrants so I am not denying that many have chosen to live here or been placed here but the assumption we are being 'over-run' is just Farage talk in my opinion. Her husband is a taxi driver and she is looking for some work herself. There are several members of my ex's family that have hardly worked a day in their life and claim all sorts of disability allowances and benefits and have chosen to avoid working. Opportunities are there if you want to work and the people hanging around in gangs in the town, wherever they're from, are likely chosing not to. During the first lockdown the club I was working for told me to stay in Hull as there was no point in me being sat in a hotel room all day and night. My business was running itself so I was bored at home. I went to an agency and got a job in the Tesco warehouse in Goole and started that night doing 10pm until 6am. After 6 weeks it was clear the lockdowns and stuff were gonna be happening for a while so I applied and got an official job with tesco (nice uniform and everything) and did another 4 or 5 weeks before I got really pi**ed off with it and walked out never to return, plus I was told I needed to start going to London again. My point is I was able to go and find a job and had I needed to I could have made a career for myself by gaining full time employment with pension etc. I get really annoyed when people tell me there are no jobs out there. Plenty of jobs exist, they just dont like the sound of them. I actually found it a lot of fun and was the first job I had done for ages where there was zero stress involved, just driving around on a lolop putting items in cages on the back all night. The Metro even wrote an artical about me to do with people who have had to change jobs during lockdown
Just to clarify, as posted in the OP, .... "I can probably safely assume some of the people are the immigrants housed in the city centre hotels, but that is far, far, far from the full story. Even the few white faces were often not actually British once you heard them speak to each other". Back to point, the housed immigrants were clearly part of it, but the sea change in demographic goes way way beyond that, and it was the sea change that literally astounded me. Good? Bad? Neutral? Who knows, only time will tell. It doesn't change the fact that the demographic has changed out of all recognition in a relatively short space of time (which was the OP). A lot depends on things like whether the infrastructure can support the sea change, whether there is a clash of fundamental values & beliefs, the degree of successful integration or otherwise, the availability of jobs, at what point the influx becomes too much, etc etc. Yes, of course, I have concerns and reservations, as most sane people would; only time will tell if they are valid or not. That surely doesn't make me 'racist', or a 'xenophobe'; if it does, then we are truly ****ed. (footnote - yes, I realise I potentially opened myself up to attack for previously saying 'few white faces'. As JTT rightly comments, you don't have to be white to be British. I'm not that stupid, and neither are any of you on here. I'm sure the vast majority take & understand the point about '(many) white faces not being British', being that I was meaning that when you hear many talk they are often from Central or Eastern Europe)
Funny how if you say few white faces you get jumped on but if a leftie like Jon Snow sneeringly says he has never seen so many white faces or the Director General refers to something as hideously white nothing is said.
Fair play for recognising it, the white face comment immediately, in my mind, paints a picture of you as someone who is racist. Reading your other posts it is clear you're not and I do understand the point you were making and apologise for jumping to a conclusion. I don't agree that there is an issue, perhaps living in London for a while hardened me to seeing so many people from different cultures and hearing people speaking other languages, who knows. I do have an issue with the Government putting what appears to be large groups of men into 4 and 5 star hotels instead of processing them quickly on arrival but have no problem with people from other countries settling in the area as long as they are prepared to fund their own life by working and contributing to the local economy.
Went to college with him. Was a leftie then, he seemed resentful of his privileged life as the son of the Bishop of Whitby and wishing he was living on a run down Council estate. Not the brightest academically but a great public speaker even then. Was talking to him outside .Parker’s before a game against Arsenal a few years ago.
