Off Topic Political Debate

Legally Germany is not in a position to do this. It can however charge a toll on transport haulage through Germany, but cannot go as far as the Swiss on this (they demand that all transit freight goes by rail). I would be in favour of any measure which reduces air traffic - but would choose to go down the road of restoring taxes on kerosene (and thus ending the phenomena of ever cheaper airlines).

 

Classic Nimby i am afraid...... plus the fear factor. My mum lived in LIncs had no Black or Asian friends and with her friends complained about the East Europeans..... mmm... who picked her veg., cleaned her car and nursed both her and her husband in Hospital.... all jobs that no one else wanted to do..... such a weird logic. Oh yes and my mums's favourite food..... erm... Chinese...

Since coming up to Leeds she has met and enjoyed the company of of many different people and now rates South Indian curries very highly!

 

Why dont we just increase provision then? We have a growth orientated Govt... you have to invest to accumulate.

i.e fund more education places......

 

We just cannot move as quickly as the population changes. Planning the location, obtaining funding, getting planning permission, tendering for the work and completing the work takes years in this country. It's one of the downsides of having no controls over your borders, you just cannot react quickly enough if a particular area has a large influx of population like Peterborough and some of the other towns in East Anglia.
Plus it seems with the growth in academies/free schools outside the remit of LEA's the whole planning process has gone tits up, so the LEA has no idea of how many places to plan for or what is places are available overall. There is a real danger that some areas will have more children than spaces and it will mean some children travelling a lot of miles to school. In one of my local towns they are building 1,000's of new homes (mainly 3 and 4 bedroom houses), yet there is no additional school places being made available.

 

I agree to a point.... but in Lincs for example this trend has been obvious for years.... as many local indigenous folk don't want the work. All Govts should be able to work to trends. I must say this Govts approach to Education has been awful. The free school/Academy set up is daft. My brother-in-law is head of an Academy for example... and he has told me some tales about having to balance the books with no funding. I also worked with a teacher who told me that she was told by her then head that she could't go on the sick any longer as the Academy had no more money in the budget for sick leave. Anyway i digress.

But we need to plan for our future and our Govt has to take some of the hit for this.

 

The only time the wealthy Champagne Socialists and luvvies of Hampstead come into contact with immigrants is dealing with their nannies, builders and car cleaners. They do not understand at all the problems caused in many areas by the sheer numbers.

Housing, medical facilities, school places etc are all put under immense pressure in less desirable locations.. Having proper border controls would help in the planning of the suitable infrastructure required to accommodate those specifically chosen to relocate in the UK.

 

I agree to an extent Yorkie, in some of those towns in Lincs and Norfolk the growth has been there for a few years, so it gets picked up. Don't forget that we rely pretty much on the census to gather this data, there is not a lot of other demographic data available. But what we have seen over the past few years is a much more sudden growth that was never seen in the past - just think how easy it is to travel across Europe now. There are daily coach services to London from Romania!
Mrs W_Y works at an academy in Bandit Central and their funding has improved and they have been able to expand to meet the growth. They offer complete "wrap around" care from the EY stage as well. To set some context, 85% of the children entering her nursery unit do not have English as a first language and many of the parents do not either.

 

I would need an aisle seat!

 

Twenty years ago I had a teacher friend who worked in various schools in Northampton teaching children English from scratch. He had 43 different languages to deal with and yet he only spoke English. His method was using flash cards and getting the children to learn the names of the objects. Within 6 months all of them started to integrate with the sometimes few English children and within 12 months some had better language skills than the natives. My granddaughters came to France without having much French, yet within 12 months they were speaking it like natives, and today you would not be able to tell what their nationality is as they flip between English and French depending on who they are talking to. With this being an age when youngsters get around the world far more than their parents, school exchange trips to Peru for example, they will become far more international in their outlook and better able to understand and work with different cultures. Us oldies are still learning.

 

I teach kids on a Sunday and over the last 12 years the number who do not have English as a first language and do not speak it at home has increased significantly. But as OFH says it's amazing how quickly they adapt - certainly better than I could pick it up!

 

I'm going to be on difficult territory here and in danger of getting the R label...but from Mrs W_Y view, this is particularly an issue in the Asian community in her school, although she really does have a very mixed set of nationalities - Europeans, Africans and well as Asian. Because of the size of the Asian community in Bandit Central, for many mixing with other communities just does not happen very much, particularly the mothers and so the children do not get much opportunity to practice their English. Of course, it's not a massive issue for Mrs W_Y as she works at Nursery age and her approach is very much learning through play and she gets her bunch playing outside as much as she can and one of her biggest challenges is getting little Asian boys to take their costs off when they come in - if you have seen East is East, you will know what I mean.

 

I do know what you are saying as there was quite a large Asian community in Banbury, and while the men seemed to adapt through work and getting involved with the local community, their wives didn't. It was not unusual to see the children being used as interpreters in the local shops and schools. Many of the girls who went to secondary school rejected the controls on dress and behaviour that came from the parents, and were far more influenced by their school friends. Some of the boys at a similar age also started to realise that they could not order the girls to do what they wished, and became more English. This generation will grow up with different ideals to their parents and there were cases of mothers being taught English by their daughters so they could go out and find jobs.

 

In West Yorkshire there are so many examples of the next generations becoming integrated .... as Education is so highly valued in developing societies.

I did one of my teaching practice slots in a very big immigrant area of Bradford 90% Asian and the Asian girls were always top in English.

Working at Leeds Met. this whole question is really past these days as the Asian community students do just as well as any other etc... .and become good teachers, nurses, Drs, physios, counsellors etc etc.

 

An interesting example of what striking free trade deals actually means.

In 2011 Switzerland and China began talks on allowing trade with reducing import tariffs on a very limited number of certain goods. After four years of discussion they finally signed an agreement. This will have the effect of reducing tariffs over the coming years, but it will take a full fifteen years before all barriers are lifted.

Could the UK really go so long to get an agreement? Currently the agreement between China and the EU exists which is of benefit to the UK. Can people really want to throw that away and start again?

 

China exports a massive amount of goods to the UK and imports very little in return. It would be in China's interest to agree to a sensible trade deal within a reasonable time frame.

There are many manufacturers, like myself, who have returned a percentage of their manufacturing back to the UK because of increasing labour and shipping costs. If tariffs increased this trend would dramatically hasten leading to a reduction in imports and increased employment opportunities.

Comparing the clout of Switzerland to the 5th largest economy is hard to imagine.

 

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You are looking at it in a far too simplistic way. Investment by China into the UK has been massive, while they have in return offered little input into their markets. If you look into the Swiss /China deal you will find it is heavily skewed in favour of the Chinese. The UK has been happy to take the investment as it tries to re-balance the economy.

That was not really the point of the post however. It was to show how long a trade deal can take from conception to completion. The UK already has trade agreements that are not simply for a limited range of goods as open market agreements are in place. To start again, which could take five, ten or fifteen years to get back to where we are now makes little sense.

 

It will be interesting to see how the small to medium enterprises that mainly have export markets will react as we get closer. I suspect that may tell us a lot.

 

You are trying to overcomplicate a simple mutual agreement. There is nothing to stop both parties continuing with the present arrangements we currently enjoy within the EU once we leave. It is in neither party's interest to not have arrangements in place as soon as our EU agreement ends. The present government has recently had extremely productive trade talks leading to greater trade opportunities in China and cooperation regarding new power stations. We are currently enjoying the best diplomatic relationship between the two countries for decades.

I can imagine setting up trade deals with small nations, like Switzerland make take time but fortunately with the UK/China it is already in place.

You need to come up with a more convincing scare story than this one I'm afraid.

 

Some useful facts.
Uk exports to China rose by 9% in 2014, they have more than doubled since 2010.
The UK is cooperating closely with the Chinese on the development of free trade zones in Shanghai, Tianjin, Fujian and Guangzhou. This has the potential to change the way UK companies operate in China.

 

Sorry you really don't get it. The Chinese economy is falling back, which means that they are not buying so much from anywhere. When you can start to explain the "One Belt, One Road” policy, then I might believe that you are up to speed.