I don't really see why everyone is so keen to leave the EU. In fact it could get us in a fair few problems later down the line. Yes it is not perfect and we should try to renegotiate some of the terms of our membership. But the idea of the EU and co-operation between EU countries is a good one.
A ****ing men to that. Man of the people? He's a rich ex banker for ****s sake who do you think he'll be looking after?? If you want a really interesting read (and I was surprised) read the green party manifesto proposals. If you ask me they're shaping up as a very good option for may
I didn't want to be so bold as to call anyone on here ignorant, but that pretty much sums it up from me as well. How people can call Nick Clegg "sly" or "slimy" and to then sing the praises of Farage takes ignorance to another level if you ask me
Not saying I agree with what UKIP stand for but many, many people have concerns about immigration in this country and UKIP is the only party that seems to act upon these. In fact for so long, anyone bringing up the topic of immigration was branded a racist even though their concerns are legitimate IMO. I wouldn't vote for a party who have people who believe that floods are God's punishments for homosexuals working for them but I have to say the major parties deserve someone like UKIP to come along and take their votes because they have been out of touch for so long.
Many people have concerns over immigration due to the constant **** stirring by the gutter press talking complete and total over exaggerated bollocks
I recently saw something which referred to "Schroedinger's Immigrant", who according to UKIP and co manages to take jobs from British people and simultaneously live off benefits. Immigration gets blamed because "They're taking our jobs/benefits" is easy rhetoric for the press and the likes of UKIP. What really needs addressing is the underlying problems that have made this rhetoric easy to sell. Trying to tackle immigration is now distracting from other issues, which is really frustrating. The "Great British Public" aren't always right, particularly when they're being whipped into a frenzy by self-interested media, and I wish we had politicians more prepared to admit that. Rather than bowing under the pressure and making feeble attempts to satisfy the public with changes like Cameron's recent immigration policies, I'd rather we had people who would stand up and say "Here is very thorough, independent data which shows EU membership and immigration (for example) are positive contributions to our economy, so we're not changing anything". When the recent announcements were made about the Conservatives/Coalition not hitting their own immigration targets, I think the most surprising thing I learnt was that net migration is currently 260k per year. The press report it as if each year we've got millions of benefit-stealing immigrants turning up each year. When you look into the actual data, you can see that immigrants (both EU and non-EU) claim less in benefits than UK natives, contribute more to the treasury than they receive back (something that can't be said for natives), and things like benefits tourism are vanishingly small problems. Immigration isn't a problem that needs to be addressed, the suitability of the British public for the current job market is.
Ask people living in Skegness, Boston, Grimsby, Wisbech, Peterborough, Burnley and whole lad of other places up and down the country if mass immigration isn't a huge problem! It seems to me that the people living in nice neighbourhoods who don't experience these problems first hand are the ones that are most vociferous in dismissing public concerns on this subject! Why doesn't Nick Clegg for example move his family to live in Boston for a few months and really get a feel of what life is really like in these areas of high immigration!
Add Northampton to that list there are area's here which are like Warsaw and Vilnius, the usual scenario here is you've got 10 or so adults living in a three bedroomed terrace house, not going to call them scroungers as they certainly work very hard, my main problem is they're not interested in integrating into the community, the stress on local infrastructure is ridiculous and they don't seem to know how to use a bin properly. We need to make this country as unattractive as possible, we need things like no benefits for two years, people needing to have a certain amount of money in their bank account. The EU is another big problem as I don't want to see us exit it but sadly it's become a Franco-Germanic federalist dictatorship.
Social issues I can understand to be honest, it's more the economic arguments that wind me up - because there aren't any. Local infrastructure is something for which the government have to be squarely blamed for me, rather than the immigrants themselves. If they're putting more money into the treasury's pocket than they take out, then the finances should be in place for our public services to grow according to demand. Now our involvement in Afghanistan is coming to a close, I'm hoping that more funds will have been freed up for the likes of the NHS.
What is so wrong about the British sovereign Parliament having the right to determine how many people come here without any outside interference? How can the government plan for the vital infrastructure we need as a country when we do not have the ability to decide future numbers of migration? Why should we allow free and open access to people who do not want to integrate with our society? This is not a media whipped up frenzy this has been going on for years and people who live in the worst affected areas have genuine concerns. Immigration should be the preserve of Westminster to decide and if it means that we have to leave the EU to achieve full sovereignty over immigration then so be it.
We've already got far more options than we currently choose to exercise though. Denmark and Germany for example have tighter controls on EU migration than we currently do, in ways that don't require us to go begging to the EU to change. Likewise we have plenty of control over non-EU migration which we don't choose to make use of. Why has Boris Johnson been to Australia recently negotiating for freedom of movement between the two countries? Whilst I said earlier that migration is of economic benefit to the UK, EU migration has a greater positive impact than non-EU, so if the government wanted to get serious on immigration then the EU shouldn't be a significant obstacle. I suspect this debate isn't going to lead anywhere, so I'll withdraw at this point!
Do classrooms and doctors surgeries really need translators? Don't know what their inputting or taking out I know a lot of people wire money back home, it's not going into the local economy unless it's the local Polish deli selling can's of Lech and Zyweic. It's a giant burden on an already overstretched NHS, here in Northampton we're having to build extra schools. Immigration isn't a bad thing I know some very talented and hard working people who have come over here to work, it's just when you get swamped and have mobs of people doing warehousing and distribution jobs or underpricing local trades people out of the job market.
And what are the problems of immigration. In fact I tend to find those most against immigration are those who are not affected by it in the slightest but like reading about it.
My company buys from a leading sanitaryware supplier who up until a couple of years ago manufactured solely in the UK, they now manufacture in various factories across Europe and beyond. They justified the job losses here by saying it was far cheaper to manufacture abroad to remain competitive. Now get this, one of their basic ranges is manufactured in Poland and demand is always extremely high from the major House Builders etc. I ordered product back in August which we still haven't received. Why? Because they don't have the work force to produce it quick enough. I then here that there are an estimated 1 million more Poles wishing to migrate over here ! You really couldn't make it up !!
