I'm ashamed of some of my fellow Brits sometimes. We've never had it so good, Benefits galore & folks gaming the system big time. And yet there's this constant anti-refugee/immigrant/foreign people narrative.
Imagine living somewhere that has no sanitation, no running water or 'leccy, precious little food or water & zero job prospects. And then when you try to get a better life for you & your family, some fat bloke, full time unemployed & gaming the system, sat in his comfy armchair in the UK watching his colour TV & moaning about potholes thinks they have no right here & objects to a penny or two on his Income Tax to pay for it.
Without immigrants this country would collapse. Try to imagine the NHS or London Transport, or any Service Industry, existing without immigrants.
Potholes? I'll give you potholes...
Here's the "lucky" ones, condemned to life in a Refugee Camp...
I'm ashamed of some of my fellow Brits sometimes. We've never had it so good, Benefits galore & folks gaming the system big time. And yet there's this constant anti-refugee/immigrant/foreign people narrative.
Imagine living somewhere that has no sanitation, no running water or 'leccy, precious little food or water & zero job prospects. And then when you try to get a better life for you & your family, some fat bloke, full time unemployed & gaming the system, sat in his comfy armchair in the UK watching his colour TV & moaning about potholes thinks they have no right here & objects to a penny or two on his Income Tax to pay for it.
Without immigrants this country would collapse. Try to imagine the NHS or London Transport, or any Service Industry, existing without immigrants.
Potholes? I'll give you potholes...
Here's the "lucky" ones, condemned to life in a Refugee Camp...
I hope I am not seen as a xenophobe. Because I am not. I would be in favour of us taking in our fair share of migrants.
I think there are a number of problems which seem beyond our control. We have no control over the numbers that arrive by small boats. Although as @Essexphil regularly points out, this is a relatively small number in the overall scheme of things. We dont have a clue about the number of people that overstay visas, or how many illegal immigrants there are in the country. We have teams of people that are employed to catch illegal immigrants, yet they are rarely succesful in deporting anyone, as the majority hide their passports, and we cant deport them unless we know where they came from. We also have a serious problem in processing asylum applications in a reasonable time.
Having no control is just absolutely stupid. Accepting a reasonable number of asylum seekers is not.
£30,000 for driving lessons is a drop in the ocean compared to £8billion per year in hotel bills.
I appreciate your point about the conditions that some people live in, but we cant take all of them. Our public services are already stretched.
You have illustrated one group of people that you have no sympathy for. Yet there are others. There are those that may have one or more low paid jobs that struggle to make ends meet. There are those that are genuinely unable to work through disability, or have to look after a family member, that are just about to get their benefits cut. There are also those that are just about to be dragged into paying higher rates of income tax, due to the frozen tax thresholds. Many of these people will be up in arms over some of these costs.
Every one of the asylum seekers that arrive in the UK on a small boat will pass through a number of safe countries. Seeing the boats arrive day after day, will pi55 people off, and increase support fot that tw at Farage. They also have to be in a position to pay the people traffickers in advance. What would it cost for a family of 4, 20k?
At some point we will surely have to implement an American style entry system. Where we record a finger print, and photo, of anyone entering the country. So at least we would know exactly who is here, and where they came from. Why havent we already.
We are currently in debt, and are paying £billions per year in interest on the debt. I was watching Trevor Phillips a couple of weeks ago, one of his panel was an economist. She was referring to the Foreign Aid Budget, when she said she wouldnt have one. She was making the point that we were effectively borrowing the money to give away. I can see that some people will argue that it is good to help countries that are less fortunate than us. Less of a good argument when some of your own citizens struggle to make ends meet.
"Less of a good argument when some of your own citizens struggle to make ends meet."
It's never less of a good argument to help others less fortunate.
No matter how bad some may think it is in the UK, there are plenty of places where it's far worse. And as I wrote earlier, how would the NHS, TfL or many other organisations cope without immigrant labour?
"Less of a good argument when some of your own citizens struggle to make ends meet."
It's never less of a good argument to help others less fortunate.
No matter how bad some may think it is in the UK, there are plenty of places where it's far worse. And as I wrote earlier, how would the NHS, TfL or many other organisations cope without immigrant labour?
That is a different argument. The vast majority of those people will be here legally. The point for me is that we dont know who is here. We cant stop the boats. If another 600 people arrive today, we will put them up in hotels, give them a few quid, take years to process their applications, maybe give them driving lessons, and probably provide them with a solicitor, at our cost, who will advise them of the best way to beat the system.
"Less of a good argument when some of your own citizens struggle to make ends meet."
It's never less of a good argument to help others less fortunate.
No matter how bad some may think it is in the UK, there are plenty of places where it's far worse. And as I wrote earlier, how would the NHS, TfL or many other organisations cope without immigrant labour?
The other thing I would argue is that they are not all coming from places like the photos you have posted. Before the Tories actually stopped it thousands were coming from Albania.
"Less of a good argument when some of your own citizens struggle to make ends meet."
It's never less of a good argument to help others less fortunate.
No matter how bad some may think it is in the UK, there are plenty of places where it's far worse. And as I wrote earlier, how would the NHS, TfL or many other organisations cope without immigrant labour?
That is a different argument. The vast majority of those people will be here legally. The point for me is that we dont know who is here. We cant stop the boats. If another 600 people arrive today, we will put them up in hotels, give them a few quid, take years to process their applications, maybe give them driving lessons, and probably provide them with a solicitor, at our cost, who will advise them of the best way to beat the system.
UK National Debt – How Much Is It And Who Is Owed The Money?
The country’s debt will likely top £2.5 trillion by the end of the year – increasing by at least £200 billion in a year, mostly due to financial hand-outs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Britain’s National Debt By Numbers According to the website National Debt Clock, government debt grows at £5,170 a second or £310,000 a minute.
The United Kingdom national debt is the total quantity of money borrowed by the Government of the United Kingdom at any time through the issue of securities by the British Treasury and other government agencies.
At the end of March 2023, UK general government gross debt was £2,537.0 billion, or 100.5% gross domestic product.[2]
Approximately a third of the UK national debt is owned by the British government due to the Bank of England's quantitative easing programme, so approximately a third of the cost of servicing the debt is paid by the government to itself. In 2018, this reduced the annual servicing cost to approximately £30 billion (approx 2% of GDP, approx 5% of UK government tax income).
In 2017, due to the Government's budget deficit (PSNCR), the national debt increased by £46 billion.[3] The Cameron–Clegg coalition government in 2010 planned that they would eliminate the deficit by the 2015/16 financial year.[4] However, by 2014 they admitted that the structural deficit would not be eliminated until the financial year 2017/18.[5] This forecast was pushed back to 2018/19 in March 2015, and to 2019/20 in July 2015,[6] before the target of a return to surplus at any particular time was finally abandoned by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in July 2016.[7]
Yes yes, I know all about the National Debt, & for sure, we are heading for bustoville.
First place I'd look to make cuts would be the welfare system, which is being gamed to death by so many of the UK population. Even our Pension system is unsustainable. We blaming refugees for that?
"Less of a good argument when some of your own citizens struggle to make ends meet."
It's never less of a good argument to help others less fortunate.
No matter how bad some may think it is in the UK, there are plenty of places where it's far worse. And as I wrote earlier, how would the NHS, TfL or many other organisations cope without immigrant labour?
In my mind the story above just sums up how stupid we are. The couple have an alarm on their vehicle which notifies them if any one enters their vehicle, on their phones. So that couldnt happen. A border guard checked the outside of their vehicle. Yet he only checked that their gas was turned off, and failed to check the one place where someone could be hiding. They arrive home, and discover someone hiding in the bike rack. Immediately phone the police. The police attend and apprehend him. This results in a £1,500 fine. Brilliant. So if they had given him a cup of tea, and told him to be on his way, they would have saved £1,500. An incentive for anyone in that position in the future not to phone the police.
Yes yes, I know all about the National Debt, & for sure, we are heading for bustoville.
First place I'd look to make cuts would be the welfare system, which is being gamed to death by so many of the UK population. Even our Pension system is unsustainable. We blaming refugees for that?
I think the benefit system is gamed by some, but not all. I am not blaming refugees for anything. Although I cant see that borrowing £8billion per year for hotel bills as good value for money. That doesnt take into account their benefits, legal aid, or driving lessons. And dont forget that asylum seekers are not allowed to work.
I dont think that you can say that they are all genuine asylum seekers, that they are all on their ar5es, as they have had to pay people smugglers thousands, or that they are only looking for a safe place, as they have all travelled through numerous safe countries before arriving in the UK.
Comments
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/essex-couple-fight-1-500-073557602.html
They went through two border controls and they both missed him
This is worth a look, because it is an absolutely ridiculous story.
Labour are really smashing the gangs.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/deported-ghanaian-fraudster-return-uk-112144074.html
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/refugees-learning-to-drive-in-uk-given-30k-for-lessons-from-taxpayers/ar-AA1AY2aj?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=def6eb7c941e476d8fbb7806305927ba&ei=117#fullscreen
Stories like these make me proud of my county.
Giving people who want to improve their life some dignity and a leg up out of their dire circumstances.
Go Britain.
@mumsie
God bless you Charlie.
I'm ashamed of some of my fellow Brits sometimes. We've never had it so good, Benefits galore & folks gaming the system big time. And yet there's this constant anti-refugee/immigrant/foreign people narrative.
Imagine living somewhere that has no sanitation, no running water or 'leccy, precious little food or water & zero job prospects. And then when you try to get a better life for you & your family, some fat bloke, full time unemployed & gaming the system, sat in his comfy armchair in the UK watching his colour TV & moaning about potholes thinks they have no right here & objects to a penny or two on his Income Tax to pay for it.
Without immigrants this country would collapse. Try to imagine the NHS or London Transport, or any Service Industry, existing without immigrants.
Potholes? I'll give you potholes...
Here's the "lucky" ones, condemned to life in a Refugee Camp...
Because I am not.
I would be in favour of us taking in our fair share of migrants.
I think there are a number of problems which seem beyond our control.
We have no control over the numbers that arrive by small boats.
Although as @Essexphil regularly points out, this is a relatively small number in the overall scheme of things.
We dont have a clue about the number of people that overstay visas, or how many illegal immigrants there are in the country.
We have teams of people that are employed to catch illegal immigrants, yet they are rarely succesful in deporting anyone, as the majority hide their passports, and we cant deport them unless we know where they came from.
We also have a serious problem in processing asylum applications in a reasonable time.
Having no control is just absolutely stupid.
Accepting a reasonable number of asylum seekers is not.
£30,000 for driving lessons is a drop in the ocean compared to £8billion per year in hotel bills.
I appreciate your point about the conditions that some people live in, but we cant take all of them.
Our public services are already stretched.
You have illustrated one group of people that you have no sympathy for.
Yet there are others.
There are those that may have one or more low paid jobs that struggle to make ends meet.
There are those that are genuinely unable to work through disability, or have to look after a family member, that are just about to get their benefits cut.
There are also those that are just about to be dragged into paying higher rates of income tax, due to the frozen tax thresholds.
Many of these people will be up in arms over some of these costs.
Every one of the asylum seekers that arrive in the UK on a small boat will pass through a number of safe countries.
Seeing the boats arrive day after day, will pi55 people off, and increase support fot that tw at Farage.
They also have to be in a position to pay the people traffickers in advance.
What would it cost for a family of 4, 20k?
At some point we will surely have to implement an American style entry system.
Where we record a finger print, and photo, of anyone entering the country.
So at least we would know exactly who is here, and where they came from.
Why havent we already.
We are currently in debt, and are paying £billions per year in interest on the debt.
I was watching Trevor Phillips a couple of weeks ago, one of his panel was an economist.
She was referring to the Foreign Aid Budget, when she said she wouldnt have one.
She was making the point that we were effectively borrowing the money to give away.
I can see that some people will argue that it is good to help countries that are less fortunate than us.
Less of a good argument when some of your own citizens struggle to make ends meet.
"Less of a good argument when some of your own citizens struggle to make ends meet."
It's never less of a good argument to help others less fortunate.
No matter how bad some may think it is in the UK, there are plenty of places where it's far worse. And as I wrote earlier, how would the NHS, TfL or many other organisations cope without immigrant labour?
@HAYSIE
PS - "I hope I am not seen as a xenophobe."
No no, absolutely not, I'm certainly not suggesting as such. You are a decent man, despite being Welsh.
The vast majority of those people will be here legally.
The point for me is that we dont know who is here.
We cant stop the boats.
If another 600 people arrive today, we will put them up in hotels, give them a few quid, take years to process their applications, maybe give them driving lessons, and probably provide them with a solicitor, at our cost, who will advise them of the best way to beat the system.
Before the Tories actually stopped it thousands were coming from Albania.
UK National Debt – How Much Is It And Who Is Owed The Money?
The country’s debt will likely top £2.5 trillion by the end of the year – increasing by at least £200 billion in a year, mostly due to financial hand-outs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Britain’s National Debt By Numbers
According to the website National Debt Clock, government debt grows at £5,170 a second or £310,000 a minute.
https://www.iexpats.com/uk-national-debt/
At the end of March 2023, UK general government gross debt was £2,537.0 billion, or 100.5% gross domestic product.[2]
Approximately a third of the UK national debt is owned by the British government due to the Bank of England's quantitative easing programme, so approximately a third of the cost of servicing the debt is paid by the government to itself. In 2018, this reduced the annual servicing cost to approximately £30 billion (approx 2% of GDP, approx 5% of UK government tax income).
In 2017, due to the Government's budget deficit (PSNCR), the national debt increased by £46 billion.[3] The Cameron–Clegg coalition government in 2010 planned that they would eliminate the deficit by the 2015/16 financial year.[4] However, by 2014 they admitted that the structural deficit would not be eliminated until the financial year 2017/18.[5] This forecast was pushed back to 2018/19 in March 2015, and to 2019/20 in July 2015,[6] before the target of a return to surplus at any particular time was finally abandoned by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in July 2016.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_national_debt
Yes yes, I know all about the National Debt, & for sure, we are heading for bustoville.
First place I'd look to make cuts would be the welfare system, which is being gamed to death by so many of the UK population. Even our Pension system is unsustainable. We blaming refugees for that?
The couple have an alarm on their vehicle which notifies them if any one enters their vehicle, on their phones.
So that couldnt happen.
A border guard checked the outside of their vehicle.
Yet he only checked that their gas was turned off, and failed to check the one place where someone could be hiding.
They arrive home, and discover someone hiding in the bike rack.
Immediately phone the police.
The police attend and apprehend him.
This results in a £1,500 fine.
Brilliant.
So if they had given him a cup of tea, and told him to be on his way, they would have saved £1,500.
An incentive for anyone in that position in the future not to phone the police.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/essex-couple-fight-1-500-073557602.html
I am not blaming refugees for anything.
Although I cant see that borrowing £8billion per year for hotel bills as good value for money.
That doesnt take into account their benefits, legal aid, or driving lessons.
And dont forget that asylum seekers are not allowed to work.
I dont think that you can say that they are all genuine asylum seekers, that they are all on their ar5es, as they have had to pay people smugglers thousands, or that they are only looking for a safe place, as they have all travelled through numerous safe countries before arriving in the UK.