General Chat

'Vote early & vote often' used to be an alleged advice in a certain part of the UK.

Most people over estimate the number of immigrants in the UK by a factor of two and the number unemployed by a factor of three.

There is also a perception that Europeans are a drain on our resources. I would beg to differ having been a census enumerator in 2011 I would suggest that those from the Indian sub continent cost us far more in benefits, housing and health.

Roll on the 8th of May. :-(

The UK is not repeat not over crowded. It is the victim of p poor planning avarice and greed which sometimes make it look overcrowded.

Examples:

Total failure to ensure that there are enough primary schools. There are plenty of towns with very low immigrant populations which nevertheless have an acute shortage of primary places.

Total failure to provide enough transport whether roads or commuter railways. Despite the lack of road improvements no problem seen in adding housing estates shopping centres and bizparks ad infinitum.

Destruction of public transport except in London and a handful of tram schemes. So everybody tries to go by car and spends all day in traffic jams. EG: Lakeside, Meadowhall. Thanks to the subway and bus it is very ez and cheap to get around New York City which has a higher pop. density than London. Yeah, cabs cost but so they do in London. LA goes on for ever has next to no public transport and is an all day traffic jam and smog zone. Mayfield's arguments are nonsense.

Shortage of affordable housing - largely created from a terrible mix of refusing to build quality apartments (except for well heeled Russians and Chinese) , Milton Keynes syndrome, land banking by Bovine Homes and others, banks having creating an artificial price fear a drop in their mortgage assets, over designation of the green belt.

And so on and on.

Don't blame UK problems of rubbish planning on incoming people. Most of them anyway earn far more than the average poster on these boards. It is just that a Frenchman making £250 K living in Putney is not such good copy for the D.M. as Somalis and Romanians in Sheffield or East Europeans in Lincolnshire.

The prime reason why people move to the UK is and always has been to make money by working. The second reason has been fear of religious and racial persecution. I see no reason to make either reason more difficult to achieve.

Apart from being practical nonsense xenophobia has a very dark side which right now should be remembered.

Well, if we exchanged all the Brits living abroad for all the 'foreigners' living in the UK, we'd have an awful lot of elderly people, with no-one to look after them!
Wouldn't it be a better idea to ensure offshore tax 'havens' are curbed, and all taxes that should be paid in this country, are paid? Certain firms:
Starbucks
Amazon
Google
....and many individuals take advantage - strange how Cameron was going to 'get tough' on those who didn't pay their fair amount of tax before he was elected, then did nothing about it.

Chinese and Russian oligarchs (who don't live here) are buying up vast amounts of London property. They're also not paying the necessary tax when buying these properties,
Many properties are left empty, or rental properties are built. This not only lessens the opportunity to buy, but also seriously inflates the cost of surrounding properties.

Do'h! You got me KenSE! I seem to have a failure with the decimal point! :-D

The fact that some places are much higher density like Hong Kong, that is hideously crowded, doesn't alter the general point of my post we are a small country with a very large and growing population, some parts of the total area of the UK like the highlands of Scotland and parts of Wales are impractical to build on.

I am not suggesting we send people home (unless they are here illegally or for criminal purposes) just curb the numbers coming in.

I doubt Mr Farage would make a good prime minister, but at least the threat of UKIP getting some seats may get the other parties to wake up and smell the coffee ;-)

Mayfield, your figure for Belgium is obviously wrong as Belgium is smaller than the UK.

In fact you have inflated its size by a factor of 10. Belgium and the Netherlands are more densely populated than the UK.

Here is a link to population densities:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_population_density

There are a lot of places with a higher poulation density than the UK.

Here we go again,,,

Of course were overcrowded with all the foreigners we have living here.

there are not enough beds for everyone(including Older people) in the hospitals,
Not enough school places for the next influx of children for September,
Not enough houses and certainly not enough money for all the benefits that get payed out.


I have a bus pass but if I had to pay bus fares (£4)a time just to go to the nearest shopping centre(5 miles away) and £5 the other way to Harrogate(8 miles away) I wouldn't be able to get out and you all what the medical people say about loneliness.

And there is one pensioner club once a month if you can walk 2 miles and your face may not fit or you were not born in the very small village.

I pay full rent,council tax and I pay tax on a bit of private pension also I paid full stamp from the age of 15 to 60.

So most of us pay towards the benefits people are claiming or should I say we are paying the benefits for all the people who are claiming.

UKIP don't speak for me either - and I would never vote for them, but they do say things that need saying

Old people - and I am one of them, do not cost the health service any more than anyone else - I am fortunate to enjoy excellent health and can't recall the last time I had a GP appointment

UKIP don't speak for me either.

Or they give you life-saving operations and care for the elderly when the native population won't.

Hi Rollo, the continentals are welcome to object and complain if they are not happy it is only fair.

I copied this from a post I made a while ago, figures may have changed but not by much.

I just had a look at some figures after reading this thread out of interest.
Of course figures vary but a rough average was.



France 640,679 sq km - population 64 million.
Bulgaria 110,994 sq km - population 7 million.
Belgium 305,528 sq km - population 11 million.
Spain 505,992 sq km - population 47 million.
Germany 357,168 sq km - population 81 million.
Poland 312,679 sq km - population 38 million.

UK 243,610 sq km - population 63 million.

To those who say we should take our share, I reckon we have got that already

There is a point when pulling people into your lifeboat that it sinks then they swim off and leave you to drown ;-) ;-) ;-)

Rambling Rose 26 Jan 2015 17:34 "UKIP don't speak for me."

Nor for me!

UKIP don't speak for me, it's a party to give bigots a voice, or so a prominent UKIP member said.

Without immigrant doctors and nurses the NHS would collapse.

Many carers in nursing homes are also immigrants because the local population won't take minimum wage jobs.

Well I do have a bus pass, if I didn't I wouldn't go to town so much and therefore wouldn't spend money in the shops.

I too am fed up with hearing the bleating about the elderly causing the NHS money. what do they want ? Euthanasia at 60? They need to look at the admin structure of the NHS and cut some off the top, that would save money. Look at who are clogging up the A&E departments, especially at weekends and sort out the drunks, maybe make a charge, maybe not, but sort it out. sort out the GPs so that people can get appointments and not resort to A&E when just feeling poorly.

And as you say, pre election, same old, same old. Fed up with hearing about it already and you can't believe any of them, including UKIP. They will be the same as the rest, all talk before the election then forget what they said afterwards.

UKIP don't speak for me.

There are more Brits living in the EU than EU citizens living in the UK.
There are more Brits claiming benefits in the rest of the EU than EU citizens claiming benefits in the UK. Neither UKIP nor the D.M. nor the Tory party ever mention this.

The UK is not overcrowded certainly not Wales half of which is next to uninhabited. Even Cardiff at 2,500 people /ha is less huddled than where I work, Islington, at 14,500 people/ha. Islington is busy, true, but does not feel especially crushed except when Arsenal are playing at home. Singapore has a population of about 5m in an area the size of the Isle of Wight.

Quite agree Sue. As a coffin dodger at 65 I am still fit and active unlike my parents generation that were old at 60!

The only call I have on the NHS is tablets for blood pressure and to keep the old prostate happy, I get free prescriptions and the winter fuel payment.

I don't have a bus pass, or claim any other benefits.

I pay tax, always pay my bills council tax etc and don't commit any crimes or anti-social behaviour.

My tax goes to fund benefits for families, to pay health care for maternity services education and police / social services sorting out the evils of society.

Sorry I am such a trouble to everyone! :-D

It's always the same old BLAH BLAH BLAH with any of the parties

But I will tell you what I am sick of hearing from ALL PARTIES is that it's the older people that they are using the most money on in the NHS...


NO IT'S BLOODY NOT....
look at the foreigners that are here and getting free treatment when they have only just got in the country...They are laughing up their sleeves at us....

Here's an idea to ponder ;-)

Our roads are overcrowded.
Our Schools are overcrowded.
The NHS is unable to cope or fund the patient load.
There is a shortage of housing.
Public transport like the tube is unable to cope at peak times.
We have one of the largest populations in Europe in one of the smallest countries.

Maybe we just have too many people, when you are in a hole stop digging! ;-)