General Chat

i think it is disgraceful!they get to come over here, get a house,clothes etc.how come when a british person needs a council house they have to wait up to 4 years for one.shouldn't our government be looking after the british people first.no i'm not racist but believe that charity should begin at home!!

I am wondering about those that say they intend to vote Labour at the next election. At the moment any policy the Conservatives come up with, with the exception of tax, Blair takes as his own. My question: Do you want the party that has reasoned the case and come up with a policy or do you want one that sees an idea, good or bad, and adopts it with out knowing why or how it works? Bob

Bob, Good points. Yes, education and health are important issues to most people, but unchecked immigration has an impact on both. Many schools, especially in inner cities, struggle to cope with providing an education for children whose first languages are wide-ranging. Free health-care for everyone means services being stretched to capacity and beyond. I've nothing against people coming here to live and work, but there needs to be adequate control, so that people can be assimilated into our society and systems on a gradual basis. If too many come at once, the systems cannot cope, and new facilities take time to become operational. As I said earlier on this thread, these islands cannot possibly accommodate hundreds of thousands more people every year. CB >|<

Forget Politicians,The problems with Immigrants/asylum seekers/Illegals etc. is totally out of control,and its time this was addressed by all parties and sorted out once and for all. Its time the People of our country decided "Enough is Enough" we cannot take any more,our Infrastructure cannot take it. Hal.

I don't know very much about politics, but on the run up to an election doesn't the opposition always say what they think that people want to hear? Then when they get voted in nothing really changes. Jack x

Have only just seen this thread. I think there are two points to the original question. Yes of course this must be discussed in a reasoned way and not just shouting 'Racist' at anyone who mentions the word imigration. Having said that, I do not belive there are a great many vote to be won as the public see this is as a low priority compared with health, education etc. Finally it seems Blair has already signed away any control over our boarders to the EU anyway. So the real debate as in most domestic policy these days, employment, agriculture, fishing etc is about the EU and not what happens in Westminster. Unfortunatly this is another subject where reasonned debate is quickley reduced to name calling. Bob

no different to labours policies then andy.they could not come up with the goods either like they promisedxxxx(:

Before the Sangatte reception centre at Calais was closed, the French authorities were actively encouraging the illegals there to head for the UK. And the asylum seekers without exception seem to be fit young men. I assume they've left their parents, wives and children in their country of origin to be tortured and murdered? Doesn't seem to add up somehow. If they and their families were being persecuted and they have abandoned the families to their fate they deserve to be shot instead of being given asylum!

But Lisa, of course a vote for the Tories is a wasted vote, too many of their policies don't hang together. You realise I agree in principle with Howards argument, but already we are seeing the EU shoot holes in it!

for me it will be andy.to say that we are racist which some groups have claimed because we have a view on this is ridiculous.it's a free country so we can say how we feelxxxx(:

Nudge!

Rupert. I have voted for the Labour Party since the Seventies. Like you I am disillusioned with New Labour. But you can't say that Tony Blair is really any worse than for instance John Major. The would you vote for then? Surely not that buffoon Michael Howard and the rest of the Mail reading geriatrics of the Tory party? And the Lib Dems, nice people that they are are hardly credible. So that leaves us with the Labour Party, warts and all. I think it's far better to try to lobby our local MP's and change the course of the current government rather than chance things with the other two groups of losers.

Andy, More important than Immigration being the major topic of the Tory election campaign is the fact that Tony Blair immediately jumped on the band wagon by saying Labour would be looking into it. This moron of a leader has had years to bring it under control. He and his cabinet have openly admitted that they do not know how many immigrants have entered the country legally or illegally. What a way to run the country. Without the knowledge of a forthcoming general election any thinking person would know that one was going to be held because Blair knows d*** well that he should have stopped mass immigration ages ago. His actions at this time are vote catching and if he wins the election he will do what he has done time and time again that is to let it die a natural death. If the real anxieties which he beleives have to be addressed why is it only now that he thinks it necessaryto do this. It woud'nt have anything to do with the mood of the electorate?. I voted twice for this b***** crowd and I woud not under any circumstances vote for them again. Their honour is to themselves and not to the population of this country. Rupert Bear (my Opinion and I stand by it.)

I see nothing wrong with an Australian-style points system. Do you know how tough it is to emigrate there? You have to be able to prove you can support youself (or have a sponsor do so) for two years. As for asylum seekers; technically every last one of them is a criminal. In order to get into this country and claim asylum, they usually have to have entered illegally. So I have no problem with putting them up in specially-created centres until their application has been processed. And if they fail, they can be put on a plane quickly and easily because they won't have a chance to disappear, or to have got themselves a British spouse and three kids. Of course we must grant refuge to anyone fleeing genuine persection, but 80% of people who arrive here are not.

We had a holiday down in Falmouth back in August. Some of the old bed and breakfasts at the top of the hill had been taken over by the local authority to house Eastern European asylum seekers. What chance of employment do they have in Falmouth? I live in Hemel Hempstead. There are increasing numbers of Eastern European asylum seekers in this town. Any time of day you can see them sitting around in the town centre, well-dressed, talking on their mobile phones and obviously not working. How does this benefit the economy?

Its possible to argue both ways about immigration to this country. On the one hand, Britain has an ageing population plus a falling birthrate, and therefore not enough younger people to pay enough taxes to keep the economy sound and keep everything funded. Immigration could largely solve that problem. On the other hand, the British Isles are small in area and cannot possibly accommodate a continual inflow of large numbers of people. London and the South-East, for example, already have huge housing problems. It must be very difficult for politicians to get the balance right, but my personal feeling is that some control needs to be exercised, but based upon numbers, and not based upon any kind of selection by ethnicity. CB >|<

Yes Simon, if you look at the figures we are a net exporter of population. But of course the first thing is those are the published figures which ignore illegal immigration. Secondly the majority of the people leaving culturally white. The majority of the people coming in from other ethnic groups. This is causing a cultural imbalance.

This country remains annually a net exporter of population (a fact that the Daily Mail and other similar sources conveniently forget to publish); I think that the tories will have to come up with something a bit more imaginative than this tired old pony. Simon

Well, no Sheila. I'm sure that the Tories are grasping at straws. But sometimes these things can expose truths that any government should listen to. Personally I think that we will end up with another Labour administration, in fact I shall probably vote for them. But in the process I shall let my local MP exactly what I am unhappy about with new Labour!

Hmmmm - didn't they play the immigration ticket at the last election? And then discovered that voters were more concerned with health, education and crime - don't think they've got enough to defeat Blair and co at the moment!