DB7

BBC NEWS | Politics | UK gets 2.5m new foreign workers

David Brent

Thanks DB.

I see the figures only relate to legal workers entering the country.

Dave.

Harleybloke

10/10 for optimism Pens....................

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

Steve Crook

Well there is now that you've started it

Steve

Moor Larkin

Yes, the illegal one's run around so much, we can't keep count......

Anyhow, if you are leaving..........

Can you get a bloody move on because it's getting a bit crowded in here.......

Fareham_Bee

Sod the egg chasing, the weather's all you need oh and the northern soul!

Harleybloke

Oh Good Grief......................

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

penfold

Interesting graphic.....up until 1997 no-one wanted to come and no-one could afford to leave.....I wonder what happened.....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

christoph404

nice one Penfold!...I like it.....

DB7

Immigration rules were relaxed and more work permits issued. GDP rose 3%.

Steve Crook

Ooh, you're not allowed to point out that immigrants are actually an advantage to the country. The Daily Mail would never allow that

Steve

samkydd

I wonder what the advantage is to the Spanish for all us Brits going over there to buy up places like Murcia? Apart from the economic benefit of falsely inflating property values and consuming lots of food and drink, culturally I don't think there's much. I don't think the local population's quality of life has been enhanced by our invasion, despite hundreds of karaoke bars, pub quizzes and bingo!

They say "the grass is always greener...." but in most hot countries its sort of scorched parchment in colour, and I don't think I'd enjoy the life. Having worked abroad for months on end in India and several out of the way African countries, despite having aircon in cars and some commercial buildings, working in the heat all the time saps your strength and the novelty of almost perpetual sunshine soon wears off.

If I lived abroad permanently I think I'd miss the weather in the UK, the beaches and ozone, theatre, comedy clubs, the cinema (sometimes), cheap food and clothing (well mine is), libraries, public swimming baths for serious lane swimming, the silly beaurocrats, the scenery, Bonfire Night and even the whinging people.

In Spain many ex-pats live in overdeveloped ghettos and they only ever see other Brits all the time, and unless they've a job of work to do there is a danger of spending too much time in the bar! You can't play golf and sit on the beach seven days a week!

If anyone here is thinking of going abroad for good, some advice from a mate of mine who came back to nothing! In case it goes awry when you're there; your partner runs off with an ex-Fisons rep in Fueringerola called Frank, or you suddenly find out that your pension fund has collapsed . Don't sell up in the UK, rent your home out and then rent a place abroad (which is a lot cheaper than you'd pay in the UK) before you commit yourselves.

A lot of people moved to places like Murcia to get away from crimewave Britain, and then all of a sudden crime followed them to Murcia! Don't run away from the U.K., stand up and fight against the things that have messed it up, try boycotting The Daily Mail and making your MP work for his superstar lifestyle!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

BristolUK

That's not quite the point though, is it.

It may be a perception of things. It may be fact. But the perception comes from something tangible to begin with.

Believe me, I'm not a 'Mail' type reader. I read a fascinating article in the Guardian recently. The reporter went for a month with nothing but the Mail as a news source.

Within the article there was a quote from a journo who submitted a piece to his Mail editor and had it returned with a request to make it more alarmist.

I'm living in a city in Canada of 120,000. As I said earlier, people park their cars and leave the windows open with keys still in the ignition. In my two years here I have read of just two street muggings. Neither involved an act of violence. House break-ins are very rare - theft from garage or shed is more likely.

Every couple of months there will be two or three convenience store robberies over a weekend. No weapon shown. Police make an arrest, the robberies stop.

Motorists stop to allow people to cross the street - even where not a designated crossing. They stop at small junctions in residential streets, in case there are kids around, even where there are no stop lines or humps.

But it's not the genteel place you'd think. People are just considerate of others.

Sorry....I have to differ there. I haven't found it a nicer place to live than it was 20 years ago.
I was born in Bristol in 1957. I lived in Brislington from 66 to 84. I saw thriving shops become the empty buildings they are now with the car parks in behind where yobs hang about, boy racers do their handbrake turns and the old woman next door was harrassed, windows broken etc because she had the nerve to live in the house next to the lane. My mum still lives where I once did.

I know of the aggressive begging - not from the Evening Post but from my own experiences of working in St Pauls and simply wandering about town.

From 84 to 2004 I lived in Totterdown. A lovely mixed race community that was a pleasure to live in the whole time. But there was a part that got worse over the last few years.

Are you saying the problems of the Somalis and the black youth of Easton/St Pauls don't exist?

What about the massive drugs and associated problems of Bristol? I doubt they have gone away since I left.

Now the new drinking laws....I can't comment on that as that has happened recently.

BristolUK

The thing is that stood out for its horror.

The kid on the bike shot in the head doesn't stand out so much. Because there was that girl shot at the party in Birmingham. The boy shot in the chip shop (was it?) in Liverpool. Stephen Lawrence. Damilola Taylor.

With each race related or gang related shooting or violent killing of a child (as distinct from other crimes against kids that have always existed) as horrific as these things still are....they are no longer standing out like they once did.

DB7

And so is Sweden and countless other countries. There happens to be a reason why we're a G7 nation with higher GDP and sell rusty subs to the Canucks.