Bulgarians and Romanians

[Workingman]

Their numbers in the UK have risen 26% in three months and they will continue to rise once their employment rules are abolished in December. They might not flood in, but even at low levels their numbers will rise to that of a medium sized city over five years or so.

The government view?

The Home Office said it welcomed those who contributed to the economy.

Which part of "many of them are coming here to take from the economy" do these idiots not understand? They do that in two ways, mainly. Firstly they take jobs (multiple jobs) away from locals, jobs, which because of our stupid employment and benefit rules, are not really available to the British. Secondly they send the money home or bank it until they leave, either way it leaves the UK. Those are the ones that work, there will be lots of the other sort..........

I helped a friend to set up his lettings agency at the time the Poles were arriving in their droves. They would take on a three bed semi, for example, in a poorer area and put eight to ten people in it. All the costs were shared - rent, food, gas, elec, the lot. When someone had saved enough to set themselves up back home they would go and another would move in. It was a rolling programme.

It is what many of the Bulgarians and Romanians will do as well. This site shows why: http://www.cheap-bulgarian-house.co.uk/ ... gbp_6.html

A few years "roughing it" in the UK can set someone up to live like a King for life.

[Kaz]

Oh great - more accordian-playing gypsies and beggars hassling us at every turn

Why don't politicians try living in the real world???

[cromwell]

The penny has just dropped with me - the restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians finish this year, right?
And next year, 2014, we have the euro elections in this country.
The new influx will be unpopular and so UKIP stand to get another boost, just before the Euro elections!
All of a sudden, Labour are huffing and puffing about EU citizens "taking the jobs of British workers" as though this is something new!
I dislike the new influx for many reasons; like WM says, the house and bill sharing means that they can live cheaper and have less overheads than a British person who is paying a mortgage and trying to raise a family. They can and do undercut our tradesmen.
Second, it makes my blood boil that fields are going under concrete forever to cater for even more immigration.
Third, I reckon we've got enough Big Issue sellers already, ta very much.
Sooner or later people might realise that what is deemed "good for business" does not mean that it is good for the ordinary person.
It's "good for business" if they can pay you lousy money for a fifty hour week, but it isn't good for the worker. It's "good for business" if they can keep banging up gas bills way above the rate of inflation, but it isn't good if you're the one paying the bill!
And it's "good for business" if multi-national corporations are allowed to pay £1 million in tax on an annual turnover in the billions, but we don't get the same courtesy extended to us!
So the influx of cheap labour is "good for business"?
Grrrrrrrr!

[KateLMead]

Well said, More garden sheds in Slough and elsewhere to accommodate them. Waiting lists will increase in hospitals, birth rates going up TB on the increase.. Schools struggling to accommodate the children interpreters at the ready in all areas.
What a bloody mess this country is in.

[TheOstrich]

Judging by the plates on the cars on our estate, Romanians are increasingly renting property in our area .....

[Aggers]

Here in the Midlands unemployment is going up. An influx of foreigners won't help our unemployed, will it?

This country is going to the dogs. As Kate says, Isn't this country in a bloody mess.

I have always said that there should be an intelligence test for anyone who puts up for parliamentary elections.
Then perhaps we might have some decent brains running the country.

[Suff]

Ah WM I'm going to take you to task on this one.

This is the EU. This is exactly how it is supposed to work. Just like the US. The two major dislocations between the EU and the US are:

1. The US has a single currency throughout and a single banking system.
2. The US has no real benefits infrastructure.

In the US you can work anywhere, can be put out of work for no reason with two weeks notice and have to pay for your own health and pension/unemployment subsidies out of your wages.

In the EU, they are trying to do the same thing. Rights to live and work in any country. BUT and this is a really big BUT, the EU is trying to force member statues to pay the social bill for anyone who should choose to move there.

Whatever you believe in, however your politics stand. This is a fundamental truth of the EU. We either choose to accept it and move on or we leave.

There simply is no other choice. Moaning, complaining or writing to our MP will not change this fundamental truth. We are faced with a choice. Everyone wants to speak English. Everyone wants the wealth of the UK and the benefits. If we stay in the EU, we have to let them.

Stark choice. Something I'd like to see debated in real political circles.

[KateLMead]

Looking at the properties and the prices who would blame them for coming here to work so as to buy, back in their own properties that are give away prices in our eyes. Also English investors are buying in Bulgaria and Romania happy as sand larks.

[Suff]

In the US this works due to a lack of low wage control. In California property prices are astronomical. Yet people from the country can't come and make their fortune and move back to deepest Washington State, to get a cheaper property and live on the proceeds. Those who "make it" in areas of high wealth tend to stay there and enjoy the life...

This is what happens when you try to make a country with a marked lack of joined up thinking.... Well there is a lot of joined up thinking at some levels. That's the "Lie" level. Where they know what is happening but choose to lie to everyone about it and continue on the basis that nobody will generate enough momentum to leave.

[Workingman]

I couldn't care less what the rules are in the US or Paraguay or Tuvalu, for the matter. They are not in the EU and can do what they please.

We are in the EU, but our benefits system is almost unique. In most EU countries access to benefits is contributions based, though those contributions may have been paid in any country, and they only apply to contributions based benefits. In the UK we have a mix and match system of contributions and income based benefits. We have also in the past, partly because of our system, been very liberal in the applications of the EU's 'habitual residence' test. It is why we introduced the "right to reside" test as an alternative.

However, my rant was not about benefits it was about the myth that immigration is and always has been good for the country. Whenever the subject comes up the debate is always silenced by the PC mantra of "Immigration is good, stopping it is bad". No hard facts are ever given for this, but any negative examples are always, always, put down as racist.