Much Needed Immigration.
- 3 November 2009 08:5332314I see the Home Secretary, currently in the wars over sacking the drugs advisor, has opened up another controversial front...Immigration. Successive governments have got it wrong etc etc says he, but we know that dont we. But how do we know?...its like trying to square the circle, immigration is.
However let me tell you a little story. We went to London last week for a couple of days to see the daughter at university. We stayed in a nice Hotel, I dont get up there too often so I thought I might treat myself to the Hotel Russell in Russell Square, its right next to the university life of Bloomsbury.
The Hotel has just had a refit costing £20million , marbled halls marbled walls and so on, and although much of the country might be suffering with a deep recession, London is it seems bullet proof. There is so much money there that nothing short of biblical catastrophe would slow it down. Not like that for the rest of the country of course...as we know.
But...the staff!? The Hotel was entirely manned by foreign workers. Some indian I think, but mostly east europeans. Poles, Czechs etc etc....they talk in broken english as they deliver your sandwich with a smile. if you say something too fast they look at you with bewilderment.
However they are in my book very very welcome. These workers keep London running. They keep the hotels open, they keep the transport running, they keep the hospitals running, the keep the restaurants thriving..people in London actually go out to restaurants, the whole thing is thriving and its all held together by Foreign workers because the English themselves wont take the jobs.
We might view immigration differently from this sleepy backwater
but where life is hubbing along at breakneck pace, immigration is the oil in the machine.email: dover7@msn.com - 3 November 2009 09:0132315One of your sentences said it all PaulB - "held together by foreign workers because the English themselves won't take the jobs" - and why won't they take the jobs ? because they are getting too much benefit money.
We need to sort out the scivers.
Many of these workers are (probably) paid the minimum wage or even less - there'll be plenty of others willing to take the jobs.
If we are going to have immigration, then lets have qualified people coming in who are willing and wanting to work and get these scivers back to work.
Roger - 3 November 2009 09:4432316You are quite right Roger. That plus the fact that the influx of foreign workers into such jobs is keeping the wages down to the minimum wage, get rid of the min wage, clamp down on benefits and put a big brake on immigration, then wage competition will push up wages in that industry attracting more staff.
- 3 November 2009 10:2632317what about the big construction sites where local british workers were not even given the opportunity to apply for the jobs?
instead agencies from countries such as portugal and italy, come up with dirt cheap tenders. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
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3 November 2009 10:2832318with dirt cheap enployees. - 3 November 2009 10:4432320I watched the docu-drama on Churchill last night and towards the end as Winnie was getting pushed out from his post-war cabinet there was an exchange between himself and Atlee (who was all for the welfare state) and Churchill did not approve at all and went to the King to submit his resignation as he could see how it was going to come out.
So here we are with a minimum wage and a privatised country that will of course get in a workforce as cheap as they can to boost profit for the shareholders.
Should you claim,the benefit system actually gives you a projection (when you find a suitable job) which illustrates to you if you would be better off on benefit or working and many times after calculation it can work out that you can be better off on jobseekers, this is obviously no incentive to change.
In the 50s there was mass immigration to fill posts on the buses etc thing don't change they just stay as they are.Oh Boy!, That'll be the day......... - 3 November 2009 12:0932324I was in Dublin recently and the girls wanted a Mac Donalds so off we went to find one. We queued for what seemed forever in this Fast Food establishment and finally got to the front to order. The girl serving us was polish and spoke very broken english. She just couldn't understand what we wanted. After a long time we just agreed with her as we couldn't understand her either. We just decided to take whatever came. As luck had it we did get almost what we ordered and we were just happy to sit and eat. She was a lovely girl but it was frustrating to say the least but we did see the funny side of it
- 3 November 2009 13:2932330I have worked on some big sites in london where the foreign workers had all big numbers on their backs on the high vis jacket and when they were needed you just called out no6 or no5 or the one you wanted this is true I have not made it up just to put on the forum.
- 3 November 2009 20:4132351I`ve been off work sick for most of this year, with 3 ops, all open surgery. I spent nearly 3 month`s in Kings College hospital, London. It was an eye opener. Alot of the staff were coloured, and I became great freinds with many of them. There were also many other nationalities. They were 12 hours a day, on the go most of the time. It was good company while I was there, always had time to talk. Any downside up there? Yes. Drug addicts in there. White!!Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
- 4 November 2009 08:5032364I don't have a problem with anyone Colin, whatever their colour or religion, so long as they are decent law-abiding people, willing to work, pay taxes etc. and not take, take take all the time.
I agree that some of the worst offenders as regards sciving and drug users/abusers are white - not sure now if it's O.K. to use the term, but the indigenous white people.
I also think it is wrong to stereotype people as every one is different, but sometimes it's difficult not to.
Roger