A question for the anti-immigration ranters

[chez]

Are you not missing him, mate? Look at what Crawley are doing in the league this year and just imagine how good we'd be with the man man still in goal

Let me guess, you LOVE Casper?

Haha, I think Casper is a decent enough keeper. Nowhere near as good as Wayne Henderson though.

 

[HackneyMan]

The Subject irritates me as the answer as to whether people are bothered about immigration in large numbers seems almost entirely dependent on how it affects someone, I've learned.

Its easy to be indifferent or liberal when your surrounding Culture is hardly affected at all.

For me growing up in 1960's Inner London oe could go ONE MONTH without seeing anybody other than White/British.

2 weeks ago in London I was the ONLY White person out of a bus of around 50 people, none of whom seemed connected to each other.
That is completely being swamped as predicted by many 30 years ago, and is why so many "Londoners" have moved out of London.

However if one is, say, 25-30 and never seen the complete takeover, culturally, of one's area then it is easy to be blase about this topic.

 

[jimhigham]

Morning all. It's your friendly rep from the UK Border Agency here (e-mailing before clocking on, in case you think I'm slacking).

Here's some thoughts on the topic of this thread and the wider point of border control in this country.

First up. The team. Fran, Inigo, Casper and the like are EU nationals. End of. Nothing to see here. As regards other nationals plying their trade in the UK, the numbers of professionals playing in this country is negligible when considered against such categories as students granted visas to study in the UK or highly skilled (Tier 1) permits. As such, it is never going to be a political issue and is unlikely to ever be changed. Net result? We get a great team. C'MON!!!!

Now to the nitty gritty and I'm not making any party political points here. Successive governments have paid lip service to the concept of a border control. The Tories had plans along the lines of a border police force and made immigration an issue during the election, feeding of disenchantment with Labour's perceived weakness on the issue. The LibDems took what was seen as a much more lenient stance. In practice, the fact that we have a coalition and that the deficit is the tail wagging the dog mean that the Tory proposals seem to have been more or less neutered. UKBA has taken a 20% hit and I am guessing that about 1 in 7 of us will lose our jobs by the end of this parliament.

I'm not blind to any of this. I would suggest that the Agency has become bloated and fairly complacent in its approach over the years when the cash was free flowing. It would be daft to suggest that savings cannot be made or that we could not shed a few staff. I may be doing myself out of a job by saying so but such is life.

It seems that immigration, as a political issue, is being kicked into the long grass again. I am saddened in as much as I think that the function that we perform is valuable. In 18 years of service I have seen a man split his wrists, been spat at, cussed at and had chairs thrown at me in the process of making tough decisions. In doing so I have prevented criminals from having a free run at this country. I feel this is valid. Before anybody comes back with the ideological view that we should not even be here at all I could add that I have, in some small way, helped reunite families divided by war and conflict.

In all, it has been a rewarding job and, I like to think, for some purpose. However, it could be that my time is almost up. By and large, the only press coverage of our work tends to lean to the reactionary, which is frustrating. Please chew on some of the above before lunging for the "abuse" button from either the left or the right.

Go Gus!

:albion1:

 

[Gwylan]

2 weeks ago in London I was the ONLY White person out of a bus of around 50 people, none of whom seemed connected to each other.
That is completely being swamped as predicted by many 30 years ago,

There are an estimated 31 percent of non-White people in London, in other words, there are more than twice as many white people. By no-one's definition is that 'being swamped'. A few weeks ago, you were on here giving it large how well-educated you were, I guess that maths wasn't one of your strong points.

FWIW, I grew up on an estate that was 100% white, went to a school that was about 99.5% white and have no problems whatsoever in living in an area that is overwhelming black or Asian - indeed, I've lived in a street where our house was the only one with white people in it. The only criterion for me is whether the neighbours are decent people, not what colour their skin is.

 

[The Spanish]

There are an estimated 31 percent of non-White people in London, in other words, there are more than twice as many white people. By no-one's definition is that 'being swamped'. A few weeks ago, you were on here giving it large how well-educated you were, I guess that maths wasn't one of your strong points.

FWIW, I grew up on an estate that was 100% white, went to a school that was about 99.5% white and have no problems whatsoever in living in an area that is overwhelming black or Asian - indeed, I've lived in a street where our house was the only one with white people in it. The only criterion for me is whether the neighbours are decent people, not what colour their skin is.

from pretty much 0% to 31% in 60 years in one of the worlds largest cities is barely worth comment, you are right.

very fine sentiments. again someone misses the point or deliberately muddles the debate by confusing skin colour with cultural assimilation. i dont care what colour my neighbours are as long as communication does not break down and we feel some sense of community or shared values. and me meeting people who are more recent arrivals by 1000 years or so more than half way is not the way to achieve that, which is being borne out as the sentiments up and down the country.

i would go back to your 100% white estate and do a bit of a poll, if it is indeed now more like 69% as is inner London.

 

[Gwylan]

from pretty much 0% to 31% in 60 years in one of the worlds largest cities is barely worth comment, you are right.

i would go back to your 100% white estate and do a bit of a poll, if it is indeed now more like 69% as is inner London.

You're missing the point. It's not a question of whether it's worthy of comment or not, it's whether the word we use is "swamped" - that's clearly not appropriate.

The population of Moulsecoomb is now 95% white, according to the last census. It might be a bit higher now but I'd bet it doesn't reach 10%.

 

[El Presidente]

Interesting view, presumably during our most successful period in the 70s and 80s you were actively moaning about our overwhelmingly white and UK born squad?

I dont recall many conversations during that time about how our success had some equivalence with a relatively limited UK immigration policy (by modern standards) but then I was probably just concentrating on the football.

I do recall some 'hilarious' monkey noises from our knuckle dragging contingent when Chris Ramsey started playing for the Albion.

 

[The Spanish]

You're missing the point. It's not a question of whether it's worthy of comment or not, it's whether the word we use is "swamped" - that's clearly not appropriate.

The population of Moulsecoomb is now 95% white, according to the last census. It might be a bit higher now but I'd bet it doesn't reach 10%.

I am not missing the point - you feel that the word swamped is inappropriate, but hilariously use the statistic that the population of a city that has been to all intents and purposes exclusively white european for 2000 years, hs over 60 years become a 1/3rd non white, to discredit it! just as bad and manipulative in my opinion, with the added daftness of not perhaps being the best way of countering the 'swamped' claims......

 

[itszamora]

ok watch tv read the papers all the scams done by blacks,asians and eastern europeans facts not fiction

Ah ok, I thought you were being ignorant, so I see you are in fact just a racist who thinks that nobody who doesn't conform to your white British stereotype has a right to be in the UK. Of course I could point out that people of "White British" ethnicity are actually descended from Normans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in the main, but I doubt there's really much point.