UK '2nd Most Popular Country'

[Englishman2010]

Only about a thousand more yet Germany's population is 33% greater than ours . Strange how the lot pitching up in the UK pass through the likes of Germany and France without jumping off the truck there

Let's not forget that the rich West Germany adopted a further 20 million or so poor East Germans when it re-unified. West Germany's population was roughly the same as the UK's pre re-unification. I would guess that the majority of immigrants into Germany have gone to the more prosperous western cities?

[Dedworth]

Let's not forget that the rich West Germany adopted a further 20 million or so poor East Germans when it re-unified. West Germany's population was roughly the same as the UK's pre re-unification. I would guess that the majority of immigrants into Germany have gone to the more prosperous western cities?

Time flies though - reunification was in 1990 14 years before these E Europeans were admitted to the EU and IIRC only Britain and Ireland were the mugs who allowed their workers in immediately. No surprise that it was the Labour Govt who in the push for multiculturalism/votes in 2004 lied to the nation predicting 15000 a year would come - by July 2006 447000 had turned up putting untold pressure on housing, law enforcement, education etc

[Englishman2010]

Time flies though - reunification was in 1990 14 years before these E Europeans were admitted to the EU and IIRC only Britain and Ireland were the mugs who allowed their workers in immediately. No surprise that it was the Labour Govt who in the push for multiculturalism/votes in 2004 lied to the nation predicting 15000 a year would come - by July 2006 447000 had turned up putting untold pressure on housing, law enforcement, education etc

At the time I can remember Brown using the argument that we need more workers in the UK to pay NI & Tax to help support the pension payments of an ever ageing population. It might have worked had any of these new entrants actually worked in the real economy and paid tax and NI.
If he wanted more tax and NI payments, it would have actually been far simpler to have cut the benefits of the lazy 16 - 24 yr old dole scroungers and made them work and contribute to society.

[Dedworth]

At the time I can remember Brown using the argument that we need more workers in the UK to pay NI & Tax to help support the pension payments of an ever ageing population. It might have worked had any of these new entrants actually worked in the real economy and paid tax and NI.
If he wanted more tax and NI payments, it would have actually been far simpler to have cut the benefits of the lazy 16 - 24 yr old dole scroungers and made them work and contribute to society.

I think you are right, also he forgot to mention the negative outflow of child benefit and family tax credits heading out to E Europe for the mothers annd kiddies remaining there

[Englishman2010]

I think you are right, also he forgot to mention the negative outflow of child benefit and family tax credits heading out to E Europoe for the mothers annd kiddies remaining there

He naiively thought that they were honest and would make a positive contribution to our economy

Makes me wish I'd invested in a Western Union franchise a few years ago

[KeithD]

Makes me wish I'd invested in a Western Union franchise a few years ago

Just send $1000 to my anonymous Western Union account and I can .... erm.... help you with that

[Englishman2010]

Just send $1000 to my anonymous Western Union account and I can .... erm.... help you with that

No problem Keith, but don't forget my 10% handling fee for the transaction, plus the skim I'm going to take on the exchange rate. So give me £1000 GBP and I'll send you a $1000 USD

[Manila_Paul]

At the time I can remember Brown using the argument that we need more workers in the UK to pay NI & Tax to help support the pension payments of an ever ageing population. It might have worked had any of these new entrants actually worked in the real economy and paid tax and NI.

I would say the bigger problem with this was that immigrants tend to have kids and get old too.... what then?

As for EU workers in the black market, the numbers are/were tiny. We had record employment at one point because of the extra jobs the migrants from the EU were filling. All paying taxes and NI too. And really, no one is coming to the UK for our benefits. We have one of the meanest systems in Europe and now it is being cut even further. And you have to have worked and paid tax here for a year before you can claim. The major attraction for migrants remains that we are an English speaking country. And English is the world's lingua franca.