At Last Labour Speak Out About Immigration

[VHG]

After decades of all the parties being scared to utter a word about immigration at last we now have a party leader who is willing to talk about it.

"Curbs on non-EU immigration will be a key priority for an incoming Labour government", said Ed Miliband on the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24193771

There are those of us on AB who have been shouting this for years.

Low skilled immigrants, who cant speak English, don't want to integrate, and are happy to milk the benefit system for all its worth. Many of them offer nothing to this country.

There are areas of Birmingham near where I live (Sparkhill and Small Heath for example) that are virtually 100% Asian. They have been turned from poor but fairly nice suburbs of Birmingham into sh*t holes in the last 30 years as the Asians have arrived the whites have left.

If any of you went through these areas you may believe you have wandered into Pakistan or a suburb of Calcutta, with the rubbish everywhere. 30% of cars in these areas are not insured.

I find it so upsetting to drive through these areas I find other ways to drive into central Birmingham, even though one area is on a direct route into the city for me.

Hopefully all the parties will at last realise the damage unrestricted immigration has done and will start to discuss it as part of their policies.

[tonyav]

emmie
then the people who do are doubling up, not renting as a singleton, because the rents are high and getting higher. I only have to look around me to see that. Estate agents advertising rents at 400 quid a week, and more, and buying at half a million quid won't get you much.


emmie, supply and demand, the more immigrants then the higher the demand and so higher rents follow.

[emmie]

better than most, including you, i have said so before, long life lived and one spent searching out it's people, idiosyncratic ways, some family and many friends still live in the capital, i did say there are plenty of poor areas, and very poor people, have a look around you next time, take a trip down through Mile End, or Brentford, or some of the back streets of the capital, it ain't all rosy, nor is it all wonderful, the harsh reality is that there are now large dividing lines, big estates like the Heygate which you know, has housed poor and disadvantaged, inhabited also by drug gangs and criminals. That estate is all coming down, but what will replace it, more high rise posh apartments, have a look at the plans if you don't believe me, i do know this place, it isn't the case of having lived and worked here all my life, there is a whole lot more, which quite frankly is a waste of time trying to explain.

[emmie]

we once lived in a nice middling family orientated area, every one knew everyone, that is not the case now, and those social housing, housing association rents are also increasing, so those on low incomes are also having to find more money, or move way out.

[emmie]

tonyav, it isn't always about immigrants, it is as you say supply and demand, many want to live in the capital, simple. Some seem to think the streets will be paved with gold, and that it's all swinging London, Her Maj and Buck House, the reality is vastly different, and the older you get the worse it seems to be. Boroughs like Camden, Islington have many million pound homes, of no great shakes, where once it was pretty much all working class, once the middle classes started moving in and the olduns died off, properties were being bought at daft prices, now we are left with the fact that a half a million will still not get you far if you want to live in your locale. and if you can't do that, then bye bye neighbourhood, and perhaps bye bye London.

[tonyav]

I understand, emmie, depends on which part of London becomes the next fashionable part to live in.

[emmie]

London like many places is very very changeable, there are poorer parts of Kensington, and richer parts of Islington, Covent Garden which is quite a nice part of the capital was once a den of iniquity, vice was rife, murders, muggings, rape all commonplace, admittedly it was a time ago, but now it's quite chi chi, parts are still down trodden, you have to know the place, walk around and keep your eyes open, learn about it's fascinating and often gruesome history.

[emmie]

Islington once an old stomping ground was pretty down at heel, now much of it is not, there was and still is a lot of very nice property in the borough, much of it is out of the reach of joe bloggs, that is if you want to buy.

[tonyav]

It's obvious to me that you know London well, emmie. In my younger days it was Soho that had a errrm reputation whats that area like these days ?.

[emmie]

Tony, i do and much of it's history, from north to south, east to west.
i liked living here, always did, but i find it a rather different place to the one i grew up in.

[emmie]

Soho is now rather tame, i knew it in the days of knocking shops, and after hours drinking clubs, pubs, lads in frocks, well that hasn't changed much, or sleazy dives, some of this brings back to good memories, strangely enough...

[sp1814]

tonyav

Soho used to be quite sleazy - it's now full of fairly expensive restaurants, gay bars and designer clothes shops.

[tonyav]

Thanks emmie.

[tonyav]

Crossed posts there, thanks to sp as well.

[emmie]

well that is according to you, it actually had a brilliant night life, great coffee bars, no chains, and pubs that catered for all tastes,

[jno]

aog, people aren't having enough offspring to fund the pensions any more. It used to be your six kids would fund your pension for the six years between your retirement and death. Now people have one child and live 20 years past retirement. So the sums don't add up any more. One solution is to import more workers. If you've got another one, tell George Osborne.

[sp1814]

And outside the very expensive areas, there are dozens of affordable areas - Peckham, Streatham, Dalston, Camberwell, Upper Norwood, Archway...

I've lived in South, North and East London - there are plenty of affordable places to live - but the big difference between when I bought my first flat (about 25 years ago), is that few people can afford to buy on their own without help from their parents.

When me and my mates were buying, we all did it off our (single) salaries.

[tonyav]

jno, one child !, you obviously haven't seen Small heath or Sparkhill.

[sp1814]

Emmie - well, of course that's according to me. I wrote it.

Incidentally - I'm not saying 'sleazy' is a bad thing.

[emmie]

which is what i said, that many places are not affordable, even for couples to buy.

[jno]

average family size has been falling steadily for decades, tonyav. I wasn't seriously suggesting everyone has only one (some have none, some have more), but the fact remains: fewer children, longer pensionable life, the sums don't add up.