Switzerland Votes On Immigration

[ChillDoubt]

Those nasty Swiss, how dare they read the writing on the wall?:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30265437

[Quizmonster]

Switzerland isn't a member of the EU, so they will no doubt have an easier time of it than our own Davy-boy as regards immigration control, if they should choose that option. It looks less likely by the day that other EU nations will simply sign up to his 'demands'.

[anotheoldgit]

Yes but who will make the 'Cuckoo Clocks' then, some on here may ask?

[mushroom25]

is the black forest now in Switzerland, AOG?

[Gromit]

^
He's already being squeezed by the balls, bouncer.

[Gromit]

Comparing the UK and Switzland is a bit pointless.

[DTCwordfan]

Heck of a mountain to climb...

[Baldric]

Has Immigration reached it's peak in Switzerland?

[DTCwordfan]

The AB Hills are Sound of Music sung by Nick Clegg

His day in the Swiss hills has come to an end,
I know.
The stars have come out
To tell AOG it's time the EU goes.
But deep in their dark Farage shadows
are voices that urge us to stay.
So AB pauses, and waits, and we listen.
For one more chant
For one more political thing
That the AB hills might say.

The hills are alive with the sound of immigrants
With songs Turks have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill his heart with the sound of immigrants
His heart wants to sing every prayer it hears

David's heart wants to get away like the wings of Swissair
that rise from the Rochester to the trees
His heart wants to sigh like a reckless chime that flies
from the backbenches on a sneeze
To laugh like a Crook when it trips and falls over
stones on its way
To pilfer through the night like a Romanian learning to make hay

AOG goes to the Swiss hills when his heart is lonely
He also knows he will hear what he's heard before
The AB right will be wrecked with the sound of immigration
And Gromit'll sing for the EU once more.

[Jomlett]

BBC News - Swiss 'reject immigration curbs' http://bbc.in/1vC23d1

[New Judge]

Yes but at least they had a say on the matter so it certainly does not do to compare the UK to Switzerland.

In 2013 there were eleven referendums held in Switzerland on a wide variety of topics including capping executives' pay, increases in road tax and planning regulations. There are some measures which must be put to a referendum and others where an optional referendum is held if enough voters object to a particular piece of new law.

In the UK, of course, measures which are thought by the executive to be good for the electorate are pushed through by the Whips regardless of whether it was in the governing party's manifesto or whether there is a level of popular opposition. Couple this with measures forced on member states by the EU (which are subject to virtually no democratic scrutiny at all) and it is clear to see why such a comparison is pointless.

[anotheoldgit]

mushroom25

/// is the black forest now in Switzerland, AOG? ///

It wasn't when I went to school, neither are cuckoo clocks made only in the Black Forest region.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw1T-vWF2cc

[bazwillrun]

"BBC News - Swiss 'reject immigration curbs' http://bbc.in/1vC23d1"

mugs...theylll soon regret that decision....
another country fast losing its identity

[Gromit]

Baz,
A quarter of Switzlands population were not born there.
If they were going to lose their identity, it would probably have already happened.

How many of the UK's 60 million were born abroad do you think?

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// How many of the UK's 60 million were born abroad do you think? ///

Don't know you tell us?

[New Judge]

From the 2011 census about 14% of people living in the UK were born abroad. This, of course, is almost certainly an underestimate as it is likely that far more people not entitled to be here failed to take part in the census than those entitled to be here. Mere speculation, I know, but fairly well founded.

Of course the number of people currently here that were born abroad, whilst one measure of the scale of inward migration, tells only part of the story. For a full picture of how recent mass migration has changed the demographics of the UK you also need to look at the numbers born here but to mothers born abroad.

Just as a taster, in 2012 (the latest full year figures I can find) in England and Wales, 25.9% of all births were to mothers born abroad. For those who believe that there are no areas of the UK which are dominated by foreigners, in the London Borough of Newham more than 76% of all births were to mothers born abroad. To further demonstrate the rapid rise in this phenomenon, as recently as 1990 the percentage of births to foreign mothers was just over 10% so in about a generation this percentage has more than doubled and will no doubt continue to increase because (a) immigration shows no sign of abating (quite the reverse in fact) and (b) foreign born mothers tend to demonstrate a higher fertility rate that those born in the UK.

Unlike the Swiss, people in the UK have had not say on whether they prefer these enormous increases or not and successive UK governments have sat on their hands whilst the problems (and it is a problem for a number of reasons) simply increases on their watch.