Why Does This Country Depend So Much On Immigration?

[anotheoldgit]

We are constantly being told that this country could not carry on without immigration, fruit would lie rotting on the ground, crops not gathered, companies closed etc,etc.

What I ask is how did this once great country manage to make this country the country it once was without depending on people from foreign shores, taking into account that we had more industries to run mainly by male workers only since most ladies did not work away from home as they were classed as house wives, looking after the home and any children they had.

[Rockrose]

you are not constantly being told - the evidence is also being provided

There was an apple grower on the news the other day - normally gets 60 workers from abroad for harvest - only 10 this year and he has had to leave fruit rotting.
The NHS relies on nurses from abroad - again this has been evidenced again and again.

[emmie]

many people worked on the land, and during the war women did the work whilst the men went off to fight.
same as the munitions factories, women were killed doing a highly dangerous job.

we need these foreign workers now because British many have migrated to urban areas like London, Manchester, Birmingham

My mother, grandmother, her mother and her mother before that all worked, if you didn't you starved......

[emmie]

men were off to fight in two world wars, and women simply had to get on with things, to think otherwise is nonsense. In the fifties and swinging sixties women were just getting rid of sexist attitudes to work. Now we have a more balanced society.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Because some unemployed people are lazy and get more money on benefits. They won't even work for cash in hand, its disgraceful.
As for nurses -well years ago they started at 16 and worked their way up learning on the job. Now they have to have degrees and some people just can't afford to go to Uni. There should be no-one on the dole these days, they should be made to work -trouble is now people want to go on the sick cos they get more money so now everyone has mental problems. That's our world in the UK today.

[NellieMay]

Yes Emmie. And those that haven't won't go Apple picking because they won't work for the money that gang masters pay to immigrants for jobs like Apple picking.

[fender62]

there's plenty of unemployed who could do these jobs, benefits stopped or paused...corbyn supporters for example, he likes gardening
good for there health, less booze and fags, fresh air..

[emmie]

having had and have mental health problems, i don't work now, i find it really frustrating when i read that the British are lazy, some are but most aren't.

[emmie]

my gran worked on the railways as a cleaner but during the holidays would go hop picking in Kent. Lazy they weren't.

[Zacs-Master]

Wen was this country great, AOG?

[Zacs-Master]

when

[dannyk13]

Because industries and agriculture have expanded over the years and need more workers.

[emmie]

fought two world wars and won, admittedly with lots of help, i consider that it was a time of great deeds, battles won and lost.

[anotheoldgit]

Rockrose

The question is still why?

All those years ago those jobs still managed to get done.

Is the indigenous population of these Isles now been reduced in numbers?

[Peter Pedant]

because we never grew our own food

or else the submarine blockade of both wars
would not have caused Churchill to have sleepless nights....

but hey each generation rewrites history to its own taste

[dannyk13]

AOG, see post at 15.15.

[AuntPollyGrey]

British are lazy. My daughter worked in hospitality as a manager and the British cleaners were always taking time off and finishing dead on time even if the jobs weren't finished, the Polish and Romanian girls worked really hard, offered to do overtime and they were paid the same as the British girls and not by a gang master!
OH can't keep British labourers they last a couple of days , on the phone most of the time and disappear Friday lunch and don't come back until Tuesday. The Polish ones are on time work like stink, Sundays if they have to, and they get paid the same as the British lads into their pockets not a blinking gang master!

[AuntPollyGrey]

//Because industries and agriculture have expanded over the years and need more workers. //

In that case we should not have over 1 million out of work

[Peter Pedant]

jesus is this question really
why oh why are the Irish still not in hovels burning peat and eating hunka potatoes ? er as they did in 1840

as AOG might say - and why not? they should be !

[dannyk13]

//In that case we should not have over 1 million out of work//
How many of them are out of work by choice, or not prepared to do the work that is on offer?

[emmie]

we relied on imports before the war, but once war started people were encouraged to dig their own veg and then there was rationing.