Body & Soul1 min ago
Cameron's Immigration Crackdown Unravels
From the Daily Torygraph...
// A major crackdown by David Cameron on immigration was unravelling rapidly today after it emerged that it would only affect a small minority of foreigners in Britain.
Government figures showed that some of the measures unveiled by the Prime Minister at a speech in Ipswich were likely only to affect a small proportion of people from within the European Union who are living in the UK.
Under repeated questioning at a near hour-long briefing for lobby journalists, shortly before Mr Cameron was due to speak, the series of announcements appeared to unravel, with Number 10 refusing to say how many migrants might be affected.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman admitted only two of the measures had actual start dates, the rest would be subject to a consultation at some point and most would only affect a minority of migrants to the UK.
He admitted that migrants from European Economic Area - which accounts for anyone from the EU plus Norway and Switzerland - only accounted for “£10million to £20million of costs” that were not recouped from other countries within the EEA.
Critics pointed out that this was only a very small part of the total National Health Service of more than £100billion.
Similarly the Number 10 spokesman also admitted that foreigners have taken fewer than one in 10 of council houses in the past four years despite initially telling reporters that “new lettings for migrants were up by 40 per cent”.
But when pressed to explain he admitted that that was a ‘proportion’ and the figures were an increase from 6.2 per cent to 9 per cent between 2007/8 and 2011/12. //
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That didn't take long to all fall apart.
Has this stunt raised expectations only to let everyone down and has it damaged the Conservatives?
// A major crackdown by David Cameron on immigration was unravelling rapidly today after it emerged that it would only affect a small minority of foreigners in Britain.
Government figures showed that some of the measures unveiled by the Prime Minister at a speech in Ipswich were likely only to affect a small proportion of people from within the European Union who are living in the UK.
Under repeated questioning at a near hour-long briefing for lobby journalists, shortly before Mr Cameron was due to speak, the series of announcements appeared to unravel, with Number 10 refusing to say how many migrants might be affected.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman admitted only two of the measures had actual start dates, the rest would be subject to a consultation at some point and most would only affect a minority of migrants to the UK.
He admitted that migrants from European Economic Area - which accounts for anyone from the EU plus Norway and Switzerland - only accounted for “£10million to £20million of costs” that were not recouped from other countries within the EEA.
Critics pointed out that this was only a very small part of the total National Health Service of more than £100billion.
Similarly the Number 10 spokesman also admitted that foreigners have taken fewer than one in 10 of council houses in the past four years despite initially telling reporters that “new lettings for migrants were up by 40 per cent”.
But when pressed to explain he admitted that that was a ‘proportion’ and the figures were an increase from 6.2 per cent to 9 per cent between 2007/8 and 2011/12. //
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That didn't take long to all fall apart.
Has this stunt raised expectations only to let everyone down and has it damaged the Conservatives?
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1 in 10. Are you happy with that?
I am not it should be 0 in 10 whist our own population is not housed.
I am not surprised it has fallen apart, also once the EU has got on the case they will stop it.
There is no gettign away from it. We need to leave the EU now and reclaim our sovereignty and destiny for all those UK citizens regardless of race (before the right-on call me a racist in the usual slur)
I am not it should be 0 in 10 whist our own population is not housed.
I am not surprised it has fallen apart, also once the EU has got on the case they will stop it.
There is no gettign away from it. We need to leave the EU now and reclaim our sovereignty and destiny for all those UK citizens regardless of race (before the right-on call me a racist in the usual slur)
The UK population has been growing for the last two hundred years. The problem about there not being enough homes for the indigenous population is nothing to do with immigration. There are enough homes, just that many of them are left empty. Social housing was decimated when half of it was sold off and nothing new was built to replace it. And all this at a time when the construction industry is on its because hardly any house building is happening. And all the Government can think off is cheap mortgages for the rich.
"Social housing was decimated when half of it was sold off and nothing new was built to replace it."
Absolutely, Gromit; possibly the most grotesque of Thatcher's idiocies! All she had to add to her bill on selling council houses was a clause saying that councils had to build a new house for every one they sold. Instead, they were just flogged off, leaving future generations of young British people - never mind immigrants - struggling to get a home of their own.
Absolutely, Gromit; possibly the most grotesque of Thatcher's idiocies! All she had to add to her bill on selling council houses was a clause saying that councils had to build a new house for every one they sold. Instead, they were just flogged off, leaving future generations of young British people - never mind immigrants - struggling to get a home of their own.
Making scapegoats of those with empty property, which is no business of anyone save the owners, is no way to dismiss the real problem of too many people. What happens when authorities run out of folk to bully & blame ? Will it then be time to tackle the real problem ? Or are there enough victims among the decent citizens to keep the authorities happy for the foreseable future ? This sort of, "let's find someone to bully and demand from", attitude is one reason I have less and less time for evil acting authorities who appear to have no cocept of right or wrong; no understanding of acting in the interests of the citizen/txpayer, but simply uses them as a target to abuse and an excuse to drag their feet over doing something actually useful.
local authorities have long housed people who have just moved here, they did so in large numbers across the country, that is because they were duty bound to house families, as they still are. the local authority spokesman said so, and it's been widely reported in the tv news and the papers. No matter what one thinks, Cameron won't be able to do much about immigration, nor particularly social housing. And for those who keep on blaming the right to buy, should have a look at your local authority, are they still selling off social housing, if so why? our local authority has given over much of the portfolio to housing associations and also advertises rent, and buy social housing, all the while coining it from private developers... its one of the reasons, though not the only reason why there are too few council homes to rent. Many have been left to rot, and many council estates should have been pulled down years ago, as not fit for purpose.
Gromit
Of course it has damaged the Tories but what alternative have we got. ?
May I remind you your Labour Gov. opened the door to anyone from Europe who chose to come here.
May I also point out, one important way of checking who is leaving is to check every visa when they do, but your Labour friends abolished that check. So we haven't clue whose here and who has actually left .
Even the wishy washy Libs say we should check everyone in and out.
Cameron's so called clamp down on immigration is pathetic like his tough stance on Europe, but Labour left him with a hell of a mess.
Of course it has damaged the Tories but what alternative have we got. ?
May I remind you your Labour Gov. opened the door to anyone from Europe who chose to come here.
May I also point out, one important way of checking who is leaving is to check every visa when they do, but your Labour friends abolished that check. So we haven't clue whose here and who has actually left .
Even the wishy washy Libs say we should check everyone in and out.
Cameron's so called clamp down on immigration is pathetic like his tough stance on Europe, but Labour left him with a hell of a mess.
If I'm not mistaken, 1% of £100bn would be about £1bn. So according to No. 10's own figures, even if the NHS budget were cut by 99%, EU immigrants would still constitute only 1/50,000th of NHS spending. At most.
Can people please stop perpetuating unsubstantiated crap about foreigners "sponging" off our health system.
Can people please stop perpetuating unsubstantiated crap about foreigners "sponging" off our health system.
so none of this rings true then,
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^em.
Okay, so if that figure (£40m) is true, then more than double No.10's maximum figure of £20m is accounted for by EU immigrants. Out of an NHS budget of £100bn. Assuming that this billion is a British billion, this would mean that if we cut the NHS budget by 99% (leaving it at £1bn), rather than 1/50,000th, it would be about 1/25,000th i.e. about 0.04%.
Okay, so if that figure (£40m) is true, then more than double No.10's maximum figure of £20m is accounted for by EU immigrants. Out of an NHS budget of £100bn. Assuming that this billion is a British billion, this would mean that if we cut the NHS budget by 99% (leaving it at £1bn), rather than 1/50,000th, it would be about 1/25,000th i.e. about 0.04%.
i think the point is it should be fair, and some parts of our countries facilities are used by people who haven't paid a penny towards it, be they home grown or not. I don't like seeing council housing going to people who have just landed here, not fair and not right... particularly if you have so many on the waiting list, i can't think of any country where that would happen.
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