The future of this country

[vehelpfulguy]

This is not a "we are all doomed" question, but a genuine question on the future of this country.

We are a relatively small country, with an ageing population (1 in 6 people are over 65).

In an attempt to increase the number of younger people in this country, to support this ageing population, we seem to have had an "open door" policy on immigration in the last 10 years or so.

So we now have more young people, and of course immigrant families are known to have more children that the white indiginous population (at least at first).

Many fairly well-off middle-aged and retired people are now using the equity in their houses and moving abroad, and spending their pension money in Spain, Portugal, Bulgeria etc.

But overall the UK population is growing, and there is talk of building thousands more houses, more roads, bigger cities and so on.

So the questions that come to mind are:

How do we cope with an ever growing population.

Do we want the majority of our young people to be from Ethnic groups (already some cities have more than 50% of babies born from ethnic groups).

Do we want more roads and bigger cities to cope with the increased population.

Are we happy about these well-off retired people moving abroad and taking their spending power with them.

And what happens when all these immigrants who are coming here NOW get old. Do we have to import even MORE immigrants to provide for the elderly immigrants that came here in the last 10 years.

I dont like where I see this country going, but I am not sure what alternatives we have.

Any comments?

Population pyramid

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID =6br />

[vicmel]

Down the plughole - so flee as soon as you can!

[naomi24]

Hello VHG, I don't like where I see this country going either, but currently we have no choice but to build bigger cities and more roads to cope with the ever-increasing population. However, it doesn't stop there because with an increasing population comes the need for more schools, more hospitals, more jobs and increased social services, but if the children of immigrants continue to produce babies at the same rate as their parents, then eventually we must get to a point where the country can no longer sustain it.

[Gromit]

There are a lot of Economic Migrants in the country at the moment because there are jobs that need doing. If our economy faulters, then they will go to the next country where there are jobs.

This idea that the government is populating the country with young imports to pay for the older generation is barmy. They will of course pay taxes and it will help, but that is not the reason for immigration.

People who use the term 'Open-door immigration policy' do not know what one is, or they would not state that we have one. People from the vast majority of countries in the world could not just live here if they decided to. We have open borders with EU countries because that is the rule of the club. We get some benefits and some disadvantages. Most politicians think the advantages out-weigh the disadvantages.

Things, including countries, change. If it reaches a point where you really don't like it here, then you will have to decide to go somewhere where you do like. This is what humans have done for all of our time on the planet.

[kwicky]

With all the talk about referendums why do the British people never get asked about important questions like these?

[Gromit]

kwicky,

The last referendum we had was in 1972 - About joining Europe. Because it is universally accepted that the British Public made the right choice, on that occasion, the politicians are afraid to entrust the people to make the right decision again.

[jno]

pensions are the big problem. If you're over 40 or so, the young immigrants now are the ones who will be paying yours when you retire. The system is structured to require more people to pay in to support those who are collecting. Instead it's the other way round - people retire younger, live longer and have fewer kids to contribute. If you're a corporate fatcat being rewarded for failure, or a lottery winner, or Jonathan Ross, no problem; otherwise you have to hope the migrants will start making money quickly. And in the longer run the whole system will need to be rethought.

[sp1814]

Referendum?

What would the question be?

You have to know what the question is, before you can answer it.

If people were given the question, "Do you support a 50% reduction in the numbers of economic migrants allowed to stay in the UK", I reckon you'd probably get a majority in favour.

However, if you then asked the same people, "Do you agree that taxes should be raised by 2p in the pound to fund the pensions shortfall which is currently being met by economic migration", the same people would answer "No".

Therefore, the whole debate becomes a bit tricky. There's no simple answer - and I don't think that turning the country's future economic strategies over to the results of a referendum is the right way to plan for the future.

[Gromit]

RAGGY ROMAN,

You are correct. As I wrote to you yesterday, the memory sometimes plays tricks. It is a long time since I was a ten year old.

Anyhow, the gist was 'that the people voted for Europe', and have never been asked again

[Gromit]

RAGGY ROMAN,

Posting a link is easy. Just copy the address from your browser at the top of the page, and copy it into your post.

http://www.dreadzone.org.uk/

If you want to call the link something you type or copy this into your post

my label

In the quote marks put the address you want to link to (Copy and paste it in is easiest) and where it says my label, type in what you want to call it.

Dreadzone

[Gromit]

Do not type my label, the instruction for naming a link is here

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ABTutorial.html

[Gromit]

RAGGY ROMAN

I have already said you were correct and that I had a memory lapse, but you couldn't resist the further dig about me giving an excuse for my ignorance.

The difference between us RR is that when I am wrong I concede that I am wrong and even sometimes apologise.

When you are wrong (which you sometimes are) you never admit it and hide behind unprovable or untruthful statements - the drunken muslim cricketer, being a recent example.