You sure you don't work for the Melbourne Taxi Industry?

It sounds so very like them complaining about Uber delivering better service, and not putting the effort into raising their game instead.

Realistically, if the industry hasn't been captured by rentseekers and gone to seed it should be damn near impossible for instances like the polish plumbers and Uber to come about. The balance between price and quality should have evened out and it would be necessary to massively change the model to gain a foot hold. Both are 'local' services where you can't have overseas competition with massively different cost structures (eg call centre outsourcing).

The fact that it was possible demonstrates that those industries NEEDED the disruptive influence of real competition (I can think of a few other too).

Turnbull should ask Poland if it could send over some tradies on 457s to do the same to the local tradies.

We're all for a fair days work for a fair days pay aren't we, except only for us, not for the people who provide us with a service.

I don't think looking at total immigration rather than just a couple of years is clutching at straws. Ignoring those Jamaicans and any other non EU national still leaves a picture of major influx from EU Eastern Bloc countries.
Contributors? Yes at the expense of local jobs.

Not enough qualified people for what? Brain surgeons? More like spin to cover up cheaper labour costs = higher profits.

And you really think the Germans, French et al will allow the UK to lead the way? Dream on.

The EU is a big con enriching the lives of fat cats. It is no more than a shackle to freedoms in every way.

I like cruising so SOS doesn't have a positive connotation to it.

And I referred to you as Sweetie because in my lingo it's a nice way to address someone, similarly to how in the UK someone would say "Hello love".

That's simply because I've been through the US educational system from beginning to end, speak with an American accent (though I can consciously switch to a British/Aussie accent when warranted), and a lot of my vocabulary will have an American tilt to it.

So no offense Sweetie... I mean love!

P.S. I kind of like the stud thing.

European free trade would have been enough, but this stupid EU bureaucracy is one hell of a hell hell.

You saw the official migration statistics and they proved your misconceptions to be wrong, right?

So now you're no longer looking at migration - since this is a lost cause with the minority of people coming from the EU - so instead you keep digging for different statistics about current UK residents' origins, etc.?

And your SOLE REASON: to keep blaming the EU.

Expense? Go back and see the official stats of how many thousands of jobs were vacant in a variety of industries, how people were needed to fill those positions in order to keep the UK economy rolling. Major recruitment agencies were even tasked with the mission to seek these people from the common market and bring them in.

Keep in mind that UK citizens work in every single country across the EU as well. Other study. Others just live there because they like the sun down south. As mentioned, it's a two-way street.

Based on the current history of acting like a spoilt brat and constantly crying about not getting special treatment at the expense of others I think not. But there is nothing to stop determined, professional politicians from taking command and adopting a pro-European stance with the aim of participating in the leadership of the EU. Remember, the European Union is not "them." It's "us."

I think you're describing the Conservatives here and their cronies.

The EU a shackle to freedoms? WTF? The EU is about breaking down barriers and opening opportunities for everyone. Open your eyes and drop the preconceived hatred for once.

That the EU is an undemocratic, inefficient and corrupt organisation must be evident to anyone who takes the trouble to look.

Places like Luxemboug and Brussels give me the willies: they are filled to the gunnels with çrats with a mission. They know what's best for the hoi polloi, they have very nice incomes and tax status and all's well in the world just so long as the aforementioned hoi polloi are kept in their place and away from any democratic input.

I voted in the 1975 (?) referendum for the Common Market: it's very well documented how the politicians of all parties lied through their teeth about the federal objectives of the thing. The establishment has consistently denied what the "ever closer union" entails.

All the talk of migrants, currency, trade deficits and the like detract from the REAL issue: all the EU countries are in the process of giving up sovereignty to an unelected - and unelectable - cabal, many of whom are ex Marxist. Legislation may only be proposed by bureacrats in committee: of the thousands of pages that are submitted to the European Parliament only a handful are ever debated and most are unread. And of course if the vote goes the wrong way a few words can be changed and they have to vote again.

I wouldn't let any of them near a used car lot, and the thought of the UK's future being run by unaccountable and non-dismissible committees horrifies me.

European countries are a wonderful microcosm of varied styles, peoples, landscapes, architectures and cultures. The EU is a backward looking, authoritarian sore. To say that the UK - or any European country - can't survive outside its straightjacket says quite a lot about national self-confidence.

You are seriously trying to belittle me like a bully boy but the ONS stats show there are more EU than non EU nationals living in the UK. Why do you find that difficult to comprehend? How do you think they got there if not through migration? Secret tunnels al la Prison Break?
The last year or so in the scheme of things could be a blip and pretty irrelevant as it could change tomorrow. The facts are residing in the UK are:
2.92m EU nationals
2.406m Non EU nationals

All those jobs you claim could not be filled from the UK workforce (other than perhaps some very specialists positions) I still say BS.

You really are out of touch with the person in the street and not just in the UK but throughout Europe. In my job I spent years travelling throughout the EU and rarely did I find anyone in favour of a Federation.

I see you were educated in the USA which explains a lot as you have adopted their doctrine "do as I say, not as I do". That is exactly what politicians are doing in the EU. Trying to force the federation on the peoples who do not want it but it suits them for some power trip or financial gain; maybe both..

Surely any system that uses representative and participatory democracy, as the EU does, is self-evidently better as a democratic system than a system based on hereditary peerage and devolved monarchy as the UK is?

The argument that the EU is somehow undemocratic is completely farcical. I could entertain arguments about transparency and if European Commissioners should be elected on a representative basis instead of appointed by elected national governments but I will not entertain the idea that the EU suffers from some sort of democratic deficit when compared with the UK.

The difference of course being that the Aussies can to a large extent control and decide who they allow in.

The EU is not only undemocratic but absolutely rotten to the core and in addition is trying to drag the populations of many countries in a direction which they do not want to go ie Federal Europe.

Can you elaborate with actual examples?

I don't want anyone to think me cruel or come across as diminutive about anyone but my problem here is that it's very difficult for me to say anything meaningful when an assertion is used instead of presenting an argument. If we are going to have a chat about the EU lets have an actual discussion and do it in an articulate way with specifics that support our views and allow them to be held accountable on their own merit.

I want to understand what you have to say and we may not agree but the better I understand your viewpoint the more likely I am to come to an agreement on viewpoints. Anyway this post has already lost the power of succinct expression so I'll let you present your argument.

Let's say there is an issue about which you feel strongly and believe should be covered by legislation. What can you do about it?

Under the UK's system of governance you can lobby your MP (or any MP). If you can convince them your cause is a worthy one they can introduce a bill to parliament where it can be debated and, if it gathers enough support, passed into law. If you don't get the results you want from your MP you can vote for someone else at the next election.

Under the EU system, you can do nothing. You can lobby your MEP as much as you like, but it will get you nowhere. MEPs do not have the right to propose legislation to the EU parliament; that right is reserved for the EU Commission. Commission members are not elected, they are appointed (by the European Council) so you cannot vote them out of office.

That is why the EU is inherently undemocratic: you can't vote for anyone who proposes legislation and the people you do vote for cannot propose legislation. How is that a democracy?

In the case of non-EEA citizens (who were the ones being termed parasites), so can the UK.

The UK fails quite miserably in that area though. Every year the UK misses its targets by a huge figure. Australia sets its annual quotas and for the most part sticks to them. Part of the problem in the UK is the civil servants aren't paying much attention to the directives from their political masters and that is what has caused it to be fully out of control.

Immigration statistics show record level of UK net migration – as it happened - Telegraph