nun

Yeah, but then you get the News Quiz and everything is ok. Sandi Toksvig is all the argument you need for liberal immigration laws.........

Bud the Wiser

Did you see the poll in the Telegraph article?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ay-admits.html

nun

Even controlling for the readership of the Telegraph that is a deeply depressing result. Challenges to the witholding of NHS access will be more ammunition for those that want to get out of the EU. I'm not fantastically enthusiastic about the EU, but I fear where the UK would go if it was outside and run according to the wishes of the majority in that Telegraph poll ------oh I forgot Teresa May is already Home Secretary.

chris955

I absolutely agree on all counts, the fantastic British sense of humour is one of the many things we missed and that is shown in the banter as you say. It is helped by the fact that Brits by and large dont tend to take themselves too seriously.
I certainly dont see any evidence of a lack of freedom here, I seem to be able to do and say what I like obviously within reason as it should. I just dont see any evidence of anything changing that would or should be worrying anyone thinking of returning.

chris955

If the UK was outside the EU it would continue to do business with the same people, it would still be the same huge tourist destintation, nothing much would change. When you say run according to the wishes of the majority in that poll, the only question it asked was should there be more control over immigration from the 2 countries mentioned, how does that affecthow the country is run ?

dunroving

Chris: Do you mind if I ask what line of work you are in?

In the public sector workplace, the idea of political correctness in language seems to be well-entrenched, at least in terms of all the documentation and guidelines we have on "acceptable" workplace behaviour. I'm not scared of having a laugh, but things definitely seem to be different than they used to be - in the workplace, I mean.

Banter still sems acceptable in most everyday life, but I see very little of what I would call old-style banter in the workplace these days.

nun

Yes I'm extrapolation the view that certain EU nationalities should be excluded from the UK, and if the do come denied benefits given to other residents, to other policies that I would probably not agree with. That's not a given, it might be a good bet, but it's not a certainty.

Of course that article was basically scaremongering because the Romanians and Bulgarians will gain the same right of free movement within the EU as other members. Nothing's happened yet. I'm surprised there hasn't been a rash of articles saying that the UK is about to be invaded by the Greeks, Spanish or Italians.

I feel that the things like the European Convention on Human Rights are good and that outside the EU the UK could sit back and pretend that they were free, the fairest of nations and generally better than everyone else, much as America does now. There's plenty to dislike about the EU, but being a member makes the UK interact with other countries and stops us being self important ar*eholes. I'm sure the UK will survive outside the EU, but it will be smaller for it.

Shard

Not exactly scaremongering. Poland is a demonstrable case history of what happens when a Eastern European expats (!!!) can triple their income by moving a few hundred miles Westward. Not only that, they have a safety net if work doesn't materialise and continued free healthcare. They can improve their English (a valuable skill) and if very ambitious, may be able to use Britain to step stone to the USA. It must be an attractive proposition.

The Greeks, god knows why they are not here in bigger numbers (or are they?) but the population is relatively small at 11mn. The Spainards and Italians wouldn't be able to abide British food, and in any case have family to rely upon. All three Mediteranean nations expats would be exchanging a warm climate for cold, this is not the case for the Romanians and Bulgarians.

NEMISSIS

I feel strongly that we should dump the EU, an independent UK would be far better than being governed from Europe. We could for example deport terrorists whenever WE choose, how about British human rights not European human rights.
It really is time to get out ASAP before we disappear into some kind of Euro/Soviet super state. We can still do business with everyone including the Europeans, just not be governed by them...
We need a genuine in-out referendum on Europe, none of the three main parties offer a genuine referendum.

chris955

I agree, I cant see how on Earth leaving the EU will make any difference at to how businesses do their business, people will still buy the same stuff, tourists will still visit, life will go on as normal but without having to follow the crazy European Court of Human Rights for one thing.

sallysimmons

Don't let it depress you too much - if you ever read the comments at the Daily Telegraph website, it's a shockingly xenophobic group. It doesn't matter what the subject, within 3 or 4 comments someone will bring up immigration or 'political correctness.' I am not exaggerating either. They were up in arms about the Olympics opening ceremony because some black people were part of scenes that were depicting earlier times when the UK was mainly white. How does that even begin to be something that bothers them? And then I was reading a review of Downton Abbey and about 4 comments in someone said "I'm just waiting for next season when they start introducing black faces just to be PC." Huh?

I discount anything in that paper now that I know who it's aimed at.

Bud the Wiser

Quite agree about some of the comments on the Telegraph website, but once again, Nun's point is about the growing negative attitudes towards immigrants in the UK and the Telegraph comments section, and that poll in particular, illustrate Nun's point quite clearly.

RE: Telegraph comments. After a while you can pick out the more serious contributors to the comments section and give some consideration and respect to their points of view. ( not much different than BE actually ).

Shard

@Sallysimmons:

What a nice blog you have made. It will take me ages to read it, but the photographs are lovely as are your sketches. You will make lots of peeps homesick with a blog like that! It's not a bad little island is it.

cheers

So what newspaper would you recommend?

NEMISSIS

Try the sun, mirror or daily star.....full of intellectual stuff ?

Having said that, the TV news media in the UK is far less one-eyed than Australia, I couldn't believe channel 7's coverage of the news on big events like the Olympics... very very one sided indeed.

Also saw a few pommie bashing ads there, they wouldn't dare do the same thing to the Aussies here in the UK, if anything we are quite patronizing to Australians here, no wonder many people want to move to Oz the media here makes it look wonderful there.