bcworld

Again, what does the highlighting of the term social objectives add to the evidence? Like I asked before, don't all governments have social objectives? Doesn't David Cameron have a flagship policy called the 'Big Society'...sound like a social objective? Sling im in the tower that's what I say!

No one disputes there was a big rise in immigration by the way, and a corresponding rise in citizenship grants.

Cape Blue

Those "social objectives" didn't necessarily have to be the objective of garnering more Labour voters though - you have not shown a connection, between the two. The social objectives could have been bringing-in younger people to pay for old Brits pensions.

As I mentioned above, you have not shown any context - when saying there has been a "massive" increase in (non-EU) migration you have not been able to indicate whether this was just the UK or whether other developed countries have been coming under similar pressures and it was the norm.

I agree it's not the Old Bailey, but if someone has firm opinions about a subject, they should at least be able to substantiate them. The speechwriter (not a spokesman as you have elevated him to) has made himself clear that it was his feeling but was not part of Labour policy and the arguments about breeding new Labour voters etc just don't seem to stand up.

It was an interesting discussion whilst it lasted.

bcworld

Certainly in Australia there have been large increases in the numbers of migrants coming from South Asia & China in that same period. India & China are the number 2 & 3 sources of new Australian citizens.

The fastest growing sources of new settlers in Australia are:

1. North Africa & Middle East
2. Sub Saharan Africa
3. South Asia

I guess if you like you could consider UK and NZ as 'Australia's EU'.

Bellasmum

I get the feeling you need to have the last word !

But before I leave the thread I will just say one thing more.

What you hear or assume just may not be correct.

luvwelly

You beat me to it...I really should change my name from Luvwelly to 'Grassnotalwaysgreener'.
There's nothing like regular Daily Mail reading to make you think you should emigrate to almost anywhere else on the planet to escape the nightmare that is the UK.
Most Brits (although not all) do tend to be of the 'UK has gone to the dogs' variety, especially on this website. Me I love the UK warts and all and have not emigrated really since I move around solely because of my OH's job.

Funnily enough the disgruntled posters on ExpatExposed tend to be Americans who interpret NZ as a 'Socialist third world State full of racial prejudice'...someone's perceptions are warped..somewhere along the line.

I was last in the UK on holiday in July 2010 and even with Cameron at the helm, it seemed a pretty good place to me.

luvwelly

Why do you think a job with a DHB is safe? Have you never heard of cutbacks to essential services?

dannigirl

Really? I don't get that impression at all, do you mean the NZ forum or the whole BE website? There are a few polarised opinions for sure, but on the whole my impression of, tone of the NZ site is that whilst a fair few Expats enjoy NZ, the majority think it's shite (or at least the positives do not outweigh the negatives) and actually prefer the UK.

Leither

But have you noticed the difference between those planning to leave the UK and those who have done so already? Those planning to leave seem to think the UK is shite and appear to base their opinion on the "facts" as presented by the Daily Mail.

Those who are in NZ seem to be more balanced although there is still some polarisation of opinion.

elfman

I was also back home for two weeks last July and I agree - but I'm starting to worry about how the UK quality of life will suffer the longer Cameron and his bunch of upper class spivs and vandals stay in power.

bourbon-biscuit

Why the aggression? Of course I've heard of cuts to essential services (do you think I'm stupid?)- in fact we moved to NZ because of such cuts happening at the time in the UK. However, I do think a DHB job is probably a safer bet than many and thanks for your concern but I'm fairly certain my husband's job is safe.

dannigirl

Not sure there is one stereotype of people leaving the UK. Of course there are plenty of people leaving as "they think" the country is going to the dogs...maybe it is for them and their own personal experiences, but plenty of people leave for other reasons not based on Daily Mail "facts".

I do think you need a certain level of rose tinted glass syndrome, it gives you drive, motivation and the energy to move half way round the bloody world. If you didn't think you were going to get anything positive from it, would we really be able to do it? Same with people who return to the UK, I think it is human nature to focus and concentrate on the positive, again it gives us drive, strength and motivation.

Leither

Yes you do need to be positive about the place you are moving to otherwise you would never move at all. However, a large proportion of people who are considering moving focus purely on the negatives of the UK and ignore the negatives of the place they are moving to (despite often having these negatives pointed out by those in situ). They are then quite often surprised to find the grass isn't always greener.

Pistolpete2

Quite so Leither! More than anything else one would tend to think that this is the whole point of these chat forums. So that when you make the decision to move or to move back you are fully informed of the real FACTS and the enormity of the process in some cases and not just acting on a whim.

The toughest bit has to be the going-back. I'm not sure these returner types are fully open as to their individual circumstances i.e. money no object, money a bit of an object or money very tight. Thus it is difficult to assess individual priorities and motivations from Brits who keep things close to their chests at the best of times. Likewise, there are some for whom family is a big issue, others far less so. For those of us that have been away for a long time it is one HUGE unknown as we may never fit in to the greatly changed UK once we become RESIDENT and not just a tourist.

TOUGH QUESTIONS indeed!

By the way, I'm on here because I found the ten pound pom debate extremely interesting at times.

simonsi

IMHO it is only a matter of time before EU citizens get the right to vote in their country of residence, then all those Euro immigrants around Europe would be voting where they lived rather than where their citizenship lies.

New Labour altered the constituency boundaries to favour more labour MPs being elected as a result, it would be no surprise if the easy Euro immigration was a preparatory move in the same direction. Note previous Govts may have done exactly the same, I just wasn't around to see it.

Cape Blue

I didn't realize that, I see plenty of it here in the US but thought there was some sort of independent boundary commission in the UK to stop that sort of thing.

To be honest, I just don't see that non-British citizens will be able to vote in UK Government elections for the foreseeable future - unlike many things EU, I don't see the electorate or politicians of other countries wanting that either.

If it were ever to happen, I am still not sure that you would necessarily improve Labour voting - many EU immigrants from places like Poland are Catholic social conservatives and many immigrants in general are self-employed and may tend to favor low-tax, low regulation Torydom.