Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

But you're missing the fact that I am not anti-immigration, anti foreign or whatever, you're missing the fact that I'm saying that the country is too small! I love foreigners, in fact I love most nationalities more than I love Brits! The solution is simple, get the government to sort out the infrastructure, the housing, the resources - OK it's not simple, it'll never happen.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

I think you might be missing the fact that a lot of what you have typed sounds very anti-immigrant.

Government needs to get involved in infrastructure for sure. But the funding for that type of thing only happens when there are enough workers to fill the coffers. As much as I hate the word "capitalism", it does play a part in taxation.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

And this is the truth of it. There has been a chronic underinvestment in public infrastructure by successive governments for decades. Much easier to blame EU immigration for lack of affordable housing, excess pressure on the NHS, lack of school places, etc.. than it is for politicians and senior civil servants to take responsibility for their own mismanagement and short-sightedness.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

IMO what has happened in your country is capitalism took over at break-neck pace in an environment that wasn't ready for it. The "welfare state" of WWII wasn't ready for private landlords, etc.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

Not quite sure what you mean by capitalism in this context. The UK was a capitalist society before the creation of the welfare state (which didn't happen until after WWII) and remained a capitalist society after it. There have always been private landlords.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

I mean capitalism US style. Thatcherism. Captialism in your country was not nearly the same as here in the US. We haven't public utility companies nor the degree of social housing that your countrymen relied upon. Nor any type of national health service.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

This theme came up quite often on that TV debate this morning. I swither a little about this. I completely agree that politicians have messed up big-time over the years and between them and the bankers are largely responsible for the situation we are in.

But a part of me does say that well, we are in this situation regardless of whose fault it is, and uncontrolled immigration won't help things. I don't think we will be overcome by hordes of people from new EU member states but rather than assume it will be OK, having some controls in place would at least provide some sort of safeguard.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

How can you say I'm anti-immigration! My sole point is the country is too small. What do you want me to say - fill it up to capacity so there's no green space left for anyone? There would be enough workers to fill the coffers if some of them would get off their asses (I'm sure that will go down well!). Not to mention if politicians took a cut in pay! I object to your insinuation. I've worked all my life, I've never claimed benefits, so pardon me if those that claim them when they don't need to don't earn my respect.
I'd rather a million Romanians and Bulgarians, than people who just can't be arsed to work.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

as two part 'discuss' the report showed a large number of A&E doctors were emigrating due to work overload & lack of resources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24396884

while in today's news ...

"Family doctors are earning thousands of pounds working night and weekend shifts at stretched A&E units, it was reported.

GPs are being paid up to £1,500 a shift as they help crisis-hit casualty departments cope with soaring numbers of patients"

Is it all about qualified foreign trained doctors (professionals) versus UK trained doctors (or professionals) that emigrate

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

Well, the US has a nationalised railway system and postal service, but I think I know what you mean. If you're referring the mass privatisation of national industries and utilities that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s under Thatcher but that was as a result of the underinvestment rather than the cause of it.

Successive governments weren't willing to fund the investment required to maintain the national infrastructure and by the time privatisation came along a lot of it was at breaking point and in desperate need of modernisation.

Whilst this has occurred under privatisation much of it is still massively subsided by the taxpayer and given that a private company's duty is to make money for its shareholders rather than provide a public service, it's questionable whether it would have been better for HMG to keep it in public hands.

Britain's railway network for instance is heavily subsidised and tickets are far more expensive than in either France or Germany and yet the service offered is often worse.

There were no controls over the last wave of EU migration thanks to governmental incompetence but there has been this time. Unfortunately most people assume that the same thing will occur with Bulgaria and Romania as previously with Poland et al. despite the circumstances being quite different.

Generally speaking though the quality of UK's immigration system remains p*ss poor.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

I'm sorry if I have offended you.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

You haven't offended me, I'm just bemused as to how you missed my point.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

LOL........OK.

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

May I suggest you find a new sole point that actually stands up to scrutiny in that case. The sole point you have right now is utter nonsense.

Only 1.5% of Britain counts as developed. There is 8.5 times much as woodland in Britain as there is development. England with its many busy cities has 2.27% of land classed as built on, while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have less than 1% of their land developed. Over 78% of Urban Land isn’t developed or built on meaning the number of buildings in the UK could over double without any Urban sprawl or change to non-Urban areas. Simply put, Britain is nowhere near full, in fact it has acres and acres of space. England’s green and pleasant lands are not at threat from immigration, not even close.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18623096

Re: The Bulgarian & Romanians
 

Don't you just love statistics? Especially when 80% of the %s aren't in the report. Thanks for the link though :)