Watching the show 'Educating Yorkshire' gave me a whole new respect and appreciation for teachers. My God these people are dedicated - often in the face of really challenging situations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWeKiZS-dxM

I can only agree with that.....not even this area is exempt from a level of unease with immigration into the UK.....and this is so called "posh" Cheltenham on the edge of the Cotswolds - no shortage of Poles, Romanians and Bulgarians hereabouts, and we can only speculate right now about what might happen immediately after the coming 1st January - unless of course David Cameron finally gets his act together....yeah right...it's the EU thing again....

Not even exclusive Park Lane, in London's West End, is exempt from these Roma incursions....these impoverished people are even putting down roots in unhygienically messy campsites on the edge of Park Lane, close to such high class establishments as the Grosvenor and Dorchester Hotels situated on Park Lane itself.

Not to be pedantic...but your OP said highways.

In what way did you find them "crap' ? Did they go in the wrong direction ? were they badly maintained ? Were they poorly signed....do tell

I would imagine my interpretation of crap is much the same as anyone elses.

In my youth, so called posh Cheltenham was notorious for possessing one of only two "recognised" chapters of Hells Angels. I think the proximity of the racecourse has always made it a rough place in parts.

(Waits, head down, to be assaulted by old Cheltonians or whatever they are)

It was also famous for the show 'Butterflies' that was filmed in Pittville Park if I remember correctly. We lived in and around the area when I was younger, and my mum used to watch the show

Wendy Craig and Geoffrey Palmer.

Cracking programme

That's the one

I have never thought of Cheltenham as 'posh' to be honest. It is probably the chapter that organised the Bulldog Bash. Many a fond memory.

You will notice that I used quotation marks when I used the word "posh". When I first moved down here in connection with my job I admit to thinking Cheltenham was posh, maybe because I am Scottish, with an Edinburgh accent (which Glaswegians generally regard as being "posh"!) as to me many of the people down here sounded, well, a bit posh when they spoke.

Anyway, in comparison with nearby Gloucester I would say that Cheltenham is indeed a wee bit on the "posh" side, not that I have anything really negative to say about Gloucester, except to say, in keeping with this topic, that it really does appear to be home to more (apparent) immigrants and ethnic groups than does Cheltenham.

With regard to David Cameron (whose party I support politically) he really does appear to be subject to an increasing amount of pressure from so many quarters to defy the EU and effectively deal with the problem of immigration in the UK and all that implies*, especially with regard to the unpopular (in the UK) European Court of Human Rights which really is a stumbling block for Cameron and his attempts to act in a way supported by so many people here in the UK on this issue.

*Social welfare benefits, employment, access to all NHS facilities, public authority/Housing Association accommodation funded by UK taxpayers, deportation of undesirable foreign nationals, including those found guilty of criminal offences...etc.

I reckon it depends on your financial situation, when going back to UK
I do live in Germany...When I go back home, (I am ex rugby player ) I do find
Major cities have a late night drinking problem and is more agressive.
Some standards have gone down, in some services govt, and private.
London, sorry nice places to go to...but a dump, some cities have improved.
Train services...sorry next to useless, local busses or trams, some towns
Top, others forget their customers. Maybe important if one uses local
Transport to work. Medical care jobs....Care homes are closing, hospitals
are offering less...social services are struggling, whether that find individuals
Finding a job or a career change, I would say is contraversal.
1 thing...I am biased....British house prices are too high, old council houses
Going for ridiculous prices, .If you have money for a good mortgage it seems after
Speaking to active relatives, not a great problem.what country offers a good life
I believe Standard depends on your own wants and needs.kids education in
Some areas seem ok in others poor or low standards.
In the last few years with my children we had exchange students from different
Parts of the uk, my own children who love Britain but have been brought up,
Obiously in the German society, and have noticed the middle of the road schooling
Year, in England has been behind in the language, maths and sciences, but again
I believe that has its cycles, and again depends on where the school catchment
Area is.

Someone (not Lothianlad) is rewriting history Cameron and his followers need to read their history. ECHR is a Council of Europe thing, not an EU thing. Britain did not get itself "signed up to" the ECHR, Britain wrote 80+% of the ECHR.

And the reason Britain wrote it (with the help of France) was to ensure that no European country would become another "big brother" oligarchy as happened in the 1930s. Even though (I think) the term "big brother" had not come into common use then.

If Britain has trouble with the ECHR it is because Britain is doing too much spying on it's own people and too much creating laws targetted at a group or class you simply dislike for political reasons and too much concentrating power in the hands of the rich and the elite.

We need to start living up to the ECHR and stop doing the things that cause us problems with it. It does not, as many suggest, prevent deporting undesirable non-citizens. But it does stop you creating arbitrary laws and then taking the vote away from people who protest against unfair laws by breaking them. You don't disenfranchise genuine villains - you simply OUTVOTE them.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people. They don't have it in the Land of Lincoln (USA) and we no longer have it in Britain, but we need to get back to it. The ECHR was an attempt to make it easy to keep it, but now we have lost it.

Grass roots democracy, not political party headquarters candidate selection dictates. That is what will get it back.

Britain is fine if you are one of the 1% or 2% of the richest people. But even if you are you need to watch your back, when the (former) middle class have nothing left to plunder those 1% will start eating their own and you may be on the menu.

Well we certainly arent in the 1 or 2% and Britain is fine for us.

Probably the first time I have agreed with one of your posts.

Jeff Randall talking sense again...........

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...tion-ploy.html