Monday, March 26, 2007

Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go

Remember the last Guardianista line on EU immigration ? After the 'only 13,000' figure turned out to be over half a million, the next line was 'they're only coming over for a few years to earn some money, then they'll go back'.

It was my impression that while some (like the philosophy student I gave a lift to last summer) were here for the quick buck (and nowt wrong with that), many are in for the long haul. We've got the first wee Poles at the primary. We're printing the Mass service sheets in Polish as well as English. I'm seeing a lot of bumps and pushchairs in Poundland.

The BBC has been told the influx of eastern Europeans to the UK has led to a massive rise in pregnancies and abortion requests in some areas.

Health professionals warn that some antenatal services are stretched to breaking point.

More than 500,000 eastern Europeans have migrated to the UK following the accession of eight new member states to the EU in 2004.

The impact on services appears to be far greater outside major cities.

Doctors say the new arrivals are largely young, fit and fertile: the number of pregnant women has doubled; one in four women asking for an abortion is eastern European.


This is particularly informative.

Lisa Cunningham, manager of the BPAS in Luton, said her centre dealt with 663 abortions last year.

"We have noticed an increase with the Eastern European clients.

"Some women have said to me that they would want to continue with the pregnancy, but they haven't been in this country for very long, and they are not entitled to the benefits.

"If they were entitled to that then they would continue with the pregnancy. It's sad that that is a big factor."


Tragically "there is no basic state help - even child benefit - for unemployed migrant workers from these countries until they've worked in the UK for at least a year."

The BBC have discovered a whole new job the locals don't want to do - that of the "unemployed migrant worker". Apparently with more state aid it could be a vibrant sector of the economy.

When the Europeans overran North America and 'marginalised' the indigenous peoples, they repented (admittedly very late) and established reservations into which no non-native can go without the tribe's permission. How that fits with discrimination law I don't know - just another example of the one-way ratchet I guess. Anyway, we're hoping to pay 75 bucks each next week to tread upon the half-million or so acres of Hualapai land and see their snazzy new Skywalk.

In the comments to this post Guardian Apostate said :

"... underneath many people are unhappy with what's developing. Without any seeming alternative they just quietly leave. I know many people of Afro-Caribbean descent, many of whom I like a lot, but sadly, on balance, I've come to the conclusion I'd rather live in a more English setting. It's not just British culture that's affected. The days of the blues parties and sound system clashes are pretty much over. It's just too dangerous. I'm not overly taken by Indian culture either. I have 4, living in a tiny one bedroom flat above me, and I appear to have absolutely zero in common with them. They talk in their own language amongst themselves and mostly listen to Indian music and radio. My culture is slowly falling away in so many subtle ways. It is't only immigration Labour has got wrong. For me, in some ways quite worse, is the state of Education. That seemed to be the tipping point for most of my friends with families who've left."

I don't think he's a racist. He doesn't hate people of other cultures or races. Like most people in the world, certainly like most immigrants to Britain, he just wants to live among his own.

I know America's a much bigger country - but do you think they could put a bit aside for the English ? Shropshire would be nice.

13 comments:

Northern Monkey said...

I'm jealous of anyone going on the skywalk!

I was there last September and "did" the North and South rim's of the Grand Canyon. North being a wonderful experience, I'd love to stay in the Lodge there for a couple of days sometime, South being totally tainted by the sheer weight of numbers visiting.

But the Skywalk looked amazing - bit of a trek out of the way though from what I saw. The map said 4x4 vehicles only.

Anonymous said...

Yes, odd - bordering on delusional - the way the left castigates the British for cleaving to our own society (in our own ancient country) while encouraging immigrants from more primitive regions of the world, to cling on to their own societies at all costs.

I would suggest that one way to do this to perfection would be, don't emigrate to the West! Stay in your own culture and you will have millions of your own people and your own customs around you!

That they don't try to integrate suggests three things: 1) They are too stupid to negotiate their lives on an equal intellectual level with the Brits; 2) They don't even understand why they should; 3) they are here as foot soldiers behind enemy lines.

I would like the British people who own this country and its history to contemplate these three thoughts.

Let us know about the skywalk. I would not step out on it for a million dollars.

Anonymous said...

Read up on our friend Gramsci and his path to destruction of culture.

Thatcherites were old-fashioned Marxists who thought if you changed the economic base the superstructure would be affected.........but the Gramscians knew in the software age it was the culture that would shape everything

Anonymous said...

yeah voyager, but I still think that without legalised abortion eliminating 8 million British people that the cultural attacks from which ever direction wouldn't have caused the damage they have.
To destroy someones culture, destroy the family.

Harry J said...

Escaping to the countryside or at least some of the smaller less enriched towns is an option at the present. For how much longer, who knows? What concerns me the most is the rate of change in some of our major cities, London in particular. How the fact that the indigenous English (British) are to shortly become a minority in their own capital city and what the social and cultural ramifications of this will be, is not being widely discussed remains a mystery to me.

A Brummie said...

GA I concur with your sentiments.

But English or British? Please... get off the fence post - which is it?

A Brummie said...

GA I concur with your sentiments.

But English or British? Please... get off the fence post - which is it?

Harry J said...

A Brummie,

It's not something I gave a great deal of consideration to until a few years ago. On reflection I suppose I think of myself as English first and foremost. Increasingly so. I do feel a strong affinity to the idea of Britain though. Our histories are so closely intermingled. In general I like the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish (and Souyhern Irish) and I suspect we may be better off together than apart. That said some of our near neighbours do have a habit of voting to the left and I've heard the arguments for a split. The coming elections in Scotland should prove interesting.

Anonymous said...

The 13,00 figure should have been derided mercilessly from day one.

13,000 thats somewhat less than 100 fully loaded Boeing 737s, the steed of choice of Easyjet and Ryanair.

Thats assuming that these people only travelled by air.

Laughable when you think about.

Anonymous said...

We are Scots, English and Welsh in times of peace and prosperity but when we feel threatened we become British.

I am Glasgow born but have spent most of my life in London, (technical term:jockney!!)

PS. Plenty of English people voted for the old Labour Party. The Independent Labour Party was founded in Canning Town, East London..just down the road from where Peter Woodham was killed.

Anonymous said...

Dave, you mix cart and horse......the Abortion Act 1967 was part of the Gramscian agenda to change culture......

http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-gram.htm

Anonymous said...

Guardian Apostate,

The indigenes already are a minority in London. Official figures claim that ethnic groups constitute 40% of the capital's population. That's complete tosh, and no one knows how many people are here. The 1.5 million illegal immigrants are all so visible but the truth dare not speak its name, but it can be gauged by the 'white flight' of the monied classes. Most boroughs in London look like areas in the Third World, scruffy, smelly and filthy. The transformation of London in the last five years has been quite frightening.

Anon Jockney,

Hopefully the Independent Labour Party will take up the case of the dispossessed white working classes, who are on the way to extinction. The Islington elite care more about the linguistic and cultural plight of Australian Aborigines.

Guessedworker said...

Gramscism in this country has a late pedigree - his writing didn't get translated until the 1960s. They are mostly associated with the 1990's post-Althusserian phase of critical theory, as applied to literature.

The (now closed) Birmingham School was culturally Marxised after its takeover in 1970 by Stuart Hall and Raymond Mills. In that its graduates were expected to take their precious educational gifts with them into the public sector one can argue that there was a Gramscian agenda.

But the methodologies employed by the educated left were many, and they themselves will scoff pretty hard if we try to group them together under one banner.