General Chat

Liz,
We have a son who lives in Guernsey,and it's full of Polish ,Latvian,and Eastern bloc countries as they are such hard workers and do menial jobs that ours won't do,so you can't blame them for trying to better themselves.
I remember the same thing happening at the end of the war,when a lot of our people wouldn't do things like road sweeping,bus driving,etc,and then they have a moan because there is no work.

We have been spoilt by the "Affluent society".
I have no gripe about those coming in to work,and worked with some Uganda Asians in the 80's,who were well educated nice people.
I think that most folk resent the ones who come here
and get benefits which our own people can't.
We have been too soft on checking the borders,and letting so many illegal immigrants loose.

Having said that,there are a lot of our people who don't want to work,so you can't blame employers for taking on good workers.

You can't go to another country to live without proving that you will not be a drain on it's finances.

Can,t argue with that Liz. sounds true. But whether their children back in Poland should get........

There will be very few people who do not welcome the hard working Poles over here, albeit this country is getting very crowded.

Happy days

Watched a very interesting programme this evening on bbc2 about the people coming from Poland to live and work in Peterboro, they can send so much money home to their families. They were prepared to work hard and long hours, but did get £7 an hour. I would want that too if I had to be outside in all weathers cutting and packing veg etc. Some of them were sharing houses with other families, some of them actually sleep outside even in this weather, in makeshift tents and cook on barbecues. It must be awful. There were some English lads outside the job centre and the chap doing the programme spoke to them, they were complaining about the foreigners coming over and taking the jobs. The presenter offered one a job for £7 an hour, the chap looked keen until he said it was cutting butternut squashes in the field, no thanks was the reply, I would rather stay on the dole! How can these idiots complain when they aren't prepared to work hard themselves. The bosses said what great workers the Poles and Lithuanians were, conscientious and didn't sit around, if they finished one job they would go and ask what next.
The irony is that in Gdansk I think it is, there is a big football stadium needed for 2012 for a major football competition and there are no men to build it because they are in England, the Poles are having to use workers from Korea etc. As there aren't enough men to be firefighters, the women are learning how to do it, and women are working in window factories.
Crazy!!
Lizx

Hi Harry, you are right the balance is not equal. We must not forget that Britain is a very affluent part of the world and sometimes we take things for granted. We don't have the horrendous weather like some 3rd world countries do or such cruel governments. What we do have is the EU and a dopey government.
How many of us know what needs doing in our country to make it better? probably the ones who don't really have a say, which is most of us. We vote but what good has that done, we are getting worse off than ever. We know immigration should be curtailed, we know people should not just have the right to money, we should put our own house in order but trying to tell the politicians hasn't worked. Sorry got to go now or i will get in bother
Janet

i think its really bad that this govorment is sending all this money abroad .how do they know how many childern they have .any way they have not paid any thing to get child benifit i have paid stamps for 40yrs but when out of work recently i was told i could not have any benifit so how come they can ?

I agree with you Liz, the so called ORGANIZERS .... they get the bulk and the money sent is a pittance compared to the donation we have made.
BUT I couldn't stop.

Deanna X

Along the same lines, I work in a GP surgery and I cannot tell you how demoralised all the staff are becoming lately. Mainly this is due to an increase in workload which I have to say is almost entirely due to the influx into this Country.

Patients from abroad are registering day after day at an already full to burst Practice. Very few of them speak English and they present at the desk, speak in their own language and then become frustrated when we don't understand them! We are then obliged to contact interpreters for them (free of charge to them).

Many times they want referrals, which they then fail to attend without notice and then come back in wanting to be rereferred (I am not saying that they are the only ones to do this, but from my experience, they are in the majority). They request letters from the GP's saying their housing is not good enough and they wish to be moved to a better area because living where they do live makes them feel "anxious and depressed". Welcome to the real world, we would all like to be anxiety free in a nice area!

The Practice has a benefits advisor who sees approximately 4 patients per week at the Surgery. At the minute, the waiting list is running to months as the appointments are filled with people new to the Country wanting to claim as much as possible. A lot of the time, they register at reception and on the form we request the date of entry into the UK. Unbelievably, even when the date is within a week ago, they have addresses on the new estates. They see the Dr and Nurse and then ask how they get to register with a Dentist and Optician. I personally am not registered with a dentist because I cannot afford it!

Only yesterday, a patient from Iran rang at 1.30 pm in the afternoon, demanding an appointment. When one was given for 11 o'clock the next day, he became abusive immediately to the receptionist, insisting he wanted to be seen that day. When she politely pointed out that surgery was full for that day he screeched at her "people are allowed to die in this Country". She calmly pointed out that we are not an emergency service and if he felt in any danger of imminent death he should attend A & E. He continued to shout at her before hanging up. He subsequently made an appointment for the next day!

I have told her if we have such a situation again and a patient (any patient) is placing unreasonable demands on the system that she should offer them the telephone number of the nearest private medical centre and give them the choice of paying for immediate treatment!

Our midwife is currently unable to cope with the amount of patients in her clinics. An audit of patients proved that the majority of patients were foreign.

There are a lot of staff within the surgery looking for new jobs. They are all long-standing and hard working staff who are just finding the present climate hard to deal with; trying to speak to people who do not understand what they are saying, people abusing them when they are trying to help, etc etc.

People call doctors receptionist dragons and maybe some are, but I just wish sometimes people could spend a day in our shoes and see what goes on.

I tell ya, it would make your toes curl!!

Carol xx

I think it would be rather good if the Charities ( All of them ) published how much money was paid in wages (Plus Expenses ) to their Directors,. **M**.Ps. Don,t hold your breath.

Merlin, that is a dreadful thing to happen, that poor man must feel beside himself sometimes.

Deanna, I do feel for the children and people who need help abroad, but it makes me mad, as Daff says, that a lot of the aid money is creamed off and doesn't reach those who it is meant for.

I wish I could do something to help the street kids and those who live on rubbish tips etc etc
In many countries there are two sides, the one the tourists see and the other side, poverty and hardship that only occasionally tourists discover and try to help with. Many people are documented as going on holiday, and being taken to poor villages by hotel staff to see the reality of life there, and end up going back time and again to help set up schools or help in orphanages etc. Yet those countries have wealthy business people who ignore their own country men and women for their own greed.
Until everyone can be less greedy, this situation will remain the same. Sadly, with the way many of our own young people are growing up wanting more and more material things, I wonder if things will ever be right!
Lizx

Read in the Telegraph today,about 18 illegal immigrants given train tickets to go to a detention centre.
Of course they didn't arrive!!!
What did they expect?
Like a lot of you on here,I had my mother in a home for 3 years before she died,and we had to sell her flat to pay for it.also all the things that some of her friends were getting,like stair lifts,shower rooms,telephone alarm systems,etc,were all free,because they rented.
It seems it doesn't pay to be thrifty and pay your way!
I give to charities like Cancer,Lifeboats etc,and although it pains me to see little children from 3rd world countries suffering,I also wonder how much of it gets to them.
and....as for footballers,pop stars.....enough said!!
Brenda x x

Charity certianly does begin at home,,,,,,,,but should it be called

Charity......??

It should be given as matter of course and rightful entitlements,to us the English of England,

Angelsong. One of my relatives had MS.her husband hurt his back,they took her into hospital to give him a bit of Respite.They Killed her with the wrong Injection for "Bed sores" which she never had before she went in.He still at times blames himself for letting her go there. **M**.

Afternoon Harry, Afternoon all...

I do believe that we should help others overseas where we are able to, but I also get very concerned that a very high proportion of the money we give gets swallowed up by those people who actually perpetuate the poverty, misery and cruelty, or in *admin costs* here in UK, and only a tiny proportion gets to those who really desperately need the aid. I don't know what the answer is. I wish I did.

I also think that priority should be given to those people who have paid into this system all their lives, or who have disabilities that really prevent them from working and contributing, and now desperately need support themselves... this thread has highlighted perfectly some of those instances, such as the elderly with Alzheimers, such a cruel condition.
I too feel that for someone to come into our country as an economic migrant, and have all the benefits available to send back to their families elsewhere in EUROPE (not in any dangerous area of the world) is very wrong…. They should earn the right to these.

I am NOT against people coming here for work, at all….. far from it. There are many, many jobs around that our home grown spongers refuse to look at because they would lose their benefits (we all know one!!) Many of the migrant workers fill these roles willingly and admirably, but they should not be able to have access to all the family based benefits unless their families are here, in Britain.
If they don’t get jobs before they come over here, then they should either have enough money to support themselves plus a UK based sponsor, or be sent right back!

True Asylum seekers should always be given as much help as possible. These would not usually be groups of young, fit and healthy young men (and increasingly, women), but traumatised families from the war-torn places of the world. They truly deserve our aid and compassion, in my opinion. And we have a proud and excellent reputation for providing that safe refuge in this country.

This is my third soap-box… I am getting vertigo!!

Love

Daff xxx

Liz Carers are rarely treated well, although we see on the TV how much help there is for them.

We even have children looking out for their parents, and siblings...and no one seems to care.

I do agree with you, look to your own house .... but, we need to help the needy elsewhere too even it is just bringing the problem to the fore.

Children in prison, children being shot in the streets because they are considered vermin.... there are many places we should help... but not at the expense of our own.

Deanna X

Thanks for that Liz.. V ery sad story. Life is not fair.

Best wishes Happy days

It is a crazy world. Time for idiots like overpaid footballers etc to give away some of their wealth instead of flashing big cars, boozy nights out and big houses, and help those who need help in this country.
A relative recently had to go into a home, he has Alzheimers and is being very well looked after and seems happy and content. His wife, aged 87, had been caring for him at home with the occasional help of her son and dil, two grandsons who don't even seem to visit her, across town. She became ill with hip and knee problems so couldn't cope and that is why he went to a home, for respite care so she could have a knee op, which she is still waiting for. She recently got the bill for her husband's care, for three months, £5000. She is at her wit's end worrying as she can't get all that money together, the son is trying to help but it may mean the husband has to be moved somewhere cheaper and might not be so well cared for or happy. She is also paying for carers to come in when they feel like it, and get her up in the morning and put her to bed at night. Sometimes they come and put her to bed at 7pm bless her, she says it is a long night then till they come back between 8 and 10 am!
These are the people who need help, she has done well to cope with her hubby as long as she did, and to have to find that kind of money is wrong. She has already saved the government thousands by looking after him as long as she did.
Lizx

Kitty, it has opened my eyes since being over here, there are a HUGE number of migrant workers here, mainly Indian/Pakistani origin. The average wage for them as Labourers is only just over £100 a month equivalent, and they send most of that home to the families (no handouts here). Like everywhere else, inflation is taking hold and the prices of staple food like rice etc is skyrocketing.

Why on earth are we paying child benefit to children in oither countries??

If their parents are here working and sending money home, presumably the children are already better off financially than if their parent had stayed with them.

Or am I missing something here?

xx

I WHOLE HEARTEDLY AGREE TOO!

In fact I am so livid words fail me.

Tina

Yes i agree that we need to put our pensioners and our children first,but when we have all the eastern europeans that are over here claiming child benefit £18-10 for the 1st child and £12-10 for all other children they have back home and sending this money back to their families.
I think the money paid out to these people should be NOT paid until they have been here at least 5 yrs.
The government don't know for sure how many (if any)children they are claiming for.

We need a new government that will put our people first.