General Chat

I don't think immigrants are described as "people of colour", Maggie. Have you ever heard someone refer to, oh, Poles as people of colour?

Until the Poles, did anybody much object to people of no colour immigrating to the UK? Do many such people immigrate to the UK?


The English have emigrated all over this green earth for centuries. Usually without meeting any points test. Usually without even asking, in fact. Sometimes, things just come back and bite ya.


suzian, btw, has an excellent point.

If there were greater social and economic justice in many places, fewer would be wanting to leave them.

And one reason for there being so little social and economic justice in some places is the past and present behaviour of countries with political and economic power. Like ours.

If your country's dictator had been good friends with some other country's leaders, wouldn't you think that other country maybe owed you a hand?

Here's my view - we are all part of the human race. By accident of birth, I was fortunate enough to be born here - where we have a very good quality of life.

There's no need to over-populate this tiny island - much better that we give of our good fortune to others much less lucky than us. And if that means a few points on tax, then I'm quite happy with that.
Sue x

Just out of interest - why are immigrants described as 'people of colour'?
There have been lots of immigrants to Britain that aren't 'of colour' - and some are Moslem!!!
Just after the war - lots of 'people of no colour' immigrants were Jewish!!!

Recent genetic studies by Oppenheimer and Sykes suggest that the true "Britons" are a Basque people from central Iberia. Immigration by Celts, Romans Angles Saxons Vikings etc has had no more than a 5% influence on the overwhelming genetic ancestry of "the English". They also believe that the British spoke a Germanic language long before the Angles and Saxons arrived.
Google it!

I am of Paternal haplogroup I- the original Cro-Magnon inhabitants of Britain- so all you immigrants go back where you came from!

xxxxx mick

waves to brian .....lolol.xxx

So Mac - "If I had a choice, I would choose the best, irrespective of Race, Colour or Creed"

If we apply that to the population, maybe there are some English people who could stand to be exported, to make room for some better non-English people to take their place ...

And you do get a choice. If you think people of colour should not be getting in, you stick to your principles and suffer the gallstones rather than have an immigrant doctor operate on you. Easy.

Huh. And my cataract surgery was botched by a guy named ... well, I shouldn't do that. Let's say John Hill. And it was fixed by a guy I'll call Ahmed Mohamed.

Back when I had a biopsy under a general anaesthetic some years ago, when several women had recently suffered bad outcomes from anaesthetic for similar surgeries in my area, my good friend (also a lawyer) recommended that I let the anaesthiologist know I was a lawyer. So after he'd done his examination the day before surgery, I wagged my finger at him and said my friend who's a lawyer said to be sure I let you know I'm a lawyer, and I don't trust you people!

After he left the room, it struck me that he was Chinese ... and he might not have thought the people I was talking about were anaesthesiologists ...

So before he stuck the mask on my face in the OR, I said Wait, wait, I just want you to know that the people I don't trust are *anaesthesiologists*! His eyes crinkled so I figured I was safe. ;)

And Harold Shipman was English, I believe..........so there is no relevance regarding nationality of the doctor, which is my point.

And the islamic state and sharia law is just not going to happen, no matter how many times people repeat it. There are too many atheists, thank god, in this country!

Mac, no, I don't now. But I have done over many years and I've travelled a lot, which enables me to make an informed judgement over the value of other people from other countries.

I would guess that when you make a visit to a hospital, you wouldn't refuse treatment from a Muslim doctor. Or would you? I don't know.

But whether or not I have a lot of immigrant contact is neither here nor there. That doesn't make me wrong.

I would vote for the young man standing here, because he is a good man, but I dont like his party. Isnt it time good men of all parties were given a chance at government?

Agree. The higher birthrate outside the UK & the higher living standards within it make immigration a manifest destiny. Wisdom lies in recognising our limitations.

Yes, we are overcrowded, but you can't put that down to immigration. The actual immigration big picture is viewed by asking why people want to come here and where are they coming from?

I personally have no problems with immigration, which is not to say I would like to see it go uncontrolled. After all, people are people, full stop.

What about the big picture? Regardless of how mongrel we already are, aren't there enough or too many people in this country already?? We won't be able to move on the roads at all in the future or have any green to look at if we carry on like we are doing.

*Puts head above pile of decluttering*

Eldrick, there's a big difference between immigration and invasion, the vikings, saxons, Romans and Normans didn't emigrate, they invaded LOL.

But what you are saying is dead right, there is no such thing as a pure Brit any more, if there ever was in the first place, because apparently we migrated from Europe anyway, we didn't evolve here.

Remember the Political Compass? (My thread "Spring is here" is about it too.)

Here's what it has to say about the BNP, which should help us out here.

http://www.politicalcompass.org/ukparties2010


It's muddled thinking to simply describe the likes of the British National Party as "extreme right". The truth is that on issues like health, transport, housing, protectionism and globalisation, their economics are left of Labour, let alone the Conservatives.

It's in areas like police power, military power, school discipline, law and order, race and nationalism that the BNP's real extremism - as authoritarians - is clear. It's easy to see how the term national socialism came into being. The uncomfortable reality is that much of their support comes from former Labour voters.

This mirrors France's National Front. In running some local governments, they reinstated certain welfare measures which their Socialist predecessors had abandoned. Like similar authoritarian parties that have sprung up around Europe, they have come to be seen in some quarters as champions of the underdog, as long as the underdog isn't Black, Arab, gay or Jewish!

With mainstream Social Democratic parties adopting - reluctantly or enthusiastically - the new economic libertarian orthodoxy (neo-liberalism), much of their old economic baggage has been pinched by National Socialism. Election debates between mainstream parties are increasingly about managerial competence rather than any clash of vision and fundamental difference in economic direction.

I want a party that will benifit my family,no necessary me,but one that will over the next 5 years,but no one person can step in the mire we have at present and fill everyones wish,by the time their 5 years is up they wont even have scratched the surface and will no doubt be further in than we are now.

No one party is going to produce a manifesto which I approve of 100%, therefore I am sure a lot of people. like me, agree with sections of all parties manifestos, including the BNP.

Doesn't make any of us racist, just balanced in our wishes for the betterment of the UK as a whole.

I'm amazed at myself that I can still be amazed at the bigotry voiced in this place.

Just how did all those people of colour get to the Caribbean?

Swam the Atlantic, did they?

The indigenous peoples of the Caribbean invited them to move in?

The English never paid much attention to anybody else's ideas about immigration, as far as I can see.

I agree with Eldrick (gosh :-)))

It's also the age-old practice of blaming all the ills of the economy on immigrants that really annoys me - some people can't seem to see beyond sensationalist media headlines.

I think people should get to grips with their history before getting all wound up about immigration. Britain forcibly occupied many countries worldwide in pursuit of their empire. But now lots of people want to adopt a siege mentality and shut our borders.

I don't know. There's no such thing as a pure bred Englishman, although I accept that in some dark corner of Scotland or Wales there may be some red headed bearded woman with 8 fingers on each hand and webbed feet that may have a direct pedigree back to Ug the Great.The point is, we are what we are due to immigration - be it saxons, jutes, gauls, vikings, whatever. It's what happens on islands.