22 October 2014

Ranting

Both of my grandfathers fought in World War One. My parents were in the forces in World War Two. My extended family have paid their full dues to Great Britain in terms of taxation and labour. We paid for the NHS and the roads and the sea defences and the transport infrastructure and so on and so on. It is our country and we know its rituals, its history, its cultural and linguistic nuances, the subtleties of its class system. Yes its our country. Or at least I thought it was.

I don't recall ever being asked to give carte blanche to economic migrants from across the European Union and yet they have arrived in their thousands. They call it "free movement of labour". And any of us who question this phenomenon or raise objections are frequently dismissed as latent racists. If we were far-seeing and modern enough - like the chattering classes in London - we would be dancing in the streets, delighting in our beautiful multi-culturalism. Whoopie-doo!

All this free movement of labour is starting to impact on British identity and to dilute our shared sense of culture. Of course there has always been immigration but it has tended to be of a manageable slowly infused nature - drip by drip. In the last ten years those drips have turned into a mighty torrent which resists control or even calculation.

We now have thousands of eastern European criminals here, Roma gipsies begging or pick-pocketing on the London underground, NHS facilities being utilised by people who haven't paid for the service, urban schools being swamped by children who arrive with virtually no English, translators earning a mint from official coffers, young men seeking their fortunes while often abnegating family responsibilities back home in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania.
"Decisions taken by the most democratic institutions in the world
are very often wrong"
- Jose Manuel Barroso (Outgoing EU President)
And the traffic in this "free movement" seems pretty much one way. Where are the British emigrants off to work in those eastern European countries? You could fit them all in a couple of minibuses.

Okay we have a good number of British ex-pats living in France, Spain, Germany and Portugal. As you may recall one of my own brothers has lived in southern France for several years but regarding other member states of our so-called "European Union", it's the rarity of  British incomers that is noteworthy.

I have visited some eastern European countries - all very interesting trips but I feel a much stronger kinship with English speaking countries and countries that were once part of the British Empire. They are like our blood relations - Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand, India, Kenya, Fiji, Sri Lanka and South Africa for example. Yet workers from these countries are being held back or demoted in favour of Europeans who dwell in lands with which our bonds are entirely new and purely economic - not rooted in culture or history.

I don't like what has been going on. I don't like it all and when I talk to my fellow host citizens, I find it virtually impossible to meet anyone who will speak up in favour of free movement of labour. It feels like something that has been imposed upon us by Eurocrats living the high life in Brussels and Strasbourg. And one sad and tragic thing about it all is that we cannot turn back the clock or shut the stable door for the European horse has already bolted.

Ahhhh! (sigh of relief) Rant over.

13 comments:

  1. You sent me over the edge with this one, YP. I wrote a long diatribe in response (and support), over not one, but two cups of coffee. Then I posted it and it disappeared, and I don't have the ire left to duplicate it. Here is the basic story: In Sloughhouse we have two types of immigrants, Mexicans who come here seasonally to work, and the rich who live east of our valley in their gated community. The rich are our troublesome immigrants because they don't share rural values. They don't pick our pockets directly, but we are in the same voting district and they have taken those over. We end up paying taxes and fees for things they want. So yes, your rant is right on the money, but it's not always the foreigners who are the problem.

    My lost comments were better written, but this will suffice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's awful when that happens - comments or emails disappearing into the ether. I blame the CIA. They are watching us all. Maybe the people from the nearby luxury gated community drive by your place and little kids in the back point at you.
      "Mommy, that lady's got a chicken under her arm!"
      "Don't look honey! There's a lot of strange people in these parts."
      Then Daddy says, "Not for much longer sugar plum. We got plans."

      Delete
  2. We have a version of your Eurocrats here too, but the high life they live is in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Boston -- the "coastal elites" who run the country. People in who differ with their opinion (and there are millions upon millions of them) are not called latent racists by the people running things, they are called racists. Political correctness has taken over our land, and woe be to anyone who dares to voice a different opinion.

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    Replies
    1. Sleep easy in your bed Bob. I will not send your comment on to Washington. Grumpy old men like us must stick together.and keep quiet.

      Delete
  3. Totally agree, YP. It makes my blood pressure rise just reading about it! Only now are our revered politicians wondering if perhaps they should be/have been doing something about it! That's when they're not devoting their energies to blaming each other, of course.

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    Replies
    1. You are fair-minded and intelligent Jenny. It is significant that people like you share my concern. It's not about racism, it's about common sense and patriotism.

      Delete
  4. I have never understood why we dish out benefits to people who just arrive in this country without having work to go to. I had a British friend who lived in France and when she was out of work for a short time, she tried to claim benefits and was more or less told to get lost. Not sure if things have changed since then but we seem to be the only country that gives out huge amounts of money to anyone who arrives at the door, so no wonder everyone wants to come here.

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    Replies
    1. Welcome back from your cruise Miss Molly and thanks for your honest input. It seems amazing to me that Eurocrats expect parity re. the free movement of labour but have no rules for the distribution of a particular country's benefits to economic migrants. They pick and choose how to interfere.

      Delete
  5. It's that bloody EU.
    Get out and leave it to the rest of Europe!
    Don't think you'll find anyone here who will disagree with you !

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    Replies
    1. If I were the British PM we'd be filling in the Channel Tunnel and spraying "FULL" on The White Cliffs of Dover.

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  6. Did you see the survey t'other day?
    - EU citizens should have right to live/work in UK? 32% of Brits said Yes.
    - UK citizens should have right to live/work anywhere in EU? 52% Brits said Yes.
    Just saying!

    ReplyDelete

Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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