Returning after 6 years in UK

A low point in the UK election campaign was reached in November, when the Tory party published "new analysis" showing free movement would cost the Department for Work and Pensions £4.1 billion in extra benefit costs over ten years.

It is an astonishingly disingenuous thing to say. Every academic study into the subject has found that European migrants actually pay more in taxes than they take in benefits. But the Tory response was to bury any economic advantage from immigration and portray it only as an economic loss.

The same lies apply to every area of government policy. Health secretary Matt Hancock, supposedly a moderate in Johnson's Cabinet, recently announced a £1m fund to combat health tourism.

This is a non-issue. It equates to 0.3% of the NHS budget and is anyway mostly attributed to British migrants living overseas and travelling back to the UK for health treatment. But it allows the government to portray immigrants as a kind of social parasite, so it is routinely brought up every few years.

They with an axe to grind against the EU, particularly some tabloid newspapers use every distorted fact and twist it to suit their own narrative. People with narrow nationalist outlooks fall for it hook, line and sinker.

It will be a sad day for almost half the population of Britain when free movement ends. Also once they who supported it realise in full its implications for them personally their viewpoint may change. Britain inevitably will become a satellite state of the USA under the control and patronage of Trump.

Mickyfinn..not all E U.migrants are social parisites...only some are this is why the UK is trying to introduce a points system ..if you want to come and live in the UK... never in my life have I seen so many homeless people sleeping ruff because they cannot find a place to rent ... personally I would put it down to the open borders across the EU...under present EU rules anyone from the across the EU is free and has the right to come to the UK  and live..our Housing / NHS / DSS /General infrastructure was put in place to accommodate the people of the UK ...and not serve the whole of the EU... government's need to have strict controls over the movement of people anything otherwise will just not work... hence the many many thousands of homeless across the UK... building more and more houses is not the answer you need control...I can only presume that is why the Spanish have it written in law that no EU citizen can become a burden on the Spanish Tax payers...and getting back to my original reply if the Spanish can introduce migrant control ..why did the EU. Refuse this request by the UK... hence the Brexit.

Debatable as to homeless due to cannot find anywhere to live, many don't want to pay the rent or overheads, or 'Wont' pay the rent, hence they finally get chucked out, many are making themselves homeless, and fair to say make a few bob for doing nothing except begging, it cant be that bad on the streets because you don't get many reports of 'Another  homeless one found dead'.

When squatters take over a building for the most part these are people who think the world owes them a living, and why should they have to pay because some rich guy worked all their life to buy the building, so we want it for free.

The open borders have increased the UK's population in the stupid belief that they would all get work and pay taxes, spend money , etc. The illegals coming from France in lorries and boats are no good for the UK, we know this, our government know this, but all are scared to say because thats being racist.

You could also argue that one reason many new house's are being built is because folk are fed up with their area being over run with you know who's, so move out of that area to another county. 

If we get the idiot in power today many think if he gets us out of the EU this mass immigration will stop, he might like to belive that, I don't.

It seems we are back to BREXIT again. It appears that not all agree with the ending of free movement into the UK. Perhaps we should totally abandon immigration control, make all staff at UK Border control redundant, change all the signage at the airports to ‘’everybody welcome’’ free healthcare and state benefits for all, including council houses and housing benefit payments. All funded by the British taxpayer, it’s Christmas everyday in the UK.

Leaving the EU will not make one jot of difference to migration. Except for EU citizens who have the skills to provide decent employment and those currently in employment who will very likely leave due to the uncertainty of their position.

Personally I feel the same way. I have had to ask myself the question do I want to continue living in countries where I have no real political or civil rights of equality with the indigenous peoples?  

I agree that the UK should end all free movement, want to come to the UK prove you have skills that the Uk needs.

The other side of the coin is on TV, think yesterday, a farmer was concerned that if we end free movement where will he get workers from, all well and good to say, make the British unemployed work, make homeless work, never will happen as we know, and this just doesn't apply to farmers.

When I had a breakers yard and wanted extra people the only people who applied were non Brits, when a Brit spoke about the job he never turned up, the non EU person did.

It's been Christmas Day in the UK for years, our streets are paved with gold.

Who has the answer? no one has.

What does free movement of people really mean in the EU. Yes as a short term tourist no visa is required from EU citizens. But in Spain and possibly other EU countries it is not an open door for residency. In Spain proof of income/wealth, full healthcare provision.

There is no free healthcare for Brits, healthcare for pensioners is paid for by UK tax payers fund, administered by DWP, about €4,000 a year, a nice earner for Spain, just like the income requirement.

As far as I know there are no or little state benefits available to Brits, so no possible burden there for Spain.

Sometimes I wonder why immigrants risk their lives crossing the channel to get to the UK. Perhaps it’s as Baz says, too many Brits have sticky mattress disease and will only stop at home watching bargain hunt on Sky while drawing benefits, hence leaving an opening for immigrants willing to do a day’s work. How sad, one day the UK will pay for all this.  

Baz 1946...the farmer knows exactly what will happen when they stop so called freedom of movement if he doesn't then he is not a businessman...it has already been said time and time again ..that a visa system will be put in place that allows students and the like to come and study /work /live for the duration of the granted visa ..they will have no right to live permanently in the UK without meeting the appropriate rules which I think is fair in anyone's books..what you seen on TV is called scare mongering Propaganda by the Remoaners.       .

Has the progress of civilisation backfired on us? Able people staying at home on benefits while migrants are imported to do work? Prison population playing ping pong, pool and watching TV while the streets are full of ST.

Here we go again - Soapboxes at the ready for the self interested.....

It is an open forum for any member to post provided they adhere to forum rules. Why be a member if you object?

Windtalker, I believe that the farmer in question was slightly more then a good business man having more then 1000 acres of mixed crops to get out of the ground all year round, and lets not forget that the new PM wants the likes of this farmer, and many other farmers, to grown more crops so we don't have to depend as much on imports once we leave.

What scares the likes of these farmers is the so called visa system that is proposed to be put into place that might restrict overseas workers from coming here to work on the land and elsewhere, like now with unrestricted access to the UK, due to, which will come, folders of paperwork to be filled in just to be a worker in the UK,  these workers just might say, it's not worth the hassle, not saying it will, but it's a possibility.

Scare mongering on TV is not what I would call it, more like a genuine concern for his business and some would say for the UK as a whole, this is not the only farmer, or business person who is concerned about overseas labour disappearing because the lazy layabouts called British workers will not do this type of work, so how do these people fill the void of workers needed for this work, of course the new PM has all the answers to something that hasn't happened in the past 30 years plus.

Baz...the farmer that you are talking about is probably more conserned about the massive yearly grants he receives from the EU. For ploughing most of what he grows back into the ground ..on  orders given from the EU...so they can price fix the markets...the farmer in question only has a reliance on casual labour / hire and fire when the job is done....the out come of the general election has said it all .SO LET'S GET BREXIT DONE .so we can get on with our lives.

** EDITED - Against forum rules **

Kavanagh... Labour held the seat in my area for the last 30 year's..we voted leave in the Brexit...and our MP voted against her constituents in parliament ... Democracy has spoken now she and many others ... especially Labour MPs are on the Dole now ... people said MPs have got to listen  they didn't Democracy spoke in the end.

Baz...the farmer that you are talking about is probably more conserned about the massive yearly grants he receives from the EU. For ploughing most of what he grows back into the ground ..on  orders given from the EU...so they can price fix the markets...the farmer in question only has a reliance on casual labour / hire and fire when the job is done....the out come of the general election has said it all .SO LET'S GET BREXIT DONE .so we can get on with our lives.

Windtalker, I come from a long line of North Devon farmers, Exmoor farmers, without boring you much of what you have said is not correct, not one Farmer in my family have ever ploughed what they grew back into the land, the media said they did, untrue. The massive yearly grants are to some, and it's the few, mostly the real high end of the Farming world with friends in high places, and even then these massive grants as a rule come to roughly about £24,000 a year, £460 a week don't run much, again another media thing which on the whole is untrue again. I shoot on a Farmers land of about 16000 acres, years ago we spoke about this, his words were...'Oh the grants, yes I have heard about them, yet to see one though'...

Some have even said of the set a side fields making thousands of £££ for nothing, not knowing anything about Farming, and that Farmers have to give fields a rest some times, but when the public see an empty field it's always presumed that the Farmer got millions for doing nothing.

My Uncle got well and truly screwed by the EU, rules forbid him using one Farm for milking because the cows had to walk in rainwater that came of the Farmhouse slate roof, two sheep in sent to market were overweight so couldn't be sold, he wasn't allowed to pick them back up, rules said they had to be slaughtered, at his cost. Of the thousands of Farmers in the UK a very small handful have got somewhere near a grant, if they could get through the paperwork which if you didn't know was made so they would give up....Probably a shame that I know a little more about Farming then some.

‘’ if they could get through the paperwork which if you didn't know was made so they would give up’’ An interesting comment Baz.

This message was last edited by Kavanagh on 14/12/2019.