Thec ONS says āIn the year ending June 2022 long term immigration into the UK Ā was estimated at around 1.1 million . This is an estimated Ā increase of 435,000 compared Ā to the year end June 2021. (628,000).ā
The net figure after allowing for people who left the UK was 504,000. Ā This included 89,000 from Ukraine, 21,000 from Afghanistan, 35,000 illegally via small boats and 224,000 from Ā the EU.
You would have thought given these huge numbers the Remain Ā supporters would be thrilled that so many were still coming Ā from the EU and Ukraine, and business would be delighted that so many came legally on work visas. Instead both these groups complain that Ā 1.1 million is not enough and we should be making it even easier for people to come here to work.
They need to tell us how we are going to offer all these new arrivals decent housing, and set out how much all this costs established taxpayers resident here. Ā Certainly the net increase of 504,000 needs a large number of additional homes to be added to the housing stock. Arguably the 1.1 million need extra homes as the homes vacated by those leaving may not be in Ā the right places or at the right price for the incomers. The incomers tend to want cheaper housing in the hot jobs areas in London and the southeast Ā where property is dear.
I favour more realistic controls on numbers as we used to have. We are well behind on providing sufficient homes. Now the Bank of England has driven long interest rates up so much to bring the housing market down there will be a bigger shortfall in housing provision.
May 2, 2023
Good morning.
ZERO !!! We are full.
MASS IMMIGRATION does not affect those in power as they can afford to send their children to better schools, have private medical insurance and not have to travel by public transport. They can also afford better homes.
Those who call for more immigration do so because it is the cheaper to import rather than train people and pay them a decent wage. We the taxpayer have to subsidise them, especially if they bring in family whose first language is not English.
We also need to stop giving out UK Citizenship and allowing dual nationality. Work permits for only those whose skills we really need.
Mind you, this is all a bit ‘stable doors’ and ‘horse bolted’ stuff.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/04/19/boris-johnson-will-not-publicly-lecture-india-ukraine-chases/
May 2, 2023
Absolutely. +1 too many.
May 2, 2023
None.
May 2, 2023
Right answer Ian , I personally think it now should be Two out for each one in!
May 2, 2023
Well, we have the survivors of seventeen million mainly wastes-of-space who could usefully and beneficially be exchanged for almost anyone.
And who ever are the “we” in the headline?
May 2, 2023
NLH
We realise that you well off socialists hate us.
Yet you assume we will always vote for your party.
Very odd logic
But do keep up the abuse of us as it reduces the chances of useless Labour gaining power.
May 2, 2023
Mark B +1 Agree!
May 2, 2023
I agree.
May 2, 2023
Its not even a case that they’re nolonger welcome …they just don’t go home, and under international/european treaty ECHRs they can claim a right to family life and under the UN they can claim that they’ve been traffic by a criminal gang ….its time to set a frezze all work visa, student visa and refuge
May 2, 2023
Indeed. Zero. How many Doctors, hospitals and all the other ancillary needs have the Tory’s trained and supplied fore this 1.1 million people Sir John?……………Exactly. That’s why the backlog of 7 million on our former NHS just keeps growing. The 46% get nothing for their taxes and most are wondering why they are still here paying for the idle at the legacies largesse. We don’t want or need these people. Enough is enough. Your Party couldn’t run a welk stall. Make sure you campaign on what you do not what you pretend you may do at some indeterminate point in the future after more tax rises. Just go.
May 2, 2023
+many
Iām not entirely certain that this time the wealthy etc havenāt overreached themselves.
Private schools now have to take all comers.
There are no doctors to speak of. Surgeonsā¦ very few ops per month.
Ditto dentists. My dentistā¦.one day per week.
No mansion is immune to the concrete carpeting that is insanely and greedily taking place.
There have been reports of daylight crime in the BEST of areas.
Prices on everything are sky high.
The NHS ( whatās left of it) apparently believes it is rife with plague ( masks still required?)
We are in no position to āwelcomeā anyone to our shores!
May 2, 2023
+many
Dear websiteā¦I had NOT posted that before.
Basically this country is no longer fit to welcome a stray mouse.
No services. No healthcare.
No nothing.
A big nothing burger.
And the wealthy will struggle because everything has GONE!
May 2, 2023
Mark, this is what people in the Guardian feel about it “I await with interest the UK governmentās response to the Sudanese refugee crisis. Given the precedent of providing refuge for those escaping the war in Ukraine, we could reasonably expect that the same would apply to those fleeing violence in Sudan, and that British families would open their doors to them. After all, Britain has been far more closely associated with Sudan than with Ukraine, having had a history of occupation stretching back 150 years.”
And “In my view, the UK will benefit immeasurably from their presence and the skills and values they bring.” Vicky Woodcraft Trustee, Herts Welcomes Refugees
May 2, 2023
Yes, and notice that she says;
And not; “I would open my door to them.”
It is always someone else, usually lower class people, that have to bare the burden in order to alleviate the conscience of such people as, Vicky. š
May 2, 2023
That is an astonishing figure, and in my opinion, we shouldn’t āinviteā any, and those who come in without an invitation, should be swiftly deported.
I am furious, that I, as an 83 year old taxpayer, are forced to pay towards this, and I am fed up when Politicians say, we have a āmoral responsibilityā to take in half the World.
We have more than discharged our moral responsibility, and our culture and religion have been changed enough, and this should stop NOW.
May 2, 2023
+1 Cheshire Girl
May 2, 2023
I’d like to know which particular businesses are calling for more immigration, so I could boycott them.
As for public services that may have a need for specialist workers (e.g. nurses), they shouldn’t be allowed to recruit overseas unless the cost of training someone here exceeds the lifetime cost of the immigrant and their existing dependents.
May 2, 2023
it goes right to the top, Wanderer. The Confederation of British Industry has been calling for relaxed immigration rules for years. At its conference in Birmingham last November, its Director-General was still saying we need more ‘economic migration’. A quarter of a million per year or so wasn’t enough for him, apparently. Back in February 2020, the then CBI DG expressed concern that ‘the end of free movement’ thanks to Brexit would lead to labour shortages. But it looks as if, with the best part of a million migrants since then, the situation has been successfully ‘managed’. What the politicians say they want on migration doesn’t seem to matter in the real economy.
May 2, 2023
I own an electronics design and manufacturing business. Last year when we launched a recruitment drive for an electronic engineer, all but one of dozens of applicants were foreign. The businesses wanting more immigration are any that are looking to recruit, as British people don’t seem to want to work.
May 2, 2023
Dave
Maybe they do not want to work for the wages that are paid. A life on benefits, as many discovered during Lock down, is quite a nice life.
NB I did not receive any furlough payments.
May 2, 2023
Car-wash, nail polishing, cannabis farms, prostitution, begging, drug runners, barbers, mini-marts
May 2, 2023
You forgot takeaway and minicab drivers. Not a single Brit’
May 2, 2023
I wonder if someone sits down with all of these migrants to identify what skills and qualifications they are arriving with. Do we get nurses, care-workers, social workers arriving? Or people from the bottom rung of the ladder with low education and low skills.
May 2, 2023
According to the WEF the only jobs that wonāt go to AI will beā¦
Cooking!
So what on earth are they going to do with us all?
The mind boggles!
May 3, 2023
Oh, that can be fixed with food pills and a liquid diet, no cooking, or cleaning. All the sci-fi films have been given the future version of human life often enough. For your own good, of course, we wouldn’t want you getting obese, or diabetic.
May 2, 2023
Sir John
In my opinion, it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.
If we have a skills gap within our own workforce, then we should issue temporary work visas for those with the skills and qualifications we need, whilst we train our own people to eventuality do those tasks.
We should take in those in genuine peril, such as those Afghan people who acted as translators for our forces however, I do feel we don’t need any more young single Albanian male barbers.
The elephant in the room as far as I’m concerned is, as politicians sacrifice our industry sector by sector on the alter of the new false religion of net zero, I can’t see what our existing population will be doing in a decade’s time let alone all the new comers.
May 2, 2023
You are right, but to start with we need to know what is the Sustainable Population for the UK as a whole, for each UK Nation and for each County & District.
By Sustainable Population I mean the maximum population that we KNOW can be supported by available public services i.e. Water, sewerage, energy, health care, social care, public order & policing, public transport & road transport and yes – housing. In addition we should have formal Opinion Surveys to inform Government of public opinion on population, immigration and emigration all joined up with the Sustainable Population statistics. So that we KNOW for example that 100,000 increase in population in Berkshire means that we must build a new large Water reservoir near Abingdon – or not as the case may be. No reservoir – no population increase. The point is that it MUST be an informed decision based upon known facts and on honest public debate.
Population size and demographics are the most important factors affecting the future of the UK and and its future prosperity, yet decision making is half baked,
May 2, 2023
Years of excessive immigration has led to unsustainable pressure on public services. There are too many ICE cars on our roads, too much sewage, not enough water reservoirs or treatment works, not enough hospitals or doctors and far too many unproductive QUANGOs and civil servants pretending to manage it all.
Politics aside, any reasonable person would conclude that we are full up. I suggest a five year moratorium on immigration to allow pubic services to catch up, followed by a move to the Australian system. Only people with the sort of high level skills that we need should then be allowed in. NHS consultants for example
May 2, 2023
Have you ever heard of King Canute?
May 2, 2023
Sakara Gold
Too many vehicles period. The infrastructure is unable to carry peak demands which lengthen due to grid lock slowing movement.
The extra weight of the new breed of transport creates more damage to road structures and the excessive usage on tyres and braking components adds to the envionmental issues everyone is supposedly suppose to be concerned about.
May 2, 2023
The number seems to be set by those demanding entrance rather than by the gate-keepers (so called). Anywhere in the world there is a war and we end up willing or not admitting tens of thousands so any policy and planning ought to recognize that. Not that this rotten government does policy and planning beyond its open borders approach of course.
May 2, 2023
Import not ‘invite’ as you well know
The exercise to change the nature of the UK is now unstoppable and the Tories due to moral cowardice, political and personal vested interest rather than agreement are complicit
When Powell threatened to ‘rub the Tories nose in diversity’ this is what Labour meant. The use of race and immigration to corner the Tory party on race and gender issues
Tory party cowardice will destroy this country, in time
May 2, 2023
DOM
Tory party cowardice not will, has destroyed large sectors of this country already, more time will result in its total destruction. But is that not what the globalists are all about?
May 2, 2023
@ DOM – Powell was likely wrong as to target though for it is the British working class whose noses have been rubbed. The Tories seem unfazed by such diversity.
May 2, 2023
Dom But high immigration is happening in the US and most of Europe! Mostly from third world countries! It does feel like population replacement at times.
May 2, 2023
Dom Its not just Britain, high immigration is happening in the US and most of Europe! Mostly from third world countries! It does feel like population replacement at times.
May 2, 2023
…………………Tory party cowardice will destroy this country, in time………well, unless I’m mistaken……………. debt and taxes at all times high, waiting lists on the NHS again at all time highs, our children unable to gain the schools of choice as we’re overwhelmed with immigrants (highest levels ever), illegal immigrants/asylum cases at the highest levels ever and a refusal by the Government to deport any of them at Ā£7 million a day, inflation at the highest levels since the 70’s. A cost of living crisis, capitulation to the EU on everything including the Windsor Farce, paying them for nothing, fishing and EU rules left in limbo, strikes everywhere and nothing works as they’re all “working” from home and we’re paying them to, walk the dog, housework, gym, shopping etc. Oh and woke, woke, woke, minority issues of all types take precedent over absolutely everything else.
SO WHEN ARE THE TORY’S FINISHING US OFF?
May 2, 2023
1) Do not give citizenship as this involves a HUGE liability for very little benefit.
2) Only give VISAs with a maximum of 5 years and a renewable period dependent on earnings and costs to society.
3) Only give VISAs to high earning jobs who cover their costs to society. No excuses, no sneaky lobbying for sneaky undermining of British labour.
May 2, 2023
Well said Sir, we need rid, not more Javelin.
May 2, 2023
How many people should we invite into the Uk each year?
10 Tops
May 2, 2023
This weeek, the Conservative Party candidate outside of my polling station will be told that me has lost my vote because he is flooding the country with people.
May 3, 2023
But who are you going to vote for ?
Labour would only make things even worse, and not just immigration!
Reform will probably get no seats at all.
May 2, 2023
Strictly speaking we should no longer be “inviting” anyone into the country.
An invitation is not what we are talking about here. The party is over, the word is allow into the country.
Why are the people coming? Have we a shortage of skilled workers?
The Remain lobby like the CO2 lobby, and all the interest groups, mostly associated with the Globalist left, just want to alter the population balance in their favour at any cost to the citizens already in the country.
This started with the PM who lied about the need to invade another country.
The left is purely motivated by Poticial aims. No thought whatsoever for the practical impact and how to achieve without distroying the fabric of society.
There will always be emergencies requiring the UK to take people in. But under these circumstances they should not have a choice to live in central London nor other centres of over population. If they make this short of choice is it really a true emergency for them ?
May 2, 2023
It’s all well and good for Starmer to get on his housing horse because of excessive immigration but he has not got a clue in that housing construction is the easy bit. It’s all the necessary essential infrastructure required to sustain it so as not to create further problems over time.
Where are all the stand alone well paid jobs going to come from or is his plan to keep topping up benefits to pay the mortgages and rents?
Sort out the existing people problems. Stop adding to the mountains of waste that gets cast aside to further smother our social and benefits services.
May 2, 2023
As the green spaces of Southern England are disappearing, and we will soon have some dreary suburbia from coast to coast (no doubt with “Recreation and wildlife corridors” carefully managed), what about none for a while? And what about deporting the huge numbers who are currently here illegally? We have had a “Conservative” government for 13 years, and they have a substantial majority, so how could those immigration figures come to pass? We are being taken for fools.
May 2, 2023
I think one of the problems is the lack of immigration officers
I looked up how to become one and it is a very lengthy process
It seems to me that the government should have set up fast track training courses to provide more officers
Anyone coming into the UK could then be processed immediately and if not eligible for asylum could be put somewhere to be sent back . This if anything could deter them from coming
At the moment how are they assessed when they arrive? This seems to be a problem
May 2, 2023
Amazing figures which simply prove the Government had no sensible plan in the past, or has even got one for the future.
We are already an overcrowded island with all services and infrastructure stretched to breaking point, why on earth would we want any more people living here to compound the problem.
The NHS is Overwhelmed with patients, the roads are crumbling faster than they are being repaired, Water is now running low (we still have hosepipe bans in the West Country), we already need to import power and gas, and we have a housing shortage and dilapidated schools.
Has anyone done a survey on the wealth of those leaving, compared to those arriving ?
May 2, 2023
You don’t need a survey. They’re voting with their feet and investors are doing the same. It’s only family ties keeping most of us here. Why would we want to stay? More mass immigration and the destruction of our society and values? More woke left wing ideology and victimhood from all minorities rammed down our throat? It’s the 46%’s privilege to keep the reckless, feckless and idle in day time TV, fags, cars, takeaways, children and six packs??………………… CAUSE THEY DESERVE IT.
No reform of the welfare budget or reduction of the state, accept increasing rates by CPI whilst the private state workers receive………far less. All public sector “woke” from home doing their housework, puzzle games, gardening, between walking the dog, gym. Let their phone ring to answerphone as it’s those pesky employers expecting them to do something from time to time. No, the tax paying public can wait…….for hours on end…… on the phone whilst they’re……..busy……….doing nothing!!!
May 2, 2023
First of all put them in large tents in fields they should not be allowed to live in their preferred places like London or the other large cities towns urban areas so that they can ghetto themselves – as has been said before they should be dispersed to working areas like in forestry, agriculture, fishing, road works, construction the hospitality sector and where needed for at least five years. There is plenty of work it just needs to be dished out with no complaints accepted and no excuses – they will work where they are told to work – otherwise they can go to detention centres pending deportation steaightwaway to the southern part of the Sahara desert.
Secondly Sir John you should desist from asking nonsense questions of the public. You are closer to government than any of us – if you havn’t got the answers then what hope for the rest.
May 2, 2023
To answer your question, Sir John, we need a ‘Net Zero’ approach to immigration.
May 2, 2023
Our nation will need some new entrants for specific valued purposes, so setting zero is not a solution. A quota for citizenship with strict and rigorously-maintained control which allows permanent right to stay for only a few would be more effective. The many who are here illegally should be expelled.
May 3, 2023
You didn’t understand ‘Net Zero’.
May 3, 2023
SJRās question was about each year ahead. Zero does not reduce. We need to expel increasing numbers of those who are still here illegally from earlier to remedy our population. In the 1960s, the Swiss Govt even compelled businesses to reduce their foreign employees by 10% each year to preserve their identity and way of life.
May 2, 2023
I do not know what the sustainable level of immigration is for the UK. The only certain fact is that whatever it is the UK government are totally incapable of managing it. I would suggest that at this point in time the level is zero because government constantly prove themselves incapable of facilitating an infrastructure for the people already here. I am inclined to believe that government have a mental and philosophical blockage. They permit a support system not only for those who need it , but an addition up to 5.6 million who prefer it to work. I would add to these a vast tranche of scribes who are permitted to work from home with all the commuting allowances and in effect render their departments incommunicardo for the general public. Then we have 50,000 medical vacancies, but charge applicants Ā£36-100,000 to train to fill them. Nobody with a glut of cornflakes increases the price to shift them , except of course UK government. I suspect much the same applies to teachers, engineers and scientists.
Continuing the theme what sort of idiot government sits on its own ample supplies of gas, coal, and oil, but chooses to import it and subsidise windmills all at the expense of its own people and industry just so it can virtue signal.
Why do we continue to accept imports of cars and food from France when they refuse to take back illegal immigrants originating in France. Grow some cohones Sunak.
Nothing government touches works, the UK government is an affront to democracy. Winston said in effect that democracy is a flawed system but not as bad as the alternatives. While I agree with him,why do we in the UK take flawed to a new and ultimate level of incompetence.
May 2, 2023
We cannot afford to take in a net half a million a year. We live on a crowded island and cannot grow our infrastructure to accomodate these numbers. No political party is willing to build more roads, and the NHS, Housing, Social Services and Education cannot provide sufficient additional resources to cope.
The only result is that every facet of the living environment for our own people, ie voters, just gets worse every year and our taxes go up to pay the costs of local services, particularly in council tax.
Is it a surprise that voters consistently say they want net immigration reduced yet Westminster fails to deal with the problem?
May 2, 2023
If the government can’t stop these invaders, they are toast at the next election. people will vote for anyone but the Tories (or Labour).
They need to be stopped at sea by disabling their outboard motors and then inviting the French to “rescue” them.
May 2, 2023
The Saudi Arabia of wind power today generating 1.6gw.
Maybe we can use all these incomers to pedal drive the windmills on dayslike today
May 2, 2023
On current trends our population will be 85-90 million by 2050. This will make achieving Net Zero by 2050 impossible unless we start now to reduce its size.
Cement and steel produce vast quantities of CO2 and hence the building of new houses and infrastructure will be severely limited using only earth, stone and timber with reclaimable steel and glass.
Rewilding and the ban on fertilisers, coupled with the banning of flights and shipping, will severely reduce the amount of food available.
Electricity will become very expensive as renewables are profligate users of resources producing just 1 watt/Kg of cement and steel compared to fossil fuels 2000 watts/Kg and nuclear 1000 watts/Kg as well as requiring 1000 times more area dramatically increasing OPEX costs. As a result our electrified heating and transport will be severely rationed by either price and/or decree.
The Government should be taken to court over its policy of mass immigration as it is incompatible with the legally binding CCA.
May 2, 2023
How many? None, we are full. This is an absolute failure by our Government & MPs over the last 20 years. No proper planning for the resources required in every area. No thought that if you allow too many young immigrants, they marry and have more children than most UK-born parents. So one young person today, married & having four or five children, means we need another four or five houses when they grow up & need their own accommodation over the next 25 to 30 years.
But what MP of any party has the courage to say enough? It is strange that all these people want to come to the UK, but none seem to want to go to Russia, China, Turkey, Indonesia or stay at home & work to improve their own country.
May 2, 2023
I can only go to Europe for a maximum of three months a year as a tourist. I have to have my passport stamped entering and leaving. The same for many other countries, the USA included. Why are these tough rules applied elsewhere to just tourists, never mind illegal immigrants, but not applied in the UK?
May 2, 2023
Keith
Why ?
Because we have clowns in charge who do not have a clue on how to run anything efficiently, they spend Ā£billions of hard earned taxpayers money without a clue as to where it is going, or what we are actually getting for it.
Just a simple example:
Does anyone check up on simple road repairs for example, is any of this work guaranteed, does anyone make a note, and cross reference failures, timescales, lifespans etc etc.
May 2, 2023
I think you are looking at this the wrong way around. The question you need to ask is how many British tax payers get taken out the system for each migrant.
If an uneducated migrant needs to be housed and paid benefits then you need to work out how many British tax payers are needed to support them.
So for example a migrant costing Ā£25,000 a year in benefits will take 5 average tax payers (Ā£5500 each) out of tax system. With 200,000 of these migrants you will take out 1 million tax payers. 1 million of these migrants will take out 5 million tax payers.
There are only 25 million tax payers.
You soon realise migrants who canāt support themselves will very quickly eat up all the tax and the economy will sink under their weight.
May 2, 2023
Can we have an analysis of the numbers who left.
Sir John doesn’t seem to oppose many incomers, just that it’s poorly organised.
Reply I have consistently argued for fewer.
May 2, 2023
These numbers are not sustainable – OBVIOUSLY.
Anybody that demands more should be identified, and charged, with trying to harm the UK by treacherous means.
Let’s bring the figure close to zero by making life intolerable for those that our pathetic legal system allows in – Put them on a remote Scottish island and have them build their own homes.
May 2, 2023
We should invite in 1,000,000 less than leave each year. There are too many people in the UK. Mind you government and Big Pharma are doing their best to reduce the number.
May 2, 2023
As it is Sue Gray Day today, I do hope several MPs will ask Marcus Fysh’s aborted question on the part she played in foisting the NIP on us [and by extension the Windsor Framework].
May 2, 2023
Sir John
Until the vast majority your fellow members of the House of Westminster stop applying sticking plaster policies as solutions to the many problems facing this country we are stuck on the road to nowhere.
We cannot go on being open to every man and his family, it is little consulation wether they are a refugee, immigrant or economic migrants as they all demand the same taxpayers investment and all we do is add more and more to the ever growing lists for assistance.
Start by sorting out the embarrassing attempts that fail on a fairly regular basis by saying ” No more until we solve our existing problems ”
All our protesters bang on about extinction and the like, why don’t they stop and protest against all these extra people that place even more unachievable demands on achieving draconian NZ targets.
May 2, 2023
“224,000 from the EU”
And that is on top of six and a half million EU citizens signing up for permanent residence here after Brexit. Yet still the remainiacs complain all the EU people have been driven out by the toxic Brexiteers.
May 2, 2023
Can you tell us how much the UN, International governmental bodies have allocated to us to take?
Then can you tell us which populations are declining in the UK and why, e.g. populations expected to drop in Scotland, Glasgow, and Dundee, and population declines in the NW, Stoke, Blackburn, and Blackpool is it through lack of work and decent pay opportunities, 50% of children going to universities outside these areas and not going back? Are there nursing vacancies at the University Hospital of Stoke? How many? How many places have your government opened up on the local training course? Isn’t it time to change the training regime back onto wards with day-release five-year courses whilst earning 5 grade 4 or 5 GCSEs to get on the course, including maths and science before we steal away nurses from other Countries who may not get the same level of training as is expected from a UK nurse?
May 2, 2023
We need urgently to halt any more settlements into the UK from overseas.
It ends up making everyone less happy.
It’s a terrible thing to do to a society.
May 2, 2023
The answer is ” none “. I have no sympathy whatsoever for ” illegals “; get rid of them asap . As for particular skills – such as those who can add substantially to the economy ( viz – certain skills from Hong Kong ) – OK but with careful scrutiny beforehand . We are overcrowded and bust – this describes our present situation .
May 2, 2023
If we are struggling with public services and a housing shortage now then how can more people make that better? What is so difficult about only inviting those that will be of REAL use to this country? Other countries do it so why not us? Instead we invite all and sundry even when we know they have links to criminal gangs and terrorist organisations. Then we give them legal aid to fight their asylum claims. We moan about crime going up but then take criminals in. Is there anything this government and indeed the other useless parties can get right? I ask the same question as yesterday? Why should I vote Tory?
May 2, 2023
There is no “we” in the Governments action or inaction. I have no choice or means to change other than reducing by every legal their tax take. They are wholly responsible for their mess. No one else can be blamed after 13 year’s. JUST THE USELESS TORY’s. A Pretendy conservative Government.
May 2, 2023
Sir John,
Nearly a quarter of a million from the EU! That can’t be right. We were warned that a vote to leave would mean a mass exodus of EU citizens. There would be no one to serve coffee.
It is inconceivable that anyone would willingly leave the EU Garden of Eden for the racist, xenophobic, lawless and impoverished hellhole that is the United Kingdom. Either the ONS figures are wrong, or we were lied to.
I also find it curious that NHS doctors and nurses, even if only residents, would rather be flown out of Sudan than stay and offer their medical skills to those in need.
May 2, 2023
For a start we could go back to building housing the way it was done in the 50s, 60s and 70s when far more houses were built per year than has been the case in more recent decades.
To all those of you who think that a net immigration figure of zero is the right answer, I’d like to ask you how, with an ever increasing pension age population, how you will grow the working age, tax paying population at a similar rate in order to fund things like triple locked pensions and health care, especially when the current birth rate in the UK is well below replacement value? A static overall population with an increasing pension age population by definition means a reducing working age population.
I’d also like you to consider this in a context where the current generation of working age graduates are already being taxed at more than double the rate of pensionsers. (Working age graduate: 20% income tax plus 12% NI plus 9% student loan = 41%, Pensioner: 20% income tax only = 20%).
May 2, 2023
One way to encourage the younger generation to settle down and have children is to avoid increasing the population to such an extent that they cannot find anywhere to live and are still with their parents in their thirties. You must be aware too that council housing is allocated on need and in that competition the foreigner always wins. This has been going on since the sixties which is why most native Londoners have been driven out of the capital. The same is happening in the other English cities.
May 2, 2023
To solve the pension problem I would look at public sector pensions and go from there.
May 2, 2023
Re your 2nd paragraph Peter, immigrants get older too.
Your argument reveals that mass immigration is a kind of Ponzi scheme.
May 2, 2023
If we weren’t supporting half the third world that arrive here with not a 1p in their pockets, Peter, we’d have more money to make as one example: childcare available to British women so that they can improve their lot and enable them to have two or more children.
To sort out pensions I’d look at public sector workers unsustainable pensions first and not attack people that have actually fully paid in for over 40 years. You’ve already moved our retirement age up 7 years. A backlash is coming if much more burden is placed only on the private sector. We’ve had enough of Blair/Brown’s little twists and steals.
May 2, 2023
Also, your 9% graduate tax only applies to first degrees in England Peter. Your Blair and Brown gifted that education tax free to their supporters in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland!
Only 15% of my generation went to university, the vast majority of the rest of us were earning our own keep from the age of 16 when we left school, not 18 like our current teenagers are kept as children.
That pensioner now was lied to, we were told compulsory national insurance contributions employer and employee contributions would allow us to retire at 60, that has been put up to 67 don’t say we aren’t paying the price. National insurance used to end at 60 now its still paid up to 67 plus the loss of pension. Too many of my relatives and friends die before they’re 70 after having a hard life working so didn’t give me your age discrimination bull.
May 2, 2023
Sir John,
I think we should have say a 5-10 year moritorium on new arrivals. That would give us some breathing room to sort out some of the issues associated with immigration. Perhaps too it would allow us to find ways to get thousands off benefits and into the workforce. I worked for 49 years after I graduated from university and I earned a decent pension , I do have problems paying for healthy, able people to sit at home collecting benefits because they feel it is their G-d given right. There needs to be training schools set up for them to get them out into the workplace. The unemployed need more help too. In the USA, enemployment benefits are taxed and can only be accessed for a specific number of weeks, Perhaps if benefits here were also taxed it wouldnt make them so attractive to the work shy.
May 2, 2023
Same in Spain Judith. Benefits are only given for a few months. Oh, I’ve just had a thought. Perhaps this is why we are experiencing an invasion.
May 2, 2023
NONE! Those who have a right to return because they are native donāt need an invitation, they have a right.
May 2, 2023
It’s useful when considering a net immigration figure like 500,000 to find out the population of familiar towns nearby.āI’ve one of 20,000 and another of 50,000.āI can imagine ten times that larger town far more easily than 500,000 people.āThose arguing against the high net immigration should use human-scale figures with the public.
May 2, 2023
The Government needs high monetary inflation to erode the high government debt.āIt does not want high consumer-price inflation as it alerts the masses that monetary inflation is robbing them and increasing the wealth gap.āCompetition on wages from high net immigration helps.āGordon Brown was the first to use this at scale.āIt has been Treasury policy since.
May 2, 2023
None
May 2, 2023
I will dare to advise most who contribute here to seriously consider life in Spain and other countries bordering the Med, leaving this unmanaged dump to the likes of NLH.
I know from experience that the climate offers a much healthier lifestyle. The variety and abundance of fresh food can only be imagined in junk food UK. Most services are much cheaper, rates, car tax, car insurance for sure. The medical service is excellent, rapidly responsive and remained face to face throughout Covid. When it was thought I had it, my GP phoned me daily to check on my state of health. Then there are the police, local, national, and Guardia Civil. All instantly available and daily visible. Most look sufficiently fit to deter. All crime is responded to. Last but not least are the Spanish people, totally ignorant of woke, aware of what sex they are, and very friendly, particularly if you try to speak their language, and foregiving when you mangle it . They have an awareness of quality of life. It means that everything that has been stripped out of life in the UK is daily available as a norm.
Lest anyone asks, I am only back due to family committments, minus which I would be back PDQ.
May 2, 2023
Agricola. I agree with your post about Spain. Yes, it’s a nice lifestyle and most things are cheaper. Yes, the sun shines most days. In my experience people live there until they get to an age where their health is starting to fail and then they sell up ( if the market allows) and come back to good old Blighty for the NHS and care homes. Everyone we knew out in Spain when we were there for 5 years has come home. I do wonder though if the NHS will be worth coming back for soon though. For those who think I’m a hypocrite for speaking against immigrants coming here we paid our own way completely and much husband started a business there. We did not rely on tax payers to fund us and we committed no crimes
May 2, 2023
Most of the general public are not aware of the huge numbers of legal immigration as the generally left wing broadcasters are careful to hide it from them. They concentrate almost exclusively on the channel boats which are only a small element of the total. Although about half of those issued temporary visas (500K) go home they still need somewhere to live whilst here as well as putting a strain on public services – water, sewage, transport etc. Conservative MPs could have done a great deal more to highlight these figures and thus put pressure on the Government to lower them and pointed out that they are not strengthening the infrastructure to cope . One reason we import skilled workers is because our education system simply does not produce enough – a bit sniffy about trade, engineering etc.!
May 2, 2023
I would cap the number coming to stay permanently at the exact same number as the number of Brits leaving permanently.
I would make it far far harder to move from a temporary visa to indefinite leave to remain here or British passport.
I would tax all foreigners at least as much national insurance, employers and employees, as locals pay. Unlike now where they get to work 12 months without paying any.
I would make tax allowance pro rata with the amount of the tax year you are actually in this country.
I would be forcing anyone coming with pre existing medical conditions to fund their own care, or have medical insurance to cover it. If they cannot afford it dont let them in. Including stuff where the NHS has a near monopoly of care provision in this country.
I would make any family without indefinite leave to remain or British passports pay for their own families school places. The numbers of people I know here on work visas with large numbers of children taking expensive places at state schools is ridiculous. Especially in an environment when many local families cannot get places in the half decent schools.
I would go on an active effort to make it at least as hard for a foreign national to get a visa here, as a Brit would find it hard to get a similar visa in their home country. We give far too many work visas to nationals from countries where its far harder for the Brit to get a work visa to their country.
Given the recent excesses of letting massive numbers of people in though, I would start with a complete ban on new arrivals for 12 months while we reinvented the system.
Just start capsizing the small boats coming from France, a little tough love would soon stop them coming.
May 2, 2023
To say we should invite none is a tempting but fatuous answer that will not solve the problem.
The long term solution is to reduce the cost of each immigrant to the taxpayer to nil. No one arriving here should be in receipt of Ā£1 of net taxpayer funds, if you can’t pay for yourself you can’t come. That includes, school health housing and infrastructure.
Genuine refugees should be paid for by charity not government.
May 2, 2023
NS, isn’t it time we actually got to the bottom of all the statistics bandied around? We are told by positivemoney.org that ethnic minorities are a 1/4 less likely to own their own homes, but how many of these arrived on our shores with nothing? How many are second generation whose parents arrived here with nothing? My family spent generations in the UK before the first of us could buy our own home.
They could do as we did and move out of Cities; the family moved out of Liverpool and Manchester to areas they could afford. We are being served statistics to suit.
May 2, 2023
Quite a-tracy. The report that said there is not systemic racism in the UK was correct. There is just social history and time spent.
If they don’t come here rich then they aren’t likely to be rich within a generation or two just like you or I.
May 2, 2023
FAR TOO MANY FOREIGNERS TAKING OVER OUR COUNTRY. I SAY PUT A STOP TO ALL IMMIGRATION. WE’RE FULL UP!!!! PLEASE DON’T LISTEN TO THE VIRTUAL SIGNALLERS CALLING FOR US TO INVITE MILLIONS OF SUDENESE TO JOIN US TOO. PLEASE TAKE CONTROL OF OUR BORDERS. THAT’S WHAT WE VOTED FOR WHEN WE VOTED TO LEAVE THE E.U.
May 2, 2023
You don’t need to shout Viv, I can see you are new here, but we listen to everyone’s point of view. There is such a thing as the European Courts of Human Rights that Britain is signed up to. A majority of those polled recently said they wish to keep the ECHR rules, those rules bind our hands.
May 2, 2023
There is a tweet today from the European Movement West London that says “A majority of Brits want to stay in the ECHR a poll has found”. They say the results are an embarrassment for The Sun, the eurosceptic newspaper that commissioned the survey.
It goes on:
“The Conservative Party have threatened to pull the UK out of the ECHR as it has obstructed their highly controversial crackdown on migration”
YouGov on behalf of The Sun
53% remain in the ECHR, 27% leave.
Tory voters 28% remain, 55% leave.
3,000 adults. 3x the size of most opinion polls.
Euronews.com
May 2, 2023
“How many people should we invite into the Uk each year?”
When did you ‘invite’, and when did you send out the invitations?
When did your party put this invitation into its manifesto ?
Was this ‘invitation’ in the manifesto of the administration that Boris Johnson headed.
You are not even ‘inviting’ migrants, they are just sailing in, by dinghy!
May 2, 2023
Nations develop their distinctive qualities from many of their citizens gradually growing on their land together over centuries. People become more alike over time. Some villagers in Africa live simple lives together, maintaining high quality standards locally, even in mud huts. They live as a community in harmony and happiness.
Now imagine 100 Londoners & Brummies turning up to stay in caravans, eating bacon butties, unscrewing thermos flasks in public and bopping to loud rock nā roll and country music. Local quality of life would be reduced. That sudden change is similar to what is happening in the UK. Difference is interesting in moderation, but the change has been far too much and far too fast for far too long.
May 2, 2023
Home Office ā 01 May 2023
Illegal Immigrants ā 246
Boats ā 6
ā¦and thatās only in small boats that we know about !
May 2, 2023
Sir John, are the hundreds of thousands of people who LEFT the UK fed up Brits who no longer see a future in their own country for themselves and their children? If so, who could possibly blame them.
In answer to your question today. Absolutely none. The UK is full to overflowing. Every last one arriving illegally should be deported immediatley. Or is that ‘racist’?
May 2, 2023
UK should take a leaf from Singapore’s immigration policy.
Also their compulsory provident fund (CPF).
May 2, 2023
Talking about valuable HoC time, this afternoon our United Nations wannabe MPs debated the Sudan refuges followed later by another debate on Bangladesh refuges ā¦.we donāt have an empire anymore, I wish that our MPs would concentrate on UK people
May 2, 2023
It is always those who pour most scorn and derision on the Empire who want us to rush and sort out any problem in the world, and then take in anyone who fancies living in London.
May 2, 2023
If this government does not know the answer to todayās question then we should despair. More individuals reported to be on the run as of last week from a detention / removal centre. 1000s in the queues in France waiting to cross. (246 / 6 boats yesterday ) French personnel attacked & injured, in the past and also as reported just during this last week. Past talk of pushbacks, jet skis, offshoring, ships, barges, ex-military property, use of private boat charter to bring people in, with crew support ( as reported Aug 2022 ) A similar scheme as for the Ukrainians mooted at some point; an invitation to us to offer to house other Asylum Seekers. And as we are seeing in the media, an Albanian President mocking our countryās ānervous breakdown over migrantsā when on the same day am reading a report of an Albanian mother & two teenage children very unhappy in an allocated hotel, specifically in East Devon, here since last September 2022, citing no kitchen & poor food which the children refuse to eat. Not wishing to single out Albania in particular but what about Albaniaās hundreds of millions of EU funding not least from its Neighbourhood & Enlargement fund. Albania is according to the EUās 2022 report making good progress in all sorts of areas in preparation for EU accession. How did that help this mother & family and no doubt many like her. This lady needs the help of her government.
Hotels filled throughout the country with violent and worrying events often reported. We have villages being swallowed up by larger towns. Groups of campaigning residents at wits end trying to protect their own areas from mass, unsuitable & unsustainable housing developments, with minimal if any proposed infrastructure. Legal actions, judicial reviews, just trying to protect their/our countryside, environment and places they, and those generations before them, hold & held precious. Desperate searches for properties to house people invited in including we were told, hundreds of 4 & 5 bedroom properties needed for the larger families. At what and whose expense? Insufficient water. Inadequate sewerage management. Inadequate GP and hospital provision. Destruction of heritage – eg: RAF Scampton & the trashing of a Ā£300m investment possibility for that areaās residents ā no levelling up for them or any contribution to our tourism sector which it represented. In addition to daily millions hotel costs, Rwanda funding, French funding, Albania funding & who knows what else, the bills mount for food provision on arrival, the cost of Aspen Cards, cost of coaching, BF fuel costs, taxis, hospital, medical, dental services, interpreters, mobile phones, the Ā£billion contracts to external providers, the cost of Legal Aid. This ongoing shambolic and absurd situation serves no one.
May 2, 2023
Getting the balance right is a huge problem, especially in the SE. Look at the many problem states around the world, some of which were relatively benignly ruled by Britain in the past ( speaking, which was to our credit as a nation. Yes, things are now very difficult, and they are complicated, for sure. But within reason, I believe it’s still possible to do our best to help, and we should not rubbish what has been achieved, admittedly at some cost. I’d rather live in a broadly compassionate country than a hard-nosed, mean-spirited one.
PS: In rural areas, the farms have resorted to huge numbers of immigrants, as home-grown workers are conspicuously scarce – something to do with education – (naturally) wanting clean hands and large pay-packets. Sorry, it isn’t a perfect world!
May 2, 2023
How many more should we invite in? stupid question
Because obvious follow up question is – if they are invited in where will they all be living in say five to ten years time – and what will they be doing and working at? all all of this needs to be mapped out planned for but just like we failed to map out any preparation for brexit I don’t hold up much hope
May 3, 2023
over a thousand (1,000) just this past week
May 2, 2023
How many to invite? None. How many to let illegals stay? None.
May 2, 2023
The people have been shouting about this for twenty years ….and every year it gets worse
May 2, 2023
And I promise that we will get immigration down to the tens of thousands.
That would be 100 times ten thousand. The Tory Party eh? The party of mass, mass, mass immigration on steroids. Keep voting em in.
May 2, 2023
Just out of interest and in case the Home Secretary ponders afresh, is it known how many of the half million or so share our values?
May 2, 2023
So the ex Directress General of Propriety and Ethics has slithered away. Her friends in the media have been busy telling us she let Boris off lightly with her damp squib of a report. Of course she did. There was nothing to report other than the antics of her own subordinate civil servants in the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove’s department, not the PM’s.
The killer blow was to bring in the Met who were in a hole and needed to “find” something in order to curry favour with the media mob who were after them as much as after Boris. They did indeed manage to “find” something, a stand up sandwich lunch in the Cabinet Room in the middle of a busy working day. They managed to bag both the PM and the Chancellor but for some mysterious reason it hasn’t done the Chancellor any harm.