I could be wrong, as I haven't actually been to Britain for many years, but aren't many of the public services now largely manned by those very immigrants you blame for putting a strain on them?

The indigenous population sit at home complaining of depression or a sore back while immigrants do all the work.

Claiming a grand a month in disability benefits of course....rent paid...bills paid.

Thanks very much!

I'm on disability and even in the UK I would NOT get my rent or bills paid as officially I live with my sister. If I did live in the UK then I would have to find my own place which would indeed be paid for up to a certain level depending on location. In London, where I am from I could get 100 quid a week which wouldn't get me sod all and in Liverpool I could get 60 odd which would be better in a way but certainly not in an area I would be willing to live. With any of the above I would not get my bills paid.

It's cheaper for me to live over here and pay for everything myself including rent than it would be for me to return to the UK with the taxpayer paying the rent. I have only EVER claimed what I need to live since I became a T12 paraplegic and I am sick to the back teeth of the government and people (via media sensationalism) calling me a scrounger. For the last 6 years I have had to keep threatening legal action against the government at which point they back down. So far this year they have decided to dock me 120 quid a month because I 'must' be getting better! By the time I return (end of June) they will most likely have backed down again but this time there is one difference, one HUGE difference, this time I will press charges regardless of the knowledge it will cost the UK tax payer in the end.

UKIP is doing so well because of their anti EU stance which I agree with fully. It's so long ago that I cannot now remember the date (7-8 years?) when the NET cost of being a member of the EU club passed 1TGBP. The UK went cap in hand to the EU in the 70's and they helped us. What level of debt does the UK owe for this action? Does not 1T GBP cover it? Perhaps, perhaps, Australia and New Zealand who we shafted big time will welcome us back seeing that we always pay off our debt?

Not flying at you notmyself....nor at my cousin who has MS.

I am raging at the wasters with no disease at all....simply bad lifestyle choices who are now claiming same as you and giving the benefit system nothing but bad news.

Now that I am back in the UK I have claimed my house back from the tenant.

When I went abroad in 1999 after my divorce I owed a whole new mortgage, having used the money to settle my divorce commitments. I left instructions with the agent to let the house to business couples - no DHSS, no smokers, kids discouraged. This went well for several years, but then the agent let to a single mother without telling me. This woman has three children and her rent (£750 pcm) was paid by the local council. The government gave her various regular benefits, such as child allowance, carer's allowance or something similar, furniture allowanc on a one-off basis, etc., etc. When I came home it cost me a couple of grand to evict her as she ignored my contractual two months notice (on advice from the council). Apart from the repairs, insurances, taxes, water bills and so on that I paid while she was living in the house (approx. £200 pcm) and the agent's fees (£ 150 pcm), it has cost me £22,000 so far to put the house back in reasonable condition. Luckily I can afford all this.

But my point is that this woman was receiving at least a thousand pounds a month in benefits, plus she often had men living with her (according to the neighbours) who, I assume, would contribute to her expenses. There was absolutely no incentive for her to change her way of life and look for work, as minimum-wage jobs would mean a reduction in her income. The British nanny state has spawned a couple of generations of people who have never worked and the climate I was brought up in has completely disappeared.

The current commentary from those who look for solutions is that the UK should bring back manufacturing jobs from the low-cost / low-wage countries and reduce the benefit culture. This will also entail leaving the EU with all it's regulations regarding employment, health and safety, benefits, carbon and other emissions. It's not just UKIP now that wants us out of the EU, people such as Nigel Lawson, previously a Europhile, are now publicly saying that it is costing the UK a lot of money.

Two points, HB.

Firstly, if the letting agent let your house to this woman against your, presumably written, instructions; can you not sue them for breach of contract?

Secondly, the amount of benefits she received would have been based upon her being a single mother living alone. If she did have men living with her then she should have told whoever she was receiving benefits from and the amount would have been reduced accordingly. That she didn't is benefit fraud; shame none of the neighbours were public spirited enough to report her.

Agreement by whom? Readers of the Daily Mail and similar?

The myth of immigrants flooding into the UK and receiving benefits is just that; a myth.

The fact is that immigrants to the UK who are subject to immigration control, i.e. do not have ILR or the equivalent, whether entering via the PBS, family migration or any other route covered by the immigration rules, cannot claim most public funds until they have ILR.

The only real exceptions to this are public funds based on NI contributions, where if the immigrant has paid sufficient contributions and meets the other requirements for the benefit concerned, then they can claim and receive it.

See Public Funds and this pdf file.

As can be seen from the pdf document, the UK does have bilateral agreements with some non EEA countries which allows nationals of those countries living in the UK to claim some public funds, and vice versa.

EEA regulations means that the situation is different for EEA nationals exercising their treaty rights to live in the UK; as it is for UK nationals doing the same in another EEA state.

Basically, they are able to claim most, but not all, public funds, contributory and non contributory, without losing their right of residence as long as they do not become an unreasonable burden upon the state. See this pdf document.

So, immigrants claiming public funds is not an obvious problem.

The problem is the myth put about by the right wing press and those who desire to stir up anti immigrant sentiments.

What would I do? Every time anyone broadcasts this myth, I'd publicise the facts to prove them wrong.

The guardian are just as capable of selective disclosure and sugar coating their chosen agenda as any right wing paper. However people's concerns can't be conjured out of thin air just because Mr Farrage makes a speech or the Mail (ignite straw man) publish an article about immigration. A survey published Jan 2013 cited immigration as the biggest cause of division in the UK, which was even so reported in the Guardian. But seeing as you chose to bring up the Daily Mail, here's Melanie.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2320940/MELANIE-PHILLIPS-Too-immigrants-today-expect-Britain-adopt-THEIR-culture.html

Ah yes, a survey.

Get the results you want by asking the people most likely to give you the answers you want.

Plus, of course, ask the right questions!

Melanie Phillips?

An Islamaphobic, homophobic extreme right wing columnist who called the organisation Independent Jewish Voices "Jews for genocide" because they criticise the Israeli government's policies (Phillips is, herself, Jewish).

Hardly a shining example of unbiased reporting!

Here is the web address for today's blog in 'Open Europe' a consultancy that puts the emphasis on Europe as a trading zone, rather than a federal entity ruled from Brussels.

http://www.openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/going-global-germany-is-shifting-trade.html

Please read, as it supports a lot of what I have been posting with regard to Europe and Germany.

Expand the mind !!

The latest idiocy from Brussels -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10064787/EU-to-ban-olive-oil-jugs-from-restaurants.html

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables - The small glass jugs filled with green or gold coloured extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week

The latest idiocy from Brussels -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10064787/EU-to-ban-olive-oil-jugs-from-restaurants.html

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables - The small glass jugs filled with green or gold coloured extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week

Government gone mad. Absolutely ridiculous.

The latest idiocy from Brussels -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10064787/EU-to-ban-olive-oil-jugs-from-restaurants.html

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables - The small glass jugs filled with green or gold coloured extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week

Government gone mad. Absolutely ridiculous.

You mean we're paying people to make decisions like that? (And think of all the papers written and committees held first) Out of Europe by the next plane (the Eurotunnel may not be working).

Yup.

So now you can - all across Europe - have your salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar in a nice matching set of condiment holders, but the olive oil will come in a large plastic bottle with a lockable lid on it.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I wonder if this is true or yet another Euro myth like straight bananas!

"But," I hear you say, "that's an EU information page, so they would say that, wouldn't they!"

Well, here's similar from the BBC in 2007.

So, whether or not this olive oil thing is true or another myth; we'll have to wait and see; I suspect that it's a myth.

I wonder if this is true or yet another Euro myth like straight bananas!

"But," I hear you say, "that's an EU information page, so they would say that, wouldn't they!"

Well, here's similar from the BBC in 2007.

So, whether or not this olive oil thing is true or another myth; we'll have to wait and see; I suspect that it's a myth.

If you had read the article on the posted link, you would have seen this extract :

The European Commissions justification for the ban, under special Common Agriculture Policy regulations, is "hygiene" and to protect the "image of olive oil" with a measure that will benefit struggling industrial producers in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal.

From the beginning of next year, Britain, which abstained during a vote of national food experts on the issues on Tuesday, must enforce the ban via local authority food inspections of restaurants.

Officials defended the ban as a protection for consumers who would know that they were getting a safe, guaranteed product with proper labelling of its origin and with tamper-proof, hygienic dispensers.

"This is to guarantee the quality and authenticity of the olive oil put at the disposal of consumers. The aim is to better inform and protect consumer. We also expect hygiene to be improved too," said an official.

This was not one of the Telegraph blog-spots, where people post their own ideas of what is wrong with the world, but a news report from Brussels, complete with background and (poorly researched) quotes from interested parties.

It is part of the lunacy that is the European Union. Can we please get back to the Common Market - scrap Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties. Remember that the French electorate voted against the Lisbon Treaty, but their government signed it in spite of the wishes of the majority of the population. This is the sort of thing that politicians are doing all over Europe to their citizenry, so there's got to be a lot of sweteners in the mix somewhere.

(This last bit is my view of what's wrong with the world)

Remember that the French electorate voted against the Lisbon Treaty, but their government signed it in spite of the wishes of the majority of the population.

Not true. A dozen or so words were changed from the 60,000 word document which NL also rejected but the change was enough for it to be deemed as not needing a vote on it.

Remember that the French electorate voted against the Lisbon Treaty, but their government signed it in spite of the wishes of the majority of the population.

Not true. A dozen or so words were changed from the 60,000 word document which NL also rejected but the change was enough for it to be deemed as not needing a vote on it.

Precisely. The Treaty was rejected by the electorate, but the politicians found a way to igmore the wishes of the people.

This is what the bureaucrats who run the EU want. They are not elected, they answer to no one. They formulate rules and regulations without any approval from the people, in many cases without even the approval of the European Parliament. (And who can name their local MEP amd the party affiliations?)

HB, the initial media reports of all the Euro myths contained wording similar to that you quoted from the Telegraph, yet turned out to be just that; myths.

After extensive research I have found many news reports about this supposed olive oil ruling; but nothing official from any EU department. Not even a quote from a named source!

Until I see such an official announcement, or even a reference to it, I shall continue to have my doubts about the veracity of these reports

Hmmm, Huffpo think they are onto something here. I would be interested to know whether, if true, it turns out to be a net loser or gainer of votes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/05/19/ukip-councillors-racist-comments_n_3301138.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

A Ukip councillor is alleged to have described "illegal immigrants" as "sandal-wearing, bomb-making, camel-riding, goat-f******, ragheads".

The comments were posted on the Facebook page of Chris Pain, the Ukip leader of Lincolnshire Council and East Midlands regional chairman.

Pain is one of a number of Ukip councillors exposed by a Sunday Mirror investigation as appearing to make racist commentsonline.

One called US president Barack Obama a "closet Imam" and another said there were "too many Muslims" in the UK.

Several of my old friends with whom I keep in touch are delighted at Farage being (metaphorically) hounded out of Edinburgh by a baying mob.

http://scotspolitics.com/uncategorized1/edinburgh-welcomes-ukip

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailymash.co.uk%2Fpolitics%2Fpolitics-headlines%2Ffarage-attacked-by-scottish-farage-2013051769143%3Ffb_action_ids%3D451275211626308%26fb_action_types%3Dog.likes%26fb_source%3Dother_multiline%26action_object_map%3D%257B%2522451275211626308%2522%253A157874054386509%257D%26action_type_map%3D%257B%2522451275211626308%2522%253A%2522og.likes%2522%257D%26action_ref_map%3D%255B%255D&h=KAQEgtqpF

SC

Several of my old friends with whom I keep in touch are delighted at Farage being (metaphorically) hounded out of Edinburgh by a baying mob.

http://scotspolitics.com/uncategorized1/edinburgh-welcomes-ukip

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailymash.co.uk%2Fpolitics%2Fpolitics-headlines%2Ffarage-attacked-by-scottish-farage-2013051769143%3Ffb_action_ids%3D451275211626308%26fb_action_types%3Dog.likes%26fb_source%3Dother_multiline%26action_object_map%3D%257B%2522451275211626308%2522%253A157874054386509%257D%26action_type_map%3D%257B%2522451275211626308%2522%253A%2522og.likes%2522%257D%26action_ref_map%3D%255B%255D&h=KAQEgtqpF

SC

It's won him a lot of support in England.

Seeing a howling mob of Scots Nats attacking an Englishman raises memories of Bannockburn.

(Bannockburn - similar to the oat cakes King Alfred burnt a thousand years earlier - stirs the pride of being English and thus not a Premier League football manager)

Several of my old friends with whom I keep in touch are delighted at Farage being (metaphorically) hounded out of Edinburgh by a baying mob.

http://scotspolitics.com/uncategorized1/edinburgh-welcomes-ukip

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailymash.co.uk%2Fpolitics%2Fpolitics-headlines%2Ffarage-attacked-by-scottish-farage-2013051769143%3Ffb_action_ids%3D451275211626308%26fb_action_types%3Dog.likes%26fb_source%3Dother_multiline%26action_object_map%3D%257B%2522451275211626308%2522%253A157874054386509%257D%26action_type_map%3D%257B%2522451275211626308%2522%253A%2522og.likes%2522%257D%26action_ref_map%3D%255B%255D&h=KAQEgtqpF

SC

I see the left openly admits to using violence and intimidation, which they wear as if it's a badge of honour.

Here's more on the hard left organization known as Unite Against (sic) Fascism, causing Nigel Farage to be given police protection, this time in Sussex. UAF are the anti free speech totalitarians that oppose the EDL, but routinely cause more violence. The Woolwich murderer Michael Adebalojo was filmed making a hate speech at a UAF rally back in 2009. There is an Orwellian inversion as to who the true totalitarians are in the UK today.

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3710/anti_ukip_protestors_disrupt_another_farage_event_this_time_in_sussex

Several of my old friends with whom I keep in touch are delighted at Farage being (metaphorically) hounded out of Edinburgh by a baying mob.

http://scotspolitics.com/uncategorized1/edinburgh-welcomes-ukip

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailymash.co.uk%2Fpolitics%2Fpolitics-headlines%2Ffarage-attacked-by-scottish-farage-2013051769143%3Ffb_action_ids%3D451275211626308%26fb_action_types%3Dog.likes%26fb_source%3Dother_multiline%26action_object_map%3D%257B%2522451275211626308%2522%253A157874054386509%257D%26action_type_map%3D%257B%2522451275211626308%2522%253A%2522og.likes%2522%257D%26action_ref_map%3D%255B%255D&h=KAQEgtqpF

SC

I see the left openly admits to using violence and intimidation, which they wear as if it's a badge of honour.

Extreme left and right groups routinely use violence and intimidation. Remember what the Unions were like before Maggie got them under some sort of control?

Here is an article which may be of interest. The author is British born of Pakistani roots, he is normally a commentator on financial markets, and a damn good one at that, however large sections of his latest article touches on both UKIP and the disaster inflicted on us by multiculturalism. I agree with most of his thoughts, save to say I think that immigrants from Muslim Countries are the most problematic due to a clear alien ideology which opposes western culture. That said quite interesting and due to his roots it is more difficult to tar him as a racist/xenophobe/bigot etc etc

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article40717.html#comment213231

In the recent May 2013 local elections support for UKIP soared to more than 25%, over taking the Liberal Democrats as the third party of protest as the major parties haemorrhaged voters due to their respective failures to address a crisis that has been fermenting over a near decade that has its roots in Labours open door policy to immigration from all new eastern european accession states, especially as many in Britain now fear another re-run of what followed the likes of Poland joining the EU near a decade ago as Bulgaria and Romania joining will likely see as many as 400,000 migrants over the next 3-4 years which is set against official expectations of just 13,000 new arrivals during 2014 (Communities Department).

"Britian could learn a lot from Singapore in fostering of a British identity and secular elements such as banning of religous symbols such as headscarves in schools which is how it is in Singapore.

The facts are that immigrant communities in the UK do not integrate as a consquence of multiculturalism you see this in virtually EVERY immigrant community, name any community arriving during the past 50 years and I will list their isolationist ghetto's, Muslim, sikh, hindu, even east european christians,becasue the system does not foster integration but supports seperation."

This is a comment by the same author appended to the article.

It can be done. It has been done, under the guidance of Lee Kuan Yew, once better known as Harry Lee, who now rejoices in the title of Minister Mentor. Obviously Britain faces problems far different from Singapore's, but it can only tackle those problems by facing them head on as Singapore did.

"Britian could learn a lot from Singapore in fostering of a British identity and secular elements such as banning of religous symbols such as headscarves in schools which is how it is in Singapore.

The facts are that immigrant communities in the UK do not integrate as a consquence of multiculturalism you see this in virtually EVERY immigrant community, name any community arriving during the past 50 years and I will list their isolationist ghetto's, Muslim, sikh, hindu, even east european christians,becasue the system does not foster integration but supports seperation."

This is a comment by the same author appended to the article.

It can be done. It has been done, under the guidance of Lee Kuan Yew, once better known as Harry Lee, who now rejoices in the title of Minister Mentor. Obviously Britain faces problems far different from Singapore's, but it can only tackle those problems by facing them head on as Singapore did.

Some people resent the racist gerrymandering in Singapore, but the harsh application of libel laws in parliament goes some way to suppress that dissent. I'd rather hold up the UK as a model of racial tolerance than Singapore, though there are points to learn from both. And also Malaysia. Personally, I feel little hope in influencing our nations, until we can control our own prejudices.

SC

Some people resent the racist gerrymandering in Singapore, but the harsh application of libel laws in parliament goes some way to suppress that dissent. I'd rather hold up the UK as a model of racial tolerance than Singapore, though there are points to learn from both. And also Malaysia. Personally, I feel little hope in influencing our nations, until we can control our own prejudices.

SC

Depends who you mean by 'our own prejudices'.

It strikes me that all the communities in the UK have their own prejudices. The original inhabitants - now mainly resident in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, have racist jokes about the English. The North-Eastern English have greivances against the Scots that go back to riever times, and also have little time for anyone not from the Tyne-Tees catchment. Also there is fierce dislike from Geordies to Wearside, Teeside people. And the monkey-hangers also come in for stick from a lot of other localities around Teeside.

Go to the North-West and you can have riots between the various towns and cities. Yorkshire - despise everyone else. And so on and so on. This is without any colour or creed creeping in.

Then you have a large part of the muslim communitiy who do not want to be assimilated, do not want their sons and daughters marrying out of the faith. Jews who don't want their Orthodox kids marrying Reform kids, let alone marryinng out. And this after 100 years of residence - four generations. This is looked at by the PC crowd as 'multiculturism'. I look at it as ghettoisation.

My first wife was Spanish and RC. My second Polish and Russian Orthodox. My third Thai and Buddhist, and currently an RC filipina. The thing that broke up my first two marriages was my constant working overseas and moving from place-to-place. Neither woman was happy with that, although both agreed that we should live that sort of life at the start. The third failed because of money - and my decision to quit Thailand for good. But when together with any of my wives I have mixed across many religions and many colours, most standards of wealth and education, many nationalities. I try not to offend (except when posting on TV) and argue very little. Life's too short for many arguments - just listen to the other guy, say yeah-yeah and move on.

Some people resent the racist gerrymandering in Singapore, but the harsh application of libel laws in parliament goes some way to suppress that dissent. I'd rather hold up the UK as a model of racial tolerance than Singapore, though there are points to learn from both. And also Malaysia. Personally, I feel little hope in influencing our nations, until we can control our own prejudices.

SC

Depends who you mean by 'our own prejudices'.

It strikes me that all the communities in the UK have their own prejudices. The original inhabitants - now mainly resident in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, have racist jokes about the English. The North-Eastern English have greivances against the Scots that go back to riever times, and also have little time for anyone not from the Tyne-Tees catchment. Also there is fierce dislike from Geordies to Wearside, Teeside people. And the monkey-hangers also come in for stick from a lot of other localities around Teeside.

Go to the North-West and you can have riots between the various towns and cities. Yorkshire - despise everyone else. And so on and so on. This is without any colour or creed creeping in.

Then you have a large part of the muslim communitiy who do not want to be assimilated, do not want their sons and daughters marrying out of the faith. Jews who don't want their Orthodox kids marrying Reform kids, let alone marryinng out. And this after 100 years of residence - four generations. This is looked at by the PC crowd as 'multiculturism'. I look at it as ghettoisation.

My first wife was Spanish and RC. My second Polish and Russian Orthodox. My third Thai and Buddhist, and currently an RC filipina. The thing that broke up my first two marriages was my constant working overseas and moving from place-to-place. Neither woman was happy with that, although both agreed that we should live that sort of life at the start. The third failed because of money - and my decision to quit Thailand for good. But when together with any of my wives I have mixed across many religions and many colours, most standards of wealth and education, many nationalities. I try not to offend (except when posting on TV) and argue very little. Life's too short for many arguments - just listen to the other guy, say yeah-yeah and move on.

yeah, yeah....

Some people resent the racist gerrymandering in Singapore, but the harsh application of libel laws in parliament goes some way to suppress that dissent. I'd rather hold up the UK as a model of racial tolerance than Singapore, though there are points to learn from both. And also Malaysia. Personally, I feel little hope in influencing our nations, until we can control our own prejudices.

SC

Singapore was effectively a dictatorship for many years, but a benevolent one. Mr Lee was determined to create a multi-cultural society, and was indeed prepared to use fairly harsh methods to achieve this. Perhaps this is necessary. Perhaps we can't achieve the same by using milder methods.