Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

You can't stop EU people coming here ever. You expect to go on holiday to where ever you choose in Europe. People from Italy, France etc will always be able to come here on holiday. When they are here they can just stay on and look for a job. There is nothing you can do about it. The only way to cut the numbers is to cut the benefits so that EU visitors would not take the risk of not getting a job with no benefits or housing to fall back on.

The problem with dealing with the EU is that it regards all citizens as equal members of a federal Europe. They look upon it in the same way that a resident of California has the right to go and live, work and collect benefits in Florida or New York.

Haze,

Are you back on medication?

I agree with first part P51643.

However, not sure about cutting "benefits".

Depends on which benefit and whether there is deliberate "abuse" of a system.

(I repeat, if a person is working in the UK and has every intention of continuing to do so, breaks his leg or arm etc, and can't support himself or return to work for a period of time, does the state turn their back on him/her, expect either to sleep on the street and beg for money to buy food. Or perhaps, wrap him/her up and post back to country of origin. UMMM)

Also, if an immigrant is working in a low paid job, which a fellow indigenous worker would receive "benefits" for in order to provide for them a "living wage", will he/her be entitled to the same.

He is doing the same work for "society" and therefore entitled to the same reward.

Benefits a complicated.

Reviews are necessary, but they should not be political footballs to score goals with.

fred - you could say the same about nhs, teachers, firemen and any other number of things about which you like to (try to) make political capital - ie treat as "political footballs"!

Mitchels letter used as evidence in court..........

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/11/28/voters-across-europe-back-eu-migrant-curbs/

IamalrightJack ‏@IamalrightJack Nov 23

#CameronMustGo 164k people have died due to having their benefits stopped or changed #bbcnews Let Everyone Know Pass It On RT

IamalrightJack ‏@IamalrightJack Nov 23

#CameronMustGo because he is squatting in No 10. The Tories never won the election. #bbcnews We say #KickTheSquatterOut Everyone Agree RT

The first of the new workhouses? 28/11/2014


The new workhouse: A former bus depot in Blackburn is set to be changed into a Victorian-style workhouse, providing accommodation for up to 10 homeless people in return for work.

Following a discussion on Twitter yesterday evening, the following article from the Lancashire Telegraph was pointed out. Is this building in Blackburn the first of the Coalition government’s new workhouses?

THE semi-derelict former Transdev/Lancashire United bus depot in Blackburn town centre could be brought back into life as a charity and recycling centre, writes Bill Jacobs.

Up 10 otherwise homeless people would live at the site under supervision.

The garage in Manner Sutton Street in Eanam closed in 2011.

It was bought by Blackburn with Darwen Council and now the borough is poised to sell it to a Lancashire-based charity which helps ‘marginalised people back into stable, independent living’.

The charity’s associated social enterprise will run the site as a recycling centre for items such as metal, scrap cars, tyres, plastics, TVs and redundant household items for sale.

The money raised from the recycling operation will help provide the homeless and others on the margins of society with training, education, work experience and employment.

It will also provide accommodation for up to 10 workers who would otherwise be homeless or itinerant.

Read the rest of the article on the Lancashire Telegraph‘s site.

The dictionary definition of ‘workhouse’ is “a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment”. It is always defined in historical terms, as something that no longer exists.

But doesn’t that description fit the proposed new use of the Blackburn bus depot?

We live in dark times.

Try an experiment.


Pop over to La Belle France.

Go to the local job centre/council offices and demand housing, healthcare, and pocket money whilst you look for non existent jobs.


See what happens.

I propose Hays volunteers.

By Tim Stanley
10:32AM GMT 28 Nov 2014
David Cameron's speech on immigration and the EU threatens to shoot Ukip's fox. Tim Stanley gives two cheers to the emergence of a non-xenophobic take on migration and foreign affairs

This is one of those David Cameron speeches that lends itself to cautious hyperbole. I'm calling it "potentially historic". And in Cameron land, that's as good as it gets.

The Prime Minister's rhetoric on immigration and the EU pivots the Government away from simply promising a debate about our relationship with the European Union and towards outright Euroscepticism. The stuff about immigration and benefits is politically savvy. A lot of people oppose unrestricted EU immigration because of its effect upon jobs and British culture. But probably more – especially among the middle classes – are specifically worried about its cost to the taxpayer. By saying that a Conservative government will effectively turn off the benefits tap, Cameron is shooting Ukip’s fox and reclaiming the issue for the Tories. And the proposals are bold in their meanness. No in-work benefits for new arrivals for four years, no social housing for four years, no benefits for children living abroad, and EU migrants will be asked to leave if they don’t have a job after six months. It’s thought that these measures could affect over 300,000 people currently working in the UK.


Implicit in this approach is the idea that Britain has a welfare problem rather than an immigration problem – a non-racist line of argument that millions will find attractive. Because we’re too generous, the argument goes, we a) discourage hard work among the natives and b) encourage outsiders to make the UK their home in the hope of getting their hands on some of that sweet welfare cash. In the long term, Cameron’s experiment in turning off the migration magnet could potentially be applied to British citizens, too. Why, the question might be asked, do we provide in-work benefits to anyone of any background to subsidise low pay? Why not simply cut taxes for the poorest, thus letting them keep more of what ought to be decent wages paid out by employers who are enjoying soaring profits?

But the real headline-grabbing shift in this speech is Cameron’s personal attitude towards the EU. The Prime Minister has hitherto said that the plan is to renegotiate Britain’s relationship and then campaign to stay in during the 2017 referendum. But that argument contained a serious logical flaw: if Cameron didn’t get what he wanted in the renegotiation process, why would he campaign to remain part of a Union that has definitively acted against Britain’s interests (as Dave defines them)?

Now we can infer a new answer: he wouldn’t. From the speech: “If you elect me as Prime Minister in May, I will negotiate to reform the European Union, and Britain’s relationship with it. This issue of free movement will be a key part of that negotiation. If I succeed, I will, as I have said, campaign to keep this country in a reformed EU. If our concerns fall on deaf ears and we cannot put our relationship with the EU on a better footing, then of course I rule nothing out.”

“I rule nothing out” is an invitation to us to read “I will campaign to leave.” And given that Cameron’s demands fly so brazenly in the face of EU agreements – to discriminate against EU migrants within the benefits system is, basically, illegal – it is, for the first time, possible to imagine a Tory prime minister leading the campaign to leave the EU. This represents the most dramatic change in British foreign policy since Harold Wilson’s considerably more neutral Common Market referendum in 1975. And that change is entirely understandable. Britain has been humiliated time and time again by the EU – of which the election of Jean-Claude Junker was the strongest signal that our European partners are not favourable to reform. The astonishing new numbers of immigrants reported by the ONS also validate those who argue that our current relationship is unacceptable to many voters: some 228,000 EU citizens came here last year alone.

Make no mistake, Cameron is motivated by the rebellion on the Right of the political spectrum, rather than high principle. But who cares what the motivations are, so long as the policy is correct? An extraordinary coalition of forces has emerged to reshape British policy. On the one hand, Ukip – frequently dismissed as a moonbat crazy person’s party with no staying power – has forced Westminster to recognise the synchrony of European and immigration issues and address both with due respect. On the other hand, Cameron – essentially a Europhile Prime Minister who has built his entire reputation upon leading the Tories away from such “nasty” issues – has rejected his instinct to hold onto the centre ground and decided to make the Right’s issues his own. Right-wingers will cry “opportunist” and Left-wingers will say “traitor”. But for the majority of sensible, clear-minded Britons who have long thought Britain couldn’t reform the EU unless it threatened to leave, this is something of a breakthrough.

Cameron, against his better instincts, has a vote winner on his hands. Let’s hope that this time he stands by his word.

The Telegraph

they'll readily provide you accommodation ..... you'll be referred to the housing officer in sangatte

LOL.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no, crack heads back again. Whats wrong with him doesnt he have a home to go to. Must be Hays hes got his eye on.

DB4,

If you believe the conclusion of your posting you are onto a loser.

Cameron, is a jinx for the Cons' hopes.

Fred Camoron is back trending on twitter aswel. He fell out of the top10 for a few hours yesterday but is back now.

Trends · Change
#EatSleepSaveRepeat
Promoted by Missguided
#BlackFriday
#OPEC
Happy Thanksgiving
#putoutyourbats
#CameronMustGo
#plebgate
Andrew Mitchell
Phillip Hughes
Xmas

It looks to me as though more folks are concerned about putting their bats out than they are in either David Cameron or Andrew Mitchell, Fishfinger.

My oh my, what interesting lives you northern folks lead. Will you be polishing your ferret tonight in front of an open fire?

That's a very unpleasant image. Is shining one's ferret an alternative phrase for something else?