A city the size of Birmingham. 1.2 million people.

[Workingman]

That is the net number of immigrants (arrivals minus leavers) who have permanently entered the UK since June 2021.

This simply cannot go on. It is unsustainable, for all sorts of reasons: housing; schools; NHS; other services; the watering down of our culture and so on.

What I do not get are some of the excuses from business, government and other parties / agencies:

* We need more workers. No we do not, there are plenty of unemployed to do the "real" jobs available.
* We need more "skilled" workers. The UK is supposedly a first world country yet we need skills from poorer third world countries? If that really is the case then our education system is failing... badly
* We need a younger workforce to support our aging population. However, one day they will be older, what do we do then, bring in more younger ones? It's a Ponzi scheme.

We might need to allow some temporary workers for seasonal jobs - then they go home. We definitely need better support for our own seasonal workers once that work ceases - we know the types of jobs and where they are. And we need to support workers to enable them to move location to gain work, say from areas where there are few vacancies to areas where the jobs are.

It will never be an easy fix, but we cannot just keep bringing in more and more.

[Suff]

* We need more Cheap workers who are Willing to work hard
* We need more "skilled" workers. Who don't care about minimum wage or strong employment laws
* We need a younger workforce to support our aging population. We need more young workers to pay the pensions of the baby boomers.

Welcome to reality.

[Workingman]

I must assume the post is TIC.

* We need more Cheap workers who are Willing to work hard
We have a minimum wage, so unless they are being employed illegally they cannot be "cheaper".
* We need more "skilled" workers. Who don't care about minimum wage or strong employment laws
No, we really do not. Strong employment laws are there for a purpose.
* We need a younger workforce to support our aging population. We need more young workers to pay the pensions of the baby boomers.
And when they get older we bring in more? A as I said: a Ponzi scheme.

We desperately need a fix for this. We could try enacting international law for the "illegals" and take our own control of the legals.

Oh, what am I saying?

[Suff]

More Sarcasm WM. Sorry should have indicated it.

You were right with the original post. This was my sarcastic view of what they really mean with those statements.

[medsec222]

We should be training and giving skills to young people in this country and should have been doing it for years, so I would blame both the Convervative and Labour governments for this lack of foresight - deliberate or otherwise.

Yes it is a Ponzi scheme - bring in more migrants to help the economy grow, but with more and more people crowding this country the majority of us will not benefit, and where are all these migrants going to live? What about hospital and doctor appointments, schooling, and traffic on the roads etc. What will be the quality of life be for the rest of us.

I am sorry to say that the answer from this short-sighted lot who govern the country is to encourage more and more migrants - its the economy you see, it has to grow.

[cromwell]

When Tony Blair opened the floodgates more than twenty years ago one of the excuses was "skill shortages".

All these years later the excuse is still "skills shortages". So evidently mass immigration has failed in curing these shortages.

Why do all politicians lie about immigration?

[Workingman]

Why do all politicians lie about immigration?

It is because very vociferous groups such as Liberty, Human Rights Watch, the Refugee Council, and many others, will definitely condemn them as racists and ruin careers. Better to lie or keep schtum.

Unfortunately their core supporters are also those who foisted upon us the advertising industry's fake multi-culti friends and families Utopia in nearly every advert. I have the opinion that those adverts do more damage to us accepting diversity than they do in promoting it.

[cromwell]

I would agree with that.

Re mass immigration, it is a short term fix (the word "fix" is used advisedly) to promote economic growth. Trouble is, it's the easiest option and the one to which politicians always retreat. It's purely down to consumption. more people = more food sold, white goods sold, houses built, etc. It looks good on paper; less so in reality.

[Workingman]

There have been more than 5 million immigrants to the UK since 2010 (increase of 8.2%) yet if you take out the peaks and troughs the economy has flatlined at ~2.0% during that same period, so where is all this mythical growth?

[Kaz]

* We need more Cheap workers who are Willing to work hard
* We need more "skilled" workers. Who don't care about minimum wage or strong employment laws
* We need a younger workforce to support our aging population. We need more young workers to pay the pensions of the baby boomers.

Welcome to reality.

Yep! I got the sarcasm.