And now National Service could be back.

[TheOstrich]

Well even trying it might highlight something about the society we live in today.

Indeed, Suff. But nobody seems to give a damn these days.

[cromwell]

Well even trying it might highlight something about the society we live in today.

Indeed, Suff. But nobody seems to give a damn these days.

I think good people still give a damn with their loved ones.
Outside that I can see what you mean.

But we are not "all one" these days.
Sorry to bring immigration up but you have to.
Many of our institutions are national institutions.
Parliament and the armed forces, for instance. But although we have national institutions, we are no longer really a nation or at least, we are not the nation that we were. More a set of monocultures living side by side with little interaction.

If we are a nation, we are a divided one and in some cases, an extremely divided one.

[Workingman]

Careful, Cromwell, the high ups are not keen on these conversations, they know there are problems but they will try anything to close other opinions down. It's why we have diversity and equality rules and quotas for such things as those wishing to become election candidates for political parties..

It is also why other institutions and enterprises try to fool us that all is well. Virtually every TV advert has multi-ethnic families or groups of multi-ethnic best friends all getting along. And on the news websites, especially the BBC, the lead image to articles on just about any general topic will be of an ethnic person, usually a woman - banking, energy, cost of living: it's endless propaganda.

[medsec222]

Ah Cromwell - the difficult conversation.

On the one hand there are some people who object strongly to illegal immingrants arriving on our shores with hard-pressed taxpayers forking out to house and support them, often ahead of the indigenous population, and there are others who insist illegal immingrants are fleeing for their lives to escape persecution in their home countries but at the same time want to settle in an English speaking country. Never the twain shall meet it seems.

[Workingman]

In 2023 non-EU net migration to the UK was 768,000. Of those only 84,000 (11%) were illegal.

Now, 84,000 illegals is too many, but the other 684,000 are the bigger problem. They represent an urban city area the size of Sheffield. Think of all the homes, schools, hospitals, shops and infrastructure required, and those migrants tend to head for the core cities outside London and they cannot cope.

The ONS predicts that net migration will be 315,000 till 2028, so that's an extra 1.6 million of us. However, the ONS predictions have tended to be 70,000 or so lower than the actual number. This cannot go on: GB, well England, is full!

[Kaz]

Now, 84,000 illegals is too many, but the other 684,000 are the bigger problem. They represent an urban city area the size of Sheffield. Think of all the homes, schools, hospitals, shops and infrastructure required, and those migrants tend to head for the core cities outside London and they cannot cope!

Absolutely!

[Workingman]

Thanks Kaz.

I am not a racist, never have been, and wouldn't know how to be one if I tried. If companies "claim" that they need these workers then let them bring them in on time-limited expatriate contracts. Let the companies sort out their housing, schooling and medical needs etc. I worked for two companies on expat terms and that is what they had to do for me.

Unfettered immigration has to stop or there will be riots.

[medsec222]

I think that most fair minded people will agree that uncapped immigration, legal or otherwise, is not about race but about numbers. Our country has changed tremendously over the last few years and everything that most of us take for granted has been turned on its head. The NHS and the waiting lists, schools and many young people illiterate on leaving school, dentists and doctors and the difficulty getting appointments, water companlies and the filth they discharge into our rivers and seas, profits for shareholders more important, young people unable to get on the housing ladder and rents going through the roof. These are just a few concerns off the top of my head. No doubt there are many more. Everying is much worse and far more difficult for people to achieve than when I was a young girl. Perhaps I have got my rose-tinted glasses on but the worst things I can remember as a teenager was the toilet in the back yard, getting washed at the kitchen sink, and no central heating.

This is what I mean about the difficult conversation. No-one wants to be worse off than the previous generation and we all want the best for ourselves and our famiies, otherwise what is the point of working hard. That is not to say that we cannot open the doors and welcome refugees and asylum seekers to this country. The UK has always done this. But numbers the size of the city of Sheffield over a relatively short period of time is alarming and something that cannot be sustained. People want a voice and they want to be heard and listened to, and if concerns cannot be articulated without the accusation of racism, then there will be deep unrest amongst those with the least, as they run the most risk of losing out and having to pay the price for things beyond their control.

[Workingman]

+1. So well said.

I am a centrist so no Reform, UKIP, Brexit or Socialist Workers party for me. However, all of the main(ish) parties are all-in on this immigration thing. Go against and you are racist scum, and that leaves me with nowhere to go.

We cannot have a reasoned conversation on this subject anymore. Cancel culture is rife, as we have seen in many university debates, and the racist cards are thrown out with gay (another taboo subject) abandon.

It is, as many of us say, Meds, a numbers thing. But the wokies and snowflakes now control the media output and agendas and they will make it a racist thing to shut us up.

[Suff]

I constantly wonder why people simply don't turn the TV off, stop buying a newspaper and get targeted news from the available online sources.

The young are even worse off, they have their sites like TikTok and Farcebook and simply don't listen to anything else.