Race intrinsically does not have to divide nations, it usually comes down to other factors. There are far more divided nations on other issues than race.

Well, India has tons of ethnicities contained within and has a very hierarchical social order based on caste, so is a bad example. Spain and Belgium are hardly unified countries, with big separatist movements or schisms based on language and culture.

What you want to look at, is the United States of America. It is perhaps the best example to follow.

Comments like this underline the utter stupidity of politically correct attitudes to race. Why on earth SHOULD language be more unifying than race? Is this a moral imperative? If, in their deepest sub-conscious people feel a greate affinity to someone on the basis of race, are we to tell them off, because these feelings do not conform to left wing dogma? There are plenty of long standing nations and communities that have similair race but different language- Switzerland, India, Spain, Wales, Belgium..in fact, almost all European countries. How many Nations are there that contain different races that do not have racial problems?
Sorry to be the one to break this to you good people, but this IS about race.

No it isn’t – it’s a Romany word.

Markets are not always the best solution and they are useless left uncontrolled . Its like trying to mow the lawn with a comnbine harvester.People who work in them , Like me , do not have the religious attachment that others soemtimes aquire from American neo Cons

BTW, a bit of trivia – Chav is derived from “Cheltenham Average”, the charming term the gals of Cheltenham College used to describe the people of the tan.

I’d have thought you could reasonably have said that attacks on Poles were racist and disgusting. Personally, I’d not have used the scum who do that sort of thing to support my ‘arguement’, but there you go.

I’ll stand corrected, but I seem to remember a Private Eye cartoon where folk were looking at a stately home and one said to the other, “No, it doesn’t belong to the Lord of the Manor, it belongs to the plumber.” Shortages of skilled resources are inflationary, and we don’t want that, do we?

As for vulgar economic warfare, I seriously doubt it. Plumbers are, by their very nature, a Masonic order. I suspect it is just chavs that don’t work, couldn’t work, that subscribe to the ridiculous view that hitting folk is an economic imperative. But, what do I know?

You really haven’t got any idea of what a market is about, have you? Bet your a UKIP fan.

And, contrary to what you purport to think, this has always been an immigrant nation, back to time immemorial. Didn’t do us much harm in the long run, did it?

Sunny I have excavated some of my immigration file and collated enough facts to cause you to re-think your main assertions which are demonstrably false .It was too long to put here.

Tell you one thing ,I have had enough of race and immigration to last a year….back to Conservtaive infighting for me I think

Bit harsh, I think he was stating the bleeding obvious to people who only read the press and have no direct dealing with immigrants or have never been immigrants themselves.

And as for those THREE MILLION Brits shifted off the dole onto disability…

Certainly there appeared to be no economic case made, unless I missed it?

Highlights inc. the white Powellite moaning about the foreigners taking jobs which the locals wouldn’t take because they “got wet”.

The Bradford boy implying racism is behind the reason he didn’t get a job from “white” businesses.

Nothing particularly new though, just the usual poor people scrabbling over scarce resources. Maybe Jon learned something though.

But you haven’t cited any.

See Chris Dillow.

The CBI has said plenty of times that immigration is economically positive for Britain. So have reports by PWC and other consultancies (the hotbeds of political correctness they are!).

The rest is just drivel. You don’t even live in the UK! You just make things up as you go along…

My *deluded* views are supported by countless economic studies even those done by right wing think-tanks. Rates of unionisation are the lowest they’ve been since the early 20s and a smaller and smaller minority of rich individuals control a greater and greater proportion of wealth in ALL western countries.

Your attacks on Portillo and your references to not wanting *little brown people* all over the place is nonsense as well. Pro-immigration pundits have always managed to frame what is an economic question in terms of race, but even that line of defense is faltering

In the past few years the UK has imported a million Poles, all of whom are white. Hundreds of thousands of others have arrived from other former East Block countries and are white as well

As a matter of fact, there are now so many Poles of voting age living in the UK that this week candidates in the Polish presidentials are in England campaigning for election.

A million votes makes all the difference.

And what of the numerous attacks on Poles recently by british yobs? Can one call these attacks racist if both victim and perp are of the same skin colour? Are they not, in some sense, motived by a form of economic warfare, one in which are current elites pit poor native-born workers against even poorer immigrant labourers?

Yeah, when the immigrant labourers are of the same race, the vulgar economic angle to the whole scam becomes much more apparent; 2 quid buys more in Poland than 20 quid buys in the UK, so pay the imports a 10th of what Brits are paid and then charge the same price for those plumbing repairs.

Yes, it’s all about a good chicken tandoori and ethnic street festivals!

funkg is right on the button, as always.. except, I honestly do think that many brown skinned people, particularly but not exclusively west indians are accepted as English by many if not most anglo-irish natives. I reckon for example that you are, funkg

I think its a lot more complicated than that. The govt doesn’t know how many people are coming in and out… that’s a given. So any figures will be arbitary.. and out of date. This is why I keep saying the answer should be changing the economic/social system to take mass migration into account rather than pretending that mobility into and out of this country will simply vanish.

Newmania: Incidentally do any Hindus ever comment here ?

Yes, plenty. Rohin is Hindu, among others.

I’m not sure what you’re implying… but if you could address the points in that I’d be happy.

How many years have to elapse before you feel unable to say “Oh but look what the Tories did when they were in power”?

I’ve been quite positive towards the Tory party on this blog… to the extent that people thought I was going to join them. You’re clearly not a regular reader. I’d love to see evidence of the Tory party moving on from the old days of naked racism.. and once it does I’ll be happy to.

If you were saying that about Labour I am sure people would be saying you belong to the nasty party!

I’m equally disparaging towards Labour. When I wrote my article for the Guardian last year when launching my manifesto, I accused the party of ‘colonial’ attitudes towards ethnic minorities.

soso: Real wages in western countries haven’t gone up in years….in fact, almost since mass immigration began.

And if I cite you evidence to the contrary? Where’s yours? Besides, you live in the US… so I don’t even know what the hell you’re on about the middle classes disappearing. Deluded idiot.