Technically there is no housing crisis, there are not millions of british people living homeless due to tehre being no unsold houses.

The problem has occured because of some very basic factors.

Wages have been rising at a much lower rate than cost of living and house prices, due in part to the governments ongoing efforts to hide the true cost of living in its reports.

The Buy to Let boom artificially inflated house prices, they never returned to the norm.

Because of the buy to let boom there was a shortage fo buyable houses, but a large amount of rentable property.

This meant that now few families between 1 and 3 generations of families have had no physical equity passed to them through a house. The money is lost to rich owners or corporations, many from outside the UK. This has left a much larger gap between the social classes.

At least thats my take on it.

I want to see just one example here of anyone trying to rename Christmas so as not to offend people of other faiths.

BBC: Row as Christmas lights renamed (Nov 2005)

In three of Lambeth’s main town centres, the lights were referred to as “Winter Lights”, while in a fourth they were called “Celebrity Lights” [!].

The council spokeswoman said an official was concerned about people from other religions.

Work permits are less flexible really – effectively you have to get a job offer, then the onus is on the employer to apply for the permit – on your behalf – and they are effectively the holder – not you. So they – have to show the Home Office that you are the right fit for that particular job, over above some other British person ( or EU citizen – i.e. the people who don’t need ‘clearance’ for work, and are available) who could have done that same job. which is often quite hard in many cases, generic jobs etc. and generally, only certain large orgs are happy to apply for work permits on people’s behalf. a lot of employers – if you all start looking – will say for example, ( in job ads recruitment literature etc) ‘you must already have the right to work in the UK, we will not apply for a work permit on your behalf.’ (So that automatically limits the no. of employers who you can apply for a job with, etc. it is a tortuous process, with the employer being the third party to consider. )

Of course certain organisations, like the big corporates, and investment banks, universities etc. who have a very global ‘intake’ are used to applying for work permits and don’t make that a barrier.
–
from the Border & Immigration Agency ( if people are really actually interested in the hows and wherefores of current visas and permits and conditions of proving right of abode/ancestry etc. then this is the place to become familiar with)

“work permits in general depend on you to ‘secure’ a job offer, and then the employer applies on your behalf. it is quite clever in the sense that it always automatically limits you to jobs where a) the employer really wants you because they have to go through this extra process, and effectively show you are the right be job offer in the UK to apply.

It is different from business routes such as the Innovators scheme because you do not need a detailed business plan; you do not need to create jobs; and you do not need to invest in the UK.”

I’d be surprised if the number of PC gone mad stories we hear in the tabloids that haven’t been made up or exaggerated even reached double figures.

The one link you do offer is from four years ago and is about one school. One school out of every school in the country doing something stupid four years ago does not signify a massive problem.

“So, it still stands, and I’ll put my money where my mouth is, there will be a proveable case, every year of some ‘well meaning’ idiot trying to rephrase christmas so as to not ‘offend’ ‘non-christians’.”

You didn’t put your money where your mouth was though. You just said there would be one every year without showing even one. I want to see just one example here of anyone trying to rename Christmas so as not to offend people of other faiths. Just one. One from last year would be preferable, since it would prove there’s an ongoing problem, but we can start with one from any year.

Did you drink some good rum whilst in Barbados Leon?

Yep, brought back a load too.;)

Would you mind deciphering that for us mere mortals?

What prejudices do you believe they are pandering to?

Of course, no country AFIK operates an open door policy. I certainly think we should tighten up a system that allows in those with significant criminal records, those who are openly hostile to the country, and the clearly psychotic. I am open to the idea of a points system, although I’d need to see the details.

But a system which just cherry-picked the most obviously and immediately profitable immigrants raises serious ethical issues.

Jonz,

‘I don’t blame the ‘non-christians’ in these scenarios because it’s most likely to be a white leftoid politically very naive junior council worker.’

Absolutely. If you had put it like that in the first place I doubt anyone would have disagreed. But, as you have said, the vast majority of these stories are right-wing tabloid inventions.

As for ‘Large scale Polish immigration’, purely anecdotally, many seem to be young, child-free and planning on working flat-out for three or four years before returning. Some will stay, marry and hooray for that. But as Eastern Europe benefits economically from EU inclusion the flow will dry up and many will head back to the old country.

A bit like the independent splashing front page news (completely without evidence) that Israel is using nuclear weapons against the Lebanese.

It sells more papers. Pandering to the prejudices of the readership.

“Let’s not be niave here… So there has been no ban of piggys or otherwise ‘well meaning’ rephrasing of christmas to something else??? If 50% are made up or exaggerated, that still leaves 50%! Even 75% fake leaves 25%! The tabloids often make things up or exaggerate. You concede in #10 that not all are made up.”

Would you care to elaborate on who might want to make up false stories? And why? And the intended outcome?

I can’t think of anyone better to ask – as no doubt you see them all as fitting in with your scheme of things.

We need to do as Don’s comment #16

Large scale Polish immigration is putting a strain on the infrastructure. But they wont cause as much ‘ethnic’ or community tension as they are generally quite well integrated (though more could be done). Only today there are reports that 25% of Mosques have extremist literature. Should we be allowing extremists in to the country? … All valid part of the debate, no?!