To think there is some kind of weird push towards the far right?

I was making a point! But you know immigration from the near continent due to trade routes opening up, then further afield due to wars and spice routes etc.
and the original stock of Anglo Saxon emigrated from Germany.
It’s always been a thing

I agreed with every word of it. Perfectly stated.

What a stupid statement. You're in no way paying for private medical insurance in the form of NI contributions.

The thing is, immigration has cost us dearly in many aspects of quality of life. Up until 70 or so years ago, the definition of an Englishman had been fixed since 1066. The ancestors of the British people worked and died for their own posterity.

I don't even know where to start with this whitewashed version of history.

Serf, indenture, starvation were all rife. My ancestors certainly weren't working and dying for their own prosperity, they were trying not to starve or freeze to death.

What is the definition of an Englishman and how has it changed?

So well said! Bravo.

It's anything to hate your own culture and put others over your own.

Cultural marxism and so many have fallen for it.

And you think that meant the entire population of Britain vanished overnight to be replaced with 'French'? Baffling.
The Normans were not exactly French either.

I pay about £300 a month in National Insurance contributions. That money goes towards pensions and paying for the National Health Service.

In what way am I not already paying some kind of private medical insurance in the form of NI Conts?

What utter tripe. The 0.1% of a victorious ruling class yes. Open a history book sometime, an embarrassing level of ignorance. It concerns me so much that people repeat these sound bites they've heard on the Internet.

Hehe. You know who won the battle of Hastings right? And when it was?

A lazy lie.

Dear Christ your average Englishman is probably French in origin!

I hate a lot of the things the weirdo element of the left does, which is composed mostly of young people obsessed with identity politics and policing speech. I'm not going to abandon my principles because of those assholes, because they are sincerely held principles and I'm not giving assholes any power over my beliefs and choices

But a vote for the Left is seen as an endorsement of those things you hate - and so they continue, only prolonging the issue and driving more people away. The only way to change that is to a) join and work to change these policy focuses; or b) vote with your feet ballot paper by not voting for the Left, showing them that they need to change and go back to the basics they used to stand for.

I knew Trump would win because the Left would not entertain the idea that they might be wrong about some things, and instead of stopping and assessing, they dug in deeper, alienating voters and driving the undecided to the right. So yes, it is partly the Left’s fault.

As for more Right Wing stuff on your pages, I see it like marketing: they think it’s becoming more popular so chuck a load of stuff out there, hoping some will land on a right wing person’s page.

The thing is, immigration has cost us dearly in many aspects of quality of life. Up until 70 or so years ago, the definition of an Englishman had been fixed since 1066. The ancestors of the British people worked and died for their own posterity. I am increasingly feeling as if we've thumbed our noses at that, in our arrogance and ignorance. There is a rampant avarice and entitlement held for Europe and the west generally which I have recently become aware of but suspect has been there for a long time. Britain is not simply an economic zone to be exploited. If I eye up my neighbours house and land as bigger and better than mine, do I have the right to knock on the door and demand some acreage?
My teen DD was set a documentary to watch by her teacher and the narrative it pedalled of how immigration has enriched our culture was astonishing. It spoke as if our ancient, incredible culture was nothing of note before Windrush. And that immigrants in the past century 'introduced' diversity.. as if we didn't already have an intricate, many-layered history of diversity before? I mean, there are four very distinct countries in Britain and that's just for starters. I wouldn't have blinked at that documentary two years ago, but it has dawned on me that we are being sold an agenda. I now find Sadiq Khan's mantra diversity is our strength quite sinister and extremely offensive. We already had strength.

Key members of Reform have investments in American Health Insurance companies - it is in their interests to get elected so they can bring in an American style health system. Immigration concerns and under-investment in public services are just the tools they are using to get very, very rich.

The likes of Farage will then leave politics to go and enjoy his fortune while leaving the rest of us to suffer the consequences.

@BloominNora depressing thought. Even when it happens though, everyone who supported him/Reform will just blame the other side somehow. Everyone who got rich after Brexit was linked to key Brexiteers after all, but it's immigrants and "the Left" to blame.

Who the fuck is importing people?

It's grim up (Islington) North.

What makes you think immigration is too high?

Assuming that it is not for outright racists reasons, I am going to guess that it is because our public services, the NHS, schools and housing are all creaking under the weight of immigrants?

But none of that is the fault of the immigrants - it is 14 years of austerity that had caused it. Without immigrants we would be in an even worse state - especially with a declining birth rate.

The increasing debt arguement does not track because the last Labour government made huge investments in public services and managed to keep debt less than 50% of GDP because those investments increased productivity and growth.

Even putting aside the financial crash and Covid, the Tories austerity measures which is what has decimated our public services had increased debt and suppressed growth so when you add in Covid and the financial crisis our debt to GDP ratio is now close to or just over 100%.

Key members of Reform have investments in American Health Insurance companies - it is in their interests to get elected so they can bring in an American style health system. Immigration concerns and under-investment in public services are just the tools they are using to get very, very rich.

The likes of Farage will then leave politics to go and enjoy his fortune while leaving the rest of us to suffer the consequences

It’ll have to.

This state of affairs cant go on indefinitely, we can’t keep endlessly importing people.

He’s a Brexiter at heart, so it was quite amusing watching his half-hearted campaign.

The bbc massively under-report ALL protests, regardless of subject matter or political leanings. I think its standard policy because if people knew the real numbers then more would be emboldened to join.

Our right to protest is meant to just be a theoretical thing, certainly it is considered bad form to actually put it into practise. Look at the drone footage from the weekend, the bbc claiming there were a mere 110,000 is taking their routine censorship to criminal levels.

Immigration has increased because of the actions of the very people who are being lauded as the ones with the answers.

Nigel Farage, UKIP, the Brexit Party all had a direct hand in causing the increase in immigration numbers, enabled by the stupid actions of a spineless Tory government.

The British people definitely have a right to determine the future of the democracy they live in - unfortunately they seem to want to hand that future to the very people responsible for the problems they want fixing!

I have often wondered if Corbyn isn't secretly just a massive Farage fan. He basically supported him over Brexit and will split the Labour vote and quite possibly allow him in at the next GE.

It's too low. We've got hundreds of thousands of unfilled job vacancies in social care, cleaning, hospitality. It's set to get a lot worse as we get an ever larger elderly population and a much smaller working population, due to the declining birth rate. We are dependent on immigration and that won't change.

And the whole co-leader concept won’t end in total disaster will it? 😄

They got into a disagreement on the very first day it was launched because Corbyn wasn't ready to announce it yet, and took issue with the wording of "co-founded".

I mean… people are actually willing to believe these incompetents could be the last line of defence against the far right?