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Original poster

It’s time the world knew that Britain is not a land of milk and honey

112 replies

Dowser · 27/10/2019 11:31

Then these migrant tragedies might be averted.
The uk is a fabulous place to live and I feel very privileged to have been born here and to still live here but it is not a cheap place to live and it can be very difficult to scratch a living.
My relative is now single and fallen on hard times. After a 6 month stint in a hostel which was hell on Earth, he’s now got a flat and on UC
I rang to see how he was doing the other day and was shocked to find he can’t pay his bills.i know last winter he didn’t put the heating on and ended up very sick
His rent is paid but even without heating on yet he’s already going under. Water rates are £45 a month..we pay half that for our house.
It’s an 8 month wait for a meter.

I mentioned food. He said he’s starving and has lost weight.
He’s 64 . His pension kicks In When he will be 67 . He’s unable to find a job and is constantly sick...when a short while ago before this happened he was as fit as butchers dog.
You can’t live on what you’re given he said. We live in a high unemployment area and there’s not a lot of jobs around for ageing 64 year olds with dodgy knees.

OP posts:
Limer · 27/10/2019 11:34

It's better than the countries that asylum seekers are from.

It's better than the countries that economic migrants are from.

LoveNote · 27/10/2019 11:35

I agree op!

DPotter · 27/10/2019 11:37

Well the rest of Europe is certainly questioning our national sanity.

Immigration is the price we are paying for the past Empire years.

LucileDuplessis · 27/10/2019 11:38

Most migrants are a lot younger than your relative, so probably have more chance of employment.

Venger · 27/10/2019 11:41

To be fair the majority of migrants coming over aren't 64 with knackered knees. Many of those coming over illegally wont be seeking employment or benefits - they'll be working in the nails bars or car washes that are the fronts for the people traffickers, they'll be pushed into sex work or drug farming, they'll be live-in staff working for room and board.

I think they know it's not the land of milk honey but it's still better than what they're leaving. One of the young women in the shipping container was hoping to earn £1800 a month in the nail bar her traffickers were going to employ her in, that was money she was going to send home to help her family which in country where the average worker earns £115 a month is a hell of a lot of money. That's what attracts them.

ImperfectTents · 27/10/2019 11:42

Life expectancy in Somalia for example is 56 so I guess UK with its additional 24 years is fairly allluring

Ponoka7 · 27/10/2019 11:43

DPotter, tgis isn't a discussion on immigration.

The World was divided by the Super powers and Britain took it's share, as did France, Spain, Portugal etc.

I have friends from Africa and speak to my African taxi drivers, one was really struggling with the cost of living. His wife was pregnant and we came to the conclusion that for the safety of gis family it was worth the hours he had to work.

For Women, in particular, the UK is the land of milk and honey.

Perhaps you don't have a full awareness of living conditions for many people?

Pandainmyporridge · 27/10/2019 11:45

This reply has been deleted

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MarianaMoatedGrange · 27/10/2019 11:46

Re your relative OP, his GP can refer him to a food bank if his weight loss is a cause for concern and due to not being able to afford to eat.

Reythemamajedi · 27/10/2019 11:47

One of the young women in the shipping container was hoping to earn £1800 a month in the nail bar

I don't believe she would be earning that much.

Charlottejbt · 27/10/2019 11:49

Quite right, OP. Being very poor here is no easier than being very poor anywhere else. Cold and hungry is cold and hungry.

LoveNote · 27/10/2019 11:49

‘Hoping to earn £1800’

Who puts those ideas out there? That’s the problem

Lulualla · 27/10/2019 11:49

@Pandainmyporridge

What are you talking about? Tragedy is used for crimes all the time. A tragedy is any event which causes suffering or distress such as serious after or CRIME. That's the definition.
School shootings in America are described as tragedies a lot.

GreekOddess · 27/10/2019 11:50

I would be very surprised if the woman could £1800 in a nail bar. If the owners are employing people illegally they aren't going to be worried about minimum wage. I would imagine illegal workers get half that amount. Once you factor in a roof over her head, clothes and food would there even be any money left to send home? ☹️

Lulualla · 27/10/2019 11:50

*serious accident

Ponoka7 · 27/10/2019 11:51

One of my friends is expected to go home for Christmas. Her Son is mid diagnosis (Autism), it's quite obvious and he's non verbal.

Where she is from it's routine to kidnap and ritually kill disabled children. She is scared. Her family don't believe in SN, the pastor tells them it's a curse, so she doesn't trust the people she should be able to rely on.

He wouldn't still be alive if he lived were she is from, that's if she survived childbirth.

I could go on giving you examples of, to her, why the UK is paradise.

Carparkticket · 27/10/2019 11:54

Have you only lived here OP?
It is all relative.
I left my country 15 years ago and since then I have lived in 5 countries, but the U.K. for 10.
My goodness compared to my country is this heaven? I have always had a job. I have a masters and BSc and speak three languages. That got me nowhere back home of course. Also benefits don’t exist there and the unemployment rate is 4 times higher than here.
And my home country is actually a “developed” one.
Over here I was working a week after I arrived, in a cafe and as a cleaner. Slowly slowly got higher earning jobs and I have never been unemployed.
Sure it is expensive as I was also living in London.
But people come from countries where you can’t even imagine what conditions they live in.
Here I get sick pay and maternity leave for a year and maternity pay and you get paid for the hours you work and women have rights.

It is all relative isn’t it?

Doubleraspberry · 27/10/2019 11:55

Being very poor here is no easier than being very poor anywhere else.

Being very poor here is shit, and it’s even more shit that anyone in our rich country IS very poor. I will totally agree to that. We should be supporting the vulnerable people in our communities far, far better.

But being very poor in other countries can mean being very poor in the middle of a war, or a famine, or a political regime that is imprisoning your family, or in an area where is there is literally no chance to earn money ever. I don’t think we in this country can imagine it.

Doubleraspberry · 27/10/2019 11:58

The poor people in that lorry were being trafficked. They had paid an enormous amount of money each, and who can begin to guess how they got that money, and had been promised nonsense (like that £1800). Either they would have ended up making just enough to live on after paying a small fortune to get here, or even worse, working without their freedom.

Venger · 27/10/2019 11:58

Someone obviously fed her the line about £1800 a month as her family were quoted as saying this is why she made the journey. The traffickers need people, people want a better life, so they'll promise them the moon on a stick to get them to sign up. They also pay the traffickers for each leg of the journey.

Reythemamajedi · 27/10/2019 12:06

Posted too soon. I was going to say that I don't really think that's the point though, surely we need to figure out a better way if dealing with immigration so people aren't getting into lorries and dying.
I don't really know what that would be, but there must be some action we could take.

Carparkticket · 27/10/2019 12:06

About the people in the lorry, they had paid £30000 pounds each to be taken into the U.K., is that right? I think I heard that on the radio.
That is a LOT of money for them.
I doubt it they came here to become rich and live the high life.
The £1800 sure, it could be true, working 80 hours a week then using half of that to give to their “boss” or whoever they have to pay and then sending a quarter home and trying to save up.
People don’t try to leave their home and all they know because they think they are going to paradise.

I have lived in places where children are so malnourished that they are full of fleas and all sorts.

Being hungry is a constant thing and children walk 7 hours to school. Yes, 3 hours and a half each way, only to one day have a chance of a better life.

We have to open your minds to the possibility that what we know is not all that there is.

Carparkticket · 27/10/2019 12:08

Our minds not yours! I am still very ignorant and privileged and lucky

Croquembou · 27/10/2019 12:10

Have you ever been to a developing country?

Shitty about your relative but a very relative shittyness.

LoveNote · 27/10/2019 12:13

But why is it the UK? Do these traffickers offer the same to different countries?

France,Germany,Poland,Norway,Denmark

Why here? Surely these other countries are easier to get to as well?