British Citizenship fees - why in the name of sanity.....

[Lottapianos]

.... do I have to pay EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS to have a form processed?

Sorry for shouting but it drives me around the bend. I'm happy to pay a fee but Christ on a bendy bus! They say it's to cover the administration costs and the cost of the citizenship ceremony you get invited to if/when your application gets approved. I can only imagine it must be an Elton-John-style White Tie and Diamonds Ball if that's how much they are charging!

Anyone shed light on why it's so bloody expensive? Is there a good reason or are they just taking the you-know-what? Thanks!

YANBU.
This is not supposed to be an "entrance fee" as someone put it above. If it were, obviously, there could be great debate over the ethics of that, or about the appropriate amount for such a fee, etc etc etc...

But the administrative fee is not presented as an entrance fee, and the attempts to justify it as such are wrong.

All of my grandparents were from Europe (England, Russia, Poland). Unfortunately they all buggered off to America so I've had years of immigration headaches to stay over here.

It is perhaps ironic that, despite having a Yorkshire grandfather and being raised with a lot of English culture, I have no right to be in the UK, while someone from, say, Slovakia, who does not speak English, does.

This is probably why I don't lend a huge amount of gravity or meaning to immigration and nationality policies. It's all arbitrary and politicised.

I think one of the best gifts we have given our DS is his two passports (one French, one American). That's a huge swathe of the globe he can live in without any immigration hassles or people questioning his right to be there.

I find the whole question of whether people have a 'right' to be somewhere really distasteful. And to say that carers don't contribute to society is disgusting. I mean, really.

Marie curie is NOT a good example -as she was part of the upper class trans national intelligensia that has existed since the renaissance - she is equivalent to Bob Diamond

and it is only since WW1 that the concept of movement of people included those of other than academic bent.

BUT
going back to the OP.
I've lived in the UK longer than many MN posters have been alive
I pay taxes, I'm a minimal drain on the NHS
PLEASE be intelligent in your thoughts on immigrants
and do not fall for knee jerk jingoism as perpetuated by the Daily Fail, the Torygraph and others.
Without immigrants, the UK would be an utter backwater, rather than just heading that way.

'and it is only since WW1 that the concept of movement of people included those of other than academic bent.'

Um ... what about the Romans, the Saxons, the Vikings, the Normans ...

I was meaning in terms of the modern day interpertation of 'economic migrant'

I got UTTERLY FLAMED on another forum for defining
native americans as Siberians who had stayed north
and meso americans as siberians who headed south and came north again
while identifyning my (family rather than race) as the opressor problem
but the 'native americans' were MUCH more bugged by my comparing them to aztecs than owt else

immigration is comparative
they come for the earnings, not the handouts - has been the case for 400 years