"People in this country are already struggling"

[iamaboveandBeyond]

Can i just ask, am i alone in this (and therefore IABU)?

But as a person who is 'struggling' in the UK, i am sick of people who are not in a similar position using "us" as a reason why the country cannot afford to help refugees?

I have said this on many threads already, but wondered what others thought outside of the specific Syria/Calais threads

(Note - I'm not the thread police of course, but if this didnt morph into an identikit refugee thread, that'd be fab :) )

While I can see where you are coming from IKnow, I can't help but still feel ashamed of that attitude. A quick google tells me there are 43,000 towns in the UK, so it would literally be 1 family in every 3 or 4 towns, or 1 per 2 towns. I just can't see how this will have any real effect on anything.

I wonder if the government will avoid refugees in remote areas where there's no transport/jobs, but instead focus more on large towns/cities which would obviously have an impact on things like school places.

Is there some rule that we are only allowed to link to guardian articles

Take a chill pill, hun

so it would literally be 1 family in every 3 or 4 towns, or 1 per 2 towns.

This would be lovely. Everyone happy, everyone integrated. But this isn't what happens in reality is it? The government aren't going to take one family at a time and spread them equally around the country. The likely hood is that these people are going to end up dispersed in a small number of already overpopulated over stretched areas. No good for them or the people already living there.

Reported you Glasgoow.

Blatantly taking the piss now.

I would like to point out that i'm happy they are coming. These people are fleeing genuine horror. I just really wish there were better plans in place to cope. It feels at the moment that the government are just doing what looks good for themselves in the short term, flinging numbers about.

Reported for what?

Peterborough: A city crumbling under pressure from immigrants
By VANESSA ALLEN
Last updated at 08:55 20 September 2007

Once a peaceful cathedral city,
Peterborough has become a symbol of the
changing face of Britain.
It is stretched to breaking point as
unprecedented numbers of Eastern
European migrants pour in, attracted by the
prospect of good housing, schools and
plentiful agricultural work nearby.
The city borders the farming plains of
South Lincolnshire and East Anglia – which
have long been a magnet for those searching
for seasonal work
Scroll down for more...
field work

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-482816/Peterborough-A-city-crumbling-pressure-immigrants.html#ixzz3l98x3P94
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

I used to have a Columbian house cleaner, been in London for 20 years. Lived in a part of London full of Columbians and he barely speaks any English, or probably pays tax.

nuff said

Racist?

I can't mention the influx of asains or polish to the country without being called a racist

I see your adhering to the only guardian articles are allowed, thanks hun

I agree with you.
Why aren't the people worried about those who are struggling doing more for those people they are so concerned about to start with?

And what is meant by struggling in the UK (or most European countries) pales in comparison with the definition of struggling by the refugees.

You're welcome - it's a pleasing antidote to the hate in the Daily Mail. Tell you what - for every DM linky you do, I'll do a Guardian one taking the piss out of the DM attitudes. Deal?

Now - how many links have done so far...?

Hun I read a broad range of papers, not just the one. Helps me to keep balanced. Anyway I'll flounce from here, no point with the faux racism allegations.

Yes, your balanced attitudes shine through brightly on this thread.

We provide more foreign aid than any country except the US. We are at the head of the pack for helping so there is nothing to fear.

If you were truly fleeing tyranny and certain death, wouldn’t you bring your wives, sisters, mothers and daughters with you, instead of abandoning them to their fate?

And then you'll probably be condemning those who do take their wives and children with them for endangering them.

Any excuse goes, hey?

(and the men at Calais are not necessarily the same flowing into Eastern and Mediterranean Europe)

I didn't know there were those many Columbians working as cleaners and not paying tax. Not the demographic I picture for US immigrants to the UK, but it's possible.

The Colombians I know in the UK, though, have good jobs (academic, if that's considered a good job, but that's a whole other thread) and pay taxes. Should I generalise from there too?

"Women among the Huns had higher status than their European counterparts. Women hunted and fought along side of the men and there are records of powerful Hun women leaders."

I so want to be a hun.

I'm with Hamiltoes. Only a few years ago, we voted Churchill the greatest Briton of all time. if we were to look only at the financial impact of Churchill's decisions, he would be absolutely slated. WWII left the UK on its knees financially - we were having to borrow vast sums from other nations. The reason we think he's the greatest Briton is because despite this, he did what he considered to be the right thing.

It's interesting that if Churchill were using the same criteria as those which have been bouncing around the media for the last week or so, we would presumably have told Poland that we were very sorry but we couldn't possibly put on hold our plans for a new railway link and so they should probably sort things out themselves. This is just fundamentally at odds with the way we see ourselves in the world, surely? I can't help feeling that we've been living off this reputation for decades as the nation who will take a moral stand when it counts. We can't have it both ways.

In addition, I'm not sure what's so awful about the possibility that 4 families might be housed in a larger town as opposed to 1 person per 1/2 small towns. Whilst I don't know the exact figures, those numbers are so tiny that they must be hugely outweighed by the general ebb and flow of migration throughout the country anyway. I am about to move to another part of the country. I am 35 and this will be the fourth part of the UK in which I have lived. It didn't occur to me not to do it because the addition of one further family might put a strain on the local school/NHS. From the office window where I am sitting, I can see two estate agents' windows full of houses. The suggestion that 4 extra families will have such an enormous and unusual impact that it will materially damage local services seems to be fundamentally at odds with high streets containing multiple estate agents' offices.

Not read the replies, because generally threads like this tend to make me really angry! BUT 'suffering' in this country is in NO way comparable to the suffering in Syria (as an example). It's a ridiculous comparison.

Charlie as bad as RJ?
Yes, he can be foul mouthed - but then so can MN.
Anyway- sorry for derail...

Ego

Nowhere near all of the people splashed all over our screens are "Refugees fleeing war torn countries"...

My personal view is that we should be focusing our aid on those in Syria so they don't have to leave their country in the first place.

I don't see the sense in rewarding those that have the money and ability to track through half a dozen safe countries to find one they like....