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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I would love someone to define to me what 'we look after our own first' means??

178 replies

SnipeBird · 07/01/2017 22:07

Whenever I have political or brexit driven discussions this is a constant arguement thrown back at me - and genuinely I'd love to know what it means? Does it mean those who pay taxes here (includes people here and abroad, but not those on benefits maybe?), does it mean if you live here (all expats are out then), does it mean if you're British? (What does that mean? I'm half English, half German?), does it mean if you have a passport (well my 2yr old ds is out?)
What does it actually mean, who are 'our own'?

OP posts:
NathanBarleyrocks · 12/01/2017 09:38

UncontrolledImmigrant Are you an immigrant or someone completely unaffected by our immigration crisis?

I bet anything you are one of the above.

38cody · 12/01/2017 10:01

Tell me, how did these immigrants manage to evict people from their houses so as to take their place? It sounds terrible

By arriving with children and registering as homeless and therefore taking priority on local authority housing lists.

NathanBarleyrocks · 12/01/2017 10:22

Exactly. Which is why we need a points system. Unfortunately it won't be retrospective.

38cody · 12/01/2017 10:58

We have a points system in my borough but most points are gained from being homeless with children and no family here so it doesn't help to get an affordable home in the are you grew up and have roots - it's just not possible anymore, well not in London anyway.

Twogoats · 12/01/2017 11:19

Saying that someone is 'racist' because they said "we should put our own first", says more about the person shouting 'racist', in my opinion.

scottishdiem · 12/01/2017 12:07

"Saying that someone is 'racist' because they said "we should put our own first", says more about the person shouting 'racist', in my opinion."

Who is "our own" in this context that isnt racist (or perhaps xenophobic) though? My DP is black and from Zimbabwe. I am pretty sure that any use of the term "our own" does not include my DP. Does "our own" cover the descendents of slaves (some black people in Liverpool can trace their ancestry back to the massive slave trade there)? Does "our own" cover the people we brought into this country after WW!!? Does "our own" cover children who were born in this country to parents who live and work here?

Does "our own" cover the countries whose resources we plundered and whose cultures still influence our own?

Who is "our own"?

Twogoats · 12/01/2017 12:16

@Scottish

It's not a phrase I have ever said. I wasn't commenting on the phrase; I was commenting on people's flippant reaction to it.

38cody · 12/01/2017 12:33

It's open to interpretation isn't it and can only really be explained case by case by the individual using it.
For me, in a national context - it means those who live here in the U.K. as their permanent residence.
I do believe that we have too many economic migrants here now and I do firmly believe that the mass immigration we've witnessed over the last 20 years has had a negative impact on housing, schools and our precious NHS.

38cody · 12/01/2017 12:49

*LaurieMarlow.

In other countries, people toil too probably work a damn site harder than many here yet they don't get an opportunity to 'pay into' a system like this. They still pay taxes though.

Why should you get greater benefits from your hard work and taxes than they do? Accident of birth, nothing more or less. There's no underlying justification for that, imo. We're just lucky.*

LaurieMarlows view on the NHS
Top marks for most stupid post Laurie. So now that we've established that we are lucky to reside on a country with a good health system set up we are are going to treat the whole world are we? And the money to do that is coming from ... erm ...really? Stop spouting teenage ideology - is expect this from my 14yr old with a new political fire on her belly but I presume you are an adult?

Bambambini · 12/01/2017 13:01

Bambambini I am absolutely horrified at what happened to you. I would be up in arms if I was you. And to all the lefties on here, no, I am not being sarcastic.

Well it wasn't horrific or that dramatic and I wasn't tempted to be up in arms. But if you have a town or village where folk have went to a school, have a history wth that school and expect like everyone else that your kids will continue at this school - it's hard not to notice when things change - especially if it's due to a sudden influx to the area. I think that's just human nature.

BertrandRussell · 12/01/2017 13:28

"So how do you think they got in, bambambini?"

You still haven't said.

Manumission · 12/01/2017 13:59

Bamb isn't alleging conspiracy is she? She's just saying that the demographics of her area changed and as a result school admissions got more competitive. She's not even complaining about it. Or is she? Confused

BertrandRussell · 12/01/2017 14:06

Bambambini said that she missed out on a school place at a school which had a faith criterion she met to people who lived further away than she did. I was wondering what admissions criterion allowed this to happen.

Manumission · 12/01/2017 14:09

Well probably the faith one. That seems a reasonable assumption.

BertrandRussell · 12/01/2017 14:19

But the faith criterion. So nobody living further away should get a place. And she said they did. So I asked on what grounds.

BertrandRussell · 12/01/2017 14:24

Sorry- that should read "but she meets the faith criterion".

Manumission · 12/01/2017 14:25

Well there are normally different levels of qualification by faith in a school admissions policy (denomination, baptism, regularity of attendance, parish of attendance) and where more DC qualify under a criterion than there are places, distance from home isn't necessarily the tie-breaker. Then of course there are medical and social needs etc which trump all else.

It all sounds quite plausible to me but you wouldn't know quite what had happen d without reading the specific policy and auditing the admissions roll. I'm not sure what the scepticism is in aid of anyway.

Manumission · 12/01/2017 14:29

It's not as though bamb is recruiting for UKIP.

She just said she felt a brief pang and can understand why other people sometimes regret change a bit.

Pangs and slight regret are nothing to worry about. People adjust after a while.

SnowmaggedonAgain · 12/01/2017 14:29

To answer op I think you should ask the person using the phrase. Other interpretations will be mind reading!

BertrandRussell · 12/01/2017 14:32

The concern is that anyone so inclined reading bambambini's posts might well take away the impression, which many people already have anyway, that immigrants get priority for
public services. I am sure she wouldn't want to give that impression so it would be a good idea for her to clear it up.

Manumission · 12/01/2017 14:37

That would be a bit of a leap from what she actually said Bert.

Maybe someone who had never wrangled with a complex admissions policy could not get the context though (?)

BertrandRussell · 12/01/2017 15:23

"That would be a bit of a leap from what she actually said Bert."

No it wouldn't. She said that she lives across the road from the school. She fulfills the faith criteria. But people who have moved into the area and live further away from the school got places at the
school and she didn't. in the vast majority of cases there are not "degrees" of faithness. And even if there were, it would be quite difficult for someone new to the country to have gained extra"faith" points. So I think it needs to be clarified.

BertrandRussell · 12/01/2017 15:26

And somebody has already said they were up in arms and disgusted by the case.....

Manumission · 12/01/2017 15:52

Some people are looking for things to get up in arms about quite honestly.

But a heirarchybalong the lines of;
Regular attendees of X church
Regular attendees of other Christian churches
Baptised members of X church
Baptised members of other Christian churches
Regular attendees at any place of organised religion recognised by Y body
Children of any other family willing to accept the Christian ethos blah blah blah

Is pretty standard. Sometimes with other twiddly bits like specific preferred parishes or a second semi-regular level of attendence thrown in.

Nataleejah · 12/01/2017 15:53

nataleejah's list is interesting. I wonder how many people would consider single parents not to be "our own"?

Take anybody who has a grievance against the system and they will point fingers at someone "less deserving" of certain things.