To say that most people in the UK want illegal immigration to stop

[Sleepysleepycoffeecoffee]

I recently commented on a Facebook post to say the majority of British people are against illegal immigration. I was asked by several other users what survey I based that opinion on. I responded with the question ‘do you think most people want illegal immigration to continue then? Because if not, then surely they want it to stop?’ I didn’t receive any responses to that.
Without getting into any political arguments or name calling and giving no ifs, buts or reasons for your view, please vote as follows.

YABU - I want illegal immigration to continue.
YANBU - I don’t want illegal immigration to continue.

Raw materials that are food products. We consume what they make. Oil workers aren't bad. We do need fuels to keep us warm and to keep the light on.

It’s not just supermarkets; they’re on the hook for the fact that farmers aren’t able to command a fair price for the raw materials they supply into the value chain, despite supermarkets being profitable to the tune of billions per year.

Perhaps we need to ban supermarket profits until farmers are fairly paid without requiring taxpayer subsidies.

Sure, whatever; farmers don’t “feed us”.

A complicated globalised industry with deep supply chains does, into which farmers deliver raw materials.

Unless you’re putting whole sugar beets into your cake mix ?

You have completely derailed the thread which I’m sure was intentional. If I went back over historical posts I expect you do this regularly on any thread you don’t feel are representative of your own political views. Whilst I’m sure you feel it works you won’t be able to railroad the electorate at the polling station.

Lol.

Sainsbury's only made £242 million last FY
Tesco made £1.63 billion. If you actually look at their margins, especially after tax, it's super tiny.

Asda made a loss.

They feed us. Very funny you're saying "raw materials" and not what they actually are. Because if you said what they made, we all would know they make the food we eat.

@OmNomShivawhere do you want the produce that becomes food we eat to come from?

Probably in the suitcase of an immigrant?

Enjoy your bowl of rapeseeds.

Tuck in to your sugar beets.

Mmmmm, a delicious plate of unprocessed wheat seeds.

Why, with this maize feedstock is simply divine, Giles, you’re spoiling us rotten !

@OmNomShiva your post of 14.53 also discusses subsidies to farmers.

You say the government subsidises the billions in supermarket profits. Equally, one could say that subsidies help keep consumer food prices down - although it hardly feels that way at the moment - because we pay a lower % of income towards food than many in the Continent.

Profits are billions, because the scale of food purchases is so vast. But here are some net profit margins reported for 12 months to Spring, 2025:

Asda: pre tax loss of 599M

Morrisons: 16.2% owing to one off sale of petrol forecourts business

Sainsbury’s: under 1% (various figures)

Tesco: 2.3%

These are thin margins with the exception of the unusual situation at Morrisons

Those who seek to blame immigrants for the huge structural downsides of today’s form of capitalism and the effects of a rapidly ageing population are derailing the entire debate about how to tackle the issues we face.

Would you have preferred me to go along with the “immigrant bad” consensus I find not only false, but abhorrent ?

Billions divided by the number of stores or number of staff or number of customers comes down to a tiny amount. As others have said, profit margins are tiny for supermarkets. Trouble is people can't deal with big numbers. The average profit per square foot of a huge supermarket chain is comparable or less than the profit per square foot of a small independent convenience store. People need to stop getting obsessed with "big" numbers and start to think about and understand what they represent. Also, consider the dividends etc divided by the number of investors, including huge numbers of private individuals with small shareholdings, either directly or through pension schemes - again, the "profit" or dividend isn't particularly large when you consider the cost price of the shares!

Is this what you really think, or are you repeating the bullshit sold to you by those brainwashing you on behalf of the wealthy ?

This is a bit odd. But where do you propose food comes from? Ideally.

I find it abhorrent, too, but I am not sure a focus on capitalism is helpful. Especially one with so many debatable premises.

Why not start your own thread?

It HAS to come from farms. I’m not disputing that. But in order to get to our plates it should not require the degree of market interference and manipulation we see today. Farmers should get paid fairly for the raw materials they supply. Not get subsidised by tax revenues. It’s not sustainable, and we’re really starting to see that bite.

Thank you! A ray of sense on here!

Ok just to follow your suggestion do you mean food prices need to go up a lot?

If you mean you don’t want profits I guess that’s an option. You could open a no profit food outlet to keep costs lower but more go to the farmer.

The profits are in @poetryandwinepost. CoL is high already so I have no issue with supporting farmers and trying to keep some food security.

I don’t mind the segue into bigger picture stuff, it’s all linked. But I think it’s interesting no one has said yes population can keep going up.

That means we all agree it shouldn’t? And there will need to be another proposal rather than always increasing the population.

Haha, they knew they were losing the immigration debate, then tried hating on the elderly for having houses, that didn't go down well so now they've segued into rambling on about food production! What's next?

Globalised capitalism looked to developing countries to provide cheap deregulated labour. That cheap labour has been exploited in many ways - not only in the workplace but through geopolitical influences enacted on developing nations to force their markets to align with western interests.

That was exerted through both economic and military means at great cost to those local populations.

The moden capitalist requirement for infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is actually impossible. Something or someone will be exploited to achieve it. Either the people I mentioned above, or our natural environment - being polluted on an unprecedented planetary scale.

The beneficiaries are the wealthy vested interests who profit from this exploitative form of capitalism. The victims are primarily those in the developing world, who bear the brunt of the violence and exploitation. But it’s not only them - it’s us too, because globalisation enables turbo-capitalists to drive down wages by hiring globally or importing cheap labour.

Blaming the immigrants, the refugees, the asylum seekers isn’t fair - they’re as much a victim of this system as we are - probably more so to be honest.

The wealthy oligarchs who benefit from this system are delighted that we blame other victims, and each other. Anything but blaming them. They use our anger to enable political forces to gain power who stand purely on THEIR side.

Trump’s Republican Government benefits ONLY the billionaires, and Trump’s cronies.

British Conservative party and their unhinged Overton window shifting alter-ego Reform UK are the same.

Even the UK’s nominally left-wing Labour party is part of this - it’s sort of in the centre but now appears right-wing because the Overton window has moved so far to the right, they perceive the electorate’s dissatisfaction, they understand that to keep votes they have to follow suit and enact policies which punish fellow victims of globalised capitalism, to hang desperately on to shifting voter sentiment - paid for and delivered by the ultra wealthy, who want to extract every last cent from our pockets before it all collapses into climate change driven war & global unrest.

Oh Lordy me, you have no idea.

Yes, all those pensioners who worked all their lives and paid their taxes and NI and helped rebuild our country after WWII are definitely hogging resources and cost far too much to look after - put them in some high rises to keep you happy.

As for farmers, why do you think the rest of the world should have its land and resources to feed us? Who needs rainforests anyway? Have you ever heard of good security? Let’s increase it, not remove it altogether. Do you know how vulnerable it makes us as a country?

You sound young - you’ll provably change your views when you get to be an old person and some young socialist wants to take all you’ve worked for away.

you have access to Google.

I prefer carrots

Those pensioners paid for the care of those who came before them.

We pay for those who are now pensioners.

So do you. If you want to contribute, the onus is on you to not submit illegible bollocks.