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To agree with Andy Burnham that it’s about time the middle classes took their fair share

1000 replies

Morningteacup2 · Yesterday 18:11

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/08/11/burnham-middle-class-areas-must-take-more-hotel-migrants/

Not a huge fan of Labour I must say, but this is well overdue!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
20
RosesAndPeoniesAndIrises · Yesterday 18:40

DonaldWheresMaTweezers · Yesterday 18:37

  • are you middle class?

No - working class middle earner.

  • do you live in a 90% + white area?

83% white according to Google

have you every called a working class person racist for complaining ...

If they use racist language, yes. Not if they present their views in a reasoned way.

(edited for formatting)

Edited

Thank you. You may now post your views on Burnham’s proposal 😉

Perhaps this could work?

ruffler45 · Yesterday 18:41

Can you define "fair share" first in terms that we can calculate what it is going to cost people...

Persephonia1966 · Yesterday 18:42

ruffler45 · Yesterday 18:41

Can you define "fair share" first in terms that we can calculate what it is going to cost people...

Edited

Define middle class

StarDolphins · Yesterday 18:42

Hoardasurass · Yesterday 18:22

Nope they all need to be deported immediately not housed and allowed to stay.
Nobody should have to put up with these men in their community

👏👏👏👏

Summerhillsquare · Yesterday 18:43

Hoardasurass · Yesterday 18:22

Nope they all need to be deported immediately not housed and allowed to stay.
Nobody should have to put up with these men in their community

"these men" and their wives and children will be paying our pensions, which I personally am all in favour of.

ruffler45 · Yesterday 18:44

Persephonia1966 · Yesterday 18:42

Define middle class

Define all the classes...just so I know where I and others sit..

AuntieBiotics · Yesterday 18:46

Well no, there needs to be an overhaul of the asylum processing system so that hotel accommodation isn't required in any area.

namechange6766333545544 · Yesterday 18:46

Summerhillsquare · Yesterday 18:43

"these men" and their wives and children will be paying our pensions, which I personally am all in favour of.

What makes you think that?

DonaldWheresMaTweezers · Yesterday 18:47

RosesAndPeoniesAndIrises · Yesterday 18:40

Thank you. You may now post your views on Burnham’s proposal 😉

Perhaps this could work?

He needs to prioritise reducing the tax burden on working people, plain and simple.

That's the only policy I care about. No politician will get my support on any other policy unless they address that first.

sunandpeonies · Yesterday 18:48

Live in a very middle/upper middle class area and we have large number of asylum seekers in nearby hotels.
All is not always as it’s reported.

BlackBean2023 · Yesterday 18:49

I work really, REALLY, hard to live in a nice area with green spaces, good facilities and good schools. If that makes me middle class then yes - but I grew up on a council estate.

Our area is 84% white British.

I’ve never called anyone racist for being anything other than racist.

I like living in an area where the majority of people align to similar views and values. I also have 2 daughters and I don’t want an influx of men - with different cultural expectations of how to treat women - in our lovely town.

Hoardasurass · Yesterday 18:51

Summerhillsquare · Yesterday 18:43

"these men" and their wives and children will be paying our pensions, which I personally am all in favour of.

What moves and children? You mean the ones they abandoned back home or the ones that dont exist.
These men need to go home

Persephonia1966 · Yesterday 18:52

Apart from anything else, a lot of stuff including housing asylum seekers was outsourced by the last government to private companies like G4S. Since it is in their interest to make a profit, said companies would look to take the maximum amount from the government and house the migrants in the cheapest areas possible. Inevitably this meant not so much "working class" areas but the areas with the most deprivation, the least public services and low employment opportunities. Usually post industrial areas like Stoke. This wasn't fair on the residents or the asylum seekers.

After that the last government started paying hotel owners to take asylum seekers, beginning with people from Afghanistan many of them families the government itself had extracted but had not plans to house. Eventually this spread into a general habit of housing people in hotels whilst deliberately not processing their claims in the hope (they actually expressly said this) that not processing claims would put of other people from coming. Not surprisingly this genius plan didn't work, the backlog of asylum seekers built up and hotels got filled. The government spent lots and many hotel owners and private contractors (some of them with links to the Tories) made lots of money

None of that is a great situation. It's also not the fault of asylum seekers themselves, or the much demonised mysterious "middle class" all of whom apparently live in white only areas and are the only ones who don't hate migrants.

On a slightly related tangent it's odd how many people on Mumsnet are simultaneously hardworking home owners in expensive areas who would be punished cruelly by inheritance tax, mansion tax or wealth taxes AND also opposed to immigration because they live in working class areas that have been affected by asylum seekers in ways the champagne quaffing middle classes could never understand.

RosesAndPeoniesAndIrises · Yesterday 18:53

Does anyone remember when a Stand Up To Racism group campaigned against plans to use an army base in Bicester for “asylum seekers”? Purely out of concern for the welfare of the “asylum seekers” you understand, not because they didn’t want hundreds of undocumented young men from countries with cultures and attitudes to women very different to our own, no, no ….
….https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czde627npepo

A crowd of people in a high street, with several banners and union flags flying

Protests held over asylum housing plan for Bicester MoD base

Two separate groups of protesters gather to oppose plans to use the facility for accommodation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czde627npepo

putupwhatever · Yesterday 18:54

I live in quite an isolated Yorkshire village and we are getting an open door asylum centre of 1500 single men right in the middle of our village of about 700. It feels like our community is collateral damage in a government policy to move people out of hotels. The scale feels so dispropotionate. Theres no right of reply as they are using emergency planning laws. No democratic process at all. The irony is it will cost millions to set up and not be in any way cheaper. It's all just smoke and mirrors. The village is a mix of some quite big houses and more affordable houses for our area. It's shit tbh.

putupwhatever · Yesterday 18:57

the only people laughing will be Serco or whoever runs it who will be £££££££££

Summerhillsquare · Yesterday 18:57

namechange6766333545544 · Yesterday 18:46

What makes you think that?

UK birthrate catastrophically low. We must import younger fitter people to do essential jobs and pay taxes.

hattie43 · Yesterday 18:57

The trouble is nowhere wants them . Not France and not here . I fear more civil unrest . Who wants to pay more and more taxes spent on this lot when everything is failing around us . They are a complete burden .

RosesAndPeoniesAndIrises · Yesterday 18:58

Summerhillsquare · Yesterday 18:43

"these men" and their wives and children will be paying our pensions, which I personally am all in favour of.

Are people still trotting out this line?

RosesAndPeoniesAndIrises · Yesterday 18:59

BlackBean2023 · Yesterday 18:49

I work really, REALLY, hard to live in a nice area with green spaces, good facilities and good schools. If that makes me middle class then yes - but I grew up on a council estate.

Our area is 84% white British.

I’ve never called anyone racist for being anything other than racist.

I like living in an area where the majority of people align to similar views and values. I also have 2 daughters and I don’t want an influx of men - with different cultural expectations of how to treat women - in our lovely town.

Thank you for answering my questions. So do you think they should be housed somewhere else? If so where? Or should the government be doing something to stop all these arrivals?

TheHateIsNotGood · Yesterday 19:01

Maybe revitalise the Rwanda idea?

TonTonMacoute · Yesterday 19:01

Starting with Islington...

5128gap · Yesterday 19:02

RosesAndPeoniesAndIrises · Yesterday 18:29

I often think with threads I’d like there to be an indicator system where certain demographics of posters have to br displayed if you wanted to post (so like on MIL threads, it would display if you were a MIL or DIL).

On this thread I’d like it to display

  • are you middle class?
  • do you live in a 90% + white area?
  • have you every called a working class person racist for complaining about the effects of mass immigration on their community?

I'm WC. We have an a hotel housing asylum seekers in my town. I have called WC people racist when their complaints about immigration have strayed into racism. Which is by no means every and all complaint. Some are thoughtful and considered. Others are ill informed malicious rants. I speak as I find.
I think asylum seekers should be housed in the areas best able to cope with the influx of demand on services, rather than straining those areas already struggling. I don't think rural communities are ideal because they lack infrastructure.
I couldn't care less if my town continues to house them or not, since we barely see them.
My only thoughts are that the decision of where to house them is made with due consideration to the needs of the local population, and the least impactful place selected. If that continues to be my town so be it.

NeverDropYourMooncup · Yesterday 19:02

RosesAndPeoniesAndIrises · Yesterday 18:29

I often think with threads I’d like there to be an indicator system where certain demographics of posters have to br displayed if you wanted to post (so like on MIL threads, it would display if you were a MIL or DIL).

On this thread I’d like it to display

  • are you middle class?
  • do you live in a 90% + white area?
  • have you every called a working class person racist for complaining about the effects of mass immigration on their community?
  1. No.
  2. No. 48%.
  3. Yes. Because it's the racists that do that.
SpottyPyjama · Yesterday 19:04

I live in a very middle class area and would happily welcome asylum seekers to the area. The problem is that any spare bit of land has already been snapped up by housing developers. Presumably if the government wants to set up homes for asylum seekers here it will cost them a lot more than it would in cheaper areas of the country, and then people would just complain about that. There would be complaints about the extra cost and complaints about immigrants living in nicer areas than British people.

People are too racist anti immigration to ever be content with arrangements made for people.

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