If you're Welsh and voted Leave, Why?

[Cjamm]

I was really surprised by the Welsh vote, Wales has really benefited from being in the European Union e.g

Swansea University's new Bay Campus was only possible because of the £40 Million from the European Structural Funds which came from a finance package of £60 million from the European Investment Bank.

The National Waterfront Museum, which includes a gallery, exhibition and library, benefited from £3.7m of EU funds when it was constructed.

5.8m of EU funds was made available for Quadrant Intermodal Transport Centre, led by the City & County of Swansea, which replaced the outdated and rundown bus station.

£9.6m EU funds were invested as part of Neath Port Talbot Regeneration project which included schemes to help make improvements in and around the town centres as well as a purpose built Community Enterprise Centre.

1. When you voted did you not care/consider about the financial benefits Wales receives from the EU?
   

1. Do you think Westminister (that only cares about London/SE) will honestly make up the funds instead?
   

1. Was it really immigration and if so why? Was it fear of job loss/overcrowding or was it the refugee issue on the mainland. Do you really believe immigration can be capped/slowed down just because we're leaving the EU?
   

1. The EU army is not a legitimate answer, it doesn't exist & it never will!
   

1. Are you worried at all? This doesn't mean you regret your choice but are you worried about the economy or the possible breakup of Great Britian? Did you expect that Scotland/N.Ireland might leave because of the vote?

[BeyondTellingEveryoneRealFacts]

👍

[YetAnotherHelenMumsnet]

Hi all,

After a great many requests, we're moving the bulk of the referendum-related threads to the new board here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_

Many of you, understandably, want to discuss this subject at length and in detail - this seems a good way to simultaneously keep AIBU and Chat moving for those who don't wish to participate. Of course, the conversations will still appear in Active.

Thanks, all.

[downright]

The immigration numbers for Wales are pretty easy to find on the ONS website.

From the 2011 census, for Wales:
Pop. 3,063,456
EU 55,360
Non EU but Europe 4,519

Here

[waitinglistquery]

I read the section of that you linked to. Makes pretty depressing reading.

[waitinglistquery]

I think I hoped it wasn't true, Breakwindandfire because it's so sad to think of immigrant workers being exploited in that way :-(

[BreakWindandFire]

For the couple who asked about how I knew about deductions from wages for housing. I know some people within a local church who had to arrange a blanket drive for the immigrants because they were freezing within the tied accommodation. This was a couple of years ago though.

However a Welsh government report which covered Merthyr immigration did cover problems with salary deductions, tied accommodation and zero hours contracts. It's on P43+ of that report I linked.

That report also says that the 2011 census found that in Merthyr there were 1016 Polish born people, 293 Portuguese, and 194 Filipino (The Filipinos are all employed by the hospital). That's tiny numbers out of a population of about 70,000.

As for pressure on housing, Merthyr is the cheapest place to live in the UK. There are tons of estates and a lot of empty property.

[pickledpears]

I'm avoiding these threads now, it's a new week, time to see what the future has in store. I hope it's a better future for everybody. Only time will tell.

This thread has been a refreshing change, being able to debate and disagree without stooping to personal insults.

We all have our own reasons for voting how we did, we may not agree with them but it's important to respect each other's right to vote.

[waitinglistquery]

I take it back, it seems accommodation can be taken into account when calculating minimum wage

[StrangeLookingParasite]

It will make no difference to my family.

Wow, what an outlook.

[pickledpears]

Breakwondandfire, I did clarify in another
post that it was the highest rise in percentage.

Your comment on no pressure on housing did actually make me laugh. You are wrong.

Would also love to know where you had your information from regarding reductions for housing?

[waitinglistquery]

Breakwindandfire as far as I know it's illegal to make deductions from minimum wage for accommodation - where do you get that information from?

[waitinglistquery]

Merthye doesn't have the second highest level of immigration in the UK, either by numbers or percentage.

It had the second highest percentage increase in immigration which is not the same at all. Wales as a whole has a low level of immigration. see here

It would be tragic if the Welsh Leave vote was based on misconceptions like this.

[LoonieToony]

Terence=keyboard warrior
Probably meek and pathetic in RL

[tinytemper66]

I am sure once the 'immigrants' go 'back' that those in Merthyr will be queuing up to work in the meat factory!

[thatstoast]

It's not a shithole but otherwise I agree.

[BreakWindandFire]

I voted leave because Merthyr has the highest levels of immigration in Wales and second highest in the uk. The town was shit to start with, now with all the extra people and no extra services it's even worse.

I know Merthyr well. I was living there when kids from the Gurnos Estate stoned a Catholic priest for being a Paki. He was Maltese...

I decided to look up the actual stats from the National Assembly for Wales .

The population of Merthyr has actually declined 0.8%. So much for all those extra people swamping local services!

92.5% were born in wales, 6.2% in other areas of the UK. EU nationals make up 0.5% and non-EU 0.8% (I suspect the 0.8% are mostly highly paid consultants at Prince Charles Hospital!).

It's not got the highest level of immigration - it's got the highest percentage. Because it's relatively few new immigrants up from a base of bugger all.

Yes, there's a local factory which almost exclusively employs Poles and Bosnians. They are technically paid minimum wage, but live in tied third world accommodation (deducted from wages) and are bussed into the factory (deducted from wages). Local churches have had to supply workers with blankets to stop them freezing.

What's happened to the immigrants is a failure of UK employment law.

But to argue that Merthyr is somehow overrun with foreigners is rubbish (and those relatively few immigrants are actually working and paying tax). It's a shithole with a declining population. There is absolutely no pressure on housing and schools.

[BeyondTellingEveryoneRealFacts]

Or townie

[terencemagee]

I`ll say one more thing before I go. Do I know about chavs? I live in Essex!

[BeyondTellingEveryoneRealFacts]

It never even used to be 'chav' here it was 'blad' , til the word chav became so famous.

Anywho. People moan that thatcher nicked the schoolkids milk, and now they have done it to our kids. Meh.

[TheRealAdaLovelace]

I fucking hate the word 'chav' it is invariably used by some middle class twat in some attempt to dehumanise people who have less money and advantage than they do.

[TheRealAdaLovelace]

or in other words, disenfranchised and unemployed ex working class who are now demonised by the chattering classes?

[pickledpears]

Hmm Terence you seem to meet at least 3 out of 4.

[terencemagee]

TheRealAdaLovelace, a chav is another word for lout(talentless, brainless, bitter and aggressive). They´re all over England too, reckoned to be some 6 million of them. I´ve done my bit for Wales, now I´ll move to the Yorkshire fuckers who voted us out of Europe. Cheers to any like-minded friends!

[Cjamm]

I think things are about to get really interesting/terrifying, politically this is insane, we have so much to do, not a lot of time to do it & our political leaders have disappeared, Boris was off playing cricket today & has anyone actually seen Osbourne since Friday?

I understand the Welsh vote & other places like Cornwall, it was all they had left, they can't accept the status quo as it gives them nothing tangible, who cares about a museum or a road when you don't have a roof over your head. The Remain party let itself down, the EU does so much for the average citizen, it invests in the local market, funds social housing, creates opportunities for students, the remain campaign should have run with these points loud & clear, but they chose to be all doom & gloom, who would care about trade deals, the economy or the breakup of the U.K. When they're being told, Voting Leave = a control on immigration which = less pressure on schools/NHS & less competition for work, when that simply isn't true, any new deal with the EU will most likely include freedom of movement, which means we can't control immigration /stop anyone coming here from EU countries, nothing will change in regard to immigration.

[madein1995]

And by the way I disagree with how this thread is trying to get people to justify their votes, why should they justify themselves to anybody? They haven't done anything y using their vote in the way they wish and let's be honest, if the Welsh were the only people in the UK to vote leave we'd still be in the EU, considering the population of London alone is over double the population of Wales. If it were only Wales who voted leave we'd still e in the EU, plenty in England/Scotland/NI voted leave as well.

Perhaps Terence you educate yourself about Wales and the people that live there. And may I suggest you do that in ways other than reading newspapers and watching hideous 'reality' shows such as the Valleys, which do Wales no justice whatsoever.