Cannot believe this bigotry

I can't believe someone this thread has suggested that affordable housing should be built on our golf courses! Football pitches? Parks? Cut down the woodlands? Prefabs on the North York Moors?

Unbelievable.

Chris Bryant; "If you see a migrant in the NHS he's likely to be treating you, not being treated."

So Mamark, he was one of those people you believe will deprive your grandchildren from the simple things in life ?

Yanis Varufackis on Question Time now, discussing the Syrian immigrants.

When I was in hospital for several weeks in March, agency nurses were everywhere and most were from overseas (going by their accents). Many travelled all over the Midlands from hospital to hospital and often didn't do two shifts in a row on the same ward. I don't know how they had the stamina. Goodness only knows how the NHS would survive without them.

Oh, sorry...

It was the consultants exact words,and he was Chinese.Or looked and sounded Chinese.

It's not actually clear from Marmark's posts whether the consultant referred to immigrants at all.

The quotation marks don't close, so that part of the post could have been the poster's thoughts on the subject, not the consultant's.

I would rather like to slap the consultant who Mamark spoke to, I feel so cross, he did mean the immigrants else why mention them ? Is he unaware if it wasn't for immigrants working in the NHS the NHS would collapse, stupid man

Jane10 I didn't say you did

I didn't say "what's the point". I posted those figures to illustrate a possible reason for some people not feeling very welcoming and being called bigoted.

Jane10 those homeless figures are for people with a roof over their head. Not necessarily in anything like suitable accommodation, but not living on the streets.

And for those of you saying what's the point of bringing refugees here when things are already so bad, well that's simply about feeling safe. Knowing your children won't get scabies (rife in the camps) and will be warm and dry as winter approaches.

And other Middle East and Muslim countries do have millions of refugees in camps living in tents. Saudi Arabia does not, but again should refugees be the ones to suffer because of this? After all, its human rights record is well known.

Yes, long term solutions need to be drawn up, but this is about a humanitarian crisis that needs something done now, not after 6 months of discussion.

Jane10, it is indeed a dreadful situation- but it is a political choice that was made to cause this. This lack of housing is politically made- not out of the blue. Going back to my previous post- it is also a question of expectations. In many countries, people do not necessarily want and expect detached houses with all mod cons.

I don't have a problem with local people saying resources are already at breaking point because it's probably the truth. I do have a problem with people saying refugees are not welcome in the area. There will be many people willing to help in different ways and I think this could be one of the ways communities can help. Instead of allocating scarce social housing properties, local authorities should be allowed to fund the cost of families in a range of accommodation as they do now? Queue jumping will just cause bad feeling and a decent roof over their heads is the most important thing in the early stages. Ease the refugees into the community.

Actually that's just England. There's a lot of homelessness in Scotland too.

Was on the news tonight that just under 67,000 families homeless in UK. 100,000 children homeless. How popular will the prospect of 20,000 refugees seem to those people? Not being bigoted. Its a dreadful situation all round.

Thank you,Rosequartz.

Thanks for those edifying figures Eloethan- really puts things in perspective.

Now, I am aware that the next comment may well not be well received. But in countries like Switzerland, most people live in flats- because everyone wanting to live in a house with a private garden, takes up massive amounts of land- and would et up all the countryside and rural land. Many of the UK's large cities are much much larger than other towns in Europe - not because of the size of the population, but the type of housing used. I live in a very large old house with quite a bit of land, so who am I to talki- but I chose to live out in the sticks where there is plenty of space. A choice.

Hope he has recovered with the right treatment Marmark1

I'm sorry but I think this sort of talk is alarmist and completely misrepresents the situation in Britain and in particular the claims that England is heading for a "standing room only" situation. You only have to fly over England to see how much open space there is but if you feel that is a simplistic and inaccurate argument - this was reported in The Huffington Post, City AM and other publications in 2013:

"With developers struggling to build enough houses in Britain to keep up with demand, Inside Housing blogger Colin Wiles estimated that England's golf courses take up 270,000 hectares, roughly equating to 2% of its 13.4 million hectares in land area........

"English golf courses use an amount of land that is equivalent to one fifth of England’s total built up area (10% of England is built upon) and could provide at least eight million homes," he wrote.

"Official figures from the UK's National Ecosystem Assessment indicate that around 10% of England's land is classified as urban, with most of it taken up by gardens, parks, roads and lakes. Just 2.27% of that is built upon and only 1.1% of it is used for homes.

There is, of course, the issue of health, education, transport and housing provision which is a concern to everybody. My feeling is that if these basic human needs were treated as a top priority of governments there wouldn't be a problem. People then say, "well, where's the money coming from?"

The Sunday Times Rich List, published in April 2015, shows the richest individuals to be:

Len Blavatnik £13.17 billion
Hinduja Brothers £13 billion
Galen and George Weston £11 billion
Alisher Usmanov £9.8 billion
Lakshmi Mittal £9.2 billion

It was reported that the collective wealth of Britain's richest people has more than doubled in the last ten years. A very different story from that of the average working person.

I don't know what their tax status is or how much tax they pay, but the top rate of tax, regardless of level of wealth, is 45%, the Conservatives having reduced the top rate from 50%.

Thank you,Granjura.Hes not in very good health,but he is better than he was then.It was in fact a urine infection,sounds trivial,but he was very poorly.They kept him in for 5 days.

Hope he is much better now, take care.

I am so sorry you went through this- but the NHS is in a bad way because the UK chooses to spend much less of its GDP on health care, and education- than other countries. That is a political decision, not the fault of the immigrants, really.

Two weeks ago,unfortunately,my husband was very poorly and admitted to hospital.He spent the first 8 hours sat in the corridor on a hard chair.When I told the consultant this,He said" don't believe anything to the contrary,the health service is a very bad way.Now I don't know why that is,and I'm not blaming it on immigration.But,it's a fact.

It's all going to be fine, Ana, they have plans to emotionally support elderly folks to downsize. There will be plenty of houses available.
(Goodness knows where we'll go, though.)

Someone needs to think of the practicalities, and the repercussions from some quarters if housing becomes suddenly available.

#everthepragmatist