I deplore Jim Ratcliffe's words. (owner of Man U)

MT62

LizzieDrip

Unfortunately the High Street is unrecognisable now compared to even 10 years ago

Is that the fault of immigrants?

I would say Tories, Covid & Labour.
Five have closed on our high street in the last 3months

I'd say that it's down to Amazon and out of town shopping centres with huge car parks..

LizzieDrip

^Unfortunately the High Street is unrecognisable now compared to even 10 years ago^

Is that the fault of immigrants?

I would say Tories, Covid & Labour.
Five have closed on our high street in the last 3months

Just a thought. If we are ever faced with having to defend ourselves and I sincerely hope it will never happen, we will be thankful for the many immigrants who have chosen to make their lives here. If we had to rely on white British families to provide young people for the military we would struggle, just as we would struggle without the people from immigrant communities who currently work in our hospitals, care facilites, schools and kitchens etc etc. We need to focus on processing asylum seekers so we can either send them home or allow them to work then perhaps they will be seen as the asset that they could be. fwiw, the Hinduja family came here as immigrants, are British citizens and unlike Ratcliffe have chosen to live in the UK and pay taxes here tbh I'm more interested in their opinion than his.

LizzieDrip

^Unfortunately the High Street is unrecognisable now compared to even 10 years ago^

Is that the fault of immigrants?

Please do not put words into my post that were not there.

I have no idea if the numerous Vape Shops, Mobile Phone Shops (and I do not mean Apple, O2 or EE) and similar are owned and/or operated by immigrants as I had no need to visit them.

What we did observe were the amount of PCSO’s and Street Wardens which were visible.

I stayed with my daughter for a couple of nights this week. Her local area is busy and thriving with a multi-racial community and it is a pleasure to visit. She's able to buy all her grocery locally including fish and meat together with a vast variety of foods from across the world. I love going out to eat there, this time we had good tapas pre-theatre and an amazing Moroccan brunch. I've eaten Indian street food, Thai, Bangladeshi, Vietnamese etc etc on visits in cafes and restaurants almost always with locals from that community. My DD works with a big range of Nationalities and has friends who would be classed as "immigrants". She and I celebrate the diversity we have in the UK, perhaps because we were both born in a big city with a diverse population so we saw people with different ethnicities as neighbours rather than a threat.

Wyllow3 Diwali is a Hindu festival not Muslim? The only objections to it in my area were concerning the fireworks, which many want banned completely for all occasions.

Unfortunately the High Street is unrecognisable now compared to even 10 years ago

Is that the fault of immigrants?

Our high streets need to be improved. Full of charity shops, run down. They make people think that is the true state of the country ( which it isn’t). And get rid of those scruffy Chinese made flags everywhere. Where my partner lives the high streets looks so shabby ( probably because of high rental fees?) and yet the side streets are full of quirky little shops.

petra

Opal

Visit any big city in the UK - colonies, communities, no go areas, or whatever you want to call them, are in EVERY SINGLE ONE. Proof enough for me.

Rubbish 🤦🏼‍♀️ I know my city very well ( Southend on sea) I can assure you that we have no no go areas.

There might not be any no go areas but there are definitely streets where it’s uncomfortable for a lone female to be after dark.

Unfortunately the High Street is unrecognisable now compared to even 10 years ago.

Lizziedrip 10.26- the adverse impact on our economy of reduced immigration is not apparently of any great concern to many it appears. Instead there is more concern about shops signs in foreign languages in cities here in the UK. Maybe some have not travelled much to cities and large towns in other countries- e.g. Benidorm, Buggiba, Berlin, Munich etc and think the UK is some sort of outlier. Bizarre.

You will find more fish and chip shops- all days breakfast establishments etc with signs in English in many parts of Benidorm and Buggibba because there is a market. Same in the UK. You are not obliged to frequent such establishments.

I think what some of us are worried about is that it's not just shops etc we're talking about - but I've now seen quite a number of videos appearing up on YouTube of groups of people praying in our streets (not of the Christian variety) and blocking our traffic. I know if I were living in a city where I saw a group of men kneeling in prayer on one of our roads I'd keep right on walking - because streets by definition are for walking or driving on and not praying on. I've also seen groups of men walking along on what appeared to be a religious event of some description bare-chested and beating themselves and I would find that worrying to be near to - and also carry right on walking going wherever I was going. Right now - my feeling is that I want to ask people in the vicinity "Is that actually true? Really happening?" but I have the suspicion it is true. Certainly some of those videos definitely didn't look like AI to me...they looked real...

We don't expect our streets to have those things happening on them - an odd few Christian demonstrations maybe, Christmas switching on of light, a street market - that type of thing = yes we do expect that. But some of the stuff videod that is apparently happening on our streets = eek! Really???

I don't know whether it's true or no that multi-faith rooms set aside some places are being monopolised by one faith - and, if I wanted to use one for some quiet reflection = I would do so - even if there were people in there anyway and I could see it was all men. I'd think "for everyone" and in I'd go.

I think this is part of what is worrying some of us...

Good news for Mr Ratcliffe and the ‘we can’t go on like this’ brigade:

“Net migration in the UK is forecast to fall sharply to or near zero in 2026, driven by strict visa policies, reduced student arrivals, and high emigration. Following a peak of over 900,000 in 2023, net migration is expected to drop significantly, with experts suggesting it could hit zero or become negative by the end of 2026.”

The not so good news:

“Economic Consequences:
Experts, including from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), warn that zero net migration could lead to a smaller economy, with GDP potentially 3.6% lower by 2040.”

Oh well, never mind, eh … at least there’ll be fewer ‘foreigners’ here” so Mr Ratcliffe et al can stop worrying!

PamelaJ1 from your post just above at 5.33am, you seem to contradict yourself. Your are in a totally Chinese area, and dont seem to have a problem

"At the moment I am staying in an area of Sydney that could be Hong Kong. You can hear Cantonese all over the place, it doesn’t seem to be a no go area. They are getting ready for Chinese New year. Kung Hei Fat Choy everyone".

I don't have problems with Diwali celebrated in areas in my town where there are aa cluster of people of Muslim origin, neither do as far as I know in areas of London there are problems where there are large clusters of people of Jewish origin celebrating Hanukkah, and so on.

So what is your beef?

Is it simply that unlike say living in areas of London, people have always been used to incomers, "clusters" keeping to their traditions:
many posters here not only have not experienced that, but enjoy being able to shop and eat "internationally".

As for "No go" its silly to deny that there are some "white" areas which are pretty clearly "no go", they just happen to eat fish and chips or Yorkshire puddings however much crime and drugs are in the area!

Ratcliffe is not the only immigrant who pontificates from his new country, about conditions in the UK.
If you care about the UK, stay here and pay your taxes, same as us.

Basgetti

Apple3pie

Those who agree with Ratcliffe, stop to think for a minute and see who you are supporting:

Ratcliffe is a multibillionaire who moved to Monaco to avoid paying tax in the UK. He's not contributing, quite the opposite: British taxpayers paid £70 million to bail out his firm Ineos. Yet, he's pointing fingers at people who get a few hundred pounds in benefits because they either can't afford to live on their abysmal wages or are so ill that they are unable to work for a living. He says immigrants are colonising Britain while he is an immigrant himself, just in Monaco.

Ratcliffe and his rich mates want us divided. They pit the youth against pensioners, the British born against immigrants, the middle class against the poor. All the while the super-rich is hoarding more and more money and all the power.

Absolutely, this. Anyone who moves to a tax haven has no business whatsoever commenting on the lives of people reliant of benefits (the majority of whom are British born). Approximately 1 million immigrants are in receipt, 700,000 born in Europe. Most are also working.

I think there is a difference between speaking out from a position of hypocrisy- ie I'll keep my money to myself thanks and go and live where all the shop signs and language is foreign, but I'll still put my racist ten pennoth in because I believe in free speech bla bla blah, and someone whose local high street has been taken over by endless rows of garishly lit Turkish barber shops.
However, I get the impression that plenty of people living in localities like this would love to have the money to go live in a glamorous place and hang out with racist rich people whilst commenting on how terible things are back home.

fancythat

^There are entire areas of the UK where the shop signs are all in foreign languages^

You can tell, even by this thread, that people dont realise that.
They think their own little area is "typical" of what is going on elsewhere.
So therefore, things cant possibly be different elsewhere.

That happens all the time when there are discussions on , well just about anything.
GP surguries, state of the post office, hospital waiting list, how courteous the staff are in..., etc

Those areas are up there on Youtube videos. I've seen a noticeable number of videos up there where I can only tell it's in Britain because of the street signs and maybe a rare shop I recognise (ie a chain shop). I honestly wouldnt know it was my country if I'd not seen those street signs and maybe one of our buses driving along.

fancythat

^There are entire areas of the UK where the shop signs are all in foreign languages^

You can tell, even by this thread, that people dont realise that.
They think their own little area is "typical" of what is going on elsewhere.
So therefore, things cant possibly be different elsewhere.

That happens all the time when there are discussions on , well just about anything.
GP surguries, state of the post office, hospital waiting list, how courteous the staff are in..., etc

We have some great food shops from other nations. Eastern Europe, Italian, West African. Our post office has a good Indian food section. Have found some really tasty, different foods.

^ If it takes a footballer to state the obvious, what does that say about our useless government?^

It says they have a different agenda.
Whatever that agenda might be.

There are entire areas of the UK where the shop signs are all in foreign languages

You can tell, even by this thread, that people dont realise that.
They think their own little area is "typical" of what is going on elsewhere.
So therefore, things cant possibly be different elsewhere.

That happens all the time when there are discussions on , well just about anything.
GP surguries, state of the post office, hospital waiting list, how courteous the staff are in..., etc

Apple3pie

Those who agree with Ratcliffe, stop to think for a minute and see who you are supporting:

Ratcliffe is a multibillionaire who moved to Monaco to avoid paying tax in the UK. He's not contributing, quite the opposite: British taxpayers paid £70 million to bail out his firm Ineos. Yet, he's pointing fingers at people who get a few hundred pounds in benefits because they either can't afford to live on their abysmal wages or are so ill that they are unable to work for a living. He says immigrants are colonising Britain while he is an immigrant himself, just in Monaco.

Ratcliffe and his rich mates want us divided. They pit the youth against pensioners, the British born against immigrants, the middle class against the poor. All the while the super-rich is hoarding more and more money and all the power.

Absolutely, this. Anyone who moves to a tax haven has no business whatsoever commenting on the lives of people reliant of benefits (the majority of whom are British born). Approximately 1 million immigrants are in receipt, 700,000 born in Europe. Most are also working.

The year of the Fire Horse, happy lunar New Year.

It is very natural to want to live with and among those who are similar to oneself. Colonies are formed. Nothing wrong with that as long of those who have formed those colonies have come to this country with every intention of embracing our attitudes and becoming truly British.
They can keep their religion as long as their beliefs don’t clash with ours. For example if they want to eat Halal meat then so be it. I don’t and don’t expect to have to Google to see if my local supermarket is selling it. Just try it, it’s very confusing!

Many races have come here and settled very happily and just got on with it, it’s only relatively recently that we have had the sort of immigration that has caused us the problems and instilled the uneasy feelings that seem to abound now.
I don’t understand why we don’t just give contracts to those we need to come and work here. We were an expat family and when dad’s contract ended we left, persona non grata immediately.
When a couple of women went shopping on their way home from tennis, in their tennis gear, and had forgotten for a moment they were in a Muslim country they were arrested and, I believe, were deported. They didn’t obey the rules.

I think that the problem here is that we seem to bend over backwards to accommodate our immigrants and avoid upsetting them. I wonder if this was what Mr. Ratcliffe was trying to say?
At the moment I am staying in an area of Sydney that could be Hong Kong. You can hear Cantonese all over the place, it doesn’t seem to be a no go area. They are getting ready for Chinese New year. Kung Hei Fat Choy everyone.

Honestly...this sort of thread really brings out the ostriches on this site. In recent years, immigration has got out of control and there are far too many people living in this country. That is a fact. Currently, the different origins of the immigrants is causing conflict between the different ethnic groups. We can't carry on like this. If it takes a footballer to state the obvious, what does that say about our useless government?

www.facebook.com/reel/2035701016972119

Shakespeare on "strangers" 400 years ago.

Ian McKellen

a u tube short

(switch the sound on at the top)

Well known shop signs in foreign languages across the UK and other countries- Ikea (Sweden) , Zara (Spain) Adidas ( Germany) H@M (Sweden) , Uniqlo ( Japan)....