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

I find all sorts of things offensive, mainly people saying when things should be deleted.

I imagine they will delete these threads because what Ratcliffe said has already been judged racist and condemned widely. Am sure there are some who agree with him, and the mods don’t want to open up that whole can of worms. Could get nasty very quickly.
A serious discussion about levels of immigration doesn’t start by throwing offensive remarks around, it starts with looking at political solutions which up till now have been sadly lacking, and that is mainly due to Brexit, which is why we need to renew ties with the EU and work out a sensible policy, with legal routes and migrants stopped in European countries they first enter to be processed. This will stop small boats for sure.
But if people just want to say something offensive I am all in favour of the mods deleting threads like this.

He lives in a "tax haven colony" 😂 and does not pay any let alone a fair share of taxes himself 🤨

Grandmabatty 10.01 👍

Radcliffe is an emigrant, ie an immigrant to Monaco himself- to avoid paying taxes in UK- in fact anywhere in the world as Monaco is a tax free haven. He has no high moral ground. Plus he got all his facts wrong, not only on increase in population size figures, but also number of people on benefits and inference that immigrants are predominantly claiming benefits. Radcliffe has not apologised for any of that of course, solely that he is sorry if some people were offended by the "choice language" he used. DARVO- i.e. minimising the offence he caused and failing to take any accountability for his own values and actions.

Radcliffe is currently lobbying for FURTHER state aid from the UK and the EU to keep afloat his sprawling business empire yet has £billions of his own money, currently ranked as seventh richest UK person, worth an estimated £17 billion and lives in a tax haven. He has already received euros800 million from UK and EU governments in recent years o help his refineries and chemical plans due to downturn for the industry.

Aside from Sate Pension benefits the majority of UK benefits are claimed by UK and Irish residents. Plus many of Universal Credit benefit claimants do of course work but receive low wages/ have high housing costs.

Perhaps Radcliffe himself could make a contribution to UK by paying tax to help society? No- well perhaps he could instead use his own fortune instead of asking the UK for handouts to keep his business empire afloat and make more profits for him? No- well perhaps he could sell his companies, retire, enjoy his huge fortune and stop making divisive, racist comments about the UK? No- pigs might fly.

I agree with Wyllow too. It could be said that you can’t have an economy where the wealthy squirrel their money away in tax havens.

Opal

Caleo

Grandmabatty

It's easy to see where Reform get their followers!
I have no time for anyone who has a multi national football team rabbiting on about 'colonisation' while he himself lives in Monaco to avoid paying tax. Hardly the action of a loyal Brit. In addition, he closed the local refinery where I live, despite appeals to encourage a local buy out. Hes made my son in law as well as hundreds of others redundant. So forgive me if I consider him a grade A shit

I am with you, Grandma B. Moreover if anyone cares to read his 'apology' , they will see a classic example of a travesty of apology .

Reform supporters support fascism.

Well, that didn't take long did it?

"If you support Reform, you're a fascist." says Caleo. Typical left wing b*****x.

What I support is a strong economy, controlled immigration, a fair, honest, hardworking and lawful society, a functioning and effective NHS and for my country's history and culture to be respected and protected. If that makes me a fascist, then so be it.

Thanks ,Opal, for naming me "typically left wing". So true.

Apart from the horrible racism of his remarks, he was actually 13 million out with his figures. If he has to exggerate the figures, he can't have much faith in his arguments. He himself is an immigrant, living permanently in Monaco to avoid paying tax in the UK. Immigrants in the UK contribute large amounts of money to the UK taxbase as well as the work they do for which there are simply not enough British citizens of working age.

I agree with Wyllow3 and I think Jim Ratcliffes comments are deliberately divisive. I understand he has brought a lot of wealth into the country but it seems hypocritical to make such remarks from his tax haven in Monaco.

Caleo

Grandmabatty

It's easy to see where Reform get their followers!
I have no time for anyone who has a multi national football team rabbiting on about 'colonisation' while he himself lives in Monaco to avoid paying tax. Hardly the action of a loyal Brit. In addition, he closed the local refinery where I live, despite appeals to encourage a local buy out. Hes made my son in law as well as hundreds of others redundant. So forgive me if I consider him a grade A shit

I am with you, Grandma B. Moreover if anyone cares to read his 'apology' , they will see a classic example of a travesty of apology .

Reform supporters support fascism.

Well, that didn't take long did it?

"If you support Reform, you're a fascist." says Caleo. Typical left wing b*****x.

What I support is a strong economy, controlled immigration, a fair, honest, hardworking and lawful society, a functioning and effective NHS and for my country's history and culture to be respected and protected. If that makes me a fascist, then so be it.

Well said, Grandmabatty!

Can we remind ourselves that 'free speech' includes the freedom to criticise and object to what has been said.

Ratcliffe's comments haven't been removed, there has been no attack on free speech.

I deplore them.

He has been backed by Farage, who seemed more Statesmanlike on TV to-day.
I think Ratcliffe was right in the remark that to do what you believe is the right thing often means hard decisions.

Grandmabatty

It's easy to see where Reform get their followers!
I have no time for anyone who has a multi national football team rabbiting on about 'colonisation' while he himself lives in Monaco to avoid paying tax. Hardly the action of a loyal Brit. In addition, he closed the local refinery where I live, despite appeals to encourage a local buy out. Hes made my son in law as well as hundreds of others redundant. So forgive me if I consider him a grade A shit

I am with you, Grandma B. Moreover if anyone cares to read his 'apology' , they will see a classic example of a travesty of apology .

Reform supporters support fascism.

paddyann54

They aren,t ALLOWED to work!
There are many who would love to work but in their “wisdom” the clowns in Westminster decide to keep them in hotels going quietly mad with nothing to do.
There are many asylum seekers who do volunteer work when they are able to move freely
Why can’t you just see PEOPLE instead of all this horrible divisive rubbish that spills from your mouths,we all came from somewhere and most of us were .
I am thankful that I don’t know anyone in real life with these attitudes towards fellow human beings

Because their behaviours tell a different story.

Jim Ratcliffe did not apologise, he apologised and stated he was sorry if people were offended by the words he used. He did not apologise for the message he gave.
We do have alot of people on benefits, but most are not people coming into the country.

They aren,t ALLOWED to work!
There are many who would love to work but in their “wisdom” the clowns in Westminster decide to keep them in hotels going quietly mad with nothing to do.
There are many asylum seekers who do volunteer work when they are able to move freely
Why can’t you just see PEOPLE instead of all this horrible divisive rubbish that spills from your mouths,we all came from somewhere and most of us were .
I am thankful that I don’t know anyone in real life with these attitudes towards fellow human beings

fancythat

Does anyone, still, in this day and age, still think people are complaining about the immigrants here legally?
Really?

It is like Brex it all over again.
Took about 6 years , by my reckoning, before some people understood.

Yes, they are, of course. Jim Ratcliffe for one. It’s very likely that the people he is talking about will not be illegal immigrants, they will be people who choose to live in areas where there are others from the same culture there.

We can't carry on supporting so many people on benefits. Why do some people think this is acceptable?
It's bad for all of us.
More and more people are arriving here with no means of supporting themselves.
The legal immigrants who are working here are of course crucial. We can't do without them.

Does anyone, still, in this day and age, still think people are complaining about the immigrants here legally?
Really?

It is like Brex it all over again.
Took about 6 years , by my reckoning, before some people understood.

Thanks for that Phillip, I do appreciate GN trying their best to support discussion, whole thread deletions concern me but thanks for the explanation.

Being worried about sky high levels of immigration and people not working and on benefits isn’t being ‘a grumbler’.
The government is very concerned about it too.

Sago

“The owner of one of the world's largest chemical companies, Ineos, said: “You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in.”

I totally agree with him.

Although I would go as far as to use the word invaded rather than colonised.

True dat......and even more so when we all know (whether we use it ourselves or no) that AI is going to remove a lot of jobs and so there may well be more people genuinely on benefit against their will (been there done that myself - back in the 1980s - when things started changing so much for office jobs like I do/did).

It is asking a lot from a Welfare State to support those genuinely unemployed, everyone else claiming benefit, lots of others claiming benefit who've never paid in in the first place (to use my fathers sentiment of many years back - "Whilst you are still a child then I am paying in for what you get, then when you are an adult then you will pay in yourself for what you get". Someone has to pay in - and the rich often do their best to exempt themselves from that equation. That was a very simple way of explaining how things are supposed to work - ie "give and take" and not all "take take take".

Wyllow3

1960srelic

I agree with Wyllow. I've seen many health professionals in recent years and almost all are immigrants. I'm very grateful to all of them.

I had a recent hospital stay and cannot express my gratitude enough for the kindness that many recent incomers have especially I have noticed respect for older people becuase in their culture of origin families do look after their own, however poor they are.
Also enjoyed some conversations about similarities and differences of culture. Life is full of interest if you are curious, not a grumbler.

I don’t think anybody on here is concerned about NHS staff coming here to work legally *Wyllow3”.

My friend’s Mum was a nurse who came here in the 50s legally from St Kitts in the West Indies. Her husband also came to work. She came because she was invited to and she left my friend’s Mum and brother with her parents. After a couple of years she had saved enough to bring her kids over and they are still here. The hospital where my kids were born had a very high percentage of West Indian nurses and midwives.