Immigration programme on telly last night

[Mich the Tester]

I'm looking forward to the next episode where the fat farmer is being roasted on a spit.

I think you’ll need to switch over to one of the naughty channels for that.

[sweetandsour]

I thought that the point of the programme was to show that British workers were as capable and willing as their foreign counterparts.
The fact that 3 out of 4 workers didn't turn up for the first day of work thanks to "notes from their mums" demonstrates how lazy people can be.

This was the point that Frank Field, of all people, made on the Today programme yesterday.

The way that the benefits system currently operates means that the British workers think that they can turn their noses up at jobs such as these and that is a luxury that the country cannot afford at the moment.

[Mich the Tester]

This was the point that Frank Field, of all people, made on the Today programme yesterday.

The way that the benefits system currently operates means that the British workers think that they can turn their noses up at jobs such as these and that is a luxury that the country cannot afford at the moment.

Spoke with one of the local farmers last week and he said he’d been approached by the Dutch PVV for his vote, who are the anti-immigration party here in Holland. He told them that if they stop immigration supermarket chickens would cost 40 euro a go and fruit and veg would cost you more than your mortgage.

[Moscow Mule]

To be honest, I don't think they are comparing like for like in the program.

I'm sure Poland, Lithuania & Slovakia all have their fair share of scroungers and layabouts, but you don't see the BBC making TV programs about them.

What I thought was telling - the chippy bloke had spent the last 9 years working in Germany.

Those that blame anything but themselves for their situation deserve what they get.

[Mich the Tester]

I'm sure Poland, Lithuania & Slovakia all have their fair share of scroungers and layabouts, but you don't see the BBC making TV programs about them.

They have. Most of them lie around under railway bridges drinking methylated spirit and dying in the night, the rest join a neo nazi club and go around killing homeless people who live under bridges.

[rootsnall]

Of course, the editorial team could have carefully screened applicants to make sure that people who genuinely wanted to demonstrate ability to work were in the minority

I don't think they needed to do any screening, those willing and capable of doing a decent days work would not apply for an obvious setup.

If you give people a tulip education and thus little or no opportunity to earn anything above the minimum wage, and also pay them more than the minumum wage to do nothing and keep quiet , then what do you expect. Importing cheap labour from a less affluent country isn't solving the problem, it is making it worse.

[norrahe]

Spoke with one of the local farmers last week and he said he’d been approached by the Dutch PVV for his vote, who are the anti-immigration party here in Holland. He told them that if they stop immigration supermarket chickens would cost 40 euro a go and fruit and veg would cost you more than your mortgage.

It's the same for most of the farmers over here, they are very much reliant on labour from Eastern Europe as most local people will not take on their work as they see it as beneath them.

[TimberWolf]

I doubt anyone here over the age of 40 or so would be bringing more than minimum wage working in those fields and you'd be broken people long before retirement age. And even during that golden period, living on that wage would be miserable existence. The economics work out different for the young migrants with regard to tax and the buying power of their money abroad. The picking period highlighted was only 6 weeks, so the migrants must travel around a bit.

[Lumiere]

I'm sure Poland, Lithuania & Slovakia all have their fair share of scroungers and layabouts, but you don't see the BBC making TV programs about them.

Err .. here is one for starters http://www.bbc.co.uk/white/poles.shtml, I am sure I've seen more ..

[Clippy]

The guy in the restaurant was seriously thick.

When asked by a customer about a particular dish he said he didn't know and later on, after he had walked off in a strop, moaned about not being Indian so "how should I know what's in the food".

er, perhaps you could ask the chef.