Ooops: Britain opens its doors to 3.5 million visitors from eastern Europe

[Joe Black]

That is not what I said. Gazprom is a political arm of the Russian govt and any attempt that it makes to buy any UK company should be stopped. This is what govts should be doing-they should be policing the rules of business not running services. We are part of the EU and the deal is that our labour markets are open to all. I am not saying that we should open our doors to workers from outside the EU at all. There are business opportunities in all sorts of areas in eastern Europe (from estate agencies, recruitment agencies, IT etc etc). there is nothing to stop us Brits from setting up in Hungary for example.

I think you'll find that in a lot of EU and other countries that, certainly there are opportunities, but doing a lot of things are not as easy or not even possible compared to the UK. Something to be proud of in a sense, but to me it still seems a folly to have the situation as in the UK where numerous foreign or state companies could buy up what they want, while UK companies found it impossible or had to deal with places like France where the gov't had (still has?) 'golden shares' which stopped anything similar.

As a metaphor is the equivalent of signing a contract where you can be dismissed at a minutes notice, while the Agency expects 6 months from you.

[AlfredJPruffock]

I've known people for 3 months and became a friend for life. This all depends on what is your lifestyle and how you are used to evaluate your time. It's not so bad actually, and pushes you to appreciate every single short period of your life. As a contractor you should be more used to that. It's generally very difficult nowadays that you can live in the same area for all your life. Unfortunately, it's a fact we have to face it. Or better... you can decide to stay in the same place all your life but you have to quit all your career expectations. You are free to choose.

Without going out of my door,
I can know all things on earth
without looking out of my window,
I can know the ways of heaven.

The farther one travels
the less one knows
the less one really knows.

Without going out of your door,
You can know all things on earth
without looking out of your window,
you can know the ways of heaven.

The farther one travels
the less one knows
the less one really knows.

Arrive without travelling,
See all without looking,
Do all without doing.

[milanbenes]

Nicely put Franko and seconded.

Furthermore I still have friends from play school and primary school who I manage to see for a beer one or twice a year.


To whoever said... 'However, what work are Brits going to find in Poland?',

I don't mean you have to go to Poland, I mean you can work anywhere in Europe, you would be surprised how many Western Europeans are doing very well with their businesses in Central and Eastern Europe as they are more customer and commercially oriented than the locals and able to wipe them out by building businesses that deliver better quality of service !

you'd be surprised !



Milan.

[DodgyAgent]

What will happen if China and India become the richest nations on earth, and proceed to buy up every piece of land, property and company in the UK?

Effectively they will own the UK and control almost every aspect of our lives.

Then we have to educate people and run an economy of exceptional efficiency and remove the soft underbelly of welfare. Anyway I can see things going full circle here. Eastern Europe (provided their governments will allow it) will become the dynamic economies of Europe. Their people will have trained in the UK, learnt about modern business practices and methods and use them to set up enterprises back home. In turn their property values will rise and they will begin to attract workers and capital from places such as the UK. In the meantime Western European economies will continue to stagnate with unemployment rising and they will no longer be able to support their ridiculous welfare state.

In 10 years it will be you lot hiking off to Poland with your phrase books desperate to work retirements home wiping the arses of Polish Geriatrics

[John Galt]

I have no objection at all to economic migration and I think anyone that brings wealth or potential wealth to a country should be welcomed. However, that is not what is happening in this country. We are a small island and we do not have the resources to support the indiginous population. We also do not have the infrastructure to support a rapid growth in the population. Immigrant workers are driving down the average wages in the country as they are prepared to live in conditions that we would not tolerate - this is commendable. However, we are supporting any number of immigrants/asylum seekers who are not prepared to work but are entitled to financial support from the state, probably far in excess of the minimum wage that some immigrants are prepared to accept. As a nation we are not encouraged to create wealth - it is seen as something to be ashamed of - until this attitude changes and restrictions on free trade throughout the world are lifted we will have very little of 'little England' to defend

[hyperD]

For a country that has almost 60 million people, that's excellent. 5% is like the physiological unemployment. You can't do better than that, most economists would agree.

Figures published in the August 2005 Labour Market Statistics First Release showed that there were 9,303,000 jobless people of working age in the UK. Within this total 1,406,000 were unemployed and 7,897,000 were economically inactive.

Unemployed (1.4 m)
Looking after family/home(2.3 m)
Long-term sick (2.2 m)
Students (1.8 m)
Other inactive (1.7 m)

So I think you'll find that this compares with the rest of Europe - it's just that "new" liebour perfected the fiddling that the Tories did during the '90s.

[milanbenes]

agreed DA,

you are 100% on that one,

"Then we have to educate people and run an economy of exceptional efficiency and remove the soft underbelly of welfare. Anyway I can see things going full circle here. Eastern Europe (provided their governments will allow it) will become the dynamic economies of Europe. Their people will have trained in the UK, learnt about modern business practices and methods and use them to set up enterprises back home. In turn their property values will rise and they will begin to attract workers and capital from places such as the UK. In the meantime Western European economies will continue to stagnate with unemployment rising and they will no longer be able to support their ridiculous welfare state.

In 10 years it will be you lot hiking off to Poland with your phrase books desperate to work retirements home wiping the arses of Polish Geriatrics",

which is why, the Benes plan b is based in Central Europe

not just a pretty face folks

Milan.

[sasguru]

Looking at the big picture, I think you can say that the British way has always been to take economic shock on the chin e.g. the Industrial revolution, Maggie's reforms and now globalisation. Through these changes there has been pain and adjustment, but the country has always emerged stronger. It doesn't make for an easy life, but an easy life makes a country weak.

[milanbenes]

nice stats Francko, where did you find those ?

Milan.

[DodgyAgent]

I.

As a metaphor is the equivalent of signing a contract where you can be dismissed at a minutes notice, while the Agency expects 6 months from you.

Yes true, but it doesnt half keep you on your toes. It doesnt matter really who owns the businesses (as long as it is not a government), as long as that business is well run it will be fine. Of course the advantage of openness is that these sort of businesses are less likely to stagnate through protectionism and will ultimately be worth more to share holders. I am not sure what the problem is. If a business falls into the hands of someone who is going to run it down, then shareholders/markets will sort it out. the problems arise when shareholders are not free to make decisions about who they sell to and when markets are kept at bay through protectionism.

again it should be the govts job to guard against monopolies and against political interference.