Reply to: I feel like a stranger where I live

[sirja]

Yep we had a black guy turn up at our local pub one night. the poor sod left after half a pint. Almost as uncomfortable as the time I took my Nigerian mate into a little village pub down by the docklands I don't know who the locals were more annoyed at, him for being there or me for bringing him ******* eejits

LOL!! So I guess my short breaks remain confined to Brighton or Europe

[bobspud]

Laughed at this - the in laws live in a remote village in Somerset. When a black guy visited the village shop it was newsworthy enough that we were told about it 3 weeks later

Yep we had a black guy turn up at our local pub one night. the poor sod left after half a pint. Almost as uncomfortable as the time I took my Nigerian mate into a little village pub down by the docklands I don't know who the locals were more annoyed at, him for being there or me for bringing him ******* eejits

[ZARDOZ]

I'm lucky enough to live in a village that's 100% white middle class and just about zero crime with a sprinkling of celebs, footballers, politicians, no potholes (figure that one out), that costs a fraction of what it would cost to live in London.

Quit bitching or do something about it, move away or put up with it as it seems you're all complicit in contributing to the problem.

[Cliphead]

Having grown up in a city as diverse as Berlin, these 'all white' villages people mention here have always felt bizarre and uncomfortable to me.

I live in a small cul-de sac on the outskirts of Northampton. Northampton itself is pleasantly mixed, I find (mixed enough to make the average tory/racist uncomfortable). The only non-British (Chinese) family in my street is also the last one left that's been here since this development was built in the 80s. And then there's me of course.

The local village shop much as I'm friends with the couple who own it is crap. Oh for an ambitious Asian family to take over and do a better job.

I often drive over to the next village for supplies to the Asian owned franchise where there's better choice (they actually are stocked with the basics like milk and bread), friendly and will stock things I ask for that they wouldn't normally have. Draw your own conclusions.

[formant]

Having grown up in a city as diverse as Berlin, these 'all white' villages people mention here have always felt bizarre and uncomfortable to me.

I live in a small cul-de sac on the outskirts of Northampton. Northampton itself is pleasantly mixed, I find (mixed enough to make the average tory/racist uncomfortable). The only non-British (Chinese) family in my street is also the last one left that's been here since this development was built in the 80s. And then there's me of course.

[Cliphead]

I'm lucky enough to live in a village that's 100% white middle class and just about zero crime with a sprinkling of celebs, footballers, politicians, no potholes (figure that one out), that costs a fraction of what it would cost to live in London.

Quit bitching or do something about it, move away or put up with it as it seems you're all complicit in contributing to the problem.

[KentPhilip]

especially this twat

"Tony Blair given award for helping Poles come to the UK"

<removed>

Do you mind - I'm eating dinner!

[Troll]

You can thank the BBC/Guardian/Islington Marxists for this.

especially this twat

"Tony Blair given award for helping Poles come to the UK"

[mudskipper]

When I first moved into my village I referred to myself as the only Indian in the village because you could see the horror on the locals faces when they realised "I weren't from round 'ere" in fact the only lot that would speak to me were the guys in the local Indian takeaway. I guess we were all in it together

Laughed at this - the in laws live in a remote village in Somerset. When a black guy visited the village shop it was newsworthy enough that we were told about it 3 weeks later

[ZARDOZ]

Let's get this right what the article is saying... The inner cities are becoming increasingly inhabited by the poor immigrants and the middle classes are moving out.
But hang on..These are the same middle classes who in the 1990s and 00s moved into the inner cities which were in the 1970s and 1980s largely inhabited by poor immigrants. Seems to me the odd ones out here are the middle class hypocrites.

[No2politics]

I feel like a stranger where I live

Agreed, the author even says that in the article , "saying hello to shopkeepers, even though it's not the done thing in metropolitian" ...

Such a shame, I do see it as a north south divide thing though.

What u mean guv norf laandan and saarf laandan?

[NickFitz]

NatWest have in the last couple of years put posters in Polish on the bus shelters up the road from me. Made a nice change, I thought

[bobspud]

Oo look London's full of people that don't come from there...
I'm glad it's spreading to the west side as the east end has been a ghetto all my life...

Think of it as just payback for all the middle class lot that bought holiday homes and turned the southwest into a place where large swaths of it are no goes for the locals most of the year...

When I first moved into my village I referred to myself as the only Indian in the village because you could see the horror on the locals faces when they realised "I weren't from round 'ere" in fact the only lot that would speak to me were the guys in the local Indian takeaway. I guess we were all in it together

[Coalman]

Keeping this off topic and on education.

My wife is also a primary school teacher (supply at the moment so not full time) and finance governor at our boys school.

Agree with all that is being said with regards OFSTED and government policy and direction.

The main thing that results from this is that teachers feel that the government (of either shade) and the media especially do not trust teachers to assess kids correctly and report on progress. This aspect is very demoralising for teachers.

Could you work with an external body able to come in and assess your work, decide what the target is (regardless of the actual task in front of you), grade your performance according to this arbitrary target and effectively withdraw funding from your organisation if you do not match this mythical goal?

With regards to academies, this is OK in areas where schools are a certain size, but with small rural schools (our school has 30 kids in all!) these can't be turned into academies. This means they may have to close. The facilities at the big schools in the local area are not good enough to take an influx of kids from all the closed rural schools. It is stupid short sightedness.

The myth about no cuts in education budget need to be busted as well. All the school support services provided by the LEA are being cut severely, so the schools have to fund more of these services out of their direct budget.

Rant over.

[Scoobos]

Well d00hg, all I can say is perhaps the LEA's have different approaches. Or perhaps confused between measuring childrens progress for ofstead or for differentiation. I'm not a teacher I should add.

The schools down here that my lass has been at - these things don't happen at all. It's all about wall displays and spending budget on a welcome mats when you dont have excersise books - but then who's going to complain when the classes are 95% non english transient children seeking asylum?

Just get em marked down as special measures, academised and bobs yer uncle.