Before you permanently move to the US

[Captain Oates 911]

Not really. The only thing that changes is the immigrant feeder-country that gets hated on.

Correction of my last post - I meant to say that the economy moves in the same direction as immigration

For instance Japan has no immigration and their economy has been stalled for 12 years

The US has substantial immigration and is doing better than most other economies

The UK needs young immigrants

[Boiler 45,753]

I think there was a picture of the consequences of that earlier in the thread.

You end up with a divisive society and all the nasty consequences of that.

I used to say it will end in tears, now it is ending in tears.

Nothing new, not the first time it has happened, will not be the last.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

This one is especially for Alan:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jul/13/lucy-mangan-citizenship-test?INTCMP=SRCH

Lucy Mangan

Lucy Mangan

guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 July 2012 18.01 EDT

Oh, Theresa May's back in the headlines again! What a trouper she is. It's as though she looked out of the window at the ceaseless rain and thought, "You know what? If nature will not provide, I shall sally forth and shine a little sunshine of my own into the populace's drab and cheerless lives! Now, how best may I serve?" Three seconds of earnest cogitation later and she has it. "I shall revamp the citizenship test!" May cries. "It shall now require a deep knowledge of British history, instead of the practicalities of living here today! It will exclude many and aid understanding and integration far less. Fewer immigrants – more umbrellas for the rest of us!" And off she goes, her home secretarial duties safely discharged for another day.

I can't be sure, of course, but I had to think of some explanation other than the one that springs to mind upon hearing of the proposed changes, which is that they have been expressly wrought to give Michael Gove a stiffy.

I know. I know. I told you my way was better.

Or perhaps it is a cunning ruse to clear the country in time for the Olympics. Because we have now reached a point at which anyone in my situation – ie, state-educated at any time from the late 70s onward and who passed their GCSEs solely on the basis of knowledge gleaned from Blackadder and the willingness of desperate teachers to stretch a point and agree that Mr Darcy married Bridget Jones rather than Elizabeth Bennet – can answer so few questions on the citizenship test that the only honourable course of action is to hand ourselves in to the Home Office and request that we be deported instanter. Now that paying the correct amount of tax appears to have become a matter of conscience rather than law, it seems the appropriate thing to do.

Still, I do feel sorry for the Conservative party. It must be hard having to come up with new ways to keep brown people out without being seen to be doing so. Enoch ruined racism for everyone, when you look back. Now you have to pussyfoot around, otherwise it's all fuss, bother and liberal hearts bleeding everywhere you look.

Next time, they should cast the new questions in a livelier format. It might distract attention from their narrowing of eligibility criteria to needle-eye proportions. (I refer, of course, to the needle-eye rule, brought in when RBS bought the Bible in 2001, which states it is better a rich man keeps 100% of his money in an offshore account than a poor man gets to earn the minimum wage in a first-world country.) Multiple choice is always a good bet:

What was John Ruskin frightened by on his wedding night? Was it:

a) The bill?

b) His sudden realisation of the injustice that allowed the union to be entered into only by heterosexual men with heterosexual women?

c) Something absolutely normal and completely disgusting on his wife's body?

Henry VIII (Hilary Mantel's husband – true or false?) died of a surfeit of:

a) Lampreys?

b) Wives?

c) Ulcerated legs?

You're very welcome, government! Unlike anyone who doesn't answer c. Together we will purge this country yet.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I do think family based immigration (especially one's spouse and minor children) is a special, sacrosanct subset of immigration policy and should be not be lumped in with everyone else.

I don't know why spouses have to be more scrutized but restrictions for new EU entrants (like they have in Denmark, France, Germany other places) are not part of the agreement.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Ha ha - this is awesome

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/15/britishness-citizenship-test-keith-chegwin

[rocks 494]

Ha ha - this is awesome

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/15/britishness-citizenship-test-keith-chegwin

Thanks for that. It made me laugh out loud several times!

Edited July 15, 2012 by rocks

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I don't think I've thought once about Keith Chegwin since 2010 (at the latest). Like leaving behind Cliff Richard's "Mistletoe and Wine" as a staple of the Sainsbury's in-store playlist during the festive season, I don't think I've suffered from an absence of Cheggers.

[Boiler 45,753]

Census 2011: population surges by 7% in 10 years

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9402960/Census-2011-population-surges-by-7-in-10-years.html

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Census 2011: population surges by 7% in 10 years

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9402960/Census-2011-population-surges-by-7-in-10-years.html

I haven't looked at the figures but I bet the bulk of that is from EU expansion in 2004, and not family based immigration

[rocks 494]

I haven't looked at the figures but I bet the bulk of that is from EU expansion in 2004, and not family based immigration

Probably so. The article seems to point at the older generation living for longer too.

[Boiler 45,753]

Probably so. The article seems to point at the older generation living for longer too.

I had BBC radio on and it seems that the net batch of numbers will not be available to the end of the year, migration was mentioned whilst being of course BBC PC.

[rocks 494]

I had BBC radio on and it seems that the net batch of numbers will not be available to the end of the year, migration was mentioned whilst being of course BBC PC.

Yeah, I read the BBC's article on it too. Apparently Cardiff had a 12% increase!

About 90% of Wales' increase is due to migration, say Census officials.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that included people moving from elsewhere in the UK as well as from overseas.

...

Cardiff has the smallest proportion of over-65s, at 13%.

Wales also has a higher proportion of 65-year-olds than nearly all the regions of England.

Interesting statistics.

[Captain Oates 911]

I think there was a picture of the consequences of that earlier in the thread.

You end up with a divisive society and all the nasty consequences of that.

I used to say it will end in tears, now it is ending in tears.

Nothing new, not the first time it has happened, will not be the last.

Last real divisive society was during the Danelaw in the 900's

I reckon my mother side is from the Danelaw and my Dad's side is Mercian Angeln

If it produced me, it cant be bad

Pagan +christian produces atheist --- so it turned out all right in the end

[Boiler 45,753]

I can think of many many more since then, relatively speaking the 20th Century was pretty quite even allowing for the Great Depression.

[Captain Oates 911]

I can think of many many more since then, relatively speaking the 20th Century was pretty quite even allowing for the Great Depression.

In the 900's almost half the country spoke Danish and had Danish law. England was christian and the Danes were pagan. There was ethnic cleansing where whole communities of civilians were killed by order of the leadership on the basis of their ethnicity alone.

The big difference of course was that the two communities were racially almost indistinguishable much like Bosnia which is currently like England in the 900's in some ways.

What England has now is pretty tame in comparison, and in the absence of racial absorption as in Brazil or Portugal, the future will be most interesting. Pity I wont be around to observe it.