Comments on news items

[Deleted]

Just read the BBC News site and a couple of items shouted at me, so as this is a good place for exchanging views I thought I'd say my bit
The first is that skilled workers will have to learn English (up to GCSE standard) before they are allowed to enter Britain.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6985661.stm About time too IMO and why just skilled workers? If people want to come and live here, learn the bloody language. Before anyone calls me racist, I get equally annoyed when I see TV progs about Brits who want to move abroad to live/start businesses and can't speak the lingo. Dickheads all of them

The second is pregnant mothers being given £200 so they can eat healthily. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6985661.stm
What the fuck is that all about If you can't afford to eat healthily how the fuck can you afford to bring up a child

[Deleted]

It's actually cheaper to eat healthily. Just buy vegetables and fruit. Cook the vegatables. Eat the fruit. Dead cheap. Dead healthy. It's not a finance thing, it's down to effort and understanding,so I don't see how money will make any difference except making a McDonalds more affordable.

I don't understand why so many people get on their high horse about people coming here having to learn English. Yes, they should. But I know an awful lot of people who have come here from other countries, and not one of them hasn't made an effort to learn the language. It seems pretty commonplace to me that people from abroad are pretty good at English anyway, and it's normally come from themselves rather than some dumb governmental thing. That's just "posturing" as far as I can see.

Both those links are the same by the way.

[braveheart]

Someone at work was telling me how much people can get from the state without working with kids. It was something like £800 tax credits, rent paid for etc etc. Makes me mad. I have served my country and get bugger all from state. I work my butt off and what for, the tax man to take it off for the 15 year old chavs with 2 year old kids or non British people in a council house which I should have been considered for.

I am not angry, honest

[Deleted]

starlady said:

Just read the BBC News site and a couple of items shouted at me, so as this is a good place for exchanging views I thought I'd say my bit
The first is that skilled workers will have to learn English (up to GCSE standard) before they are allowed to enter Britain.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6985661.stm About time too IMO and why just skilled workers? If people want to come and live here, learn the bloody language. Before anyone calls me racist, I get equally annoyed when I see TV progs about Brits who want to move abroad to live/start businesses and can't speak the lingo. Dickheads all of them

GCSE standard English will be a fat lot of use to any foreigner up here SL . I worked in Germany and France when i was younger . And it was in small towns out in the backwaters , but you pick the language up ( well enough to get by on ) , and you learn stuff that is more useful to you than you would learn in a GCSE .
It's all about the person themselves and how they integrate themselves into their new environment , the language thing comes along in it's own time .
I went out for dinner with a German bird who worked in the office of the factory i worked in . She knew about 2 words of English and i knew about the same in German - weirdest date ever ;D
But i agree with you about the ones that go abroad and expect everyone to speak English - they are twats . And i'm not being funny , but they are nearly always Londoners .

[stevehone]

paulco said:

But i agree with you about the ones that go abroad and expect everyone to speak English - they are twats . And i'm not being funny , but they are nearly always Londoners .

i felt the same when i moved to the Fens ... and i'm from London ;D

[Deleted]

braveheart said:

Someone at work was telling me how much people can get from the state without working with kids. It was something like £800 tax credits, rent paid for etc etc. Makes me mad. I have served my country and get bugger all from state. I work my butt off and what for, the tax man to take it off for the 15 year old chavs with 2 year old kids or non British people in a council house which I should have been considered for.

I am not angry, honest

If this was the BSF I can just imagine what the reaction would be to this post but as it isn't.........

Anyway, I am a single parent, non working and get 'looked after' by the state and the amount you get is no where near that amount. One of the reasons I am trying hard to get another job that fits in with having disabled kids that no childcare facility will take is because of the stigma of being a single parent on benefits but unfortunately, employers seem to take the same view as the childcarers! They assume disabled kids mean not turning up for work or having to leave early...or they just think I am braindead.

Years ago, I never failed to get interviews for jobs, this time it is a constant no to even getting an application form let alone getting to the interview stage..and that is if companies bother to actually reply to you in the first place.

[Deleted]

I'm guessing though that the figure quoted above is what you can get if you blag everything going - whereas you, at a guess, have a little more pride than to do that and simply accept what you are fully entitled to.

I'm sure that there is all manner of benefits available to people who are less than scrupulous about whether they tell the truth or not.

[Deleted]

Over here there's a racist email being circulated by a neo-nazi group slagging off Reffoes and the amount of megabucks they're supposed to receive from the Gov't. Its been discredited but as long as there's racism alive someone will pick up on it and accept it as fact without going to the effort of finding out the truth.
If someone approaches you in the rubbity or emails you with this tripe I suggest you ask them if they know this for a fact or if they're aware that they're pushing the usual Big Lies that would have made Dr Goebbels proud.
Our parents and grandparents fought a war against this sort of shit; alas we've grown up in a free society where you can promulgate such filth freely on the Internet without being questioned.

[Deleted]

paulco said:

But i agree with you about the ones that go abroad and expect everyone to speak English - they are twats.

If you go and live somewhere permanently, then you should really try to learn the local language, but the situation with the British is a bit unusual as English is the lingua franca of the world these days. Even non-Brits use it when they're in a foreign country where they don't speak the local language.

[Deleted]

braveheart said:

Someone at work was telling me how much people can get from the state without working with kids.

Did anyone see that programme the other day about those layabouts in Swindon (a town with more jobs than people)? They were whinging and moaning about not being able to find work, when the Eastern Europeans had applied for something like 50 jobs in the week they'd been in the country.

I'm perfectly happy for any person to come to the UK if they're hard-working and prepared to make a contribution to society. Equally, the moaners and "country's going to the dogs" types can sod-off to Spain or wherever they think life is better.

[Deleted]

grachan said:

Yes, they should. But I know an awful lot of people who have come here from other countries, and not one of them hasn't made an effort to learn the language.

The vast majority of people who come here to work will pick-up English, even without a lot of effort. Who the government is obviously targeting, are the Middle Eastern religious leaders and 'teachers', and perhaps also the wives-to-be that are generally not allowed-out into wider society.

The trouble with language tests, is that the system always ends-up looking stupid. In Austria, they started insisting that foreigners had to pass a German competency test, as well as answer questions on Austrian culture (about oompah bands etc..). This lead to the farcical situation of several CEOs of multinationals (which are generally English speaking) being threatened with deportation, despite employing hundreds of people in the country. The same in Quebec, where despite a shortage of doctors and teachers, they're not allowed to practice unless they pass a French language test, even if they're working in English-speaking areas. For that matter, it happens with teachers in Wales as well.

[Deleted]

wibblemuis said:

braveheart said:

Someone at work was telling me how much people can get from the state without working with kids.

Did anyone see that programme the other day about those layabouts in Swindon (a town with more jobs than people)? They were whinging and moaning about not being able to find work, when the Eastern Europeans had applied for something like 50 jobs in the week they'd been in the country.

I'm perfectly happy for any person to come to the UK if they're hard-working and prepared to make a contribution to society. Equally, the moaners and "country's going to the dogs" types can sod-off to Spain or wherever they think life is better.

Spot on Kev.

As I found at my college enrolment for an AutoCAD course just the other week. They were many Eastern Europeans enrolling to GCSE English courses, Poles in particular. One female was enrolling in something like 4 years worth of academic work in 100 lessons - 2 to 3 a week. It cost in the range of £350.

As it happened, there was also some gormless looking lad who had completed all years of an AutoCAD course and rather than getting a job at that point. He was trying to seek a full-time computing course which would further him but most importantly stop him for getting a job and costing him nuffink.

[Deleted]

wibblemuis said:

paulco said:

But i agree with you about the ones that go abroad and expect everyone to speak English - they are twats.

If you go and live somewhere permanently, then you should really try to learn the local language, but the situation with the British is a bit unusual as English is the lingua franca of the world these days. Even non-Brits use it when they're in a foreign country where they don't speak the local language.

You wouldn't believe the problems I had learning to speak Australian - Fucken Oath M8! Probably the hardest part was replacing every second word with an expletive, once I'd mastered that it was a piece of piss. ;D