SPACE

I have just returned from 4 days in Sweden with some friends, I have to say that I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Sweden is a beautiful country with many trees, lakes and mountains, the Swedish people are very friendly and they all speak very good English, which was very handy as I don't speak a word of Swedish. One of the things I noticed about Sweden was the amount of space; Sweden is 173,732 square miles and has a population of about 9.3 million and 2 thirds of the population live in the bottom third of the country. Compare this with the UK; the UK is 94,241 square miles and has a population that is over 62 million, 90 per cent of the people live in England. If you have been to Wales, Scotland or N.Ireland you will very quickly realise how crowded England really is. What I found amazing is that you can drive for miles and miles in Sweden and not see any signs of civilisation; no cars, no houses and no people, just forests and lakes and I have to be honest this made me a bit sad as I thought about the UK.

I love my country and I love so much about it, but what I love the most is the beautiful countryside; even with a large population we still have a lot of open spaces and I would like that to remain. But unfortunately as our population continues to grow so rapidly there will be more and more pressure on our already under pressure greenbelt. The greenbelt was created after World War 2 as a way of protecting the countryside, and on the whole it has been very successful, but what concerns me is we will see more pressure put on councils to find more land for houses and we will see this fantastic resource destroyed.

Many people will argue that it is important that we put people before ideology and I will agree, but I also think it is very important to protect our countryside and country from growing urbanisation. I am sure many people will have found that after spending a week or two abroad and on returning to this country they will have noticed the amount of cars, houses and roads we have. I really noticed it on my return on Sunday evening from Sweden, as we drove along the M11 with car after car filling this road, it made me wish that I could be somewhere less crowded.
I have mentioned before my problem with mass immigration and the problems that it brings, I have spoken about space before, about the economic and social problems it brings, and I want to revisit this subject. I really believe if we do not stop the huge influx of humanity coming to this country we are storing up massive problems for us in the not to distant future. As I have mentioned above, this country is very crowded and with many people, we get a lot of pressure, and I can see that this pressure will eventually build up and will explode. Many parts of the country have borne the brunt of the policy of open door immigration, and this has produced many problems which I have covered before in my blog.

In the last election when polled the issue of mass immigration came out first or second on peoples concerns, every time without fail, unfortunately none of the parties were willing to do anything about it. I have spoken to many people in the past about this problem and what I find is I get a number of different reactions. I get people who agree with me and think we should shut up shop and not allow anyone else in. Then there are people who agree but are very reticent in expressing their views for fear of sounding racist. There are the people who will argue that immigration is OK, I usually find that these people haven't thought the issue through. Then there are the people who are in favour of mass immigration and if anyone says different they must be racist. In the past I have found that when speaking to the latter group I find myself getting angry and saying outrages things, just to get a reaction. At times in conversation I have said things which have sounded racist, this has been borne out of a deep frustration with political correctness. I believe at times I have said things which have upset people and I have decided that I must calm down and explain myself in a rational way. I am not a racist, I do not hate any other group or people, what I want is open and honest debate about this subject.

Last year net immigration to the UK was 178,000; that is a lot of people. That is a lot of people coming to this country to work and live. With unemployment at 2.5 million it does seem rather stupid to allow more people in when there are many indigenous people needing work. Today the EDP has found out from leaked documents that Norfolk County Council is going to be making 25 per cent cuts. This year on our local news programmes many councils have spoken out about the pressure mass immigration is having on their local services. They have asked for more money to deal with the influx of people; as you can imagine the money has not been forthcoming and with the expected cuts this is going to mean added pressure on already overstretched budgets.

So let me ask you a question, if you were in charge of council budgets which budget would you cut? All sectors will have to make cuts, whether it be; education, emergency services, social services and with these cuts we will see many peoples quality of life get worse, especially the most vulnerable (particularly the elderly).

Many people have argued that mass immigration brings prosperity to a country (I have explored this before) but the simple truth is that there is no economic benefit to mass immigration. American economist Professor George Borgast said " There is no Gain from immigration if the native wage is not reduced by immigration"

In 2003 a study published by the Dutch Government said "GDP will increase, but this increase will largely accrue to migrants in the form of wages. The overall net gain to residents is likely to be negative"

In 2008 The Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs said "Although possible in theory, we found no systematic empirical evidence to suggest that net immigration creates significant dynamic benefits for the UK resident population"

The simple truth is this, a lie has been propagated over the last ten years about the benefits of mass immigration to this country. The wages of residents have been driven down, and living costs have been driven up. Mass immigration has brought extra demand on housing, this has produced a shortage of houses thus forcing the cost of buying and renting up (you only have to look at the prices of houses now in comparison with 10 years ago, even taking into consideration the fall in property prices). Immigration is beneficial for developing countries like the US in the 19th century, as you need plenty of people to work the land, work in mines and many other industries. It is not beneficial for a post industrial country like the UK.

I know I have written before on this subject, but when I look at this country; its size and population, its economic state, the pressure on housing, greenbelt, resources (schools, NHS, social services, local councils and their budgets), etc it really concerns me. I will continue to blog here about this subject, I will continue to talk about it, I will continue to support a party that actually has a sensible policy on immigration, I will continue to tell the truth however unpalatable. I will say this again, there is nothing we can do about immigrants from other EU countries, even with a cap on immigration it will make no difference. Let me finish with this; in 2012 under the 'Shengen agreement' (which was signed in 1985) all countries within the EU will have one common immigration policy and we will not be able to control immigration at all from anywhere; as you can imagine the Government has failed to mention this little point.