Euro crisis: UK plans to stop migration from greece & spain

[Mitsuru]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18216538

Euro crisis: UK plans for rise in immigrants
The Home Office is drawing up contingency plans to cope with
a possible large increase in immigration from Greece if the euro
collapses.

Home Secretary Theresa May told the Daily Telegraph "work is
ongoing" to restrict European immigration in the event of a
financial collapse.

She said "trends" were being examined to see whether
immigration was rising from countries with stricken economies.

EU nationals are largely entitled to work anywhere in the single
market.

If the single currency breaks up, people looking for work abroad
may see Britain as an attractive alternative as it is a
non-eurozone country.

Asked whether emergency immigration controls were being
considered, Mrs May said: "It is right that we do some
contingency planning on this [and] that is work that is ongoing."

Should we pull up the drawbridge now and have done with it?

[hobby]

Think we'd have to leave the EU to do that and actually be able to enforce it!

My biggest bugbear with the EU is that people are able to come over here and UK claim benefits whilst their families still live in their country of origin... Many European workers from the "eastern" countries do it as the EU ruling is that they can claim benefits from either the country they are living in or the one their family is, needless to say ours are higher and therefore they claim ours, if the whole family is living here then fair enough, but if not then they claim from the country they are living in... But I suspect if that was the rule many of them wouldn't be over here anyhow! I stayed with a Dutch family a year or two ago and they have exactly the same problem!

All it does is show that there are a lot of anomalies in the EU which need sorting... It started out as a way of making trade easier between countries and has tried to become a "superstate", trouble is with such a disparity of different economies it was never going to work, at least the Euro experiment has proved that...

My own view is that the EU should stay but it should return to its roots as a trading partnership and pull out of the meddling in individual country's political and legal affairs... But I can't see it happening soon...

If Greece goes, how long before Italy, Spain and Ireland join it... Just the right time for the Scot Nats to start their independence campaign, what price the Celtic Tiger now?!

[Martin Evans]

Language apart, I expect the USA is just as diverse as Europe but it has taken two centuries to create from essentially a clean sheet. I think the attempt to create a United States of Europe, if it hasn't failed, has been forced and over ambitious. I have always felt we did right to keep the £.

As to the UK, I hope Salmond's plans are thwarted at the ballot box, as I think we are stronger as one and also, where goes the SNP, Plaid Cymru follow. Before the so called crash, Plaid used to bang on about an "Independent Wales within Ewrope", citing the Irish model but that seems to have gone strangely quiet (I don't think any would be government, who base their plans on outside assistance can be seen as credible), though the attempt to persuade the more suggestible, to see politics as an extension of the rugby field, continues. Frankly if we count only the last two thousand years, I doubt whether any of us are anything more than "British" and I find so called nationalism, within the UK, rather tribal.

[mr rusty]

I think in all the wrangling over the euro the original thinking behind European Union has been lost- it's instigators were all people who had fought in World War II and saw economic union as a way of preventing the same thing happening again, this is the thinking behind allowing the Balkan and Eastern European countries in, these are all places with a history of extreme politics....but if you're economically, financially, and politically bound to your richer neighbours and they help you out with your economy then you're less likely to want to invade them or your even poorer neighbour.

As for Scottish 'independance' I suspect most Scots know which side their heavily subsidised bread is buttered and where the money comes from and will stay in the United Kingdom.

[Maaarrghk]

The EU does seem to want to meddle more and more in our lives and if ongoing anti-motorcycle regulation is anything to go by, those in charge don't seem to mind breaking and ignoring their own rules to restrict our rights and enjoyment.

I most certainly agree with those who have said that this is not what the EU was meant to be.

The Euro seems to have been the flagship policy that demonstrated most of all the arrgance of those running the show. At the beginning I was all for it, but its implimentation was charectarised by an eagerness that was mind boggling in its irresposibility. Put simply, countries that should not have been allowed to join until they got their financial systems and practices in order were welcomed with open arms. In the end I'm glad we didn't join.

As for Scotland, I think the vote will go either for "devo-max" (if included) or against independance. The reason the SNP got in was that they took over the political ground that was formerly occupied by Labour prior to Bliar. This may well end up very bitter-sweet for the Salmon - a popular government with popular policies all but for the one they want to implement most of all. I can see why he would like to have the "devo-max" option on the ballot - a way of saving a little face.

[hobby]

If there was the option of devo-max and it was voted in then it should also be applied to the three other countries in the Union... The Lothian Question again...

[Maaarrghk]

Hobby, you just gave me a mad vision of Gerry Adams doing his best to postpone such a vote whilst his supporters bred as quickly as they could.

"Not yet! We need a few more on our side!"

[hobby]

Be about 18 years away then... or 16 if the SNP have their way!

With so-called partial independence it's noticeable that those wanting it don't want it applied to the other countries which form the Union... I wonder why... Perhaps we should ask Tam Dalyell... or Mr Salmond...

[Martin Evans]

During the very one sided campaign, whereby the Welsh Assembly was to given more powers (A tidying up exercise we were told, yet after the ballot, the Welsh Assembly suddenly became the Welsh Government ), I saw figures that showed only the south east of England (And I think East Anglia) is a net contributor to the exchequer. I was very surprised that even the Midlands is in net receipt of funds. I suppose, like South Wales, nothing has replaced industry (In Merthyr Tydfil, the empty Hoover factory used to employ 6000; the towns biggest private employer is now, I understand, T Mobile's call centre and they employ a few hundred).

Now if the South East wanted to go it alone, that would put the cat amongst the pigeons. The thing about the SNP and Plaid Cymru, is that they draw attention to Wales and Scotland, in a way that people in say Yorkshire do not, so far as Yorkshire is concerned. Thus whilst the north of England maybe in net receipt of funds, it isn't apt to cause the resentment, that it could do, when you have nationalists in other parts, biting the hand that feeds them. Perhaps I should point out that whilst Wales (And Wales is hardly a uniform entity; it is not all coal and sheep, as some may assume) is in net receipt of funds, I personally am a net contributor to the Exchequer

[Dave3066]

Funny how this thread on EU migration seems to have descended into one on Scotland's and Wales' independence. Just for clarity the word "nationalist" does not appear in the Scottish National Party. I think Wales is formerly a principality rather than a sovereign nation and so would have a very weak claim for independence anyway.

If there was the option of devo-max and it was voted in then it should also be applied to the three other countries in the Union... The Lothian Question again...

I think you mean the West Lothian Question which asks why MPs in Scotland can vote on English matters in the context of the UK but MPs in England cannot vote on Scottish only matters

The reason the SNP got in was that they took over the political ground that was formerly occupied by Labour prior to Bliar.

No-one in Scotland ever voted labour because of who was leading them. Similarly I doubt very much that people stopped voting Labour in Scotland because of Tony Blair. There have been far worse Labour leaders than him and Scotland always remained a Labour stronghold.

As for Scottish 'independance' I suspect most Scots know which side their heavily subsidised bread is buttered and where the money comes from and will stay in the United Kingdom.

Ah yes the old "you'll stay in the UK if you know what's good for you" argument. Keep at it and you'll encourage more people to vote "Yes" just to spite you

Dave