Lithuanian shanty town... in Peterborough

[redruby]

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.

 

Why do Eastern Europeans come to the UK to be employed in unskilled manual labour? Because the money they earn here is far more than they can earn in their home countries. They live it rough for a few years, working hard so they can save enough to buy themselves a decent home etc in their own country which they would struggle to afford if they didn't come to the UK to work. It's a reasonably quick fix to buying themselves a decent lifestyle.

 

A person born in the UK, doesn't have the same opportunity to take a two hour flight to a foreign country, immediately find themselves unskilled manual employment that pays £20 an hour. Do you think British people on a low income or unemployed wouldn't take up this opportunity if was available because they are just too lazy?

 

And in reply to Callippos point this is hardly the same scenario as gap year students taking a working holiday in Austrailia to fund their travelling.

[Mathom]

UK young people go to Australia and work on the land all the time. Some of them call it a 'working holiday' but the work can be well paid, definitely higher than the minimum wage in Australia.

 

but then Australia is like the UK, a wealthy country where employers can afford to pay much higher wages than in Poland or Lithuania.

 

What students do for a bit of cash is no comparison to a lifelong job for an ordinary British person. Nor is what migrants are prepared to put up with for a few months before going back home.

 

We're talking ordinary British people (and remember half of all young people do NOT go to University - or do we want 100% attendance?) who want ordinary lives - a home, a family, a few beers at weekend. I'm from a rural area, from a farming family. Up until the 80s it was possible to live a perfectly normal life - you could rent a decent cottage or council house cheaply, raise kids, have a car, all from farm labour done 9-5 (apart from at threshing time when you work late for a week or two) - hard work, but it paid enough to live on.

 

But then things changed. One of my brothers did it as a job not just an 'in between' thing. He had to jack it in and get a factory job (luckily an uncle got him this) because he couldn't get a mortgage - not enough protection in that casual labour market - and no council houses left.

 

And overtime picking sprouts on a pitch dark December morning in the freezing cold with no toilet facilities is very different to doing overtime sitting in a nice warm office with the internet to mess about with Nobody can do that for more than a couple of weeks.

[pk014b7161]

house prices on our estate are about 80 to 100 thousand who could afford that on a minimum wage plus all the other bills that come along?

[SUPERTYKE]

later in the summer I would move to northern Italy, where the money was even better, picking apples.

 

It was a hard life, but a good one.

 

..........what a bad time they'd had under communism.

 

I remember 4 Bulgarians sleeping in a saloon car on a field, then waking up and working a 12 hour shift, day after day after day.

 

I bet with overtime those Poles will be making 500 quid a week easy. And they're outside in the fresh air, laughing and joking with their mates,....

 

Good for them, I say. I don't think the farmers are ripping them off particularly.

 

We should start a thread about who's got the most degrees. (Even if it's a degree in sewing or even sociology).

 

Can't remember if I got one or not - I was too p*ssed and stoned at the time to remember.

 

I'm curious to know if you right wing lefties and you left wing righties and you left by right by left wing whingers ever consider the notion that a person might just be entitled to a carreer? - Whatever his/her background may be and whether they have a - (roll of drums - fanfare) DEGREE or not.

 

I know you'll all jump in and deny this - but I'll lay odds on it that ALL of you who advocate unfair wages (which minimum wage clearly is) are either;

 

A. Drawing dole and watching Jerry Springer all day.

 

Or B; established in a reasonably secure job with fair rates of pay. ( I know, you are probably up to your necks in debt and waiting for the BIG KNOCK if you're in the 'Bs' but that's your fault).

 

Why should people of this country not have the option of a stable job reasonably close to where they live?

As for your statement that farm work 'WAS ALWAYS DONE BY ITINERENTS AND STUDENTS' -nonsense;

I have lived in Kent and know that the locals were a very important part of farm life. There were many that came in from the cities but the locals were always assured of a job.

 

And - of course the farmers are not ripping the poles off - PARTICULARLY..

 

Watch out Sallylalala and Starsparkle, they'll be calling us 'commies' next!

[SallyLaLaLa]

I give up. I really do.