Changing attitudes in the immigration debate is a monumental uphill battle when you consider how far perception is from reality. As part of a survey the RSS commissioned from Ipsos MORI last year, people were asked what percentage of the British population they thought were immigrants? The collective answer was 31%. The actual figure is 13%.
Even more confusing, another poll from Comres asked if all citizens of other EU countries should have the right to live and work in the UK? Only 36% agreed, against 46% who disagreed.
The pollsters then asked a different question, should British people be free to live and work anywhere in the EU? This time 52% agreed with only 26% disagreeing. It seems the British want to have their gâteau and eat it.
Lets look at it from another point of view.
55,000 out of the 1.2 million staff in the English NHS are citizens of other EU countries, according to the English Health Service’s Electronic Staff Record. This includes doctors; nurses; other professionals like paramedics and pharmacists; support workers providing care; and administrative staff.
10% of doctors and 4% of nurses are from the EU.
So with recent headlines saying that the latest immigration figures are the ‘second worse ever’….. Would you be thinking that immigration is worse or better if you were lying on the operating table and the only doctor available was from the EU?
Another area where there are large numbers of migrant workers is agriculture.
192,000 workers are employed in agriculture and forestry in the United Kingdom. 60,000 are full-time employees, and 120,000 persons are seasonal workers. Most of these are from the EU because British workers will not do these jobs, partly because they are seasonal, partly because there is no career structure and partly because they are bloody hard work.
The ‘second worse ever’ migration figures means that our strawberries will be picked, our asparagus will be cut, our lettuce will be on the supermarket shelves and the prices will be reasonable.
The reporters who describe these as ‘second worse ever’ are not reporting the facts, they are giving you their opinion……. You might agree with these opinions/prejudices, which of course is dependent on your situation, or possibly on whether you are a racist git or not and what newspaper indoctrinates you.
To see other posts about our EU membership ( there are obviously 47 others, this being number 48) click EU membership summary And if you think any of them particularly relevant then please feel free to reblog or share them.
Poitoucharentesinphotos 
Wells said, but you did omit the fact that many Brits are too bloody lazy to work that hard!
Yes that as well, I did feel I was getting into a bit of a rant at the end so decided to cut it short and stick to the facts…
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