| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| Britain | ||
| Working class turns on Labour over immigration and housing | ||
| 2009-01-11 | ||
| The official at the housing office was typically blunt. His third customer of the day, a blonde with a northern accent, the pinched face of poverty and a baby in a buggy, looked crestfallen when she heard the news. 'You'll have to wait between one and ten years for a flat from us,' he said, blithely, from behind his desk. 'There are 18,000 people on the waiting list and, as of today, only 30 homes to go round.' No wonder that when the young woman left, pushing the buggy out of the door into the sleeting rain of the shopping precinct in Salford, Greater Manchester, she looked near to tears. In her haste, she almost collided with Jason Hedgecock, a 20-year-old chef, who has also been queuing at the city's Home Search office.
Jason is desperate to move out of the home he shares with his parents, John and Eileen, where he has to sleep on the sofa. Also living there are his two brothers, Scott, 24, and Adam, 19, as well as Adam's pregnant girlfriend, 20-year-old Jade - none of whom has anywhere else to go. But the chances of a generation of young people such as Jason and the disappointed blonde ever getting a council home in Salford are next to zero. They are living in one of many places in England where a dire shortage of state housing has become the most controversial political issue of our time. The statistics are stark. One in 12 council homes in England are now lived in by migrants, while the list of people waiting for social housing has doubled during Labour's time in power to 1.7million. Last week, a government report from the Whitehall department of Communities Minister Hazel Blears warned that the crisis has resulted in a surge of popularity for extremist groups, including the British National Party.
The report provoked an instant response from a seemingly repentant Ms Blears herself. She admitted that white working-class people 'sometimes just don't feel anyone is listening or speaking up for them', adding that they should be allowed to voice their worries 'without fear of being branded racist'. In the furore that followed, Frank Field, Labour MP for Liverpool's Birkenhead and joint chairman of the Cross-Party Group on Balanced Migration, agreed that the Government was riding roughshod over the working class at its peril. He predicted that Labour policies on housing would turn local people to Far Right parties in the next general election, echoing a dire warning he gave last year. 'Slowly, but determinedly, the white English working class - and I guess, some black Britons, too - are voting against unlimited immigration by embracing the BNP,' he said back then. | ||
| Posted by:Fred |
| #17 most people working in london live outside London as its too expensive to buy in London.Thats why like American cities we are creating Ethnic ghettos in our cities as the only people who can afford houses live in Council houses.People who live in council housing have no incentive to work as their rent is paid for if unemployed.Rent is expensive in the private sector especially in London so people looking for an easy life look for council housing hence the big waiting list and the likes of muslims jumping the queue with ther big families pissing off the locals!!!!! |
| Posted by: Paul2 2009-01-11 15:59 |
| #16 When I lived there in 1986-88, British housing was EXPENSIVE. We looked at several apartments that rented from $450-$950/month, and were, in my opinion, sub-standard. From what I gathered, most of the jobs were in London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, and other big cities, but housing that was affordable for workers to actually buy couldn't be found within 50 miles. One of the people I knew in Raunds commuted from Wellingborough to London every day - 70+ miles one-way. He was paying over 600 Pounds for a small house on a tiny plot of land. I doubt if things are better now. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-01-11 15:12 |
| #15 That should read ... "the common man" ... Sorry 'bout dat'. |
| Posted by: WolfDog 2009-01-11 11:48 |
| #14 Sounds a bit like the common is pissed. It's about time. Let's hope it doesn't come to this here. |
| Posted by: WolfDog 2009-01-11 11:46 |
| #13 RJ, "Yob Monneypenny" would drink Lager, and that's drunk cold not warm. Real Ale is drunk at cellar temperature and isn't a louts drink. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-01-11 11:32 |
| #12 It sounds like Yob Monneypenny is finally raising his bleary eyes from his lukewarm pint and realizing that his Labor pals have conferred his inalienable right to the dole to a new constituency. Like McCartney said when he heard Lennon was shot dead: "Bummer, man." |
| Posted by: regular joe 2009-01-11 09:26 |
| #11 A friend, his wife and son moved to the outskirts of London a little over a year ago when his wife was offered a teaching job at a university. They will have to share a little apartmentment with 2 others for a while it seems. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-01-11 09:24 |
| #10 Is the light starting to dawn yet about why the government has been so determined to disarm the public? |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-01-11 08:22 |
| #9 I have a question for the British 'burgers: I know that you had your own crazy real estate bubble there, too, but are regular rents that unaffordable for most people who are employed? Yeah, I know, the amount varies from place to place, but shouldn't that guy Jason be able to afford a small place on his own if he has regular employment? (It doesn't have to be a palace, just some place decent.) |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-01-11 07:55 |
| #8 Ha, Now the economy is drying up and the useful immigrants are going home (mainly here because of the artificial credit bubble), the tax-base is drying up and aboriginal layabouts are competing with new entrant layabouts for money extorted from workers. There's no shortage of things to do, benefit addicts just didn't want to do them. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-01-11 05:58 |
| #7 For those members of the white working class who voted Labour in the first place: didn't they bother to find out that they were voting for white middle class liberally guilty tw@ts who would do precisely this to them? Not much sympathy from me, I'm afraid. Also, if fewer of them expected to get by in life never bothering with jobs and instead accepting that immigrants (whether muslims or eastern Europeans) would do the jobs they could do themselves, they might have the income to buy a house rather than being burdens on the taxpayer. Labour: screwing Britain royally since inception (Propaganda Wing: 'BBC'). |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2009-01-11 03:40 |
| #6 Too late? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-01-11 03:16 |
| #5 The Working class turns on Why Should fair minded American Citizens care if Illegal Immigrants soak up all the entry level jobs and then some? Why Should fair minded American Citizens care if Illegal Immigrants are first to apply for, then get many of the available foreman's jobs too? Why Should fair minded American Citizens care if Illegal Immigrants receive Tuition Free schooling for every one of their half dozen papooses that you and I pay for, cradle to grave? Why Should fair minded American Citizens care if Illegal Immigrants receive Free Health Care, cradle to grave while Americans Citizens pay thru their noses Big Time every year all through-out their lives? Housing? Guess? Free Legal Aid? Guess? First on Transplant Organ Lists!! guess? Oh Yes, Illegal Immigrants need Big-Time OFF-SETS TO COMPENSATE them for all the unfairly distributed goodies, booty, and nougats "Whites" received over the millenia while the poor, poor, poor sobs were passed over! Now Remember........., Illegal Immigrants got mean-looks all their live long days ...SO.... So Chill the Hell Out Today, Now that we "White Lazy Bxxtards" GOT Double Affirmative Action; EXTRA Dirty-Looks, if but for no other reason but to off-set all "OUR" Natural Smiles and other Advantages! ETC. ETC. |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2009-01-11 02:35 |
| #4 the white working class think they have been 'betrayed' and 'abandoned' by mainstream politicians who make them 'come second' to immigrants Well, they do! And if anyone disagrees or offers any kind of dissent, then they're a racist and their ideas need never be given consideration, but ruled out entirely. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-01-11 02:11 |
| #3 There isn't a dire shortage of state housing. There's a dire excess of taxes. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-01-11 00:50 |
| #2 So, why aren't privately-constructed homes available? You'd think with unmet demand somebody would try to supply the need. Or is Arthur Levitt only possible in the USA? |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2009-01-11 00:34 |
| #1 I suppose Immigration is OK until the jobs go way and the housing isn't there. And it doesn't help when they (the immigrants) start burning cars and shops. Are we talking about Britain or the EU in general? |
| Posted by: tipover 2009-01-11 00:24 |