The effect on the people of Somerset
of being part of the E.U.
- With current net annual migration of 330,000 throughout the UK it follows that this will impact on housing in Somerset.
- Pressure on housing is self inflicted – we need to build 240,000 houses year to prevent spiralling house prices and a shortage of affordable homes. We are barely building half that amount due to reasons ranging from planning problems and opposition to newbuild through to developers sitting on land banks and a lack of trained builders, plumbers etc.
- Thatcher’s sell off of council housing added to the problem because of her ban on building replacements.
- As a result the influx of immigrants over the last decade has not helped matters resulting in the existence of multi-occupancy tenancies in some areas of Bridgwater and the creation of entire estates for immigrant workers.
Read more:
http://www.centralsomersetgazette.co.uk/Rising-rents-shortage-affordable-homes-Somerset/story-28205424-detail/story.html
Education
- State primary schools are facing a continuing surge in demand, fuelled in part by a rise in the numbers of ethnic minorities, official figures suggest.
- In June 2015 the Department of Education estimated that, nationally, out of 94,000 primary school starters in September 2015, 71% (66,740) will be from ethnic minorities.
- According to these figures 30.4% of pupils are classed as being of ethnic minority origin – I in 5 pupils speak English as their second language which adds to the pressure and cost of teaching.
- The effects of immigration to schools in Somerset are profound. It is calculated that up to 12 new primary schools will be required by 2018/19 (this is on top of extra classrooms added to many existing schools over recent years).
Read more:
http://www.northsomersettimes.co.uk/news/education/school_crisis_intensifies_1_1528657
NHS
- The NHS crisis is also self inflicted. At the end of 2013, 5,778 nurses were recruited from abroad making up 81% of nurses who joined that year.
- This was caused by the government slashing training courses resulting in a severe shortage of trained nurses and other jobs which could not be covered by agency workers.
- An instance of this lack of training was seen in March 2014 in the Minehead hospital’s minor injuries unit when they announced that the unit would be closed overnight possibly until August due to a shortage of trained staff.
Post Office closures in Somerset
- In February 2008 an early day motion was tabled in parliament announcing that it « deeply regrets the announcement of the intended closure of 30 post offices in the Somerset County Council area.
This was the result of the EU Postal Services Directive – its core policy was :
- Complete the Single Market for postal services « a bit like the Eurozone
- Ensure a high quality universal postal service for businesses and consumers at affordable prices – have you noticed any change?
- Improve the quality of service, such as delivery times and convenient access – have you noticed any change?
- Ensure the correct implementation of EU legislation and propose any necessary changes to meet these objectives
The case for the damaging effect on the county, the risk of closures of village shops etc met deaf ears. What was more important was completing the Single Market and ensuring the correct implementation of EU legislation
Winter Floods on the Somerset Levels in 2014
- Flooding was inevitable during the Winter Floods of 2014 due to the excessive rainfall. However, the effects would have been mitigated had dredging been taking place during the previous decade.
- Why did this not take place ? It was the EU Natura 2000 Strategy plus Directives on habitats, birds, water, floods – the whole area was given a number 6 classification which meant that it was deliberately allowed to go back to nature.
A Daily Mail article on 9th February 2014 by David Rose concerning a 250 page Environment Agency document (issued in 2008) on flood risk revealed:
- The Agency deliberately increased flooding in worst affected areas
- Quote « from an environmental point of view flooding is not a bad thing
- Quote « flooding in some areas would be beneficial to wildlife
- Director of Operations David Jordan called flood defences a success story
- The Environment Agency put water voles, great water parsnips, silver diving beetles and large marsh grasshoppers ahead of people
- A document showed that years of neglecting vital dredging which used to let water drain away much faster is part of a deliberate policy to increase flooding in the worst affected areas
In truth, the Environment Agency was only working to EU Directives which caused this Environmental Vandalism, not from the point of view of a great water parsnip but from the point of view of real people who lived and worked in the area.
Employment practices
- In Bridgwater there are three large companies employing large numbers of Eastern European workers – in one case they also expected local people to learn Polish as a requirement of employment. Another company in Minehead has been adopting this practice for years.
- As seen in the shot above even small recruitment agencies are getting in on the act. There is a deep resentment locally about this practice of recruitment from abroad on a mass scale– fortunately this anger is not directed against the migrant workers – rather locals feel let down by employers and the Establishment who are turning them into second class citizens in their own country.
In order to be able to welcome immigrants we must have controlled immigration, infrastructure to take account of the increased numbers and an obligation for immigrants to conform to the British way of life. At the moment we have none of these.
Furthermore, none of this would have happened if we had not lost our sovereignty in 1973 when Heath took us into the “Common Market”.
Sovereignty is a simple word but with huge implications – it simply means “having supreme control over one’s affairs, without any interference from outside sources or bodies” Our parliament has over the years been reduced to the equivalent of a County Council which takes its orders from parliament or in this case from the unelected EU.
"There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified."
Prime Minister Edward Heath, television broadcast on Britain's entry into the Common Market, January 1973
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