I came from a working class family and was brought up on a council estate
Me too. and proud of it. Still in retirement a union member as well.
I too have had good experiences with 'immigrants' My daughters life was saved by the quick diagnosis and instant action of a black doctor; I too have had needed assistance from black guy after an accident in France, I have sub-let a flat to a girl from Cameroon, her and her families opinions on West Indians for instance cannot be repeated here.
That is not the point.
The point is waves after wave of unrestricted, let em all in immigration which is causing grave disquiet in this country.
The immigrants themselves are not to blame for what happened to this countries industry, we are, in that we all swallowed the lies and bullshit spouted by successive politicians with their own agenda.
It is becoming ever more transparent, these other agendas but as we have bred a generation of sheeple and thicko chavs it is ever harder to convince them that it is so.
Even if we started to regenerate our industry tomorrow where are the skilled men? working in B&Q,? or had enough, or retired or just too cynical. We need to teach kids in school the joys of working with their hands, the joy of making something, Instead schools are closing engineering or carpentry workshops because of "health and safety"
My own school which had well equipped carpentry and metal work shops is now a "Centre of Excellence for Performing Arts" in other words its teaching the hooded 2nd generation rubbish that haunts the streets at night to play the drums and dance.
Plumstead my roots, where my family had market stalls for generations is derelict crap hole run by Somali gangstas; gone is the Arsenal, Siemans , the shipyards and all the other industries, no one would want to work there even if those factories survived its too bloody dangerous.
Its all very well to wring ones hands over the issue but the causes and effects are there to be seen.
We were warned.
The bottom line is that you should never have bought that Japanese bike or TV, the German car, the Chinese tat of all kinds that's stuffed all our industry, not while the same thing could have been bought here, but you all wanted it cheap cheap cheap.
The most powerful political force in this country is the consumer, if only they'd realise it. If you don't buy foreign goods, the multi nationals profits will suffer and they'll look to make goods here if the demand grows.
Does no one feel ashamed that we import chicken from Thailand and south America to sell cheap chicken to mostly immigrants? or throwaway motorcycles from China, a potential enemy?
We had quite adequate commuter motorcycles or Mopeds made in France [yes I know that's outside UK as well] the Motobecane; cheap reliable easy to maintain, 200mpg, that was exterminated by the EU on "green" grounds. and we used to make them here under licence.
How many realise that a huge percentage of Germanys wealth is solely because its a clearing house, import centre for Chinese made goods? They are the middle men of the EU, nearly all out imports from the Far east come into the EU via Germany.
Its all there to see, how why when who.
Its a gods gift to ranters this thread.