OK, folks, I understand that Britain is an island and your space is limited. That is a no-brainer. All countries have a limited ability to welcome incomers. The question I want you to consider very carefully before screaming to leave Europe and get rid of “all these EU immigrants wanting hand-outs” is this.
Do you want to swap them for your streets flooded with elderly, sick, poor Brits who used to live elsewhere? Believe me that once they are thrown out of whichever country they moved to, they will not be able to buy a property in the UK and even renting will be steep.
See – the thing about going abroad for profit isn’t new. Selling a modest semi in Britain to buy a small manor house in France is an old story, investing the profit, using the bigger space as a B and B …and having access to a cheaper cost of living, the best health care service in Europe and sometimes playing both ends off against the middle to avoid paying tax. These people were laughing all the way to Credit Agricole.
I’ve been in Europe long enough to know what it was like before the “free movement” rules and was nearly evicted from France when living aboard my boat. Due to an incorrectly filled-in form, the customs arrived to ask if I was leaving today or tomorrow and would I like them to arrest me now.
Make no mistake, if Britain leaves Europe, a lot of your grandparents, in-laws etc will be seeking lodgings. Want them in your house?
Me? I’m a French citizen. When I decided to live and work, pay my taxes and be in the system, I applied for and got naturalisation. There are, however, a great many others who are going to be in “la merde” big time if you lot get your way.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction – think about it before you vote to leave Europe.
The Bingergread Cottage 
Reblogged this on Anita & Jaye Dawes and commented:
interesting point, Ailsa…
Thanks – that is very kind xxx
I don’t understand everything about this situation, but from what I could make out, it seems to make sense.
I do not see the trade off here. Comparativly, there cannot be that many Brits living in European countries. Too many coming in.
Evelyn
I think you’ll find that there are 5.5 million Brits currently living in other EU countries.
Also – the immigrants who are being campaigned against now, are willing to work, the returning ex-pats are virtually all old, sick and will be poor – a burden on the health service and the benefits system.
Many countries will get problems, if they leave EU as they never expected. Great post Ailsa
Unfortunately, the ‘ordinary, everyday folk’ in UK are listening to private agenda pushing (vote for ME) politicians who are leading them up the garden path where a dirty great cliff awaits for those with the instincts of lemmings.
If ‘those from away’ didn’t come to UK and do the jobs our own ‘British and proud of it’ unemployed won’t touch with barge poles, then the services of the country would soon collapse.
And that has always been the situation – from the Windrush onwards!
Well said!
[Rant Mode]
I won’t be voting to leave Europe. This immigrants stuff is all bollocks. There’s a lot of whinging about Polish builders, for example. A few years ago, there was a massive crisis, there weren’t enough plumbers, carpenters, plasterers and builders in Britain to do the work required. Why? Because everyone had gone to get a degree in I don’t know, something crap, instead of a good trade. Nobody British would do those jobs, We were all too hoighty toighty. So lots of people turned up from other countries and did them for us. Now wankers like UKIP are complaining that they’re ‘taking all our jobs’. When actually they’ve turned up and done us a favour by doing all the stuff that nobody British would bloody well do. That’s why a lot of the bus drivers First employed in Bristol as early as 2000 were from Eastern Europe. Because they couldn’t find enough people locally to fill the jobs at a salary First could afford to pay (well above minimum wage but not enough).
The problem is our benefits system. You get benefits amounting to £25k or nothing. But actually a lot of people work for less. A lot more would, too if the benefits system supplemented incomes of less than that. Indeed, the benefits office would probably end up paying less. I
UKIP and the kind of racist shite they peddle makes me so angry and so ashamed to be British that…OK I’m going to stop now or I’ll bust a blood vessel! 😉
Climbs off soap box.
[Rand Mode Off]
Cheers
MTM
It’s so damned easy to make it an “us and them” situation when it is much more complex. I understand why you are angry. That’s why we are trying to make people look at the situation again, instead of accepting all the crap that is thrown at them by politicians who, let’s face it, only want to be elected, not to improve the lot of anyone else in the UK or anywhere else.
It’s comforting to find people who feel the same way I do. There will be a swing back, for sure. There has to be.
Cheers
MTM