Bit of history for ya: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-eu...IHjeyWBgdzuKbGsa9HMSQKW0keEnM8Xl_LkjH3hJ01rX8
she trying to contain her excitement at the prospect of all that cheep land coming on he market up north, to pen up yous brexit sheep. but that will backfire too as there will be nobody to wipe the drool from yer face or more acculturate, the shite you spout from it. anyway, you can give it a rest as well. fuggin london london london. zzz ZZZ ZZZ. “FROM the lone shieling on the misty island / Mountains divide us and the waste of seas” are the opening lines of a famous poem known as the Canadian Boat Song. Who wrote it is a bit of a mystery but ever since it was first published in 1829 it has summed up the Highlander’s experience of clearance and exile, driven off his land and out of his country so that, as the poem puts it, a “degenerate lord can boast his sheep.” . One hundred and seventy years later the glens and straths which were emptied remain largely uninhabited. That is why immigration to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland is particularly important because, speaking as a Highlands and Islands MSP as well as a long term resident of a massively under inhabited landscape, we simply don’t have enough people to sustain our economy or our future. . I have had a number of well-publicised disagreements with Argyll and Bute Council, the local authority which covers my constituency, but I agree with them that solving the problem of depopulation is, and must be, at the very top of our shared list of priorities as public representatives. There is a simple reason for that. We just can’t sustain the services that a modern population needs if we rely on the existing ageing council tax payers who need more and more but can afford less and less. And if the basic services aren’t provided – schools, refuse collection, road maintenance – then fewer and fewer people will come here to make their lives and we will be trapped in a cycle of decline. Today however we face – across the Highlands as well as in other parts of Scotland – a double whammy. . The ending of freedom of movement as a result of Brexit isn’t something to celebrate, despite the crass and insensitive claims to the contrary by out of touch Tory politicians. For the Highlands and Islands – and indeed for the whole of Scotland – it is an impending disaster. Twenty per cent of our working population in the Highlands will retire within the next 10 years. We are growing older and we are not reproducing ourselves (there is zero natural growth in our population) so we must attract into our area enough people to replace that shrinking workforce. . Over the next decade that means around 80,000 people, but Brexit is already acting as a deterrent. I regularly meet EU nationals who are thinking about going back to their country of origin, though they love living here and they would dearly like to stay. Many are professionals – doctors, vets, university researchers – whilst others own businesses or work in key sectors where there is already a labour shortage. Their contribution cannot be replaced. . And they also contribute massively to our cultural and social well-being. The second part of this crisis is to do with Tory legislation that will follow Brexit. A new earnings threshold of £30,000 (a very high wage in a rural area) means that even top jobs will go unfilled because even if there are no local candidates, no incoming workers will be allowed to apply or stay here. . I have met with successive UK immigration ministers whose knowledge of Scotland is usually rudimentary and whose sympathy for the country non-existent. The current incumbent is Caroline Nokes, who memorably and arrogantly told a Westminster committee last year: “We are not going to grant an ability to the Scottish Government that I might not also be granting to Lincolnshire county council.” Her department was immovable on the issue of Sine Halfpenny, a fully qualified Gaelic teacher in Canada who had been offered a job on Mull but who didn’t meet even the existing lower salary threshold. Children went untaught because of official, London based, intransigence. The cause of the crisis in the Highlands we are now facing is not just the indifference of Westminster, nor the obsession with migration that drives the current xenophobic Tory party. It also arises from a chronic inequality in land ownership, which largely still persists. . But things are being made substantially worse by Brexit. Winnie Ewing gained a special EU status for the Highlands which gave access to additional help and was crucial in the process of recovery. Successive Scottish Governments have continued to see the area as a priority, supporting the work of – amongst others – Highlands and Islands Enterprise and steadily modernising the archaic land laws. But without continued access to European funds and, most crucially, a continued influx of European citizens, things will start to go backwards again. In fact they are already doing so.
Regardless of your view point on Brexit, this article is worth a read https://www.independent.co.uk/voice...nson-jeremy-hunt-the-sun-stalin-a8767871.html
i dont think i leave anybody in doubt what i think. i have been pretty consistent over the last few years. i leave the trolling and paraphrasing to you and yours. maybe you and noob ect could try a wee bit of the cut and pasting instead of putting yer own bile and spin into somebody elses words. what do you think?
Fin, be honest, when someone has been asked, "do you have a link for that?" so people can see the full article, it's source and context so can make their own minds up, who do you think has struggled the most out of the three of us to provide those links?
cant be the lack of employment. our rate is lower than yours cant be the wage of public sector workers, ours is higher. it cant be the house prices, 10% of our population are english and mostly.....?
I’m proposing that @AirCon is the next Chancellor of the Exchequer. The discount scheme for linked buying and selling if it’s downsizing is policy in Hungary.
I think you have yet to answer a straight question here on the forums. That's my thought. What do you think?
Membership of the EU has no bearing on immigration except for free movement of EU citizens in both directions. Immigration from outside the EU is down to the uk government alone.
Which meant we had a discriminatory 2 tier system. We now have a system that is applied equally to all no matter where you come from. Surely an improvement and a move in the right direction?
discriminatory? unless you are suggesting UK govs Where forced to forget the majority of immigration comes from outside the EU. because they are in the EU then develop a culture of blame against EU Citizens for their successive failures. they and you are sending the wrong message. as the latest visitor numbers probably confirm.
