The 800,000 people living in Britain with little or no English

[Brad]

Exactly, and even after hundreds of years together and both knowing two languages... Canada and Quebec are still at loggerheads with eachother and it so very nearly came to a split back in the 1990s. And in many ways you could argue that French and British cultures are broadly the same in the languages are closely related along with the cultures and religion. Certainly more so than Britain and some third world country. I don't understand that no matter how many times I argue about what makes a nation state on this forum, some people seemingly just don't want to understand it and appear to believe in the year 6 notion that countries are just random lines drawn on a map.

But you're exactly right, the amount coming into Britain is ridiculous and people want this madness stopped.

I totally agree with you. I bet that with the amount of people not working, they are applying for Unemployment which makes the people working have to work harder because their taxes are going to pay for those who don't work.
And I do understand that British government is probably hurting with the lack of people working because of all the money going out for unemployment.
So I do think Britain is doing something right and not allowing people to come in. It may sound heartless but it's like any other country; If you don't benefit the country at all and you just live off of Unemployment and welfare probably.
I'm not too sure if Britain has Welfare, but I do know that in Canada- People who go on Welfare, do not get off of it because they get an amount from the government and the people who actually work full time (like me) have to pay for them to sit on their butts all day and do nothing.
So, if they would do that with Canada.. Maybe our economy wouldn't be going to crap.

I am guessing that British Economy isn't doing so well if there is 800,000 people not working and collecting some form of money.

[Kardan]

I totally agree with you. I bet that with the amount of people not working, they are applying for Unemployment which makes the people working have to work harder because their taxes are going to pay for those who don't work.
And I do understand that British government is probably hurting with the lack of people working because of all the money going out for unemployment.
So I do think Britain is doing something right and not allowing people to come in. It may sound heartless but it's like any other country; If you don't benefit the country at all and you just live off of Unemployment and welfare probably.
I'm not too sure if Britain has Welfare, but I do know that in Canada- People who go on Welfare, do not get off of it because they get an amount from the government and the people who actually work full time (like me) have to pay for them to sit on their butts all day and do nothing.
So, if they would do that with Canada.. Maybe our economy wouldn't be going to crap.

I am guessing that British Economy isn't doing so well if there is 800,000 people not working and collecting some form of money.

Might be worth noting:

UK unemployment is at it's lowest level since 2009, the UK economy has grown the fastest in 2013 than since 2007, yet immigration is probably at it's highest levels ever. It's not as simple as More immigration = Everything is bad.

[Brad]

Might be worth noting:

UK unemployment is at it's lowest level since 2009, the UK economy has grown the fastest in 2013 than since 2007, yet immigration is probably at it's highest levels ever. It's not as simple as More immigration = Everything is bad.

That's a very interesting statistic, do you have referencing for it? I can see what you are saying as it not being as simple. Which anything in life is not. It'll be an issue for the UK until they pass a law stating either; a) Britain will become bilingual (Welsh & English)... which may benefit the country. or b) That all welsh speaking people have to leave, or learn English.
Now, with me saying that; You even said:

Even so, you say they shouldn't be allowed in England? (And good luck stopping them from getting into England )

I agree with that. Sometimes immigration happens when they don't like how the government is being ran or their being prosecuted in their land, or they just want to take a move and can't do it legally.
haha!

[The Don]

The official statistics has the number listed as 138,000, not 800,000 so I'm not sure where the telegraph pulled that number from...

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census...arch-2011.html

In 2011, less than half a per cent (138,000) of all usual residents aged three years and over could not speak English.

[Ardemax]

Because comparing a native language that's been here for hundreds/thousands of years is comparable to hundreds of thousands of people coming in from alien lands. Not to mention the fact that I doubt there are many (if any) Welsh who only speak Welsh. Besides, if Welsh is spoken in Wales then so what? English should be spoken in England.

I'm sorry if I mis-referenced your post, but I thought you said English should be spoken in this country. 'This country' implies the United Kingdom to me.

[Kardan]

The official statistics has the number listed as 138,000, not 800,000 so I'm not sure where the telegraph pulled that number from...

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census...arch-2011.html

The 800,000 figure includes the people that describe themselves as knowing 'little english' as well as the non speakers.

[Ardemax]

The 800,000 figure includes the people that describe themselves as knowing 'little english' as well as the non speakers.

Gotta love ambiguity in headlines.

[The Don]

The 800,000 figure includes the people that describe themselves as knowing 'little english' as well as the non speakers.

Ah, so it's completely misleading! Shocker right there...

[-:Undertaker:-]

I'm sorry if I mis-referenced your post, but I thought you said English should be spoken in this country. 'This country' implies the United Kingdom to me.

Yes. English should be spoken in the United Kingdom with respect given to the native lingering language of Welsh in parts of Wales. It's pretty simple to understand and grasp really, and the existence of Welsh isn't a good enough reason for transforming many areas of our inner cities into Polish, Turkish or Arabics-speaking ghettos.

Only somebody harbouring an extreme and nasty dislike of his own country, people and culture could make such a strange equation.

Gotta love ambiguity in headlines.

The headline clearly states little or no English.

Ah, so it's completely misleading! Shocker right there...

The headline clearly states little or no English. Pretty simple to grasp that - unless you get it really wrong and allow your own prejudices and dogma to get the better of you (as you just did) when you posted ONS figures trying to disprove a claim that was never made by the Telegraph or myself in the first place. Nice try, but the only misleading thing in this thread is your attempt to turn reality on its head.

UK unemployment is at it's lowest level since 2009, the UK economy has grown the fastest in 2013 than since 2007, yet immigration is probably at it's highest levels ever. It's not as simple as More immigration = Everything is bad.

Well that is if you believe the statistics which I do not. But assuming they are truthful, nobody made the claim that immigration is the only factor in unemployment. The main problem with mass immigration in terms of unemployment is the level of youth unemployment which, looking at some graphs, remains at some of it's highest levels ever. And before you say it - no, I am not saying that mass immigration is the only cause of youth unemployment but it is related. I have argued for example against the minimum wage in the past which also hurts youth unemployment.

Both policies which you support that hurt the working class the hardest despite being left wing and for the working man. Kinda like the Labour Party.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I didn't see this so i'll reply.

Quite clearly England/Wales and England/Pakistan are two different scenarios, and I'm talking about England/Wales You said you must speak English to live in England, so you would move any Welsh only speakers back to Wales if they lived in England? In my opinion, you can't make it a hard rule. There will be exceptions here and there.

No I would not, Wales is a country of the United Kingdom and as a sovereign state border controls cannot be established nor do I see any reason to establish them seeing as England and Wales have no border controls between them and for good reason - the reason being that we are one country as Britain. Do you ever hear of Welsh people moving across the border into England in their hundreds of thousands and settling in one area, only speaking Welsh and refusing to make any effort to integrate with the English population? No you do not.

Yet another silly strawman argument in a debate on immigration. As I said previously, it's only a matter of time before somebody brings up the Irish.