Doesn’t much matter whether immigrants are legal or illegal. Just give them jobs, ensure they pay taxes and treat them like everyone else. There’s no evidence that they are any more criminal than their resident age cohort, although reliable analysis is not available.
Remember that 95% of small-boat arrivals since 2018 have claimed asylum, and substantial numbers have subsequently been granted protection. They are illegal ONLY because the immigration laws introduced by May sucked up to the electoral threat posed by Farage’s hate mongering.
Immigrants, legal or illegal aren’t the problem, we are - you and me. If we were our fathers, we’d probably be dead.
I recall from the days when I advised Sally (Baroness) Greengross at Age Concern that between 80 and 85 an individual burns much cost of welfare as between birth and 80 - I think that’s right.
I used sporadically to write about pensions for The Times and Telegraph. The following figures have been produced by the increasingly indispensable ChatGPT but they chime with my rusty recollection.
When the Old Age Pensions Act was introduced in1908 there were 40.6 million people in Great Britain and only about 475,000 pension recipients on average during 1909 — approximately 85 people in the population for every pensioner.
Today there are about 2.6 workers for every pensioner.
34.5m ÷ 13.2m =2.614
That’s 85 plays call it 3.
Same is more or less true for income-tax payers per state pensioner:
39m ÷ 13.2m = about 3.0 income-tax payers for every pensioner.
Thatcher’s theft of council housing is another huge problem. It’s one reason why young people are continuing to live at home and aren’t having children-education cost is another.
Around 1908, women in England and Wales were having roughly 3.5–4 children on average.
Today, the figure is only about 1.39 children per woman in England and Wales, according to the ONS’s provisional figure for 2025 — the latest available. It was 1.41 in 2024.
That’s fewer workers for pensions like me to sponge off.
Restore council housing. NHS and welfare pays for itself from increased tax revenue. Farmers, social care, NHS benefit. Free education.
It all adds up to increased taxes, which I welcome. I’m persuaded that there’s a loose but convincing correlation between high tax paying and happier societies.
Kind of figures because high tax revenues are likely to result in good services, think of it as a subscription service from which tax payers receive good value.
Julian Jessop highlights Nick Boles's suggestion that the UK (together with the EU ? ) join in defence agreements "with others that share democratic values". CANZUK ( to include Ireland and Norway) could be the best vehicle for that - not tying ourselves to the EU again.
Doesn’t much matter whether immigrants are legal or illegal. Just give them jobs, ensure they pay taxes and treat them like everyone else. There’s no evidence that they are any more criminal than their resident age cohort, although reliable analysis is not available.
Remember that 95% of small-boat arrivals since 2018 have claimed asylum, and substantial numbers have subsequently been granted protection. They are illegal ONLY because the immigration laws introduced by May sucked up to the electoral threat posed by Farage’s hate mongering.
Immigrants, legal or illegal aren’t the problem, we are - you and me. If we were our fathers, we’d probably be dead.
I recall from the days when I advised Sally (Baroness) Greengross at Age Concern that between 80 and 85 an individual burns much cost of welfare as between birth and 80 - I think that’s right.
I used sporadically to write about pensions for The Times and Telegraph. The following figures have been produced by the increasingly indispensable ChatGPT but they chime with my rusty recollection.
When the Old Age Pensions Act was introduced in1908 there were 40.6 million people in Great Britain and only about 475,000 pension recipients on average during 1909 — approximately 85 people in the population for every pensioner.
Today there are about 2.6 workers for every pensioner.
34.5m ÷ 13.2m =2.614
That’s 85 plays call it 3.
Same is more or less true for income-tax payers per state pensioner:
39m ÷ 13.2m = about 3.0 income-tax payers for every pensioner.
Thatcher’s theft of council housing is another huge problem. It’s one reason why young people are continuing to live at home and aren’t having children-education cost is another.
Around 1908, women in England and Wales were having roughly 3.5–4 children on average.
Today, the figure is only about 1.39 children per woman in England and Wales, according to the ONS’s provisional figure for 2025 — the latest available. It was 1.41 in 2024.
That’s fewer workers for pensions like me to sponge off.
Restore council housing. NHS and welfare pays for itself from increased tax revenue. Farmers, social care, NHS benefit. Free education.
It all adds up to increased taxes, which I welcome. I’m persuaded that there’s a loose but convincing correlation between high tax paying and happier societies.
Kind of figures because high tax revenues are likely to result in good services, think of it as a subscription service from which tax payers receive good value.
So, higher taxes or euthanasia. Take your pick.
Julian Jessop highlights Nick Boles's suggestion that the UK (together with the EU ? ) join in defence agreements "with others that share democratic values". CANZUK ( to include Ireland and Norway) could be the best vehicle for that - not tying ourselves to the EU again.