48 thoughts on “Was It For This?”

  1. Odis

    Frankly, your most disgusting and bigoted “Was it for this post?”, yet Chompsky. The Conservatives have introduced a benefit system that “encourages people to find work”,
    Yet you choose to take the piss out of the unemployed. you need to cop on m8!

    1. Jess

      I think the point this article is making is that there is a government driven narrative in the UK that there is ‘welfare tourism’ and the foreigners are going over to Britain just to go on the dole. This shows that its both ways. I believe his use of ‘scroungers’ is a parody of the speech typically heard from conservatives in Britain

      1. IDB

        It’s also an illustration of the holes in UKIP’s arguments against EU membership. Or at least that was my impression.

        1. Odis

          Last time I checked the UK was being run by the Conservative party, along with the liberal Democrats. Not UKIP. I presume this is still the case.

          UKIP is an anti-European Union party, which attracts all manner of flack from a media, that eats out of the hand of those who rule us. It has two MP’s who were recently elected in by-elections.

          I fail to see what holes, this punches in the UKIP fundamental argument, that the EU is undemocratic and corrupt. The gombeen elite.
          Though you may choose to go with the Guardian analysis, that Nigel Farage is the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler. It makes things easier to understand at the end of the day.

          1. Don Pidgeoni

            UK politics is very tail (UKIP) wagging the dog (coalition) at the moment. The graph is aiming to show that the UK and its citizens benefit from the EU and its immigration laws just as much as people from other EU countries do

          2. Jess

            I think you’re deliberately ignoring the argument UKIP make about immigration and that Britain is being flooded with people due to their welfare system.

          5. Nameless

            There are clearly a lot more EU citizens claiming benefits in the UK than British subjects claiming benefits in other EU country. This graph could demonstartes that the Uk suffers from welfare tourism. British subjects claim benefits in other EU countries, but thats also the point of the EU.
            It would be interesting, if divisive, to see same for RoI benefit claimants

          6. Don Pidgeoni

            Does it show welfare tourism? Or does it show people coming to the UK to work because it has a better economy than other countries, especially during this last recession, and people will move to look for work?

          7. Paolo

            You are choosing to ignore pretty significant facts, just like UKIP.

            UKIP thrives on hate and suspicion. Farage is a hypocrite and, frankly, an idiot. He revels in the attention that he gets and the only reason he gets attention is because he and his party say and do ridiculous things.

          8. Odis

            @ Paulo. UKIP doesn’t “do” anything. It isn’t in power.
            The Conservatives do things – because they are in power.

            Power is the thing you should consider here. Don’t confuse power with people saying things you don’t like. That’s a freedom of speech thing – which isn’t the same as the ability to treat poor people like **** or bomb Arabs – for instance.

            UKIP have a degree of popular support because the British people don’t trust either of the two major parties to run their country properly. This is based on very bitter experience. I can’t think of another European country where this is the case…..
            Oh wait.

            Media organisations like the BBC and the Guardian, like to support the status quo of the Conservatives, Labour and the EU. Presumably, they are comfortable with their obfuscation and toadying.

  2. Digs

    We have some of the highest welfare payments in the world. The Brits welfare is such that their poverty is more abject. You’d need to be earning a seriously decent wage to compete with dole payments and potential extra supplementary payments. Just saying….

    1. scottser

      i came across a case today where a couple with a small child gets 342 pw from social welfare. same sized family with one parent working get just under 400 for 35 hours pw. family on SW would get rent allowance, medical cards etc while working family get sod all except the child benefit. the numbers of ‘working poor’ i see in my line of work are increasing in huge numbers.

  4. Steve

    Could be reading this wrong jess but I think the chart’s main aim is to show the amount of Britons taking the dole in EU countries and not the other way, amount of “foreigners” in Britain taking the dole.

    I think chompsky was trying to get people click baiting into an argument about Irish welfare rates being too generous. Especially when compared against the measly sum up north….and about the get even measlier with the stormont house agreement.

    If anything he chart says don’t go to Romania. No offence meant to any Romanian readers out there.

    1. Jess

      Yes thats right, its to show britains getting support in other EU countries. Its because there is a false narrative that immigrants are flooding britain to get rich quick on government handouts. ITs implying that the free movement of people works both ways. The guardian is a pro EU, left leaning paper and it would make sense for it to embrace this narative

  6. The People's Hero

    I’d hazard a guess that those numbers are inflated somewhat or heavily influenced either by returned diaspora or their offspring born over there….. I know my two sisters were born over there in the 50’s – have dual citizenship – and are of pensionable age… So, easy up on the whole “Brits coming over here stealing our money * Fight * malarkey”….

    1. Jam

      People with dual citizenship returning are much more likely to register as irish for various reasons. Less admin being the key one.

  7. Lu

    Flashes back to the moment when I signed on in the UK. You have to show any previous claim in another country and when I produced my Irish claim the officer just looked at me and said ‘You know that you won’t get this much here?’ Yes darling officer, but there is a remote chance that I will get a job here …

    1. Steve

      . I don’t live in London but it’s mental how people could live (survive) on 75 euro a week (approx) if under 24 or 94 euro if over 24. Sure the Oyster card alone would eat that up in a week if going through multiple zones. Ok maybe slight exaggeration.

    2. Joe the Lion

      Trying to climb up on your usual tried and tested tiresome soapbox I see.

      Have you no interesting subjects to rant on about?

      1. ahjayzis

        Haya Joe chicken xxx hw u doin hun xxx

        It’s not a rant, it’s common sense. 10% of the British population have at least one Irish grandparent, they’re the largest ‘immigrant’ population in Ireland, ergo, I’d say a lot are first or second generation returned emigrants. It’s not a judgement, just common sense that figures about Brits in Ireland have a lot more nuance to them than Portuguese or French in Ireland.

        And I’m a West Brish in London in all’n’anywayz.

        1. Paolo

          The point is, it isn’t one-way traffic (as UKIP would have you believe) and, in fact, the cost of British people in Spain, for example, is a much greater burden on the Spanish economy as they tend to be older and sick more often.

          Bottom line? UKIP is a party of liars and xenophobes and people in the UK are voting for them in droves.

  10. Je Suis Frilly Keane

    While I’m enjoying the notion that the Guardian has just handed Nigel *Garage his arse, I do need to remind ye that Paddies who worked ‘over’ in the 50s 60s n 70s should be collecting pensions or bits of pensions today.
    And they’d be plugged into those figs.
    My parents inc.

    ( that what he said to Step and Dom on how to pronounce Forage, mind you they were all pissed)

    1. Jess

      I don’t think they would be. The graph is about unemployment benefit specifically, rather than state pension. Although they come from the same department the stats are collected independently

    1. Don Pidgeoni

      The graph doesn’t take into account how long those people have been in the UK though. The main point is showing the “ew immigration” crowd that it goes both ways

    1. Steve

      Another wonderfully insightful comment.
      Because the Irish dole queues are full of people happy out not being in work. Like its not as if various studies have shown being jobless affects self esteem, the family unit,future employment prospects- not to mention the possibility of resorting to drink , drugs or suicide

  13. Eulich McGee

    I think its also biased in the way that it is pinpointing job seekers allowance in the uk yet only general unemployment benefits elswhere. I know from experience that many eu immigrants will not have enough stamps for the dole here and just get credits, with no actuall money being paid to them.

    Also how many of these are ex pats who returned from the UK with a britsh passport for an early retirement during the boom years.

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie