Mad dogs & Englishman?

The first sign of the sun and Bradford gets more than it's fair share of madness!

I spotted at least two gangs of young Asian lads standing off, a guy threw himself or was pushed down the escalator of the Kirkgate center (I heard he died?) and police sirens & ambulances everywhere on the way home this afternoon!

Anyway this dog (perceived status is an awful reason to get a pet) was busy watching the action in the sun so I blipped him as he watched.

My title "Mad dogs & Englishman?" is because although I love Bradford's multicultural mix and heritage (Chinese, Libyan, Asian, Eastern European etc etc) a Facebook rant with a Daily Mail/express reader yesterday reminded me there are still many who suffer from xenophobia in this city (& the UK).

Immigration is almost always universally good for a country but in times of economic distress thinly veiled racism is born hence the idiots comprising the English Defence league (defence against what? And what is English anyway?) get headlines.

So hear are a few facts for the immigration debate...

Statistics for 2009 show the UK had just over 4 million foreign-born citizens (just 6.6% of total pop).

The UK ranks 40th in the world for net migration & several European countries rank higher than the UK e.g. Cyprus (6th); Ireland (22nd); Portugal (28th); Denmark (32nd); the Netherlands (33rd); and, Germany (39th).

A Home Office research study found that, in 1999/2000, first generation migrants in the UK contributed £31.2 billion in taxes and consumed £28.8 billion in benefits and public services - a net fiscal contribution of £2.5 billion!

Whilst immigrants do occupy job positions when they come here, as consumers they create more jobs than they take.

1st generation immigrants are less likely to use state benefits than the native population and they are less likely to be unemployed.

The people who are most anti-immigration are the very people who are effected least by immigration and rarely mix with immigrants, their fear of immigration is driven by political and media, particularly tabloid scaremongering.