Row breaks out within Reform UK over immigration stance in Wales

In reply to John Ellis

I appreciate your kind words John. What areas of Wales have you lived in, if I might ask? The truth is I've visited, and I've always had cordial and pleasant experiences, but you hear a lot of stories (some are probably made up) and see comments like the one I responded to, and think you might have a hard time if people make assumptions simply because of where you're born. It's why I think making an effort and assimiliating is so important, to offer your best to a new place. Since making this comment and reflected, and did some research, and indeed about 20-21% living in Wales are born in England. Knowing that, combined with some historical context, I can sympathise with why hostility can exist, though at the same time I'm told its rare. My move is of course, economic, but I'm hoping being outside of a city (in general) will do me some good. My experience of living in a city is that they're crowded, congested, polluted, full of deprivation and with struggling communities that don't often mingle together due to them being transient (students) and diverse (tensions between groups). Given what I've read and heard of Blaenau Gwent in general, the grass might not turn out greener, but it's my lived experience which will tell me the truth about the place, and Wales more broadly as I set out to explore.

In reply to Zarah Daniel

Heya Zara - first of all thank you for writing this comment, there's a lot in here to think about and respond to! You're absolutely right that that it is not the universal attitude, what I am going to coin as being assimilation-affirmative, I would go as far to say that it may well be uncommon. It's a challenge with immigration in general that people are not as curious & respectful of a native culture as they should be, and since writing my comment and looking it up, to find out that 21% of people living in Wales today were born in England, I am a lot more sympathetic to some of the frustrations. In the case of the language, for context I'm moving to Blaenau Gwent which has the lowest percentage of Welsh speakers and I did ask locals about it, to be met with a lack of interest, so I think it will be rare to find speakers there. Nonetheless, 'dal ati', there's S4C, Radio Cymru, plenty of signs and I am sure I'll encounter some speakers eventually, especially when I attend events in the Mid & North :) Your mention of cockney is interesting, and I think part of my frustration in my original comment was feeling as if I am being grouped in with well-to-do Londoners. There is a feeling amongst some English people like myself, similarly to your opinion on the Senedd and Cardiff, that the UK gov only cares about London, and I feel that way even though I have always lived on the South Coast. I have been to London and it is not my cup of tea ^^; So I was probably projecting and reading it as if all English people are Londoners xD On the 'switching language' I have heard it all already. Locals here tell me all kinds of stories, about people switching to Welsh, about people buying homes and having them burnt down, 'the Welsh don't like the English', all that nonsense. When it comes to these these stories, I think the problem is that your perceptions/assumptions can impact what you look for. Imagine if all you've been told about Wales/the Welsh people are these daft stories, then confirmation bias kicks in. Hopefully this might explain this phenomenon. I think the problems you and the original post describe are real problems. Wealthy people buying up lots of homes in communities they have no connection to is devestating, you only have to look at cities like Venice where locals can no longer afford to live there, or the money-laundering pit that much of London is where the absurd land prices make the average person having to pay punitive rents for a horrible home barely fit for human habitation. As you can tell, I am really not a fan of London lol The Welsh gov heavily taxing 2nd homes is a good first step, and I support measures to prevent places like Cornwall, the Isle of Wight, Wales and so on becoming a playground for the rich. I'd suspect people generally aren't willing to move long distances away from their hometowns, like I am moving 115 miles away :) On the whole though, first time buyers like myself pose a lessened threat, and if they do start to regulate purchases for people whose current residence is outside Wales, I think taking into account people's financial circumstance is a good thing. The reason I want to move to Wales is because of the stupid prices in the city here, but the irony is I am likely to be much happier once I move. Well, assuming I don't get Gazumped at the last minute, like 37% of people have been in the last decade when buying a house. Another failure of poor housing regulation in England & Wales, and something we really should change to be more like Scotland. The stress of the home-buying process continues ♥

In reply to Gareth WESTACOTT

Immigration into the UK has been politicised by right wing media. The same media outlets used the same rhetoric to demonise Jewish immigrants in the early part of the 20th Century. Plus the Windrish generation who helped rebuild the UK after WW2. Net migration was around 750,000 when Boris Johnson was PM despite Boris's promise to bring it down to zero. Around 150,000 people have crossed the channel in small votes and if you want to blame anyone blame those who wanted to rip up the Dublin agreement when being part of the EU. When it comes to taking in refugees and asylum seekers GB it's in the top 40 on the world stage. Compared to Poland who have taken in 2 million refugees from Ukraine. Turkiye who have taken in 4 million people from neighbouring countries and even poverty stricken Bangladesh has taken in 4 million Rohingas from Myanmar.

In reply to Gareth WESTACOTT

Well, if we are very lucky, a bit more of this "Mass immigration" and our NHS won't collapse completely. Last time I was in hospital the ward had a large selection of staff from India covering a variety of roles such as cleaning, catering, Health Care Assistants and the ever-necessary nurses. As I was in for nearly 6 weeks I got to watch some of them go through their re-accreditation because, although they were fully qualified nurses in India, we took them on as HCAs and got them to re-qualify to be certain that they were capable of the same skills as the nurses who trained in the UK. The whole team - English, Welsh, Indian and Irish (and probably several other nationalities I didn't get to meet) worked perfectly well together to keep the ward working under all the pressures that a busy NHS surgical ward is always going to be under. Without those nurses, (and all of the other great staff) the ward would have failed because they were filling jobs that the NHS has been unable to fill. So, while you are busy muttering about immigrants being bad for the country, I am grateful to have been able to be hospitalised on a ward that was kept immaculately clean and to have been looked after by fantastic nurses and HCAs. Many of them were Indian and part of a specific immigration scheme and those who were just locals were probably very glad to be working with safe staffing levels, and not crashing from the burnout that comes from trying to do all the necessary jobs without the necessary staff to help. For the record, my consultant was Greek and I'm assuming that he trained and got here in the usual way but I really wouldn't have cared if he had arrived on a little boat (other than the fact that people should never feel like they have to risk their lives that way). What I cared about was that I had SEPSIS with his care and that of his team of baby doctors (of many backgrounds) I got to be alive rather than dead. THAT is what matters. A whole hospital full of people from a massive diversity of backgrounds (at a guess I would say about half of the nurses were fluent Welsh speakers) have come together to provide thousands of people with clean, safe, effective healthcare to the best of their abilities with the resources available to them. What have immigrants done for the people of Wales? Well we wouldn't have a health service without them. I'd suggest that the phrase you ought to be looking for is "Thank you for your support", rather than any more ignorant, ill-informed bigotry. Just a thought.

In reply to Johnny Gamble

Stop confusing the right wingers with your evidence and facts!! Surely you can spout some click bate phrases rather than just telling people the truth!!! ;-)

In reply to Phil Davies

Do most incomers into the Welsh speaking heartland who have a grasp of English have any desire to increase the numbers to one million.On face value far from it

In reply to John Ellis

Personally I'm terrified whenever I hear one of them twist the nasty, nationalist argument into something that sounds rational and about protecting our precious resources etc. - I know it's absolutely the lowest line in any internet argument to make the comparison I'm about to make but.....it is an indisputable fact that a certain angry Austrian once managed to take over an entire nation by telling them that he cared more about the country than anyone else and he was going to protect it from all the people who were dragging this beautiful country down.....then he started listing the bad people, the people that all good patriots should hate. He was very believable. It didn't end well.