CNN poll: Majority of Britons oppose immigration

[pampango]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/05/uk.election.immigration.poll/

More than three out of four British people think fewer foreigners should be allowed to move to the country, a new poll by YouGov for CNN found Wednesday. Some 77 percent of the British people questioned say net immigration should decrease or that no immigration should be allowed at all.

The opposition Conservative party, which leads in many opinion polls, has taken a harder line on immigration than Brown's Labour party or the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats. Conservative voters were more likely than others to oppose immigration, according to the poll.

About half of Labour and Liberal Democrat voters took one of those positions. The Labour government put in place a points-based immigration system that allows only skilled non-European Union immigrants into the country based on the U.K.'s needs. The Lib Dems support the points-based system but also want an "earned route" to citizenship for any immigrant in the U.K. for more than 10 years and without a criminal record.

Two smaller parties take a still harder line on immigration. The British National Party wants an immediate halt to all immigration. The UK Independence Party wants a five-year freeze on immigration for permanent settlement, and a cap of 50,000 net immigrants per year after that.

[LeftishBrit]

1. Not Latest Breaking News, as they say.

Britain has always been anti-immigrant. Especially the right-wing Brits, who hate immigrants and bloody foreigners, while worshipping the Royal Family (products of German/Danish/Greek immigration) and St George (another bloody foreigner).

There are genuine economic reasons for not wanting unlimited immigration in an economic crisis - and there does need to be a clampdown on unscrupulous bosses and businesses using immigrants as a source of cheap labour. But mostly it's just Britain's national form of prejudice: America has religious and racial bigotry; we have xenophobia. Which is whipped up by the RW press. It was even worse in the good old days of Enoch Powell.

[Darth_Kitten]

4. The current Royal Family is rather illegitimate.

:D

[FreakinDJ]

6. Must be contagious Sweden passed harsh Anti-immigration laws too

[Lyric]

2. I really want to live in the UK someday.

But I don't think they're going to have a national need for poets and writers. :(

[Darth_Kitten]

3. That's my wish...............

I really like being there, there's so much to see and do. :)

[Lyric]

5. I've been something of a Cymrophile for years.

My fondest teenage dream was to have a little farm in the Welsh countryside, right on the River Wye, across the border from England.

[Darth_Kitten]

8. I would still love to buy property

and live there a few months a year. That's one of my little dreams.

LOVE IT THERE!!! :D

[racaulk]

7. The Britons? Who are they?