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> sovereign nation once again As a Canadian (and I imagine citizen of pretty much any non-european commonwealth country) I had to chuckle a bit. After being tr

> sovereign nation once again As a Canadian (and I imagine citizen of pretty much any non-european commonwealth country) I had to chuckle a bit. After being treated like a resource-extraction milking machine historically and then maintaining this pseudo-ceremonial allegiance to a royal head of state it seems funny for someone from the mothership to bemoan a loss of sovereignty and self-determination. No ill-will intended, just struck me as humorous in what is in all other regards a very humorless situation...

growlist 8y ago
I'm basically a small c conservative, and I think the country is a far less pleasant place to live than when I grew up. If we want mass immigration we also need a massive house building programme, which might involve concreting over the countryside, or perhaps a proper regional policy. I don't see how we can have one without the other. If we were as big as Canada it would be a different story! I went to the beach with the dog on New Year's day - there were thousands of other people, the roads were clogged, and it spoiled the experience. Buying in the countryside is often not an option depending on your career, because many jobs are only available in the South East, hence you are forced to live in a hyper-competitive area, fighting it out with millions of others for your tiny slice of England. I'm just trying to explain that my reasons for wanting lower immigration have nothing to do with xenophobia, and everything to do with the realities of life in the SE UK. Injecting millions more people is going to make it a massive miserable conurbation, in my view.
- throwaway-hn123 8y ago
  > I'm just trying to explain that my reasons for wanting lower immigration have nothing to do with xenophobia I'm afraid you've failed quite miserably.
- steve_gh 8y ago
  It's a little more nuanced than that ... the SE of England was generally the area most in favour of Remain. Pretty much all of rural England outside of the pull of London voted to Leave. I see Brexit as the losers in the globalization push taking their revenge on the winners.
  - growlist 8y ago
    Sure, I realise I'm something of an anomaly in my views. Something of a tangent I know, but I can't even walk to my local shop without being choked by diesel pollution, and this in a not particularly large southern town. Is this supposed to be progress?

growlist 8y ago

I'm basically a small c conservative, and I think the country is a far less pleasant place to live than when I grew up. If we want mass immigration we also need a massive house building programme, which might involve concreting over the countryside, or perhaps a proper regional policy. I don't see how we can have one without the other. If we were as big as Canada it would be a different story! I went to the beach with the dog on New Year's day - there were thousands of other people, the roads were clogged, and it spoiled the experience. Buying in the countryside is often not an option depending on your career, because many jobs are only available in the South East, hence you are forced to live in a hyper-competitive area, fighting it out with millions of others for your tiny slice of England. I'm just trying to explain that my reasons for wanting lower immigration have nothing to do with xenophobia, and everything to do with the realities of life in the SE UK. Injecting millions more people is going to make it a massive miserable conurbation, in my view.

throwaway-hn123 8y ago
> I'm just trying to explain that my reasons for wanting lower immigration have nothing to do with xenophobia I'm afraid you've failed quite miserably.
steve_gh 8y ago
It's a little more nuanced than that ... the SE of England was generally the area most in favour of Remain. Pretty much all of rural England outside of the pull of London voted to Leave. I see Brexit as the losers in the globalization push taking their revenge on the winners.
- growlist 8y ago
  Sure, I realise I'm something of an anomaly in my views. Something of a tangent I know, but I can't even walk to my local shop without being choked by diesel pollution, and this in a not particularly large southern town. Is this supposed to be progress?