Pot really does call the kettle black

[GastonJ]

The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK has fallen by 4,000 since employment restrictions were lifted in January, but is up 29,000 compared with a year ago, figures show.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show 140,000 employed in the UK between January and March 2014.
On 1 January, Bulgarians and Romanians gained the same rights to work in the UK as other EU citizens.
Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs the reduction was "notable".


The government has not said how many new arrivals it expects as a result of the lifting of temporary restrictions placed on Romanian and Bulgarian migrants when they joined the European Union in 2007.
The pressure group Migration Watch has estimated the UK could expect 50,000 arrivals a year from the two countries and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) predicted large numbers of new immigrants.

The figures show the number of people employed in the UK by country of birth.


Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander says the data "gives the lie to UKIP's scaremongering on immigration".
He said: "The very modest number of Romanians and Bulgarians coming to work in Britain this year is in stark contrast to the inflammatory rhetoric of earlier this year."

BBC News - Romanian and Bulgarian migration: Dip in workers coming to UK

Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs the reduction was "notable".

David Cameron must tear up plans to open Britain’s borders to Romanian and Bulgarian migrants on January 1, Conservative activists have demanded.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, 90 activists and constituency chairmen said that ministers could still act to prevent transitional controls being lifted this week.

In the letter, the Conservative Grassroots organisation claims that the Government could use a clause in European Union law which allows countries to continue with border controls if their country is “undergoing or foresees serious labour market disturbances”.

The loophole, known as a “safeguard clause, was used by Spain in 2011 to reimpose controls on Romanians.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ulgarians.html

[Snowy79]

You can make statistics reads how you want them. You'd need to know why the figures were achieved. Were there less employed due to their being less jobs for them to take ? Did they bring with them twice as many unemployed family ? Were the jobs better or worse paid ?

[GastonJ]

You're right of course, statistics are put together that way on purpose, but I did wonder why the M20 was never on the news with gridlock caused queues of nomadic Bulgarians and Romanians as predicted. Unless they're all camping on the beach at Dover?

[Kalipo]

Does this fail to include the ones that arrived before the door opened??

It could just be they haven't come because of all the media slur ??

Well done nigel on slowing this stampede down

[rds60h]

The big problem with the figures of those arriving from the EU to live/work here are collected from airport arrivals, which makes good reading for the government but how many of the Romanians and Bulgarians could have afforded air-fares ?
They, and the majority of Poles etc arrive via the ports on buses and cars, so the likelyhood is that for each person accounted for at the Airports another 1,000 have arrived by other means.

[genius76]

third in terms of the number of emigrants from the EU are Italy, but you wont split on one nice pepperoni pica isn't?

[ifred]

Gaston seems you've fallen for the propaganda
looks likes Nigels guess was closer than the BBC ...Would it have made a difference if we got this information yesterday ??

Another 201,000 allowed in from EU as out-of-control migration casuses Britain 'to buckle' | UK | News | Daily Express

The number of immigrants arriving here from the EU surged by 27 per cent last year, according to official *figures released yesterday.
A total of 201,000 EU citizens arrived in the UK, compared with 158,000 the previous year. The Office for National Stat*istics said the “significant increase” had been fuelled by the number of people coming here to look for work.
The figures were a major blow for David Cameron on the day of the European elections and led to renewed support for the Daily Express crusade to get Britain out of the European Union and regain control of our borders from Brussels.

Net immigration is running at more than twice Mr Cameron’s target of cutting it to the “tens of thousands”.
In 2013 a total of 526,000 *people moved to the UK and 314,000 left, giving a net figure of 212,000. This is up from 177,000 in 2012. Alan Murad, of the Better Off Out campaign, warned: “These figures demonstrate that while we remain in the EU we are completely powerless to control immigration to Britain.

[GastonJ]

Wouldn't have made a difference to the way voted tbh.

It takes 2 groups to get the UK out of EU, and that would be the House of Commons *spit* and the House of Lords *spit*. MEP's and local councilors can do nothing about that. Those voting for UKIP MEP's would do well to bear in mind that all they do is claim expenses and not play any constructive role while 'representing' them. A vote wasted.