The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Pienaar's gloves]

Leanne Wood - obviously Trident has nothing to do with ISIS; the point is not every threat to our country is going to be in the mould of ISIS, it could be a state.

Correct. It would be ace to be able to drop Trident but I do think it's pie in the sky.

Far too important to take a gamble on.

 

[Clint Planet]

Good point about poor aftercare for veterans.

 

[Clint Planet]

Immigration is putting what at risk???

 

[Tubey]

Oh look, Bennett did something.

 

[Brennan]

I don't understand how any of the people up there can deny that immigration has put further strain on the NHS.

 

[roydo]

Bit of a cheek that one Ed!

 

[Tubey]

I don't understand how any of the people up there can deny that immigration has put further strain on the NHS.

I don't understand how people can completely fail to recognise that the NHS is underpinned by immigration in terms of health professionals.

 

[Clint Planet]

Ed flogging Labour's dubious immigration policy.sigh.

 

[bring the ghost on]

Can't take to Bennett at all, what a poor choice of leader and a waste of an opportunity to have millions listen to their policy and try to promote some politics of the left.

 

[Pienaar's gloves]

I thought watching this with some home brew would make it more lively but zzzz.

 

[Brennan]

I don't understand how people can completely fail to recognise that the NHS is underpinned by immigration in terms of health professionals.

Those two things are both true....

 

[Clint Planet]

Agree about the trade unions. One of the fundamental things which has led to greater child poverty, the weakening of the unions for the benefit of big business.

 

[Tubey]

Those two things are both true....

Immigrants used hospital care relatively rarely – in fact, admission rates were around half that of English-born people of the same age and sex. Rates were most similar for obstetrics and neonatal care, but even then they were still lower for immigrant women of childbearing age than for similarly-aged English-born women.

The patterns of lower admission rates among international migrants to England persisted for at least three years after their initial registration with a GP. And they were similar for three different cohorts of international migrants that we studied (arrivals in 2003/4, 2004/5 and 2005/6) – so before and after the Eastwards expansion of the European Union in May 2004.


It's an overblown stat - as with many things relating to immigration, they're a net gain to the NHS rather than a drain. They are a percentage of the NHS overall use, sure, but it's a fair price to pay for the benefits they give.

As Bennett just said, 1 in 4 doctors and 40% of NHS staff are foreign born apparently. Not sure those stats are true, but they're up there.

 

[bring the ghost on]

I think not having Clegg up there has made this the better of the two televised debates.

 

[Brennan]

Immigrants used hospital care relatively rarely – in fact, admission rates were around half that of English-born people of the same age and sex. Rates were most similar for obstetrics and neonatal care, but even then they were still lower for immigrant women of childbearing age than for similarly-aged English-born women.

The patterns of lower admission rates among international migrants to England persisted for at least three years after their initial registration with a GP. And they were similar for three different cohorts of international migrants that we studied (arrivals in 2003/4, 2004/5 and 2005/6) – so before and after the Eastwards expansion of the European Union in May 2004.


It's an overblown stat - as with many things relating to immigration, they're a net gain to the NHS rather than a drain. They are a percentage of the NHS overall use, sure, but it's a fair price to pay for the benefits they give.

As Bennett just said, 1 in 4 doctors and 40% of NHS staff are foreign born apparently. Not sure those stats are true, but they're up there.

And the impact would be even less if we limited the number of immigrants.