Hopefully, they would have no problem with it at all, since i doubt that Scots would go there to ponce off the state, eat swans, deal drugs, create no go areas, open up brothels, breed like rabbits, get preferential housing, beg in the high street, harrass people to have their cars cleaned and take over the clothes peg market.
Well, well - surprise, surprise; on certain past form, I'd have thought that you might assume that the Scots, being Scots, would be up for all that kind of stuff anywhere they could! - well, apart, perhaps, from the "no go area" bit (since the islands are so small that such areas would be rather difficult to establish and maintain) and the "preferential housing" issue (since there's so little housing there at all, "preferential" or otherwise). I do think, however, that what you write about here (with the possible exception of swan consumption) are the kinds of thing that one would expect to encounter in almost every urban area in almost every country (and rather less so in rural areas) - and the presence, the encouragement or the direct actions of immigrants are hardly necessary in ensuring the establishment and maintenance of these traditions, as the so-called "indigenous" peoples of most countries can manage this quite effectively for themselves. By the way, a few streets away from where I am there's a married couple of whom the male is half Mongolian and half Afghan and the female half Albanian and half - wait for it - Scottish; they're in their 30s, have no children as yet, have good jobs on the salaries from which they each probably have more tax deducted per month than I make in a year and I have no evidence of their involvement in any of the activities that you mention - not even barbecuing the local pigeons (let alone swans) on a balmy summer's evening. I rather doubt that their being expected to swear oaths of allegiance to Queen and Country (see the other thread in which this latest of the UK government risible and distracting "proposals" is mentioned) would cut much ice with either, but I doubt that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would want such efficient taxpayers to leave the country either...
Interesting programme tonight on the Poles in Peterborough. Did you see it?
No, I didn't; I knew about it in advance but was too busy to watch it. Perhaps you can tell us about it. I imagine, however, that there have been Poles in Peterborough for many years; there is a Polish community in Bath and a much larger one in nearby Bristol, each of which is also long established, the latter even having its own church.
I really don't have a problem in principle with immigration, other than when the numbers coming in so far outweigh those going out that the population movement adversely affects the economy - and nor should I have such a problem, since I plan to emigrate myself and do not expect to be frowned upon as an immigrant where I go.
I think that many of the issues you raise are manifest among the poor rather than the foreign and that poverty rather than nationality is the principal root of the problem. If, for example, all the money wasted - and I really do mean wasted - by governments, national and local, in UK were shared out among this country's poor, a lot of poverty would rapidly disappear here (that won't actually happen, of course). It's no good complaining too loudly about state benefit abuse either, because, whilst it undoubtedly does occur on a large scale, the gross incompetence within the tax and benefit system at all levels from legislator down to tea-maker is unquestionably responsible for at least as much financial drain on the country's economy - and it's worth remembering that there are also many millions of pounds each year in unclaimed state benefits and overpaid tax to which citizens are genuinely entitled and that, if all such monies were claimed and every legitimate tax advantage taken, the nation would be brought perilously close to financial ruin by reason of that alone.
Best,
Alistair
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