That’s not quite right. Immigration transitioned from European immigrants to those predominantly from Asia. That was a political decision by the government of that time.
Agreed the small boats crisis arose largely from Brexit and losing the Dublin accord.
No, I think it is worth bothering with.
What is your evidence for your claim that the ONS stats on knife crime is muddied by staff not recording all the stabbings they are having to deal with?
It’s absolutely fine to say I don’t have any evidence and I’m just making it up.
It´s the net migration figure, right?
Not the inflow number.
Right but that doesnt give the overall immigration figure in that section.
Although I remember reading it´s around 800,000 people in I think
Yeah 800,000 which is still massive.
But yes, it is less than some previous years. Better than the Tories at least.
Roughly half.
Worth noting that 640k left the UK. Many of those were students, roughly 280k.
Most arrive here on student visas. I don’t know what damage that would do to colleges / universities if you cut that further.
You need to see the breakdown of that. If a big chunk of them are students, it’s just academic churn. I’m not sure if they have published those figures but they will have them as it has a big impact on service provision.
I think it was around 1 million in 2024.
Also, these figures usually get revised up so lets see.
Yeah interesting point. In my opinion the universities in the UK are a complete sham and something has to be done but with the current structure the foreign funding arguably holds them up above the water. But then I´d also argue they´re not fit for purpose.
About 300,000.
Although the outflow also includes students.
The foreign students seem to think otherwise I guess or they wouldnt pay and come. I think many come for the engineering degrees and those kinds of things. They are still held in high regard I think, especially as some are linked to various Institutions which provide Chartered status and so on.
It depends.
When I was doing my masters there were a lot of Chinese in our economics school and some told me their parents pay it essentially as a status symbol back home and some lads from Jordain told me similar, and they just had to pass to basically get a cushty government job.
Basically it´s the paper they want. Same as most of our students to be fair.
Absolutely. A degree opens certain doors and opportunities. It certainly did for me and I did actually learn a few things while I was there too.
Yeah. It did similar for me.
It´s a tough one because it probably shouldn´t inherently get you a job if somebody without one is as capable or more, though obviously some certifications as proof for jobs like Doctor are essential.
I suppose it acts as evidence of competence, even if I think that assumption is often wrong and universities don´t really prepare kids for the world they will go into.
Mixed bag for me. I needed an honours degree at a certain grade to allow me to go for Chartered Engineer status later. A lesser grade or degree would not make that route available without other hurdles.
But did the degree prepare me for my first months on site with a major Contractor? No, other than the surveying side. However, when I went into the design office it did matter.
https://x.com/AlistairCarns/status/2065151649749041284
A (conservative) opinion
https://x.com/BenWallace70/status/2065155257370333324
The peg that Starmers coat is on is even more shoogly now.
Not sure what can (or can’t) be said about the plot below. In some ways it is bizarre, e.g. what is other spending and why are we spending some much on health and educations - surely keeping them dumb and at deaths door (preferably going though it…) is more desirable. Spending on defence is an odd one. There must be better ways to get by than spending more and more on defence - not that it that much but we have the “bomb” whose going to mess with us - right?..
Yeah it´s a tricky one.
In my view university should prepare kids for work and other things but some see it differently.
