any thoughts on this article?
what would be the situation if the unspoken line in the article could be read in between the lines, and the immigrants were all to decide and leave back to where they came from or to a new country?
what if the predominant national group from UK decided to leave the country, which will never happen, perhaps.
is the colonial mindset very clearly discernable in this article?
best,
Dushwari
UK population ‘to double in one lifetime’
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 7:01pm GMT 27/11/2007
The UK’s population could almost double within a lifetime to more than 100 million, new figures have shown.
A combination of record immigration, high fertility rates and longer life expectancy could push the numbers to 108 million by 2081.
High immigration is also fuelling a baby boom because new arrivals tend to be younger
The extraordinary estimate issued by the Office for National Statistics yesterday came as a parliamentary committee heard evidence of the growing impact on schools and hospitals.
One teachers’ leader said some schools were ''struggling to cope” because they had not been given enough money to deal with the influx.
The most likely forecast based on current trends is that the population will rise to 71m in 2031 and to 85m in 2081, but if birth rates grow more quickly than expected, immigration remains high and people live longer this could reach 108 million - nearly twice today’s 60m.
High immigration is also fuelling a baby boom because new arrivals tend to be younger and to have larger families than the indigenous population.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: 'This confirms what we have been telling the Government all along.
''Labour needs to wake up and understand the factors driving population change as well as the solutions.”
advertisement
Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of Migrationwatch, said: “Our country is already facing massive changes as a result of the government’s failure to control our borders.
''These population projections are a sharp reminder of what could well happen if they continue to fail to take firm and effective action to bring a halt to the mass immigration which they have stimulated.”
Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, said: "These projections show what might happen in 75 years’ time unless we take action now.
"Frankly, it underlines the need for the swift and sweeping changes we are bringing to the immigration system in the next 12 months, which will include the introduction of an Australian-style points-based system, so only those that Britain needs can come to work and study.”
The figures were published as representatives of teachers, doctors and nurses spoke of the impact of migration on the public services.
In evidence to a House of Lords committee inquiry into the impact of immigration, Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said a phenomenon once limited to urban areas was now affecting rural primary schools which needed more expert staff and specialist books for pupils who speak no English.
"We do have schools where we have had significant, large numbers of youngsters appearing very quickly,” he said.
"We have had schools in London where on a Friday afternoon the head has arrived with seven or eight youngsters and taken them to a GCSE English class and none of the youngsters can speak English. '’The teachers have been pulling their hair out,’’ he said.
Mick Brookes, general secretary of the head teachers’ union NAHT, said the education of both migrant and local pupils was at risk in some schools.
"Some schools are struggling to cope,’’ he said.
"The capacity to do the best they can for the local children - and the children who are coming in - is being stretched.’’
An analysis by the union suggested that extra Government funding for each immigrant child would only pay for about three weeks of a teaching assistant’s time.
Josie Irwin of the Royal College of Nursing said there was only anecdotal evidence about the impact of immigration on hospitals but there were ''particular difficulties” in the inner cities.
Prof David Blanchflower, a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, predicted a second wave of migration from eastern Europe as the current well-educated arrivals gain new skills and get better jobs.
He believed the flow from the east was ''inexorable” and probably had not peaked.
Prof Blanchflower expected another inflow of Poles and other EU nationals from Ireland, which has seen a greater number of arrivals proportionately than the UK but where work is drying up.
There would be a new migration to help London prepare to the Olympics in 2012, he added.
Prof Blanchflower said there was evidence that the high levels of immigration were depressing wages among low-skilled workers, something the Government has disputed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2007/11/28/noindex/npop127.xml