Iain Duncan Smith and foreign Big Issue sellers...

[Robches]

All I can say is that in my area all the Big Issue sellers are Roma women. I did not mind helping out the British guys who always used to sell the Big Issue, but I have no intention of helping to subsidize these people. They give Britain nothing.

In the long run, you will find that uncontrolled immigration and a welfare state are indeed incompatible. Back in the days that the EEC as it then was had just nine members, they all had a similar level of economic development. By contrast, the Roma people of Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria have a Third World standard of living. The British welfare state is a big draw for them, but gives us nothing. Foreign Big Issue vendors on welfare, we can live without.

[David Johnson]

How do you know British people who sell the Big Issue "give Britain anything"?

[cockneygeezer2009]

"I think it was John Major's government in the 1990's who, as part of taking us further and further into Europe, gave away control of our borders."

Or signed up to it. Mind you every other country in Europe hasn't got borders too.

[Robches]

It's a feature of a welfare state that it is essentially a country looking after its own people. If it is open to all and sundry it will fall apart. I don't mind helping out a fellow Brit, but I really don't want to see Roma beggars on our streets, and I won't encourage them.

[cockneygeezer2009]

I must live a very sheltered life here in London. I've never seen these Romanians selling The Big Issue. It's not a 'big issue' for me.
Ok i'll be honest i've seen one person selling TBI that looked as if they may have come from another country other than the UK.

[David Johnson]

"It's a feature of a welfare state that it is essentially a country looking after its own people. If it is open to all and sundry it will fall apart"

Thankfully, there is currently no sign that the 2.2 million British citizens who live in the EU countries outside of the UK, will be treated in a similar way in terms of countries "looking after their own people".

[Arginald Valleywater]

I agree, for once, with IDS. Sod off home and sell it in Bucharst, Sofia or Bongo Bongo Land....

[max_tranmere]

I would be interested to know who came up with the idea that we should all merge closer together, 20 years ago, and then managed to convince all of the EU to join in with the idea. Mechanisms were put in place after World War 2 to stop another war in Europe - as Churchill said "it is better to jaw jaw than to war war". That's fine, and that was sufficient to do - namely have a European body that had cross-border liaisons going on so issues could be solved by chatting before things really escalated and things became grim again. Why, nearly 50 years later, in the 1990's someone thought it would be a good idea to remove the borders so we could all have residency anywhere, I do not know. A work-permit scheme worked before and could have continued to work. Doing it this way means workers come, but free-loaders and criminals come too.

[max_tranmere]

Do you live in the suburbs? The central areas of London and the Zone 2 and 3 areas are full of headscarf-wearing Romanians selling the magazine.

[max_tranmere]

People who come to the UK from places with a very very different level of living, namely Romanians, Bulgarians, Somalians, and some others, will see the Welfare State here as something that is a step-up rather than something that is either going to keep them on a par with the level they're used to, or below it. Coming from such places it will mean the British Welfare State is very attractive, probably the equivalent of a lower-middle-class Brit going abroad and discovering they can get ?500-800 a week from the government there. This is going to be really appealing to Romanians, Bulgarians, Somalians, and some others.

The Big Issue should be JUST about helping Brits - white, black, Asian Brits or whatever - who are homeless, and I'm talking sleeping-in-a-doorway-with-no-money-at-all kind of homeless. It shouldn't assist foreigners and it shouldn't be there for people claiming Benefit who have a place to live. Most Big Issue sellers do not sleep rough and have an income, be it from the dole or Incapacity or whatever. I'm critical of the Big Issue for just allowing anyone to sell it. I don't think people who sell the Big Issue should get working tax credits, they are meant for people who work and are short of money and may need assistance if they have large (reasonable) outgoings and need help if unable to afford to live in the city they live in. If a Big Issue seller is "self-employed", and yes some will sell sufficient numbers to exceed the ?153.00 weekly threshold, then they should not be classed as homeless and in need of assistance. I am sure numerous sellers shift 30-40 magazines a day and doing that 5 days a week will take you past the ?153.00 threshold.

Regarding the Big issue being a charity, I don't think charities should help foreigners, especially a 'homeless charity' helping foreigners who are not even homeless. I would be annoyed if Australians or New Zealanders did it here - even though they look like me and, if you skip the last couple of generations of their family, might have an ancestral line in this country going back further than mine. They are from abroad and charity begins at home. I think the fact Iain Duncan Smith has raised this will get others talking and hopefully Romanian Big Issue sellers will disappear.

Do I have a bee in my bonnet about Romanians? In part, I do. Every wave that comes here brings a criminal, dishonest element with them, and that can not be good for our country.