[lewisa]

Originally Posted by Airehead

*So why does Bradford need 30,000/300,000 (can't remember which) new houses?

Because at the local level, there are not enough houses. The ethnic diversity of the local populace has nothing directly to do with the need of new housing. There are a myriad of forces that affect the need for housing. Most likely population migration - an on-going process that never stops, probably the best example of it is in China at the moment (with males looking for work), but it happens in the UK as well, young people (female especially) leave the surrounding countryside to head for the cities. Their old country houses are snapped up by rich upper middle classes as holiday homes and another house is taken out of the pool.

Then there is the aforementioned divorce rate which you seem to have totally overlooked, with the breakdown of the family unit almost half of marraiges end up failing and every family needs two houses rather than one. Millions of failing marraiges needing two homes each makes up a much larger number than 4,000,000 ethnic minorities living 5 or 6 to a house.

*The green belt is already being built on around here.

Shame, but on the plus side, its better than having tens of thousands of derelict, empty houses.

*I have had my wrist slapped once already for mentioning immigration.

Not by me you havent. As far as Im concerned you can talk about what you want and i'll read it, I might not agree, but I wont slap anyones wrist for anything they say.

* And I have already stated my opinion - reinforced by some highly prominent people - that over-population is every bit as much a threat to the well-being of this planet as is global warming.

Yes, I know it is, where did I say it wasnt?

* You can say goodbye to open countryside in this country. Its erosion will accelerate in the immediate future.(In my very humble opinion)

Regarding the country as a whole I disagree. If you were talking about the south east I would agree, but I dont see that as a problem in most areas. There is an awful lot of countryside left.

* It is very unlikely that anything can be done to stop it, but it definitely won't if we are afraid to discuss it.

Who said we are afraid to discuss it? Im not.

I get the feeling you are on the defensive and im not sure why - for what its worth Im a stereotypical white 30 year old male and live very near Burnley, so Ive had to come to terms with having large asain populations nearby and vioelence/rioting in the past. I dont like the lack of integration much and at the time of the riots I will go as far as to say I probably turned racist for a short time. It was hard not to.

That doesnt mean the housing problem is their fault though.

If the national population was rising rapidly because of it then I would agree, but it isnt. We had 60,000,000 people 10 years ago, we now have 60,000,000, so why is the housing shortage the fault of immigaration?

At the moment immagration simply cancels out our own inabilty to sustain our national population level.

Theres also the fact that the average white household will probably contain less than 3 people, the average asain household will contain more.