In 2018/19 total Uk government spending was around £800 billion. This financial year it will be about £1.2 trillion. An increase of about 50% with little increase in growth in the economy. All going onto the credit card.
https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-key-questions/what-does-government-spend-money
And taxes went up. So it is not all going on the card.
The UK needs to grow its economy.
How much has tax increased in the UK?
The ordinary rate will rise from 8.75% to 10.75%, and the upper rate from 33.75% to 35.75% from April 2026. The additional rate will remain unchanged at 39.35%. Tax on savings income will increase by 2 percentage points across all bands.Nov 26, 2025
I do not agree with your American perspective of Eastern Europe!
Europe’s immigrants from Eastern EU and Ukraine are not bringing any cultural, economic, or political problems to EU. Many immigrants are from Ukraine which was not a backward country since it got its independence from Russia.
Many immigrants are employment related in Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, and UK.
EU Countries with Highest Absolute Immigration:
Germany: Receives the most immigrants in total numbers, significant for work and integration.
Spain: Also sees massive inflows, with high numbers from non-EU countries.
Italy: High numbers of immigrants, often from non-EU regions.
France: Large immigrant population, with roughly equal inflows from EU and non-EU sources.
In the last 4 years the EU nations have taken in 8 million Ukrainians which makes up the major share of EU immigrants. They are welcomed by high percentage of EU nations because they share EU values, education, culture, economics, and politics.
Therefore, Europe is not a mess because of immigrants. Just look at the status of immigrants by world countries (immigrants as a % of population) in 2025:
France - 0.04 %
Germany - 0.05 %
UK - 0.07 %
Ukraine is European enough to want to join the EU. Their culture is compatible with western Europe. I was talking about the floods of immigrants from non-European areas.
Wendy
Show us some facts about non-European immigrants being a problem for the EU. Isolated crimes are not proof of any major problems for the EU. Do non-European immigrants cause more crime per capita that locals per capita?
Ireland has major problems with the Ukrainians. The country has taken around 500k. The country has around 4 million people now. The housing market is very problematic. Young Irish for decades have always expected to buy a home in their 20s. Now that is far out of reach. There is a critical shortage of houses and hospitals, particularly in Dublin.
The alien culture language is hypocritical for any of us.
But the governance of countries or wannabee countries is not hypocritical for any of us. People are coming into the democracies with huge misunderstandings of self governance. It is insulting and harmful.
One old and new US group made up of a huge number of subcultures from a very broad area or region learned the hard way that relating to strong men is a disaster. Now with hell upon them, the group has swung hard away from the strong man stupidity. The price has been harsh and will get harsher. We all pay.
We could also say this about women. We have run a woman for president twice, and women have voted for someone misogynistic instead.
At some point you roll the dice with what you have and hope we keep our democracy. That does not mean we load the dice against us.
Well, we could look at Sweden. It has gone from having one of Europe’s lowest fatal shooting rates to the highest and is now the bomb capital of Europe. Since the 2000s traditional motorcycle gangs have been gradually replaced by loosely organised, territory-based networks, often led by second-generation immigrants.
Foxtrot, based mostly in Uppsala and Stockholm, led by Rawa Majid, an Iranian Kurd. Södertälje mafia is an Assyrian criminal organization involved in infiltrating the welfare sector and local politics. Chosen Ones, based in Stockholm is led by Gambia-born Essa Sallah Kah. Asir, based in Uppsala, Norrköping and Goteborg mostly consists of Assyrians from Turkey led bySüyar Gürbüz.
A recent report from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency reported that foreign individuals were 30 times more likely to commit fraud related to child-benefit claims compared to their native-born counterparts.
DB2
I suspect that it is the same here in the UK but getting details of crimes committed by foreigners or of various ethnic origins is difficult, if not impossible.
We are open about those stats in the US. Immigrants commit far fewer violent crimes.
Compared to the US, Sweden’s criminal activity remains more subdued.
Could well be, but I think the question was about who was committing said activity.
DB2
I’ve heard that not only is it difficult or impossible, but it is even illegal … to discuss such details. Is that true?
Well this is not exactly breaking down the crime by foreigners vs locals. Sounds like they are starting to have USA problems with gangs and gun violence. What are the statistics of foreigners vs locals?
Sweden is ranked as one of the safest countries in the world.
Not according to the American press.
Thank god they keep us informed?
Fake news again! Do some some research yourself.
Immigrants have no respect for traditions.
i no i no i no i no i no i no
Generally not illegal as far as i am aware. However, you could come to the police’s attention if you made comments that some found ‘hateful’. The Labour government is depserate to keep the Muslim vote and they seem to be granted special protection. This man was arrested at a meeting where Muslim women were protesting about domestic violence. He asked them about wife beating lessons as described in the Quran and it was treated as a hate crime for which he was arrested
A Christian street preacher has had charges relating to a Non-Crime Hate Incident (NCHI) dropped, after questioning a member of the public on Islamic teachings around women.
John Steele, a regular street preacher in Rotherham, described the experience as “degrading”. He was arrested on 21st June 2025 after engaging in a short conversation with a Muslim woman at a public awareness stall offering support to women of ethnic minorities experiencing domestic abuse.
Mr Steele asked, using a small microphone in Rotherham town centre, how Islamic teachings on wife-beating could be reconciled with the stall’s message.
https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/street-preacher-charges-threatening-islam
A record of the ‘hate’ incident:
This is the sort of things that you have to be aware of at the moment. Such is the state of the UK at the moment.
Authorities across Europe have thwarted two more Islamist-inspired terror plots targeting Christmas markets in as many days…
German authorities have arrested a 21-year-old man from Central Asia on suspicion of plotting an Islamist-motivated terror attack against large crowds at a Christmas market in Magdeburg—the same location where a Saudi national carried out a deadly vehicle ramming last year, killing six and injuring hundreds…
Officials believe he was driven by Islamist ideology and had expressed plans to target gatherings, prompting immediate action to prevent execution. Deportation proceedings are underway, based on assessments deeming him a direct terrorist threat to Germany’s security…
Polish authorities today announced they thwarted an ISIS-linked plot involving explosives and firearms aimed at a Christmas market, as detailed by the Daily Mail and Euronews. The suspect, a 19-year-old Polish law student, was in contact with IS representatives and gathering explosive materials for a mass-casualty strike.
DB2
Europe has more than 700 million people. We have many more terrorist attacks in the USA every year. Is US dying?
Yes. We are. For a myriad of reasons that are mostly off-topic. One I will name is that the interest on the national debt has hit $1T per year. That’s just the interest. The debt itself is approximately equivalent to the GDP of the USA. I’m not a macro-economist, but I’m pretty sure that is bad.