LOVE IT

There is a place that we all love
A place for you and me,
Somewhere we should be proud of
A place we know called leigh.

Us leythers are a happy lot
Living here is just a dream,
So come on people , stand with us
And support our rugby team.

So if you think there's nowt to do,
Get out your hole.... Stop diggin,
I'd rather watch my championship team,
Than move my butt to 'wiggin

Absolutely spot on. I have a shop in LEIGH and wigoon council are killing us,but how do we stop the rot from them lot

? By the way I do like the poem posted by DJ.

They have even dropped the 'Metro' bit now.

Leigh used to be a splendid town to work and live in but sadly we have lost our identity.

I am still immensely proud to be from Leigh and to be a long life follower of it's Rugby League team but I look look at some of the young people who choose to loiter all day outside our once great town hall and wonder when it all started to go wrong.

I think the answer at least in part is in this thread.

I echo everything said but it'll never happen. Far too many foreigners around here now but a section of the local kids are more worrying for me.

No regard for the town, the people that live in it, and don't want a job.

It is a myth Keith.

Spot on Toadstool.

It is way too easy to blame the immigrants - and the benefits claimants etc etc.

This is what the 1% (who own 95% of the wealth) want you to do. It distracts your attention so that they can go on bleeding the public purse dry with their off shore accounts / trust funds / privatisation schemes / golden goodbyes as reward for failure / bank bailouts / inflated expenses claims / other tax dodging schemes etc etc. Whatever the immigrants and benefits bill cost us is a drop in the ocean compared to the real rip off merchants.

And we've always had immigrants in Leigh. In our class at X11 Apostles fifty years ago we had names like Jezerski, Czuplak, Luchenko, Dilajonas, Pytlascinski, Haladji out of a class of 30 (and that's only those I can remember).

True but most of those names were relatives of people who had fought / worked for this country

Like I said earlier I have a shop in LEIGH and find it very very frustrating to see the demise of the town centre. If I didn't have a shop in the town centre I wouldn't come in to the depressing town at all unless I really had to.Oh and I've lived in LEIGH for over 50 years and just can't beLEIGHve how It's being left to rot when we have a front bench MP representing this town.

I was born and brought up in Plank Lane and have always been a lover of Leigh. However I think it is absolutely stupid to blame Wigan for all our ills. The problems highlighted above are symptomatic of our society and are not a result of being part of Wigan. Wigan has always been an excellent local authority which has been recognised both nationally and internationally. When it was created as a local authority the old Wigan borough was in a minority and all the other areas of the borough had ,and still have, the casting vote on policy etc.

Agreed not all our ills, Samwilly but it seems to me that public spending in Wigan town centre, which is as thriving a place as virtually any in the country, has come at the expense of Leyth, Atherton, Tyldesley, Golborne etc.

There was an article in "Metro Life" a few months ago where they were bragging they'd had a million pounds from the Heritage Lottery Fund to be spent on further smartening up Wigan town centre. I saw my a*** with that and fired an email straight off to them saying "Well whoop de doo, more public money spent in Wigan - well where's ours, where's Atherton's etc?"

Three guesses whether they published it.

Are you suggesting every person who is Leigh born works hard and all immigrants are claiming benefits ?

I don't think we should steryotype anyone just because of where they happen to have been born.

Maybe I am missing your point.

Well I am not a young man anymore but we have had immigration into this country and emigration since I was a little lad.

I remember the late Enoch Powell arranging large immigration into the UK of West Indians to do jobs British people did not want and that was in the fifties when he was employment minister.

I also remember the mass relocation of Asians to the UK from Uganda when Idi Amin was Dictator of Uganda.

For me I don't see immigration as a good or bad thing as it is a fact of life for most countries with developed economies.

Through the course of my life I have met people from various countries and have quite a few friends from and in other countries. It is not ones nationality that matters to most' I think it is down to the way people conduct themselves.

On a per person basis, immigrants from Eastern Europe contribute more in tax and consume less in public services than the UK average.

This isn't a myth....

House of Parliament Monday 2nd September
The house 'Took Note' of European Union Document No 9124/13 namely a draft directive designed to prevent discrimination against EU nationals seeking work in other member states.
'Took Note' means that the document was debated by our politicians for exactly ZERO seconds !!!
The British Government will be required to provide ''adequate judicial or administrative means of redress to EU immigrants who can show that they have suffered discrimination, ie a tax payer funded compensation scheme. It will also have to designate a body or bodies for promotion and support of equal treatment.
This means a taxpayer funded quango to help EU workers bidding to beat British workers to job vacancies and make sure that their family members can fully access our welfare state.
The final substantive duty contained in the draft is for Britain to ''disseminate information on free movement rights'' that is to actively let EU workers know that they are more than welcome to come and compete for jobs.
All this attracted not a word of scrutiny from our Lib Dem / Labour / Conservative reps in the Commons.
FIGURES ISSUED UP TO MARCH S SHOW THAT THE EUROZONE CRISIS HAS LED TO A BIG UPSURGE IN MIGRANTS ARRIVING FROM SPAIN (+50%) GREECE(+44%)PORTUGAL(+43%) FROM JANUARY 2014 THESE SO CALLED EURO REFUGEES WILL BE SUPLEMENTED BY A TIDAL WAVE OF MIGRANTS FOR ROMANIA AND BULGARIA, ALL KEEN TO EXPLOIT THEIR NEW UNRESTRICTED ACCESS TO OUR WELFARE SYSTEM.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT ?

Again, sorry to let the facts get in the way of a good headline but there is no "unrestricted access to our welfare system" -

UK law

- For contributory benefits, such as contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, entitlement is based on whether a claimant has satisfied the contribution requirements and other conditions for the benefit, regardless of nationality.

- For income-related benefits, such as Income-Based Jobseekers Allowance, however, all claimants must satisfy the so-called Habitual Residence Test before they can claim means-tested benefits. The Habitual Residence Test has two elements: a legal right to reside and an objective assessment of habitual residence. A person has a ‘right to reside’ if they:

> are a British Citizen or have the right of abode in the UK; or

> have leave to remain in the UK under UK Immigration rules; or

> have a right to reside under EU law

This is much stricter than, say, Germany or The Netherlands, so much so that the EU is challenging it but is unlikely to be able to overturn the policy.

Which is why, as I said earlier, EU immigrants are net contributors to the Treasury coffers!

We will have to agree to disagree then!

I had a food processing business in Ireland with 15 employees doing hard, manual work on irregular shifts but well paid.

The only local guy there was the GM, all the other employees were Polish despite there being 30% youth unemployment in the town. They were flexible, intelligent and able to work on their own initiative and I had no complaints.

The local guys were on very generous benefits packages and did not want to do the hard work for what they considered to be little gain.

The Polish guys wanted to work hard and long to set themselves up for life.

I suppose our personal experiences shape our perceptions so, as I said, let's agree to disagree!

A few years ago a local junior school was having to deal with teaching kids with 14 different native languages

That was a fact

I'm sorry but I don't believe it.

What school and which languages?

Leytheeze
Athertonianeeze
Bongseeze
PlattWazeese
Abrameeze
Hindleyeeze
even the odd one with Wiganeeze (but we shan't mention them in case it hurts some peoples sensibilities)
to name but a few

There are a number of eastern Europeans living close to me and they come across as lazy and arrogant. As previously stated they are not here for work just the benefits. They are having kids year by year as a means of further income. They are not interested in integrating and live their life to their own standards which is far below what is normal for this country. Also in the area there a many British low life's who do not work and have no intention of doing so. These people are only interested in drugs and alcohol and are a blight on society. The situation will not improve as long as there is a dearth of jobs in the area and private landlords let their rented properties to turn areas into slums.

Well that school is to be applauded. There is a 2 year old living across from me whose mother is from Poland. Her dad is English. The little girl speaks to her mam in Polish and her dad in English.

The parents both work. BTW her mam speaks English too. And to me too as does her little girl.

How much would a single person get for coming to the UK' not working' getting bladdered all day and living rent free ?

No wonder they come in their hundreds of thousands, give over. We have a great country folk don't just come here to drink all day do nothing all day apart from producing kids into the world so they can drink more.

Fourteen different languages do me a favour. When I have been to Toulouse to watch Leigh I have to order the drinks in the bar. " Gee us 6 pints lad et vite. " We always get them.

Live and let live.

As I put 14 different native languages, which must make teaching ' English ' subjects problematic for ' home ' students

Not making an issue of it, just a simple fact

You have missed Higherfowdish & Pennyposhish.