Shame For Britain As BNP Win European Parliament Seats , page 5

OK - I get what you're saying about other EU nationals moving to Britain, taking jobs, school places, houses, etc, etc.

However, I'm British but moved to another EU country 5 years ago - Spain. There's a lot (1000's) of ex-pats here in Spain and a lot of other European nationals too.

If Britain ever pulled out of the EU and then the other EU countries decide us Brits have to 'go home', do you realise the burden that would put on the British tax payer? We'd all need new jobs, houses, GOOD school places for our kids and use of the NHS.

My 2nd point refers to the comment about foreign workers taking British jobs and not doing them as well as a British person. My father has a building company (in England) and last year he couldn't hire any carpenters locally - loads of unskilled labourers but no skilled tradesman available. Anyway, he turned to a local temp agency and the only skilled carpenters they could offer him lived 70 miles away and were Polish. He hired them through the temp agency and left the ad for permenant positions running. As of today, he still can't find time served, skilled carpenters. Those 2 Polish men drove 140 miles round trip, each day. They arrived on time and they worked hard. The whole job would've come to a standstill without them, my dad probably would've lost his business and he'd have had to lay off all his other workers. Was he wrong in hiring those Polish men?

You do also realise that just as my family left Britain, so have many other families that are skilled tradesman, accountants, doctors, nurses - all fields! Not all EU foreigners just take on building work - they also work in highly qualified fields such as lawyers, doctors, etc. If the borders were closed to them then who would fill those positions?

I hear from friends, all the time, about how their doctors are all foreign - do you think they're taking jobs from British doctors? Do you hear of many British doctors not finding work because all their jobs have been taken by foreigners? Nope! That's because many of them leave to live in other countries where they get better pay, better hours, better quality of life.

It's not the 'foreigners' that are wrong with Britain! There's a reason why so many of us Brits have left and it's not because of all the foreigners. We left for a better quality of life - something that Britain couldn't, and still can't offer. Life as a foreigner is difficult and the Spanish tend to have much the same views about us, as many Brits do about all the EU nationals living in Britain. There's many, many Spanish that would love us to be 'sent home'. Not all of them have that view and I can honestly say that, on the whole, life here is still much better than our lives were in England. We've often toyed with moving back but a visit to England usually reminds us of what we left behind and then we come back to Spain grateful that we can stay here.

There's a lot of us that wouldn't be happy if we were forced to return to Britain because the EU country we call home, sends us packing. I'm just curious if anyone has actually thought what a burden 1000's of returning Brits would be? Some of us would be leaving businesses, homes that we've got mortgages on that are probably in negative equity due to the global recession.

You know if my family moved back to Britain we can't get any form of temporary help from the British system - my husband and I paid tax and national insurance for 20 years before we left. However, we aren't eligible for any help at all. No benefits - income or housing, because we haven't paid national insurance for 5 years (we pay Spanish social security and taxes). That would have to change if we were forced to move back and it would be at great expense to the UK tax payer!

I do wonder though how other people from EU countries just turn up in Britain and actually manage to get housed and get benefit money paid? Do they really or is that just media spin? If they really do get all that free stuff and all that help then I don't understand how my British family can't come back and get the same? (not that we want to!)

Bottom line - I'm a human being regardless of my sex, age, race, religion, etc.