The Polish Invasion

It is a subject common to the public houses of England, a subject which strikes passion from its mumbled mention, a subject that I feel is on the whole misguided. The subject is Poland.
Towards the end of the ninteen nineties immigration had become a major subject in England. The media asked questions of the current government about the influx of European settlers into our alleged green and pleasant land. The fear was based not on cultural indifference or even a problem of religion, but about something even closer to an Englishman's heart, work.
The English working man has had to be quite resilient over the past five decades. Employment and the type of available work has changed, been sent abroad or in the case of the miners, been closed down for evermore. It is because of these outside pressures that the nature of the working man has become quite a teritorial one. Enter the E.U, the common market and the ability to ply your trade across borders that no longer exist, enter the Polish man.
The general indication of many tradesmen in England is that the Polish man has come to steal their work. The employers apparently cannot get enough of them, and the world is against the average plumber, brickie and labourer. Polish man works for peanuts, works all day and works for works sake. The truth of the matter is far more than what is the hear say around the local pub tables.
The Polish nation has undergone massive transformation since the collapse of the Berlin wall. A country once under Communist rule, can now forge a new future for itself and its people. Its people can go and stretch their horizons too. As was the case during the birth of America, many flock to the lands of opportunity in order to make something of their lives. This is just as true for the Polish as it was for the Irish, English and Scottish two hundred years previous. The problem today is that the English have forgotten to what extent poverty is. Nowadays it is a hardship to go without cable or Sky TV, or have ones mobile phone cut off, people have forgotten what extremes poverty can send you to.
It is for this reason we have the influx of Eastern Europeans plying their skills in plumbing, building and selling. Their income is better, there is more work, and because they are sought after by cost-minded employers, the market place is theirs to command. England has become the land of opportunity thanks to succesful industry and business, how and from who that business is provided is irrelevant.