Category: NLP

I suppose I am becoming like an old vintage wine, I need to be turned, or like an old car, I need attention and some of my parts, oiled and overhauled, with tenderness, love and affection.

I collected a numbered ticket – 78, so that I knew when it would be my turn to be seen, and sat in a waiting area, watching the other patients and members of staff. There seemed to be a representative from nearly every country in the world there, from the Far East, South East Asia, Asia, Africa, Europe, but I did not hear an American accent.

Britain does seem to be less British and more world with every day that passes. As I walk around the shops, I hear so many languages, Polish, Pakistani, Korean, so many I have no idea where they are from. The shop assistants have a foreign accent, waiters and waitresses in the restaurants seem to be there to learn English.

Today a Government report by a House of Lords Committee chaired by Lord Wakeham on recent mass immigration into Britain concluded that there has been little or no positive impact on the living standards of the existing population, and suggests an “explicit and reasoned” limit should be set for net immigration from outside the EU.

It seems that there is a figure of nearly 200,000 net immigrants into Britain each year, that is those seeking to live in Britain, and those leaving, yes, the Brits leave the shores of the UK to become immigrants to other countries. A figure of 200,000 would make a very large town every year, and those are only the “official” figures, it does not take into consideration the illegal immigrants plus their families.

I sat there, watching the second hand of a clock going what seemed to be backwards, time was going so slow, just like standing in a queue in a bank, time just stops. My ticket number 78 was a long time away.