It is the statistic that dare not speak its name, though eventually it must. It has huge ramifications for the civil and political life of this country, the health of the equity markets and, most immediately, the residential property market. So don't forget you read it here first: the population of the UK is presently somewhere between 77 and 80 million.Europe's population is changing and growing, and its economy, far from contracting, is booming.
The 2001 census, already hopelessly out of date and easy to avoid for those who find filling in forms a trifle inelegant, numbered us at a little under 59 million. But as statistics go, that one's most definitely a damned lie.
My sources for the above statement are good, but scared of admitting the truth for fear of incurring the wrath of Whitehall. It's like the best way of monitoring illegal drug consumption: forget the pious statements from ministers – the foolproof method is to sample our water and the effluent in it. That's easily the best way of monitoring what the nation has been consuming.
Consumption – that's the thing. Based on what we eat, one big supermarket chain reckons there are 80 million people living in the UK. The demand for food is a reliable indicator; as Sir Richard Branson says, you can have all the money in the world but you can only eat one lunch and one dinner.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
A Statistic that Dare Not to Speak Its Name
The Independent reveals something I have been suspecting a long time. Last time I was in England I was surprised by its human masses. It certainly did not look like the aging, decaying, depopulating country the statistics were showing us. What is "really" going on?
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I saw that article a while back but since I have never been to England I didn't have anything to reference it to.
Aside from the normal muzzie immigrants we keep hearing about in England there are also probably millions of Poles, Czechs & Lithuanians in England too.
I have a question for you that has been bugging me for a while. Do you think we about to see the collapse of the Slavic world? Are we witnessing such a collapse right now in slow motion?
Slavic peoples are stabilizing and will emerge different but strong. Never underestimate the Russians.
One of the sure signs of a civilization in decline is loss of control of its borders to barbarian invaders. Since Roman times and ancient China, border control has been one of the core functions of government. Modern government provides all sorts of services and regulation that go way beyond the level of government involvement in our lives ever experienced outside of totalitarian states, but they can't even efficiently perform the most basic security functions of a real government.
K
My observations on the ground when travelling in the UK tell me that this indeed is the case. I would say most of the difference between the census ~60 million in the UK and the calculated 80 million in the article can be accounted for by unreported 3rd world people. The dark ages are slowly returning to Europe after hundreds of years.
I wouldn't say Europe's economy overall is booming. The UK in particular seems to have a pretty phony economy with manufacturing being gutted. Economic growth no longer seems to depend on employing more people. Immigration therefore does not induce economic booms (unless there is an influx of extremely high IQ people-which is certainly not the case in Europe).
20 million "invisible" people in a small island reveals a certain unwillingness to face reality.
Regarding my impression that London is booming is not based on sttistics but on observation of how well that old city is being maintained, how much new building there is, the amount of money that tourist attractions are raking in. London is a safe city and very well managed.
London is currently well managed because the disappearing native white english fill most of the key civil service positions. The large (and increasing) 3rd world ethnic fraction of the London population will evetually grow up and occupy those positions. When they do corruption and degeneracy will prevail.
London turning into Detroit? or Washingon? or Lagos? God forbid!
The people living in Detroit 50 years would be very shocked to see the state of the city today. I'm sure Lagos in colonial times was much more preferable to what it is today. London might be a thriving city today but it will not be able to avert the consequences brought about by demographic change. Unless of course, those 3rd world people are undergoing widespread genetic change for behaviours neccessary to sustain civilization. Charity for 3rd world countries certainly isn'tencouraging this to happen.
On the other hand, the people living in Shanghai would be equally shocked (but in a pleasant way) to see their city today. Societies have their cycles of growth and decay. Right now the West is in a decay cycle and the East is growing - the Industrial Revolution had a good run in the West and rocketed it ahead for a 200 year run, but the steam is running out - nothing lasts forever. White people have lost confidence in their culture - two world wars made them doubt the superiority of their system, people became decadent and self-indulgent and unwilling to do the hard work of raising a family.
Jews are used to migrating to the areas that are most promising (or the least threatening). The world center of Jewish population has shifted numerous times in the last three thousand years , even before the Roman exile. Probably more so than any other people on earth. Maybe it is time for Jews to take up residence in China. My son is studying Chinese and intends to move there.
K
K
I am glad your son is thinking ahead. I ha been in China many times since Kissinger opened it up, and Chinese LOVE Jews. I was always received as an honored son returning to the old country! It is fantastic, but Jews are a recognized CHINESE nationality and they think of us (so they said) as "Overseas Chinese". Nice feeling for a change. I found many American Jews setting up businesses in China and now there are thousands of Israelis touring China and opening factories. Mofreover, I have spent time working in Kai Feng, where there is a community of Jewish Descendants. In Beijing there are now several synagogues but I dont like them, there are not kosher to my taste (Reform Jews praying in in English !). There are already some Jews who have made money in China and I had dreams to settle there (I was offered jobs) but family and Zionism and the lack of good beef and vodka made me stay in Israel.
I must admit, the spirits are terrible (but incredibly cheap - hardly more than bottled water). Chinese beer is tolerable, their wines are improving, but they have an established history of making their own liquor to their tastes, which tastes like paint thinner to the Western palate. One thing I found was that the cheapest ones actually tasted better than the more expensive because they had less flavor and were closer to plain alcohol. When the flavor is that bad, less of it is a good thing.
K
Beef in China is not common. Cows require a lot of food - in China the humans eat the soybeans directly, they don't feed them to cows which is very inefficient, especially if you have to feed a billion people.
In any event, the parilla type meal where each person eats kilos of grilled meat with maybe a little salad is virtually unknown. The Chinese usually cut their meat (most often pork but sometimes lamb, very rarely beef) into little bits and mix it with lots of vegetables and serve it with rice, so a few hundred grams of meat will feed an entire family. This is actually healthy as well as economical.
I happen to like Chinese food and I found the food there inexpensive and good, but even back home I rarely eat big platters of steak so beef is not something that I would really miss. But if you crave Western food there are American chain restaurants on almost every block in the big cities - McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. so you could surely get a beef hamburger if nothing else. Didn't see any falafel.
I agree with you about the awful liquor though. The Chinese are interested in Western style foods and drink - I saw all sorts of Western products (many manufactured locally) in the supermarket . Their beer and wine are again in the European style but made locally. But the ONLY spirits I saw on sale (and I looked ) were the traditional Chinese liquors which are completely unfamiliar and horrible tasting to a Western palate - likewise they seem to have no taste for or interest in Western booze.
K
I presume you did not visit a Chinese McDonald. The food may be safe, but there was little meat and it was camouflaged under something vegetable and very sweet. Chinese also like to use colorants on meat.
About alcohol, the local rice concoction in fancy bottles make nice presents for people at home, since there are not exported. The beer is not bad, thanks to the old German breweries in the North. As for the wine, they have yet to learn.
I did not have any hamburger but I did have the ice cream. Chinese ice cream is terrible but the McDonalds soft ice cream was just like at home and very cheap - maybe 30 cents for an ice cream cone. Very reviving on a hot day. I also had the coffee, which was not good. I didn't got their but I saw more KFC than McDonalds. The Chinese like chicken better than beef.
Again with the liquor, I found the fancier the bottle the worse the contents for western tastes. Some of the stuff in plain glass bottles was almost tolerable.
K
I am there now (so to speak) and eating my way through the Tree of Life.
Certainly, one way to "beef up" on biology.
Anon.
What is the Tree of Life?
I'm guessing "there" is China and the "Tree of Life" means the evolutionary tree. They say that the Chinese will eat anything with 4 legs except the table, anything that flies except an airplane. Compared to the Jews they are on the other end of the spectrum - Jews have a very restricted diet in that only a handful of species are kosher (even fewer now than in biblical days thanks to the rabbis) but the Chinese have almost no food taboos. I suppose with a billion mouths to feed they could not afford to be picky about what they ate.
K
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