As austerity hits native Britons pockets and deep cuts in essential services are imminent, nationalists will be interested to read that asylum seekers seeking permission to stay in Britain are being offered free swimming pool or gym sessions while they wait.
More than 250 people from other countries have so far made use of a special card that gets them into council leisure facilities that residents – and even pensioners – have to pay to use.
Britons wanting to join the scheme – operating in Newcastle – can expect to pay up to £180 a year for the city council’s Leisure Plus card.
But 256 of the city’s 480 asylum seekers have taken up the offer of a free card, at a cost to council taxpayers of £7,000.
Bureaucrats regard the scheme as so successful it may be copied by other local authorities around the country.
Your Homes Newcastle, responsible for housing the applicants, says the scheme prevents users from feeling isolated in a strange country, and encourages them to become part of the community in which they are living.
But TaxPayers’ Alliance spokeswoman Emma Boon said: “Offering one group of people a particular service for free, whilst others, including pensioners, are paying is likely to create divisions in the local community.”
Applicants must be able to prove their asylum seeker status to qualify for the card, which is valid for six months and includes free use of Newcastle’s state-of-the-art Centre for Sport complex.
Steve Murphy, chair of Your Homes Newcastle, said: “We believe the scheme has real economic and social benefits.
“It helps to integrate asylum seekers. This makes Newcastle a more vibrant and diverse place.
Maybe Mr Murphy should consult Newcastle’s long term residents to see if they are happy to allow their city to be enriched.
But we know the answer, don’t we?
The same argument has been used by Labour (Conservatives got there first) to swamp Britain with immigrants in order to make it multicultural, they were well aware that voters would have never approved.
This is why they introduced tough race-hatred laws that make any criticism of immigration a criminal offence (BNP activists know only too well what I’m talking about).
On the bright side this programme may help us to get more supporters up North.
GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS
This is racist itself,i forgot it's positive racism so that's OK.While we work till we die,pay taxes..numerous taxes i might say all we doing is providing freebie's for ''people'' who shouldn't be here!.Thanks to Liebour's easy touch welfare system so called ''refugee's'' speed through other safe countries to fleece and leech us.
"…free, whilst others, including pensioners, are paying…"
I think there should be a demo. asking why pensioners have to pay and it's free for deadbeats.
Let’s all bend over backwards for our colonisers. Our PC masters, not content with making street names bilingual, are altering railway station names too. Southall leads the way…
http://anoraksia.ukgeeks.co.uk/p56633638.html
So if you’re a visiting Welshman I’m afraid you’re going to have to put up with English, or you could learn punjabi.
I hope our regional organiser here in Newcastle knows about this. I hadn't heard of this till now. It's a damn disgrace.