SimonI put your first outburst on this subject down to unfortunate terminology. When you referred to other applicants not being "English" it was not clear what you meant. Would you object to, say, a Welsh or Scottish applicant being chosen ahead of you? Anderson is a Scottish name, after all.You could, of course, have meant "British", but again your interpretation of this would not have been clear. Did you mean, for example, White British? Would a person of Asian or African-Caribbean extraction who was born in the UK qualify as British to your way of thinking? Maybe the people to whom you objected were recent immigrants from Africa or Asia, or even white immigrants from Eastern Europe for example?This did, I admit, cause me some confusion, as I would presume that the other applicants would not have shown you their passports. So how would you have known whether or not they were in fact British?Then in your last posting you make it clear that the reason for your objection to them being considered to be a greater priority for rehousing than yourself was that they were "coloured". The suggestion contained in your wording is quite clearly that being "coloured" is incompatible with being a UK resident, which given the ethnic composition of the UK today is obviously quite silly.So is the alleged unBritishness of these applicants a result of their ethnic background? Notwithstanding the current widespread concerns about asylum and immigration levels, are you suggesting that a non-white family born in Hounslow should by definition be considered a lesser priority for rehousing than a single white man from Plymouth?There is no priority given to applicants of any ethnic origin. There is a debate to be had about the effectiveness of dispersal policy, the availability of housing and the level of support received by boroughs such as Hounslow in the light of population movements, but there is no excuse for objecting to a family being given priority over a single man on the grounds that they are not white.I was surprised and disappointed to read this from you after all the good work which you have done with people from a whole variety of backgrounds on the Ivybridge estate. The housing situation in this part of the country is dire, but let us not look for scapegoats amongst those who are also its victims.
Phil Andrews ● 6454d