"what is never brought to light is the fact that our "native" unemployed don't want the bloody jobs in the first place."

Too true. When I first arrived in London, the pubs in the West End were completely staffed by Yugoslavs. It was just as the civil war was about to kick off, and they'd got out in time. There was no minimum wage at the time, and who could afford to live in London on £2.50 an hour? English people knew they were better off on the dole. So it was Yugoslavs and a smattering of Kiwis pulling pints for the theatre crowd.

I live in rural Lincolnshire. What English kid wants to get his iPod dirty pulling carrots or mucking out a pig shed? That's why the farmer up the road has hired a few Polish lads as pigmen. You should see them when they come down to the village pub - you can pick them out as the're about a foot and a half taller than the local blokes, gorgeous, and instead of wearing scruffy jeans and t-shirts, they're immaculately dressed in trousers, collared shirts and jackets. That's what it's like where they come from if you go for a night out, and it's the standard they maintain here - even just for a drink down the local. And even if you muck out pigs for a living.

Another rural phenomenon is the dining pub. One very upmarket dining pub I know has been using an eastern European catering agency to source its staff for years. See, if you're offering food at a certain level, you've got to be able to offer the standard of service that goes along with it. Well, a local kid in an English village doesn't want to learn catering as a profession, because in the UK the service industry is piss poor and not considered a real career. They're usually filling in time in the summer holidays, or until they get a "proper" job. So you can't get the standard of staff you need, because they don't even want to be trained. But in Europe, good waiting staff can make a really good living, so people train to do it. The owner of this particular place brings them over for a year, and it's part of their overall catering training. They live in specially-built accomodation in a beautiful part of Rutland, and they improve their skills and their English, while having an opportunity to see England. It's a win-win.