Actually, Ruth, people are economically threatened when very large numbers of immigrants from impoverished societies come into a wealthier society and are willing to work jobs at a wretchedly low levels of pay and under wretchedly bad conditions.

That kind of thing has always caused great social stress in any society where it occurred, not just in the UK, but everywhere, and it hurts many people (both locals and immigrants)...but it plays into the hands of the employers and industrialists, because:

1. they want to keep wages down
2. they want cheap labour who will put up with bad working conditions
3. they want to keep a certain number of people unemployed at all times, because that puts the public at their mercy, so to speak, and people will then accept marginal employment, low wages, and bad conditions, because they have no choice.

To oppose that sort of thing is natural, and it has nothing to do with racism (although it often results in a racist reaction setting in amongst some local people who aren't very deep thinkers). It has to do with general human rights and workers rights all over the world.

I think you are just becoming emotionally wedded to your own past arguments on this thread to the extent now that you have to prove it to yourself that WAV is a "racist", otherwise your past argument would be "wrong"! And that would trouble your ego, wouldn't it?

On the other hand, maybe WAV is a diabolically clever closet racist who has deliberately set this entire discussion up just so that Ruth and Little Hawk and various other forum members can disagree over it and end up hating each other! ;-) (and now the paranoia REALLY sets in...OUCH!)

Yeah, well, anything's possible, isn't it? I haven't read enough of this thread to be sure about it one way or another, but I don't think it's wise or judicious to label other people as "racists". I really don't. Not unless you are 100 % sure, and maybe not even then.