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>I don't think anyone objects to what the UK had 20 years ago - genuinely skilled immigration

20 years ago it was mostly Poles whose only quality was that they were willing to work for less than native UK citizens in jobs that said UK citizens supposedly did not want to do (which is doublespeak for businesses not wanting to pay a decent wage). This kind of immigration was one of the reasons Brexit happened.

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The Poles we've historically had a great relationship with and there was already a huge ex-pat community of Poles here from WW2.

It was more the later additions to the EU a few years later that were actually problematic and got people's backs up.

It didn't help that we were allowed to restrict immigration from those countries but didn't as the government needed mass immigration to disguise the fact there was no growth.

>The Poles we've historically had a great relationship with

Not really?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Polish_alliance

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