Canny lass

There’s a simple cure for that. Don’t read it. I was asked for my opinion. I gave it. Nothing at all given that it appeared in the Telegraph, a right orientated publication, and was written by a supporter of the Conservative party. It ticks all the boxes. As you say yourself, he was “allegedly” there and “seems to be putting on a rather convincing act”.

Sweden's refugees, living in centres run by the immigration authority and with food provided have a legal right to: Single adult - 24 SEK per day Adult in a shared household - 19 SEK per day Child, up to 17 years - 12 SEK per day (applies only to the first two children) Child, up to 17 years (third and any subsequent children) - 6 SEK per day Refugees living in their own household and providing their own food: Single adult - 71 SEK per day Adult in a shared household - 61 SEK per day Children up to 3 years - 37 SEK per day Children 4-10 years - 43 SEK per day Children 11-17 years - 7 SEK per day (reduced by 50% for 3rd and subsequent children) NB. This allowance, in addition to food, should cover the costs of clothing, cleaning, hygiene, medical care and dental work as well as leisure time activities. Just to give you some idea of costs in Sweden my bill for food, hygiene and cleaning is 4 500 SEK for two adults for a month. (SEK is currently worth around 9.8 pence). That's roughly 75 SEK per day/person.

Depends on what you are hearing and from whom you are hearing it, Brian. If you are hearing/reading it via TV and newspapers then you should be aware of two things: TV companies and Newspaper groups are businesses just like any other business. They are in it to make money and don't stock goods that don't sell. They give the customer what they want. They are, more often than not, politically affiliated. For this reason the politically right orientated media will describe a situation in one way while the politically left orientated media will describe the same situation in another way. The reader/listener must decide for themselves which, if any, is telling the truth. This phenomenon is not unique to Sweden as countless research projects have shown. I am assuming that your question arises from the storm which erupted in response to an utterance made by President Donald Trump at a public meeting when he used Sweden as an example of how badly things can go when immigration is allowed causing crime figures - particularly rape - to soar. We hear this in Sweden too but only from the right orientated media. The left orientated media, on the other hand, paint a picture of a land of milk and honey with a welfare state, caring for one and all, that is second to none, and an equality of the sexes that abounds the length and bredth of this oblong land. The sad fact is that, according to me and others like me, neither is correct. Both are exaggerations. Sweden does not appear to me to be the Hell hole described by right wing media but equally it does not appear to be the paradise described by the left wing media. The reports are poles apart and the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. Newspapers and TV are, in my opinion, not the best places to gain information. If you want unbiased facts and figures about crime and immigration in Sweden then there are plenty of scientifically based reports available, spanning a near 50 year period of time, that deal specifically with this issue. Of course, being impartial and objective, they are usually very boring reading - not the sort of thing you peruse over a cuppa and a bacon butty. However, that doesn't answer your question. Can we believe all we hear about immigrants in Sweden? Is there an upsurge in the amount of crime and if so is immigration the cause of it? Do refugees live a life of luxury on huge amounts of benefits? Well, we know what the newspapers say. What do the experts say? Often seen on TV here is Jerzy Sarnecki, professor in Criminology at Stockholm University and with specialist competence in juvenile crime. According to him, immigrants and their children are overrepresented in crime statistics and the reasons for this are three: 1. Discrimination within the judicial system: There are more police patrols in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities and more frequent 'checks' on those with an obvious foreign background. These two factors alone increase the possibility that persons belonging to an ethnic minority will end up in some criminal register while, at the same time, reducing the risk for Swedes of Swedish origin. 2. Conditions and circumstances in their country of origin: Sarnecki's research has shown that there is a relationship between war and other atrocities in the home country and crimes of violence comitted by immigrants in Sweden but he couldn't find any support linking just cultural differences to overrepresentation in the crime statistics except in the case of crimes related to family honour. He frequently knocks holes in the popular theory that individuals from a certain country are more likely to commit crime than others. He can't find any support for that either with the exception of one group of immigrants - those from Finland who came here to work in the 70s and 80s, bringing with them their serious alcohol problems and the crimes related to it. Another group that appears to swell the immigrant crime figures is the league of criminals from the Baltic region who aren't immigrants at all - merely foreign born criminals who are here, temporarily, for the purpose of 'work'. 3. Living standards in Sweden It's a well documented fact that poverty, social isolation, low income and childhood cicumstances have a direct relationship to crime and immigrants usually have a foot in all of those camps so it's hardly surprising that they are overrepresented in the statistics. However if you look at other factors, such as the parent's education, profession and income, unemployment and social isolation then the difference between immigrants and non-immigrants can be halved. If I were to say that the immigration population in Sweden is not a problem then I would be misleading you. The last wave, because of its size, has stretched resources but not to the degree that your average Joe Toes is suffering any hardships. If I didn't help out with their language difficulties then I probably wouldn't know they were here. Sure, there are some Swedes who are unhappy, they are the ones who believe everything written by right wing media, however, there are also some refugees who are unhappy. They are the ones who believed everything written by the left wing media. Now, when they've been sitting around in migration centres with 24 SEK a day, socially isolated, without any meaningful occupation, missing their relatives and with loads of time on their hands to remember the atrocities they've suffered in their home country - it's hardly surprising that some of them turn to crime. Despite that, and the fact that Sweden has welcomed so many, crime figures for immigrants appear to be roughly the same as 40 years ago and foreign nationals have been overrepresented in crime statistics throughout that time. I've lived here for 30 years (I arrived towards the end of the Finnish immigration period) and during my time here immigration has taken many forms both with regard to country of origin and reason for immigration. Groups from Africa, particularly the northern area are generally more overrepresented in statistics related to suspicion of crime but funnily enough, according to Sarnecki, those who dominate among the persons suspected of crime are in fact Scandinavians! Individuals from Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland who account for 5%. After all, they dominate the immigration figures in this country. I sometimes wonder if people reading about immigration in Sweden even consider the fact that most of Sweden's immigrants are blonde haired and blue eyed. By comparison can be mentioned that our North African immigrants account for only 0.7% of suspected criminal activity. Makes you wonder, doesn't it! I personally haven't noticed any differences in crime during my time here. Murders crop up now and then as they've always done. If there's any difference here then it's iin the weapon of choice. I get the impression that firearms are more often a part of the scene now than previously and that the victims are more often from an immigrant background than previosly. The past two years there appears, again according to me, to have been an increase in the number of cases of arson as migration centres have been burned down at a rate of knots. But this is only my opinion. Forgot to mention all the alleged rapes that were recently reported at music festivals around the country. Recent report - albeit on TV - says that in 88% of the of reported rape cases have now been closed.

Thanks merc.

Glad you like them! Don't forget to clean and hone a little after every use, particularly if you are using them on pine trees. The resin plays havoc with the sharpness. Bit of turps or an alcohol hand wipe gets rid of it nicely so that you don't get a build up. The latter is easy to have with you in your first aid kit - along with the elastoplasts.

Could have been Sweden at Christmas! Thanks Eggy! Actually, I think I recognise the lower picture. I knew the name was familiar. I think he was a friend of my late brother so his name has probably been heard a few times in my younger days - talking 50s here.

January 2 this year, on Bedlington Remembered, Ian Foster posted a picture taken in Bedlington Social Club 1974. One of the men is identified as Joe Steel. Could it be the same one?

Sorry to hear about the cat. Hope it wasn't any intentional sort of poisoning and that he recovers quickly.

Happy birthday youngun! Hope it's a good one.

That's very good! Just as I remember it!

Happy to have been able to help!

You are clearly a man of many talents! Nice drawings.

It'll be a big improvement on what we've got though Andy does make a fair point regarding to 'the cut'. I particularly like the idea of many small retail units - that their use is flexible gets a tick in the margin. I think it could encourage visitors to the area.

Any idea when he lived, Mercury? The name is familiar to me but maybe it's just something I've heard in my childhood.

Thanks HPW. A thowt it had been a bit quiet roond heor lately. Hope ya on the mend noo.

Me neither but Dougie was a master of the art of story-telling (I mean that in the nicest possible way). He could keep us amused - and sometimes terrified - at birthday parties with tales of all sorts. I remember once, blindfold, putting my finger in the long-since dead 'King Tut's eye'. Turned out to be a teaspoon full of strawberry jam when I'd stopped screaming and got the blindfold off!

Lovely man! My next door neighbour throughout my childhood. He acted almost as the colliery 'doctor'. Everybody sent for Dougie whenever a bit of plastering was needed. Netherton pit kept the colliery workers and their families going with elastoplasts and Dettol through the kindness of Dougie.

My only claim to football fame was a Sunday afternoon in Green Lane, Stobhil - early 60's -l when i got one past Wor Jackie (Milburn)! He was a really nice guy who kicked a ball around on the cenral green area with the local kids whenever he got the opportunity.

Sounds lovely! Would that be granary-, white, or rye bread?

Thanks Brian. Not feeling too bad this morning - or what's left of it - apart from Iron Maiden thrashing about in my head. Eggy, thanks for the hangover cures! I've already done: a lie in tea AND coffee AND water a hair of the cat (haven't got a dog) chocolate banana I'll have the fresh air after the roast dinner and the fry up. Definitely going to make some of those glow-stick thingummies when we shovel snow tomorrow. I missed today's shovelling - ashamed face.

Thank you one and all for your very kind wishes! The day is going well. Started with breakfast in bed accompanied by a 5 man band of grandchildren outside the window giving Iron Maiden, and my lugs, a good thrashing! Then we had the usual morning chore of shovelling snow followed by a sauna and a roll in the snow (not a euphemism - honest)! We required hot coffee and something stronger to warm up - purely for medicinal purposes. One can't be too careful at my age. Now whiling away the last hour before my guests arrive and the serious partying begins. Hangover cures welcome tomorrow. Thanks again to everyone ... and Eggy 'Tack ska du ha' ... and Moe - yes they do, don't they. ... Foxy - I'll deal with you later!

No you didn't! In the middle of it right now.

Wishing you every success with that venture, Samuel. This kind of cinema is very popular here in Sweden, where villages are scattered and often far from 'real' cinemas. Village halls are put to maximum use and film-going is a very informal affair. You don't have to sit on a hard chair either. You can bring your own cushions and lie on the floor - as kids often do at home. Local clubs make and serve refreshments for the interval and earn a bit of money for their club and some clubs provide a transport service for older people. Works fine! PS. Welcome to the forum.

A little boy went up to his mother and asked: Mum, where did my intelligence come from?' His mother replied. 'Well, son, you must have got it from your father, cause I still have mine.'

I can confirm that. My sister worked there for a while. There was another factory that made Christmas cake decorations and silver coloured cake boards to put the cakes on. I had a sister who worked there as well but I was probably too small to ever visit the factory at that time. However, I used to get loads of off-cuts from the silver paper used to cover the cake boards and other bits and pieces to play with. Can anybody remember where the factory was?