This is a very controversial subject for people like myself.

Both my parents are polish, my mother born here . My Grandparents had wealthy estates in Poland at the time of the German invasion. They were between 16 and 20 at the time, and saw there Fathers marched off by the Germans never to be seen again. One grandfather managed to escape to England to join the air force, and the other became a soldier who fought on the southern front in Italy. He died last year aged 99 of a heart attack. He was quite healthy up until then, the only problem was pains in his leg where he was shot in the war.

My grandmothers endured harrowing journeys half way across the world, living in camps in Siberia in -40 degree winters, catching fish and selling them at the local Russian market. My grandmother gave birth to my father whilst on that journey in Palestine. Poland lost far more men women and children in the war than any other nation.

After the war, both sets of grandparents (my mothers side yet to meet) lived in refugee camps in Cheshire. They had no possessions or money, and so couldn't return to their obliterated country even if they wanted to. Poland got very little support from the allies financially - have you ever asks yourselves why Germany is richer than Britain when they lost the war?!

Over the years they got jobs working as many hours as possible, and somehow from nothing managed to buy a house and raise a family. My parents are well educated and live in a nice area in a nice house.

The point is my family fought very hard for this country, and managed to make something of themselves from nothing. With me being polish, people don't differentiate from my family and those that have just arrived purely to make money. However, you have to commend anyone who wishes to better themselves and takes action to do so. The reason the Polish work so hard is because they are generally more disciplined, particularly the youth, this is largely due to Poland's strongly catholic religion. You won't find people drinking on street corners in Poland, nor will you find people claiming benefit because they want to sit on their arse all day and have no intention of working.

Poland is not a particularly poor country - the problem is the wealth is very divided - you are either rich or poor. At the moment, the average wage is low, with goods being quite expensive. This is typical of a country recently released of communist rule, the economy is very unsettled.

I do think it is wrong that people can come here with no grasp of the English language, that makes things difficult for everyone.