Its almost like we don't want people coming to the UK

Here's a story via uncle Timmy about a Chinese gentleman who was held in an immigration reception centre in the UK for two years.

Prison inspectors found the Chinese man had been in the centre for more than 20 months, but staff and managers had not even realised how long he had been there.

...

Prison inspectors found the Chinese man had been in the centre for more than 20 months, but staff and managers had not even realised how long he had been there.

And here's a wee press release from American band Cars Can Be Blue about when they got in a little bit of bother coming to the UK.

At this point, I was near breaking point. Tired, fatigued, disorientated, seperated from my bandmate, I became a bithysterical. Where was I being taken? "Oakington"and that is basically all the information I was provided. I had been told I was going to Oxford, but now I was being taken someplace else? What the fuck was going on?

I was difficult to guage how long the next van ride was, probably another hour and a half or two hours. It all seemed incredible, absolutely incredible. I was being treated like a prisoner, a dangerous terrorist or something equivalent, all because my stupid band had booked some shows in the UK without a work permit?

If they had managed to get on tour here okay I would have seen them three times by now, and a fourth time this evening at Twee As Fuck. Alas, it was not to be.

But think of all the waste of money, the cost-benefit analysis. That chinese chap, if he'd been allowed to stay from the outset, and got a craply paid job, he would have contributed thousands to the UK economy, rather than costing £80,000. And the chap from Cars Can Be Blue, think of the kids, think of the kids.

How much of this recession we're in is caused by hassle like this? We do it to ourselves.

And getting a Wii half-price from Woolworths hardly makes up for it.