Travel / from Berlin to Koszalin [4]

The best way is going to be difficult regardless of how you do it. Which Berlin airport?

I would suggest the quickest way would be via Berlin Hauptbahnhof-Angermunde-Szczecin-Koszalin, but this is going to take well over 6 hours for train.

I've no idea about buses, but there are usually direct buses from the Berlin airports to Szczecin, from where you can get a train - but as I say, you'll be about 3:30-4:30 from Szczecin to Koszalin by train.

Food / What is this? Dark whisky Scottish or Polish? [58]


You're a Keith loon?!

Next you'll be telling me how you make a pilgrimage to THE GREAT Keith Show every year :P

Real Estate / How to get out of a Preliminary Purchase Contract? [8]

Common situation, and I'm afraid many people are unlikely to have sympathy with you as presumably, had the housing market been strong, you would've happily sold or rented it for a profit to Polish people that could hardly afford it.

I've heard that there can be loopholes in the contracts, but you'll need to engage a Polish lawyer with property market experience - and even then, there are tales of people being locked into contracts in developments that are still months away from completion.

You certainly won't get any of the money back - in the very best case scenario, you'll lose the deposit and any additional money paid thus far. If you can't afford 14,000zl, then you're unlikely to have the money to engage a lawyer who can get you out of the contract.

Life / Public Swimming Pools in Poznan [12]


AWF does quite a few, and they come highly recommended :)


The one in Rataje is dreadful, but that Atlantis one looks bloody good....

UK, Ireland / Sad life of a Polish immigrant in the UK. Ch. 2 - Stress [63]


The UK still sadly hasn't learnt that long hours doesn't mean productivity - and this is one reason I don't want to go back. There's something very wrong with the macho attitude that "oh, I worked 13 hours yesterday, you only did 12, you're not dedicated enough".

Life / Authenticate Drivers licence [6]

It should be there, under section 4d of the photocard. If they don't have the photocard, then (as far as I know) the licence is illegal - as they should've all been exchanged for the photocard. There's no paper counterpart in the UK.

Also, if there's no PESEL on the card and they claim to be Polish citizens, then the card is likely a forgery as every Polish citizen has one.

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]


If you were educated, you'd know that these EVIL POLISH PEOPLE can't actually claim benefits until they receive the registration certificate for EU citizens. This requires 12 months work history in the UK, along with a hell of a wait (it was up to 18 months last summer!) for it to be processed.

Likewise, these EVIL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS can't actually claim benefits because..you know, they're actually illegal and don't want people to know that they're in the UK.

Sort your own house out before you start blaming others. Why don't you insist that people claiming JSA have to work full weeks, for instance? Or even better - why do you tolerate children with ADHD (which is subjective as hell!) being given disability benefits? Or even better still, why do you tolerate paying for more than 1 room studio flats for families where the parents refuse to work? Heck, you pay child benefit to non-UK citizens without even checking up on the child - wouldn't it make sense to link Child Benefit payments to school attendance?

Food / Where is the best place to eat pierogi in Poland? [24]


Don't go near Krakow, their speciality appears to be drowning them in oil :/

Study / Dormitories for students in Poznan [5]


Which university are you with?

Study / Schools to learn Polish in Warsaw [29]


More importantly, they don't appear to actually have any physical premises. I'd be very hesitant to hand over any money to such an operation upfront, particularly if they want 1125PLN for 15 hours of face to face teaching at a location that isn't theirs.

I've had a look on their site and they're offering group lessons from January - 30 hours for 750zl. That's 25zl an hour - why would you bother, when you could get a decently trained Polish teacher for 40zl an hour maximum for private lessons? More to the point, for someone just starting out, you can easily get a student of English philology to teach you basic Polish for 20-30zl an hour.

There's also this -

readysteadypolish.eu/teachers.html


What about qualifications?

To be honest, my opinion is that it looks like they've set up a language school to gouge gullible expats willing to pay for something on expenses. But anyone can do what they're doing - it certainly doesn't look like anything special.

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]


You've actually hit the nail on the head there - the question of family. Should we really feel sorry for someone (given the availability of free contraception in the UK) who chose to have kids, even in the knowledge that they'd be unlikely to provide a decent life for them? I don't view having kids as a human right, they are essentially a luxury. If you need a big house to accomodate them, then you have to accept that you need to work for them.

But why are they working for a low wage to begin with? Most of the time, this is people who played the fool in the classroom and didn't bother showing up for their exams. You know, the popular kids who ended up in a backbreaking, physical job because they couldn't do anything else.

Let's be honest - if you compare the lifestyles of minimum wage workers in the UK as opposed to minimum wage workers in Poland, the Brits are living a life of luxury in comparison.

Part of the problem, of course, is that uneducated manual workers don't know how to look after their money wisely. They have Sky TV, they demand meat for every dinner, they won't consider buying own brand products 'coz it jus dusnt taste the same innit' and generally squander what money they have.

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]


This is the problem - Brits feel that they deserve to live DECENTLY. The problem is that - why should anyone who didn't bother to educate themselves and who didn't bother to actually work towards anything deserve anything at all except a roof over their heads and food?

I find it bizzare that minimum wage workers DEMAND AND EXPECT plasma televisions, game consoles, foreign holidays, a nice car and so on.

Work / Does anyone know If you can register as self employed in the UK while in poland [8]


Now...that's an interesting point. If you were paid through a UK limited company and were receiving nothing but dividends from the company (which you'd be free to pay as you want, I think?), you could just pay tax on the dividend income and have no liability for ZUS. As far as I remeber, dividend income is a flat 19% - and you wouldn't be paying any tax in the UK.

I think if you were self employed in the UK and yet residing in Poland, they'd have you with the lack of paying ZUS. But if you're simply the 100% shareholder and director of a limited company in the UK, as long as the company pays UK taxes and you tell the Polish taxman that you earnt x amount in dividend income, there shouldn't be an issue - I think.

Might be worth finding a friendly English speaking accountant and see what they advise?

Work / Does anyone know If you can register as self employed in the UK while in poland [8]


The problem is that it's essentially tax evasion - you won't be resident in the UK for tax purposes (the 185 day rule would be applied here) but would be resident in Poland.

Yep, it is cheaper, especially with the tax brackets - but you would be running a hell of a risk, especially as a UK business invoicing Polish companies for teaching (or any sort of language services) would set off a red flag if anyone got audited.

Life / Pre Paid Visa cards [27]


It's all because Maestro uses (or replaces) the former national debit card systems throughout the world - and I don't think they thought it through properly. The amount of trouble that UK Maestro users have abroad is one exmple - all because in reality, Maestro is just Switch rebranded, which was never usable outside of the UK (at least as far as I know?).

Why on earth they didn't simply set up Maestro to act as a Mastercard if needs be is entirely beyond me.

Having said this, Lloyds TSB debit cards are a pain in Poland - acceptance of them at cash points seems to be very erratic in nature.

Work / Can an American in Poland on a tourist visa freelance? [7]

This sounds right, but I'm not certain that you'll be allowed to conduct paid employment while on the territory of the Republic of Poland - it depends on interpretation, but my understanding is that conducting business is different from actually working for a Polish employer.

Life / Pre Paid Visa cards [27]

What an utter shambolic system Maestro is, it's not helped by the fact that they've just bodged it together from all the former systems in use throughout the world.

I don't know why anyone would even want to take a Maestro card given the utter unreliablity of it.

Life / Pre Paid Visa cards [27]

Visa Debit cards usually can work as Visa Credit as well (in so far as what the retailer sees), so there should be no problem utilising internet in airports.

Visa Electron is a different story.

Study / Schools to learn Polish in Warsaw [29]


In my opinion, it's quite a common marketing tactic to claim that the people setting up the business were 'dissatisfied' with the competition - leading gullible readers to assume that they must somehow be better than the rest.


60zl an hour for Skype is a ripoff, plain and simple. You can get Polish lessons at my school (with an invoice, blah blah) for 65zl an hour - and bearing in mind the dreadful quality of Skype, it doesn't seem like a good deal at all. 75zl face to face isn't bad, but I'd expect the classes to be held in a school and not at the individuals home for that price.

I'm not convinced that the quality of Skype (or indeed the phone!) is conductive for learning.

Food / Cost of Nescafe coffee in Poland. [49]


I refuse to buy Fair Trade anything - on account that you can clearly see that the retailer is including a nice little bit of 'extra' profit in there on account of calling it Fair Trade.

Travel / Polish Zoos and their animals [27]


And still there is only a couple of elephants in an enclosure designed for many more..

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]


Nothing wrong with a decent sandwich. If there was, why are they sold everywhere pre-packaged in the UK?


Beggars can't be choosers - if you can't afford to eat 'good' food because you're on minimum wage, then you can't afford to be fussy. Anyway, the point is that it's possible to live on minimum wage, not what's desirable.

Let's see - our minimum wage friend wants to get a week worth of lunches. He buys 1kg of pasta for 86 pence from Tesco, 1kg of tomatoes - 1.66, 330g of black olives - 68 pence, a bottle of passata to thicken it up, 85 pence and some ham - 1.64 for 400g. Grand total - 5.68. That's enough for 5 lunches, and let's assume he throws in some sliced apple (24 pence) a day. Grand total - 6.88 for a week.

All those prices are taken from Tesco Chelmsford - which isn't a cheap place to live.


But this is exactly it - you're choosing to eat fruit and yoghurt for starters. People on minimum wage don't have this luxury - it's one or the other. In fact, yoghurts are quite pricey in the UK.


As I said, beggars can't be choosers. If you're on minimum wage, it's often not a question of 'sense' but more a question of affording to eat.

Life / Pre Paid Visa cards [27]


They do, because you still have to use it responsibly - not going overdrawn, etc etc.

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]


If that principle had been applied to Britain in 1973 ("The sick man of Europe") - then the UK would've been in even more of a mess than it was that decade. Anyone who knows the history can tell you that Britain was economically screwed at that point - and needed EEC membership desperately. The subsequent endorsement of EEC membership should be seen as a reflection of those times - that Britain needed EEC membership.

Is it really fair or moral of Britain to then turn round and refuse membership to those in need?


So you believe in an ending of attracting the best graduates in finance to the world's financial centre - London? Or an end to attracting desperately needed new talent to Scotland, which even launched the Fresh Talent Initative in order to attract quality individuals that just couldn't be found in Scotland?


And you think employers will happily pay more money to British workers? Given that many small to medium businesses have been laying off workers left-right-centre, just where is the money coming from to pay higher wages to Brits to ensure that they have a high standard of living?

The thing is that there *isn't* enough decent British people to take the jobs. It's been documented widely that Brits just didn't want to do the jobs strawberry picking for instance - although this is partially the fault of a ridiculous benefit system which doesn't encourage part time work.

I notice that no-one here remebers that many Brits moved to Spain and took advantage of the freedom of movement of labour. If Britain closes her doors, then the rest will close the door to Brits - and everyone will suffer. Do you really want that? Personally, and I'm sure I'm not alone - I quite enjoy the fact that I can move to 26 other countries and work without any formalities whatsoever.

Ultimately, the UK can't have it both ways - either they have freedom of trade and thus freedom of movement of people, or they have neither. Free trade outside of the EU means a similar idea to what the USA does - free in one direction. Does anyone genuinely believe that the EU is going to be like "okay, no problem, you can leave and yet keep all the benefits?". Of course not - and I imagine a huge tax slapped on British residents in Spain will be the first measure.

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]

And everything you say can be directly attributed to the Great Council House Selloff. It's a fact that if you want to work in London for minimum wage (why would you, when you can have a much better quality of life elsewhere?) - then your living conditions will be absolutely dire.


Again, you're blaming New Labour for something that is directly Thatcher's fault - the sell off of council houses. You're being priced out because everyone is now a homeowner - and everyone wants to make a profit from their home. Councils were under no such obligation to make a profit - and the difference in rent between social housing and private housing is astronomical today as a result.


See also - the Great Council House Selloff. There is plenty of wonderful ex-council stock around - just look at the value of many 1950's-built houses today!


Which means no more EU membership, yes?


To be honest, I agree with you here - and I believe that anyone falling pregnant in the UK within a year of starting work shouldn't be entitled to any maternity benefits whatsoever.

Why would you only hire people with British passports if you had a much better qualified immigrant on offer, though?

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]


There are flats available *today* to take. I have a good friend involved with housing in Aberdeen who assures me that if you want a roof over your head, you can have one tomorrow. Of course, your neighbours will be mostly the scum of the earth and you can expect to have at least one heroin addict in your block, but that's not the point. The flats themselves are habitable, they're secure and pefectly livable.

Of course, if you want something in a good (or even just an average) area, you'll be waiting a long time. I'm not denying this - but the point is that you can have accomodation for 50 quid a week. If you *need* to live in a better area, it's your choice. But the whole "I CAN'T LIVE ON MINIMUM WAGE" is nonsense - of course you can, if you accept that you won't be living in a palace.


I can believe it. So much easy credit was thrown at foreign nationals, many of who were working in clearly-temporary jobs - and I think the people responsible for authorising such lending should've been taken round the back and shot. It's clearly nonsense to go giving overdrafts and loans (and indeed, debit/credit cards and chequebooks) to foreign nationals with absolutely no track record in the UK. One look at Poland should have told them that credit isn't so easy to obtain here and to lend accordingly - people unused to easy lending will by nature go wild.

Do you have any means of enforcing debts on people that have gone by to Poland, for instance? If not, then it points even more at utter incompetence by those running the lending departments.


That's the nature of free competition. As you say, they were 'used to good money' - but the game changed and they didn't adapt, thus they fell by the wayside. It's called evolution - and as we evolve, some win, some don't. Why didn't some of these manual workers take advantage of Polish immigration and set up recruitment agencies for manual labour jobs? I'm sure with their experience in manual labouring, they would've made a killing.

Don't forget that the EU also brought the ability for the British to take advantage in Poland. Look at all those British property speculators in Poland - some made an absolute killing here. This money isn't being spent in Poland, it's being spent in the UK. Tesco is making a killing here - there's 5 supermarkets in Poznan alone.

Personally, the real issue with the amount of immigration was in public services - most of which were struggling to cope before 2004 and were pushed to breaking point. Schools are a great example - I was reading about one school that had Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians and Latvians all in the same class - with huge problems with language as a result.


If you can't afford to share a flat with a private bedroom on minimum wage, there's something seriously wrong with you.

Look at this for instance - it's pretty much in the city centre of Aberdeen.

aberdeen.gumtree.com/aberdeen/12/46183712.html

If you can't afford to pay 75 p/w along with 25 p/w council tax on minimum wage, where are you spending your money?

Let's not forget something here - it was the infamously loathing of the EEC Margaret Thatcher that sold off all the council houses. It wasn't the immigrants!

UK, Ireland / Polish people are happy with the UK health care system [27]


There are some horrific cases, such as where doctors are being recruited from abroad and two sets of recruitment companies are creaming off a decent part of the money offered by the NHS - how is this in any way cost effective?

But the whole system needs all political parties to cooperate and change the entire system - from top to bottom. Putting an end to middle management in hospitals would be a start, as would eliminating many non-jobs. Likewise, eliminating the current system of GP's being quasi-private and instead introducing fixed salaries for GP's - it still amazes me as to how utterly screwed the Government was with the new-ish contract for them.

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]


I think most Scots are pragmatic enough to realise that they don't want to do rotten jobs for minimum wage, so they're content to let immigrants do the jobs instead. The attitude of Scots towards Dunvagel across almost all aspects of the political spectrum said so much about that.

Let's not forget that Scots were also immigrants themselves to many parts of the world - indeed, Bonnie Prince Charlie had a Polish mother!

Unfortunately, the English seem to have forgotten that they themselves were immigrants in many parts of the world.

Law / The new Law in acquisation of Polish citizenship in 2009 [15]


What about in my case, where my nationality isn't the same as my citizenship? (British citizenship, Scottish nationality)

I don't have any allegiance to the UK whatsoever, nor do I have any to the British state - yet because there's nothing such as a seperate Scottish citizenship, I have to carry a British passport until such time that it changes.

News / ARE POLISH PEOPLE TAKING OUR JOBS OR DOING OUR JOBS??!! DISCUSS. [126]


Easily. Plenty of people can and do - just go on MoneySavingExpert and see for yourself. It involves quite a bit of effort and planning, but it's doable!


Dual fuel bills can cut this down. Likewise, no need to heat every room, or to keep the heating at 27c the entire time. Indeed, Polish communist heating isn't even on during the summer and we cope just fine. Insulation and so on can cut bills down even further.


Fair play.


For a single person, you can get a council flat in Aberdeen no problem for less than 50 pounds a week. Hardly a great flat, but a flat is a flat.


Why does someone need a mobile and a landline if they're on minimum wage? One or the other!


Cut down on wastage and make sure not to live somewhere with a meter attached.


People on minimum wage can make do with television over the internet. 4OD and BBC iPlayer don't require a tv licence.


Get on a bike! Unless you've got a commute of over 10 miles, there's no excuse not to ride to work.


I used to live in Chelmsford, and every day, you could buy fresh food from the market for ridiculously low prices at the end of the day. But 100 a month for food is fair.


I calculate it as around 550-600 a month needed to live. Minimum wage pays about 800 - so they've got 200 left a month to enjoy as they wish. If they really can't live, they can always work a Saturday shift in a supermarket to give them an extra 150 or so a month. If you can't live in the UK on over 900 pounds a month, there really is something wong with your lifestyle.


That's because you're a traditional Brit who has to buy sandwiches every day and a coffee. If you made your own sandwiches and took a flask, you'd be looking at 25 pounds a month for lunches maximum. I can knock up a huge pot of pasta and sauce for about 3 pounds (in the UK) - so really, where are you getting 25 pounds a week for lunches from?

Of course, if you can't cook properly and rely on ready meals, I'm not surprised you end up spending over 25 pounds a week on lunches.


Hey kids, sorry, but we're moving into a council homeless hostel because daddy was too proud to live within his means and now the banks want their money back. :)

It's funny how much people in the UK actually are in a sea of debt, just because they cannot change their lifestyle and instead blame immigrants for everything.