I was watching a programme on BBC the other day, Who Do You Think You Are? It's a genealogy programme. It takes well known people (celebrities) and looks into their family history. Normally they are British celebrities but in the new series it's been Hollywood stars. This week it was Susan Sarandon who I like so I was quite interested. She was interested in find out more about her grandmother Anita who had left her own mother at the age of two. It turned out that Anita had married at the age of 13 but said she was 15. Anita had a tough life. She was born in the USA but her parents were Italian and they lived in a very poor part of New York where they had no running water. Anita was one of 9 and only 3 survived because there was a lot of illness. Her mother died when she was very young and Anita had to look after her siblings.

 

I was thinking you could not treat immigrants that way today. One room and no running water. In this country they come in, they get a council house and all the benefits straight away and many of them cannot even speak English. America and Australia had it right. You have to work for what you get. It's character building, and it's better for the country.