Life on the hard shoulder

I was passing through the Waltham Cross area recently and walking along the hard shoulder were three women clad in what can only be described as “romany-wear”. I asked my cab driver, who ironically had been complaining incessantly about the number of immigrants pouring into the North London area, who they were. “Romanians,”he said, grimacing. “They come here and take all our jobs.” My tax driver as a Cypriot and was horrified at the presence of Eastern Europeans. “They live over the hill, just over the hard shoulder,” he added, and lo and behold, they walked up the hard shoulder, up the grass bank and down the other side, which looked to be a well ploughed field.
Basically, they were living rough, which begs the question, indeed hundreds of questions. “Is life so bad where they come from that a life on the hard shoulder is an improvement?.”
Many people are worried about the shape of Britain and the dramatic influx of people from “the third world of Europe”. Is life so much better for them in Britain? Is it not a bit like the misfits who used to stream into London because they have heard the streets are paved with gold, only to end up lost, homeless and alone in the city?
Britain has always been a home for immigrants, dating back to Roman times. Indeed, London was full of different races for centuries. This latest influx is worrying, however. Not withstanding the lawless element that has left its mark- witness the stabbing of a policeman in Luton this week – Britain is in danger of becoming a dumping ground and I may be looking a little too deep, but could we see the sort of shanty town that is prevalent in Brazil. Tin shack villages full of peasants?