Fun Online Polls: Local Services and Welfare for Immigrants

Thanks to everybody who took part in this week's poll. There is no right or wrong answer to this, but the general perception appears to be that the following items (which more than half of the 124 people who took part chose - in a democracy, a simple majority is enough) are 'local services':

Refuse collection - 120 votes
Schools - 109 votes
Hospitals and GPs - 92 votes
Police - 91 votes
Public transport and roads - 90 votes

The following items didn't make the grade:
Welfare - 36 votes
Old Age Pensions - 10 votes
Immigration control -7 votes
Defence - 5 votes

I suppose you can all guess what I'm limbering up to here, i.e. separate debates on...

a) Which things are local services - defence may seem national, but in the case of e.g. The Falkland Islands, it is very much a local issue; and I fail to see a real distinction between 'police' and 'immigration control'. Sure, the Borders Agency should be preventing the wrong sort of people from coming in in the first place, but assuming they're here, do you really care whether the people who apprehend them are nominally police officers or immigration officers?

b) Which things the state should provide rather than leave to the markets;

c) To the extent things are local services which the state should provide, to what extent they should be paid for by local taxes, rather than nationally collected taxes which are redistributed by The Man in Whitehall;

d) What the least bad kind of local tax is, and having established that;

e) Whether the tax should be based on the market value of the services or the cash cost of the services.
--------------------------------------
Anyways, it's too late to continue that debate, so the next Fun Online Poll is purely subjective - in your opinion, after what period of legal residence and having supported him- or herself, should an immigrant be entitled to the same welfare as a UK born citizen? This includes cash benefits, the right to 'free' NHS treatment or a school place for children as well as the 'right' to a council house. I'm not really sure in my own my mind about this, so your input is appreciated.

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.