Fun Online Polls: Romania, Bulgaria and make up your own question

Our wild guesses in last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

How many Bulgarians and Romanians will come to the UK and other western European countries after 1 January 2014?

10,000 - 4%
100,000 - 18%
1,000,000 - 32%
10,000,000 - 4%
All of them - 42%

We shall see. I went for 1 million myself, to the nearest order of magnitude. Perhaps I should have made the question clearer and asked how many you think will leave in the calendar year 2014, but that's sort of what I meant.
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And lo, the to end of year poll...

Make up your own question.

Fun Online Polls: Xmas cards & Romania and Bulgaria

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

How many Xmas cards will you send this year?

None - 46%
Half a dozen - 26%
A dozen or so - 13%
To everybody whose address I have - 6%
Other, please specify - 9%

Top 'other' answer was from Ross:

I'll be sending cards to all my friends... So none.
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The UK government, having so accurately predicted the number of people who would come to the UK from the A8 countries back in 2004, is now confidently predicting that the UK won't see mass Romanian and Bulgarian immigration.

They were clever enough this time not to commit themselves to an actual number, but what's your guess?

Enter your forecast here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Specific immigration statistics are always guesswork, but changes in the official total population of a country are probably reliable, so we can start from that end.

The populations of Romania and Bulgaria are currently given as 20.1 million and 7.3 million, so we can easily check those again in a year or two and reasonably assume that if there is a reduction, that this is down to emigration to the UK, or indeed Germany, Italy or Spain.

"Downing Street defiant over generous EU benefit plans"

From the BBC:

The government has promised to push ahead with plans to simplify access to benefits for EU immigrants, after a European commissioner praised the UK for openly advertising itself as a "soft touch".

Downing Street said powers to deport homeless migrants and cut rights to unemployment and housing benefits would not come in "for several years while we thrash out the details" and that for the time being, immigrants would be entitled to top-whack welfare payments after a mere three months.

Work restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians will be lifted in January.

Earlier, Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor advised Romanians and Bulgarians to "remain optimistic". And Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said freedom of movement was "non-negotiable" for citizens of EU states and that other Member States with less generous rules would be expected to follow the British example.

"Romanian gypsies flood London to celebrate birth of Royal Baby"

From The Daily Mail:

Only three days after a dawn raid cleared one of Britain’s most prestigious streets, a new group of revellers arrived in Park Lane yesterday.

Dozens of Romanian gypsies arrived to turn the tree-lined central London road into a bunting-strewn shrine. Members of the Roma camp laughed and chatted as they were entertained by an accordion player playing the English national anthem with their possessions scattered around them.

On Friday police and council officials had moved on 60 rough sleepers who had turned the underground footways around Marble Arch into their home. Twenty-one took up an offer to fly home for free if they went straight to Heathrow. Yesterday it was clear that the desperate and expensive tactics had freed up space for well-wishers to flood London.

And the ‘cease and desist rejoicing’ notices, carefully translated into Romanian and handed out to dozens of people, were worthless. Some of the Romanian travellers insist they have come to Britain hoping to hear the 41 royal gun salute, but are now trapped because they cannot find the address.

Others simply state they are waiting for one set of grandparents to zoom past on their way to the maternity ward in a heavily guarded motorcade. Whatever the truth, council officials and police credit the visitors with a surge in sales of knock-off royal tat. Nearby businesses, which include Dorchester Souvenirs and a string of luxury memento dealerships, are delighted with the competition.

Large areas of grass are strewn with yesterday's newspapers bearing Kate Middleton's beaming face and half-drunk Pimms. Their possessions, including piles of cardboard placards with slogans such as "Wills I Love You" and pushchairs loaded with red, white and blue balloons, were scattered around them.

Nickie Aiken, of Westminster City Council, said the "squares, gardens and subways of London" are reserved for "groups of people who intend to contribute to the spontaneous outbreak of joy in the city."

She said: "Residents and businesses are delighted that people are coming from as far abroad as Romania to pay homage."

A Romanian MEP speaks ... Denis Cooper responds

Romanian MEP Adrian Severin: "The EU cannot exist without France, without the founding countries. But it can live without Ireland." (page slow to load)

Denis Cooper (via email): "What a bloody cheek from this Adrian Severin. Who the hell does he think he is? ... The EU ... could perfectly well live without Romania, as well, and in fact did so until just 18 months ago. And, guess what, hardly anybody in the UK wanted Romania in the EU, and if we'd been given a choice in a referendum we would certainly have voted against it."