Post: #51

(04-24-2015 01:16 AM)Lizard King Wrote:  I think the Indians integrate more completely than the Eastern Euros.

The Indians have family roots and businesses in the UK. They already have a tradition of immigration to the UK.

The Eastern Euros are very different. Many don't bother to speak English. They are all very insular.

They are hard workers, no doubt about that, but that aspect of them is actually detrimental to the UK in some ways, as many of them are taking most of the money they earn back home.

The most noticeable difference is the attitude towards the natives. Indians on the whole are incredibly polite and make their gratitude known. Eastern Europeans in the UK are often very rude, or will completely ignore natives as if they are above having anything to do with them. There are exceptions but they are few.

I have some connection, indirectly, with law and order in the uk, and I work in an area with high EE, Indian and Bengali / Pakistani migrants. In my experience, I rarely have professional dealings with the Indian community. In my personal life, I see Indian Doctors, pharmacists and hard working ordinary people. I enjoy visiting their ethnic restaurants on a regular basis. They have been here ages, and hundreds of thousands of their soldiers fought for our country in two world wars. Can't say the same for the Bengali's and Pakistani's. The police stations are very busy dealing with assaults / thefts / drug offences. Far less likely to speak English (not just the older relatives, but the primary immigrant too). Still enjoy their food, but often you cannot consume alcohol with it, but hey, they are entitled to enforce their cultural norms in their restaurants. Don't like the I'm a Muslim and I will kill the White Devil narrative. Hear this often. Farrage is right, the Enemy Within, and we need to deal with. EE's. Mixed feelings. I have met many EE's who work hard and pay taxes, but many more who just come here to get pissed, pass out and claim benefits. I have literally watched some EE's pissing in the street at 8 am in the morning against peoples houses. Inbetween, you have to watch out for ATM fraud and being stabbed by some pissed Lithuanian arsehole. Women are ok though.

Sorry for slightly drunkposting.

Post: #52

(04-24-2015 01:53 PM)Flying Donkey Wrote:  I have some connection, indirectly, with law and order in the uk, and I work in an area with high EE, Indian and Bengali / Pakistani migrants. In my experience, I rarely have professional dealings with the Indian community. In my personal life, I see Indian Doctors, pharmacists and hard working ordinary people. I enjoy visiting their ethnic restaurants on a regular basis. They have been here ages, and hundreds of thousands of their soldiers fought for our country in two world wars. Can't say the same for the Bengali's and Pakistani's. The police stations are very busy dealing with assaults / thefts / drug offences. Far less likely to speak English (not just the older relatives, but the primary immigrant too). Still enjoy their food, but often you cannot consume alcohol with it, but hey, they are entitled to enforce their cultural norms in their restaurants. Don't like the I'm a Muslim and I will kill the White Devil narrative. Hear this often. Farrage is right, the Enemy Within, and we need to deal with. EE's. Mixed feelings. I have met many EE's who work hard and pay taxes, but many more who just come here to get pissed, pass out and claim benefits. I have literally watched some EE's pissing in the street at 8 am in the morning against peoples houses. Inbetween, you have to watch out for ATM fraud and being stabbed by some pissed Lithuanian arsehole. Women are ok though.

Sorry for slightly drunkposting.

That is certainly true - living in Poland I have heard that after 2006 the country got much safer. 2005 or before people have told me that it was very unsafe in many areas, muggings, rapes, robberies, much more drunks. Now those men who otherwise would be homeless or criminals moved to UK. I would estimate roughly 50.000-100.000 of them among the 500.000-1.5 mio. Polish who moved to UK & Ireland.

And yes - what Walterback said is true - the plan for the immigrants is to interbreed and I guess many will do so. Sometimes it works exceedingly well as in the case of my friend in Austria who turned out to be male 9 with a height of 6'6. Father is butt-ugly and smart and mother is blonde and pretty.

So my tip for Indian brothers: Get yourself some white sugar - results can be interesting.

Post: #53

One of the big, unspoken taboo subjects in the UK is the NHS resources used combatting Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Bengali mutations due to constant familial inbreeding.

The constant cousin fucking is real and not just a myth.

Nobody will say it openly, but if you speak to any medical professional they will tell you in private. The numbers just don't lie.

It's truly awful for the poor kids involved.

Post: #54

(04-24-2015 08:15 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  One of the big, unspoken taboo subjects in the UK is the NHS resources used combatting Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Bengali mutations due to constant familial inbreeding.

The constant cousin fucking is real and not just a myth.

The problems of certain parts of the population is known.

But I want to stress also one point as it somehow here comes across as if EE immigrants (mostly Polish) integrate worse than the average Indian.

The thing is that the Polish people are way closer to the British one by an overwhelming margin - I am not even talking about race, but also culture and various similarities.

What people fail to grasp is that they compare the bottom barrel of the Polish society who get drunk on Sunday morning and claim benefits with the top 20% of the Indian one who move the UK. I don't know why I have to point out the fact that a large part of the Indian population does not even accept toilets (government programs to convince them otherwise fail constantly) and if those guys came over to Britain, then we would see a different side of India than with the high-performing intelligent well-educated ones moving over.

Currently a country like Poland has 80%+ of youth being college educated and the old bummed out worker population who does not even learn any foreign language is dying out. The criminal part of the youth - they moved to Britain as well.

But long-term inter-generational examples from Germany have shown that even those more simple people have progeny which in overwhelming numbers studied and prospered. Essentially they became indistinguishable to Westerners.

Indian culture however is highly different by default - sometimes adhering to very foreign standards and mental patterns after 2-3 generations. After that time any Polish or Croatian immigrant would have long forgotten what country his grandfather or father came from.

So the building pissing Polish bums you see in the UK cannot really be compared to the programmers and entrepreneurs from India. As much as it hurts the pride of my Indian brothers here - we have to take things with a grain of salt.

The Polish culture was pretty backwards too even in the 1960s. As I visited a museum in Krakow with a girl I saw pictures of peasants in the 1960s who were given appartments in the city for the first time (forced moves in order to influence the intelligentsia there) and I saw pics of them moving in with their cows and chickens into apartments! That is literally how backwards they were.

Now there was also an advanced side of it and by 2015 Poland has a highly educated workforce and an average IQ of 106 (one of the highest in the EU). That said - economy is still shit, girls are pretty and kind, so I take everything with a grain of salt and without any cultural or generational pride.

I personally have Austrian, Russian & Polish ancestry (some Jewish one as well), but I don't really care about all of that. I try to see things as objectively as I can not averting my eyes from the good or the bad.

Post: #55

Im not too sure whether the Polish immigrants in the U.K will completely forget their heritage. Take in mind that to take a flight back to Poland is incredibly cheap and fast. There is such a large Polish community in the U.K, that they don't really have to integrate a great deal. And even if they were to, it will be in the modern u.k city communities. So there will be blacks, asians and all other sorts of nationalities, that will probably outnumber the working class Brits. I am just playing devils advocate however, there will be a lot of Polish who will forget their heritage and adapt to the U.K. Especially as Poland is now becoming very wealthy and is well integrated with the EU.

America on the other hand had a long period of assimilation, well until relatively recently with all the large scale mexican immigration. The U.K over the last decade, just hasn't had that and never will have that, because our government and even country doesn't recognise a national culture. Aside from being 'tolerant, fair and diverse'.

From growing up in a major city in England, I can tell you that the country does take away any positives that immigrant culture x and perverts it. Something about this country, just allows for any inhibition or sense of responsibility to be taken away.

Post: #56

(04-25-2015 02:39 AM)Zelcorpion Wrote:  But I want to stress also one point as it somehow here comes across as if EE immigrants (mostly Polish) integrate worse than the average Indian.

Average Indian or average Indian immigrant? Because yes, the average Indian immigrant does integrate extremely well. Far better than EE immigrants. It's a fact.

Quote: What people fail to grasp is that they compare the bottom barrel of the Polish society who get drunk on Sunday morning and claim benefits with the top 20% of the Indian one who move the UK. I don't know why I have to point out the fact that a large part of the Indian population does not even accept toilets (government programs to convince them otherwise fail constantly) and if those guys came over to Britain, then we would see a different side of India than with the high-performing intelligent well-educated ones moving over.

Because they don't immigrate. I don't know why this is so hard to grasp. The backward, average Indian is not going to immigrate to the UK. The people who refuse toilets...they can't afford plane tickets. There's also a huge selection bias at play. Indians who immigrate tend to do so because they want a much better life. I can't speak for the UK, but in the US not all Indian immigrants are highly educated or skilled. Quite a few own motels and gas stations. But they all work extremely hard and I was personally surprised to know that some of them are genuinely self-made multi-millionaires.

Indian people who want to live off welfare or criminal Indians...they can do so quite easily in India. You seem to imagine that if the UK had an open immigration policy for Indians, the UK would get overrun with Indians. It's just not going to happen.

Quote:Indian culture however is highly different by default - sometimes adhering to very foreign standards and mental patterns after 2-3 generations. After that time any Polish or Croatian immigrant would have long forgotten what country his grandfather or father came from.

The only thing that stays around after 2-3 generations is the skin color. In all honesty, maybe it's different in the UK. But here in the US I have yet to meet a 3rd generation Indian who is NOT completely Americanized and can speak his grandparents' language. Third generation Indian-Americans are as American as apple pie (as the saying goes). And honestly, I don't know if your argument about Polish/Croatian immigrants forgetting is true. I've met scores of Americans who still identify with the original country of their last name (e.g. people named Franco thinking they're Italian-American even if they're 3-5th generation Americans).

Here's a serious real world example: Japanese-American citizens (despite their skin color) still volunteered to fight in WWII and gave an oath to only support the US. Even if that meant having to fight Japan. That's because they were integrated. The biggest irony: some German-Americans fought for the Nazis.

https://www.quora.com/Did-any-Japanese-A...uring-WWII

Quote:However, despite the fact that the Japanese-American soldiers of the 100th were near Pearl Harbor during that day of infamy, and despite the fact that all them wanted to take the fight back to the Japanese (Or "Japs", as many ironically called them), the military brass was conflicted as to whether they should be deployed in the Pacific. Even The 100th's insignia showcases their thoughts of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Quote:So the building pissing Polish bums you see in the UK cannot really be compared to the programmers and entrepreneurs from India. As much as it hurts the pride of my Indian brothers here - we have to take things with a grain of salt.

I personally have Austrian, Russian & Polish ancestry (some Jewish one as well), but I don't really care about all of that. I try to see things as objectively as I can not averting my eyes from the good or the bad.

Uhuh, sure. Because this thread has gone on for 3 pages because of hurt pride of Indian guys on the forum, right? Let's call a spade a spade. The fact is Indian immigrants do extremely well, integrate superbly and do so better than the average EE immigrant. And this entire thread is still going on because guys with some EE heritage can't accept that fact.

Also, are you a 2nd or 3rd generation immigrant? Because if so, I hope you see the irony in stating that 2-3rd generation Polish immigrants would have forgotten where their grandfather came from while in the same thread saying you have Polish ancestry.

Post: #57

(04-25-2015 03:21 AM)Genghis Khan Wrote:  Also, are you a 2nd or 3rd generation immigrant? Because if so, I hope you see the irony in stating that 2-3rd generation Polish immigrants would have forgotten where their grandfather came from while in the same thread saying you have Polish ancestry.

Dude - relax. With forgetting I meant that it mattered little to them/no importance to their lives and not forgetting like some Alzheimer patient.

I agree with most of what you said - differences don't make it even worth a thread. So chill.... I am not getting butt-hurt over anything here.

Besides - we don't have to agree 100% on everything in life. So chill - our points of disagreement are minor - if at all. The world is changing anyway not through our own actions. Immigration will continue to the EU & the US - partly bad, partly good, it will change those countries.

In the grand scale of things change is the only constant - 100.000 years from now this place might be all dust and memories in time - nothing to fret about.

Post: #58

I actually think people are more concerned with Romanians and Bulgarians (the latest wave of EU entrants) than Poles.

We have quite a close relationship with Poland going back to WW2.

Post: #59

(04-25-2015 05:13 AM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  I actually think people are more concerned with Romanians and Bulgarians (the latest wave of EU entrants) than Poles.

We have quite a close relationship with Poland going back to WW2.

CBW.

I had the "pleasure" of being spoken to by an 19 year old Polish lass about the Polish war effort for the Brits. She claims that the Brits were never thankful and that Polish should be allowed free roam of the UK because of it. An opinion matched by some long forgotten Polish prince living in London who challenged Farage to a duel earlier this month.


To the wider discussion.

I see mixed reactions to Romanians. Usually people react badly but the ones I've interacted with have all been positive. A cafe I went to in Ireland had a Romanian waitress (I only knew that because I thought she was Italian, she told me Romanian). I'm pretty sure the owner was Romanian too as they both were talking in a language unfamiliar to me. Point is they'd created an enterprise that is a positive. There was nothing that would stop a native Irish person from creating a business but they didn't so it was created by a Romanian instead.

This may be more to do with mixing circles but I know a Romanian immigrant who arrived prior to the inclusion into the Eurozone. He arrived on work permit and stayed because the company valued him. A Nigerian friend done something similar actually. Starting off on a student visa to complete a masters degree before gaining a work permit. He mentioned that he has another two years before he can apply for a permanent residency. Failing that he mentioned he'll apply for an investors permit and invest (I believe) £200,000 somewhere.

Both these guys arrived here in a similar manner that Farage would like. Both add value to the UK economy. The Nigerian is a 40% tax payer. They both work for the same multinational and there are many other non British people work there from around the globe, Indians included. They've all integrated well enough but then they've all had backgrounds desirable to that one company.

Got me wondering if a multinational is willing to sponsor a resident from one country and move them to another should that be included in the freedom of movement that we currently see within the EU?

Personally I think that medium to large organisations should be allowed to sponsor residencies whereas movement between countries should be limited on an application process. I'm not an economist so I can not calculate long term implications of the current system vs any proposed system.

Post: #60

"I had the "pleasure" of being spoken to by an 19 year old Polish lass about the Polish war effort for the Brits. She claims that the Brits were never thankful and that Polish should be allowed free roam of the UK because of it. An opinion matched by some long forgotten Polish prince living in London who challenged Farage to a duel earlier this month."

Ahem! They have completely forgotten history! Britain declared war on Germany because of the German/ Russian invasion of Poland. So no, accusing Britain of helping Poland is incongruous.

Post: #61

(04-24-2015 08:15 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  One of the big, unspoken taboo subjects in the UK is the NHS resources used combatting Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Bengali mutations due to constant familial inbreeding.

The constant cousin fucking is real and not just a myth.

Nobody will say it openly, but if you speak to any medical professional they will tell you in private. The numbers just don't lie.

It's truly awful for the poor kids involved.

I used to have to go through cape hill on my way to work, and would constantly get caught behind the mini-buses that go around collecting these disabled kids to take them to school - all Pakistani. I heard girls I was at college with that were raised here, with good grades, speak about being engaged to first cousins they'd known all their lives, like it was the most normal thing in the world. At the school my mum used to teach at, one family had four that had died, all born with major defects (one had organs on the outside of his body), before they had one that was healthy (after a fashion). She told me that when the father was at the school, he'd said something like "doctor said it's 'cause I married my cousin innit", but they still keep on. It's insanity. Why don't they teach this shit at the mosques?

That said, I've met Pakistani girls over the years that were great girls, and that I would have happily had LTR with. Wasn't going to happen though with the background, and yet we're supposedly the ones who are racist.

Post: #62

(04-25-2015 07:12 AM)Kieran Wrote:  

(04-24-2015 08:15 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  One of the big, unspoken taboo subjects in the UK is the NHS resources used combatting Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Bengali mutations due to constant familial inbreeding.

The constant cousin fucking is real and not just a myth.

Nobody will say it openly, but if you speak to any medical professional they will tell you in private. The numbers just don't lie.

It's truly awful for the poor kids involved.

I used to have to go through cape hill on my way to work, and would constantly get caught behind the mini-buses that go around collecting these disabled kids to take them to school - all Pakistani. I heard girls I was at college with that were raised here, with good grades, speak about being engaged to first cousins they'd known all their lives, like it was the most normal thing in the world. At the school my mum used to teach at, one family had four that had died, all born with major defects (one had organs on the outside of his body), before they had one that was healthy (after a fashion). She told me that when the father was at the school, he'd said something like "doctor said it's 'cause I married my cousin innit", but they still keep on. It's insanity. Why don't they teach this shit at the mosques?

That said, I've met Pakistani girls over the years that were great girls, and that I would have happily had LTR with. Wasn't going to happen though with the background, and yet we're supposedly the ones who are racist.

Wow, I did not know they were inbreeding. Holy shit, that's freaking insane. Out of curiosity, is incest against the law?

Post: #63

(04-25-2015 08:10 AM)Genghis Khan Wrote:  

(04-25-2015 07:12 AM)Kieran Wrote:  

(04-24-2015 08:15 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  One of the big, unspoken taboo subjects in the UK is the NHS resources used combatting Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Bengali mutations due to constant familial inbreeding.

The constant cousin fucking is real and not just a myth.

Nobody will say it openly, but if you speak to any medical professional they will tell you in private. The numbers just don't lie.

It's truly awful for the poor kids involved.

I used to have to go through cape hill on my way to work, and would constantly get caught behind the mini-buses that go around collecting these disabled kids to take them to school - all Pakistani. I heard girls I was at college with that were raised here, with good grades, speak about being engaged to first cousins they'd known all their lives, like it was the most normal thing in the world. At the school my mum used to teach at, one family had four that had died, all born with major defects (one had organs on the outside of his body), before they had one that was healthy (after a fashion). She told me that when the father was at the school, he'd said something like "doctor said it's 'cause I married my cousin innit", but they still keep on. It's insanity. Why don't they teach this shit at the mosques?

That said, I've met Pakistani girls over the years that were great girls, and that I would have happily had LTR with. Wasn't going to happen though with the background, and yet we're supposedly the ones who are racist.

Wow, I did not know they were inbreeding. Holy shit, that's freaking insane. Out of curiosity, is incest against the law?

Only illegal between immediate family.

Post: #64

(04-25-2015 08:21 AM)JordanH Wrote:  

(04-25-2015 08:10 AM)Genghis Khan Wrote:  

(04-25-2015 07:12 AM)Kieran Wrote:  

(04-24-2015 08:15 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  One of the big, unspoken taboo subjects in the UK is the NHS resources used combatting Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Bengali mutations due to constant familial inbreeding.

The constant cousin fucking is real and not just a myth.

Nobody will say it openly, but if you speak to any medical professional they will tell you in private. The numbers just don't lie.

It's truly awful for the poor kids involved.

I used to have to go through cape hill on my way to work, and would constantly get caught behind the mini-buses that go around collecting these disabled kids to take them to school - all Pakistani. I heard girls I was at college with that were raised here, with good grades, speak about being engaged to first cousins they'd known all their lives, like it was the most normal thing in the world. At the school my mum used to teach at, one family had four that had died, all born with major defects (one had organs on the outside of his body), before they had one that was healthy (after a fashion). She told me that when the father was at the school, he'd said something like "doctor said it's 'cause I married my cousin innit", but they still keep on. It's insanity. Why don't they teach this shit at the mosques?

That said, I've met Pakistani girls over the years that were great girls, and that I would have happily had LTR with. Wasn't going to happen though with the background, and yet we're supposedly the ones who are racist.

Wow, I did not know they were inbreeding. Holy shit, that's freaking insane. Out of curiosity, is incest against the law?

Only illegal between immediate family.

Yup, it's legal but ill advised.

The problem comes when it happens generation after generation due to some tribal village mentality and a desire to keep wealth in a family's hands.

Post: #65

delete

Post: #66

There is a large Nigerian population in Ireland? Colour me surprised. How did that come about?

Post: #67

delete

Post: #68

(04-24-2015 08:15 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  One of the big, unspoken taboo subjects in the UK is the NHS resources used combatting Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Bengali mutations due to constant familial inbreeding.

The constant cousin fucking is real and not just a myth.

Nobody will say it openly, but if you speak to any medical professional they will tell you in private. The numbers just don't lie.

It's truly awful for the poor kids involved.

There’s a documentary about it here. The guy who uploaded the TV show to YouTube spilt it into 4 parts:














Here’a an article about the documentary

Quote:Sitting in the family living room, I watched tensely as my mother and her older brother signed furiously at each other. Although almost completely without sound, their row was high-octane, even vicious.

Three of my uncles were born deaf but they knew how to make themselves heard. Eventually, my uncle caved in and fondly put his arm around his sister.

My mum has always had a special place in her family because she was the first girl to live beyond childhood. Five of her sisters died as babies or toddlers. It was not until many years later that anyone worked out why so many children died and three boys were born deaf.

Today there is no doubt among us that this tragedy occurred because my grandparents were first cousins.

My grandmother’s heart was broken from losing so many daughters at such a young age. As a parent, I can’t imagine what she went through.

My family is not unique. In the UK more than 50 per cent of British Pakistanis marry their cousins – in Bradford that figure is 75 per cent – and across the country the practice is on the rise and also common among East African, Middle-Eastern and Bangladeshi communities.

Back when my grandparents were having children, the med­ical facts were not established. But today in Britain alone there are more than 70 scientific studies on the subject.

We know the children of first cousins are ten times more likely to be born with recessive genetic disorders which can include infant mortality, deafness and blindness.

We know British Pakistanis constitute 1.5 per cent of the population, yet a third of all children born in this country with rare recessive genetic diseases come from this community.

Despite overwhelming evidence, in the time I spent filming Dispatches: When Cousins Marry, I felt as if I was breaking a taboo rather than addressing a reality. Pakistanis have been marrying cousins for generations.

In South Asia the custom keeps family networks close and ensures assets remain in the family. In Britain, the aim can be to strengthen bonds with the subcontinent as cousins from abroad marry British partners.

Some told us they face extreme pressure to marry in this way. One young woman, ‘Zara’, said when she was 16 she was emotionally blackmailed by her husband’s family in Pakistan who threatened suicide over loss of honour should she refuse to marry her cousin.

She relented and lives in a deeply unhappy marriage. But others told me of the great benefits of first cousin marriage – love, support and understanding. To them, questioning it is an attack on the community or, worse, Islam.

At a Pakistani centre in Sheffield, one man said: ‘The community feels targeted, whether that be forced marriages or first-cousin marriages. The community is battening down its hatches, not wanting to engage.’

As a British Pakistani, I am aware of the religious, cultural and racial sensitivities around this issue and understand why people would be on the defensive when questioned about it.

At times I was torn between explaining the health risks while privately understanding the community’s sense of being demonised.

But I have also grown up in a family that has suffered the medical implications and strongly believe that people should have the choice to make an informed decision.

Throughout I had to remind myself that this is a health story – nothing more. It is not about religion or cultural identity. It is about avoidable suffering such at that experienced by Saeeda and Jalil Akhtar, whom I met in Bradford.

They are first cousins and have six children, three with the genetic disease mucolipidosis type IV. This stops the body getting rid of waste properly and affects brain functions controlling vision and movement.

Mohsin, their second eldest, is 17 and blind. He wanders aimless and helpless, often crying in frustration. His sisters Hina, 13, and Zainab, 11, have the same condition. They live in almost complete darkness.

Saeeda is worn down from years of round-the-clock care. She spoon-feeds them, dresses them and fears for them. Neither she nor her husband can quite accept that their familial link is the cause of this pain.

This is a major public health issue that has huge implications for other services. The cost to the NHS is many millions of pounds.

On average, a children’s hospital will see 20 to 30 recessive gene disorders a decade, but one hospital in Bradford has seen 165, while British Pakistani children are three times more likely to have learning difficulties, with care costing about £75,000 a year per child.

However during this investigation we found no efforts to introduce any national awareness-raising campaign. Why?

We approached 16 MPs with a significant number of British Pakistani constituents for interview – every one declined. We asked 30 MPs with a high population of British Pakistanis

in their seats to give their views in a short survey. Only one, who wanted to remain anonymous, responded, saying anyone who tried to talk about it risked being attacked politically.

A lone voice was Ann Cryer, former Labour MP for Keighley, near Bradford, who said ‘fear of being accused of racism or demonisation’ prevented politicians speaking up.

It is not just British Pakistani families who suffer. Wayne and Sonia Gibbs are white and first cousins once removed. They had no idea this could lead to problems. Their daughter Nicole had juvenile osteopetrosis, a genetic disease that causes the bones to thicken and crush the body’s organs. Nicole died aged two.

The couple now know both carry the recessive genes that caused Nicole’s illness. They wanted more children – but had genetic counselling first. They have two healthy boys today.

I have travelled nationwide, meeting doctors and families whose lives are full of pain. To me the solution is simple: Ring the alarm bells loud and clear.

In Birmingham, one GP practice has taken radical action. The doctors have campaigned heavily to stop cousin marriages. They have introduced genetic screening and testing for patients, starting at 16, and now claim that very few cousin marriages take place there.

My mother tells me that, long before I was born, her siblings and their cousins decided their tragedy would never recur.

The conclusion some will draw is that cousin marriages should be banned. I disagree. But people must be able to make informed choices about the risks involved and options available, be they genetic screening, counselling or carrier-testing.

At least there should be leaflets in doctors’ sur­geries and school campaigns.

Meeting the families in the programme upset me greatly. Every day for them was an uphill struggle, mostly because their children needed so much help and this put enormous stress on their family lives.

Yet this was avoidable. If this were any other health issue, politicians would have been out in force. But they are silent and as a result children continue to be born with terrible, prevent­able disabilities that are devastating their lives and those of their loved ones.