East European Catholics in 'We like going to Church' shocker!

And lo it came to pass, the number of East European Catholics, mainly Poles, has exceeded the number of Anglicans attending Sunday service in Bournemouth. The numbers aren't staggering by any means, something like 655 Poles beating off the Anglicans by a hundred or so but what is interesting is the way it has been reported locally, very low key.

Of course people have been saying it's going to happen for a long time, after all if you invite (or allow) 1.5 million people, who follow a religion that isn't the same as the host nations, into your country you are at one point going to lose the race for the Religion of The Year Championship and with it the chance to play in Europe and beyond. There has been a Polish presence in Bournemouth for about forty years, it's only really been evident by one delicatessen and one Polish restaurant but suddenly the numbers have gone up from around 50 to just over 1,000 of which just over half of them actually attend church. It's strange how Poles are now seen as a sort of two pronged attack on Britishness, not only do they come over here and take our low paid jobs they have the balls to practice the religion we thought we'd seen off about four hundred years ago - how dare they! So next time you don't go to church you've only yourself to blame if it closes and is knocked down to make way for a Roman Catholic church - you have been warned.

Christchurch has been largely untouched by the Polish invasion, although I did follow a Polish registered car down the road one morning as it made it's way along the by-pass. The reason that Polish immigrants aren't more prominent in the town is the cost of buying property. Christchurch is officially second on the list of 'unattainability' of towns in the U.K - this is the ratio between average earnings and average house price, Christchurch stands at a ratio of 6.5 times - the most unattainable is Ryedale in Yorkshire - interestingly (or not) is that East Dorset is fifth on the list - East Dorset borders onto Christchurch. Previously Christchurch only really had two claims to fame: firstly it has the largest parish church in England and secondly it has the oldest Anglo Saxon port. Anyway what this means is that even if a whole VW Passat load of Polish people arrive in the town looking to buy they are going to be disappointed. The town doesn't have a buy to let market either although I can see this changing in the next few years due to the Governments controversial plans for building on brown field sites and other unoccupied pieces of land which are suddenly going to have to meet the dwellings per acreage requirements.

I'm not religious as regular readers will know but if I have to make the choice between hymn singing, incense burning Roman Catholics or bomb making, hatred spreading fanatical followers of the religion of piece I know who I'm going to side with.