Regardless of the make-up of the population it is far too high, and not just for the UK, but the world in general.
At a western standard of living, which is what everyone seems to aspire to, the planet can comfortably susatain around 600m people (I forget the source of that) Anyway, name almost any problem facing mankind, from massive worldwide issues like global warming and water shortages to local UK problems like house prices being too high and the elephant in the room in most cases is the fact that there are just too many people.
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Northwind – Member
Considering we have an aging population, if the population wasn’t rising we’d be screwed- topheavy
A rising population may indeed help pay for pensions and suchlike. However, for this to work in the long term the population will have to rise indefinately and there is no way that the planet could take that.
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The solution? Probably politcally unpopular but a world-wide one-child policy is desparately needed, probably for several generations. Either that or we all promise to restrain ourselves to medeival standards of living.