Coals to Newcastle

It appears that infrastructure, jobs and so on are not the only problems that mass migration from Eastern Europe to the UK have caused.

DRINKS DEATH WARNING
East Somerset Coroner Tony Williams said the case was one of four similar deaths
of Polish nationals that had reached him recently and said a message needed to be sent out.

He said: "The number of Polish people dying seems to be starting to have an impact on us. This culture of heavy drinking is starting to cause problems."...

Mr Kaszowicz had been drinking over the weekend and, although too hungover to go into work on the day of his death, had continued drinking vodka including the strong black label variety.

Work colleague Grzegorz Lesniak, in a statement, said that he had known his friend as a hardworking man but at the weekend he liked to drink and had been known not to go to work because of his abuse of drink.

He said that there had been discussion in work that day about how drunk Mr Kaszowicz had been that weekend and people had been making jokes about it.

He had called in to see him that day and found Mr Kaszowicz in a pitiful state, looking terrible, unwashed and scruffy.Later that day he called in again and Mr Kaszowicz was still drinking.

When his flatmates arrived home, they put him to bed after he dozed off at a table. They became concerned when they went to take a photograph of him in such a state and could not find a pulse.

Neighbour David Wallace said he was aware that Mr Kaszowicz drank to excess and, when he saw him briefly that day, he had been staggering on the stairs.

"His eyes were bloodshot and he looked hungover. It was one of the worst states I had seen him in but it was not uncommon to see him in such a state," he said.

He told the coroner that the flat had become a meeting place for many of the Polish nationals living locally and on one occasion police had been called to calm down the situation.

Mr Williams said that it appeared Mr Kaszowicz had of his own freewill embarked on an extended period of drinking, not realising the risks."

My feeling is that he simply thought he was going to carry on drinking until he thought it appropriate to stop and be ready to go back to work."

I would have thought that the Poles hardly need to know the dangers of drink, but equally it also appears that they are begining to fit into local customs pretty well.