Most people will be aware of what is happening at Calais; it has become the European equivalent of the Mexico/US border. I have actually witnessed something similar to the above myself.
I was waiting in line to take the ferry from Calais to Dover when a couple of gendarmes started poking long metal poles into a huge lorry right in front of me; they were trying to detect carbon dioxide.
Almost at once people were jumping out and running off; one jumped from quite high up, and I think he broke his leg. He had to be taken away on a stretcher.
At the time I didn't really know what was happening, then after a word with the lorry driver it all became clear. He told me that it was a daily event.
In those days they were all white; probably from Romania or Bulgaria. Nowadays they are mostly from Africa.
What a bloody mess; many of these people are genuinely escaping persecution and possible death, but the majority are just there for the generous UK handouts. Unfortunately they all become tarred with the same brush, and all are viewed with suspicion.
France doesn't want them, England doesn't really want them, Italy is moaning because no-one will take them, and the EU says that the UK mustn't moan about them all wanting to get into England.
So what's the solution? Well sadly there isn't one. I quite expect that some bright-spark in France or Italy will eventually realise that if they give them all visas, they would then have the RIGHT OF ABODE in the UK, and their own problems would be over. A simple £10 ferry ticket would then take them 'legally' to their promised land, and they'd all be given whatever they want. Until that time the arguments continue.
I live in a border city. It is a massive problem.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is the illegals who came before have destroyed it for the ones in need.
The ploy here is to have a baby as soon as you can so the child is an American citizen. Instead of our government sending the child and parents back home where they came from, we in our wisdom give them aid to dependent children, food stamps, social security, section 8 housing and more.
Babies are a comity, they are money and they are votes for the Democrat Party, my party. And every year there is a new baby/money/vote.
And yet our seniors, returning soldiers, the needy are not getting the services they need. Our dwindling middle class (me) is being pushed out but we pay for everything.
There is an answer for us but it will take guts. Not what our power hungry politicians want to hear.
cheers, parsnip
Much of the problem is that some of us live in modern, financially viable, industrial countries, whilst others live in enforced medieval times; these people are simply showing their preference.
DeleteHere too, as if we don't have our other problems we have many who come from the south border,
ReplyDeleteDo they come up from Saudi?
DeleteFrom Aritrea,Somalia and other places,
DeleteI see. Rather like the ones who try to enter the UK.
DeleteOf course the other alternative is that the British establishment develops a spine and cuts off the free money and refuses right of residence. The out of Europe campaign will garner millions of votes simply on those points alone. It has become a distinct possibility that the UK will vote to leave. Of course like Eire they my just keep us voting until they get the answer they want.....
ReplyDeleteThe UK has now changed beyond anyone's expectations, so they might just as well continue Blair's policy, and let any Tom Dick or Ali in. The world is changing; and mighty quickly.
DeleteI was watching somtehing on this the other night. It's in Italy's best interest to just let them escape as then they don't have to deal with them. It's a very weird state of affairs and I don;t know where it will lead.
ReplyDeleteSame for France. I can't understand why they try to contain them; and then moan.
DeleteI agree with Ro. We have to have tighter rules here. If they are hard workers and will pay taxes send them to Greece☺ solve two problems . If they want handouts send them back except in valid cases. Treat the problem at source in the meantime. Work with the departed country on making it a better home for its people. Easier said then done.
ReplyDeleteThat, of course, is what 'foreign aid' is for, but as we all know, it usually just aids those with secret bank accounts in Switzerland.
DeleteTime for England to get out of the EU before all of this sends them broke ! They need to do it NOW !
ReplyDeleteI really think it's already gone to far; England is no longer the England of 50 years ago.
DeleteHave a benefits freeze in the UK for five years for everybody including Brits and make the UK so unattractive that nobody want to come here and all the wasters flee, and if any still come every card carrying Labour Party member has to take them in as guests.
ReplyDeleteThat should sort things out.
Where would you seriously prefer to be? In some grotty bed-sit in Bradford, or on the French/Italian coast. What's wrong with these people!
DeleteOh yes Rachel, and so say I !
ReplyDeleteWe were in Calais last Wednesday evening, there were hundreds of immigrants swarming around the miles of lorries queuing for the tunnel.
Well done Cro!
ReplyDeleteI see that all of the right wing anti matter is collecting here :)
No, just an outpouring of common sense... something sorely lacking with the left.
DeleteCommon sense is the only thing left to talk once everything else has been said. It's usually too late by then, though. There was a lot of common sense spoken in the last round of talks between E.U. heads of state - with a weary air of desperation.
DeleteI'll send a redirection order to Calais Heron so they'll all head off to Cork.
DeleteDo you remember when they told us that once we were joined up with Europe, nobody would need passports to travel around it? As if. All those blokes trying to climb into the backs of lorries would throw away their passports if they had them anyway. We are now so dependent on European imports that we have to send thousands of lorries over every week, but every time stow-aways are found in the back of them, the haulage companies are fined £2000. Soon they wont be able to afford to carry on, and we will have to sub-contract to Norbert Dentresangle. The European 'project' is about to fail badly this week, I think.
ReplyDeleteI also remember Ted Heath telling us that everything would similarly priced throughout the 'Common Market (i.e. cigs, wine, etc). Did it ever happen? Not bloody likely.
DeleteWe should have done as we were told when De Gaulle said Non Non Non.
DeleteNo, the drivers are personally fined £2000 not the haulage companies.
DeleteYou may of course refer to me as a Lefty that is your prerogative Cro (sticks and stones).
ReplyDeleteI empathise with people who are persecuted, poor, homeless, hungry and in need regardless of where they were born.
Am also frustrated because there is virtually nothing that I can do to ease their suffering apart from Awareness Raising and if that makes me a lefty then so be it.
Who called you a 'leftie'? Certainly not me, although you do seem to be making excuses for yourself. Be proud of it Heron... stick to your convictions (however crazy).
DeleteI largely agree with Heron Cro, as I have said today on Tom's blog. I find it all just too distressing. Added to that to see tiny babies and pregnant women being pulled from the sea where they have virtually been dumped by people traffickers is totally unacceptable and yet I as an individual can do nothing. I then read of super rich buying their flats in London and I despair.
ReplyDeleteAs I said in para 6, unfortunately they all get tarred with the same brush; the genuine refugees and the financial tourists.
DeleteIt is a sad and difficult situation for both sides. These horrible wars all over this world have left the survivors with little options and they do what they must to save their families. What would we do in such a situation?
ReplyDeleteThey look like young men jumping fences and cutting tilts to get into lorries and not a pregnant woman in sight. If it is just survival why don't they stay in France or Italy or Malta, why is it only the UK they want? Think about it.
DeleteIn the US, the Mexican's (the poor ones) come to America to make money, not for handouts. they pay the 'coyotes" $3000. and get 4 tries to make it across the border at terrible risk. They work hard and do the jobs no one here wants to do. I once heard one say, "Yankees is lazy". They send all their money home to families to build their own houses then go back home eventually to Mexico. Our country would come to a stop if all the Mexican immigrants left, yet it has become a political issue for the conservatives who scream that they are evil and we should build a fence to keep them out. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteMost of the nasty or unpleasant jobs in the UK are done by immigrants; the place would fall apart without them!
DeleteAt my last location, we had a large contingent of Mexicans. They did as Donna said, working hard at thankless jobs, sending most of their money home to Mexico. Over time, they saved up enough so they could bring their families into the US, and by the time I left my last location, there were many thriving Mexican businesses.
DeleteI agree that the Mexicans I see that are here illegally actually contribute far more than they take. They do all sorts of jobs "under the table" so to speak for slave wages. In my opinion, the business owners who hire them because they can pay them next to nothing and get rich from their labor are scum and THEY should be deported if anyone is going to be!
DeleteYes and no to what Donna said.
DeleteTheir are some who work hard but what you forget they still support the illegal system by living here. They owe money to the cartels. They smuggle drugs, women and children for the sex trade. They work for pennies on the dollar under the table and because of this they have changed the way legal citizens are paid. For years now try to get a job in a border state. You are hired as an independent contractor. That meant no benefits, health care and wages are at rock bottom and you save money to pay your taxes.
Daughter is a working poor, works hard but does not make enough money to survive but not able to to apply for the free money and food stamps the illegals get.
What we forget is went we pay an illegal, it is diminish money that supports the running of a state services.
If I blindfolded you and dropped you into much of Arizona you would swear you were in a third world country.
California especially a great example of this. Once a strong state it is now a state where more money is going out and less and less coming in.
The aging infrastructure is broken and it is now to the point of no return. California has become a black hole that soon will implode and suck everything near it into oblivion.
Certain parts of Northern Britain are no-go areas for white people. When Mrs Obama visited London recently, she was taken to a school where ALL the girls wore head-scarves etc. Something isn't right somewhere.
DeleteI live in Northern England in a town which, in the last census, had 20% of its population declare itself to be black or Asian - that's around 30,000 people. That percentage is way above the national average, and also way above the 5% of the population of the UK which is Muslim. I was surprised to find that the figure for my town was so high, because quite honestly I don't feel that there are that many black and Asian people here, and there are no ' no-go areas for white people' here. What I have noticed is the sterile ' all white' nature of some of the areas in England in which I have holidayed; areas in which myself and my husband were singled out and receied disparaging remarks purely for being 'Northern'. I hate to think what would have happened if our skin was other than white. I will never holiday in those counties again, and will instead spend my money in the North.
DeleteHaving done a quick google to check that I was correct about the girls at the school, I found photographs here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/michelle-obama/11677903/Michelle-Obama-in-London.html.
I was correct in my recollection of the news report, as, contrary to your assertion that ALL the girls were wearing headscarves, it is quite plain that was not the case.
I don't want to make an issue of this, but we all saw the photos that were sent world-wide, and they didn't give a good impression of England.
DeleteI also remember very clearly some riots happening in the north (Bradford maybe), where the local Mayor's son was explaining to the press that he lived in a Muslim area, and that Hindus had no right to be there. Again this is England, not some Muslim enclave.
This piece was about the problem at Calais, and the difference between genuine asylum seekers and financial tourists. I don't understand how we got onto the subject of 'racism'.
I don't want to make an issue of it either, but you stated that 'ALL' the girls had their heads covered when they quite clearly did not. It is a matter of opinion as to whether the photographs gave a good or bad impression of England; I certainly don't think that they gave a bad one, an opinion which is evidently poles apart from yours.
DeleteI think the issue of ' racism' was raised in your reply to angryparsnips comment. I made my comment in reply to your statement that there are 'no-go areas for white people in Northern Britain'. This suggests rather strongly that non- white people in some areas are 'racist' ; why else would it be impossible for white people to enter certain areas of the towns and cities in which they live? It is for that reason that I reported the statistics for the town where I live, and the treatment I received at the hands of fellow white Britons whilst holidaying in the South of England.
There were race riots in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley 14 years ago. I cannot comment on your recollection of what was said by the Mayor's son, as after 14 years I cannot recall the coverage that I saw, despite the fact that I live in Lancashire and events would have been covered extensively on local news. After 14 years I suspect that what I, personally, was able to recall would be somewhat unreliable. You are obviously very different in your ability to recall exact details of what was said.
Dear Scarlet, I really do think you're living in cloudcukooborough. But, hey, why not. Like me, you obviously try to ignore what is so blatantly going on around us.
DeleteAnd yes, I had another look at the Obama photo, I counted 3 scarf-less heads. You were right.
It's all very easy for us to criticise when we live such a priveledged life. Many of these people are trying to escape from war, opression and poverty and just want to find a better life BUT, this isn't the right way to solve their problems and I don't know what is. We really must do something about it …. our country is far too small to take every waif and stray I'm afraid but I do feel for many of them. I don't know what the answer is. XXXX
ReplyDeleteThey'll probably ship them to Mexico so they can cross our border, that's what everyone else does.
ReplyDeleteAnd seeing as you are a member of the Cherokee Tribe which border would that be Janet ?
Deleteawwww the words a liberal cry. What has happened centuries ago much by your beloved France and England.
DeleteI wonder how you would feel if tomorrow 35 thousand illegals just appeared in your city and land and you had to support them. Then the next day another wave of several thousands appeared.
Plus the next day more.
It happens along the border here every year with Mexico's blessing. They don't want them so they send them across the border.
Italy doesn't want its present influx, so who has to have them?
DeleteI will say it one more time. If it was just freedom they wanted they would skip and jump for joy wherever they landed. Instead of that they head for the UK. We are not the land of milk and honey and we are full up and the honey has gone.
ReplyDeleteThat, unfortunately, is it in a nutshell.
DeleteIf, as is reported, these illegals come from desperately poor countries, how do they seem to know exactly where to go (the UK)? If they are so desperately poor and have nothing, where do they get the money from to pay their fares? Many seem to have mobile phones, so that they can phone home ! We should ask how many are genuine, and how many are being planted to agitate discontent and terrorism in future, in the countries that take them in.
ReplyDeleteBritain seems to give sanctuary to those who later turn round and demand that we abide by their rules, and live our lives according to their arcane, and totally unacceptable, beliefs.
Rachel is absolutely right.
Very true, and it's this problem that taints those with genuine refugee status.
Deletevery interesting discusion here Cro...well done for posting this and will be interested to see what happens up here in the NW.
ReplyDelete