You’re right - but something has got to be done about those boats bc the alternative, Farage, is just too awful to contemplate. Democracies are destroyed when they cease to listen to voters’ concerns. Starmer needs to put far more pressure on France & the EU.
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What % of immigrants have arrived by boat? You appear to have been taken in by the likes of farage into believing there's a danger of the uk being swamped by boat people. Are you really that gullible?
Gullibility, mine or anyone else’s, is not the point. The point is what voters think & what they see (rubber boats breaching our sea borders which is unacceptable). Policy must be about the way the world is, not how you’d like it to be.
No that really is the point! If people weren't taken in by this nonsense that Refugees arriving in boats are the problem then maybe we wouldn't have people terrified of being burned. 50.000 have arrived in the past 16 months. Wembley stadium holds 90.000. see the stupidity of that position?
Voters want to get back to Europe and ditch Brexit That will also help manage refugees and asylum seekers.
Hmm. I don’t think it will ever happen. Alas.
You just said that voters’ concerns have to be addressed.
The small boats 'crisis' is a pre-emptied one by repeatedly saying it is a crisis as means to whip up hate/blame & amplify the migrant target as the 'enemy'. Starmer is complicit in not just letting this happen, but playing his own part in facilitating it.
Well, as a start, Starmer could stop talking about them so much. Basic rule of politics is to talk more about your strengths then weaknesses. I guess the problem is he has abandoned most of Labour's strengths.
exactly
Farage caused the crisis. Leaving the ECHR only ensures more removal of rights and tyranny
Your words reveal that you are a Farage supporter even though you will deny it. Farage manufactured this (Brexit) and should be held to account. Your solution is to blame the immigrants. Bigot.
You could not be more wrong. I’ve challenged Farage, to his face, more than once. If the migrant issue had been taken seriously in 2015-16 there’d have been no Brexit. m.youtube.com/watch?v=9W4W...
Yet you want to force France/EU to take our migrants. Those are the words of a bigot. If the cap fits.
No. I’m not a bigot. But my personal views (& yours) are irrelevant. You can’t dissolve the people & elect another people more to your liking, however abusive you choose to be. People want secure borders. It’s a core duty of govt to provide them.
People are more likely to die from illegal food imports thanks to Brexit. Fix that issue first.
But we didn’t have a migrant problem in 2015 No small boat arrivals were recorded prior to 2018, when part of an EU returns arrangement, but crossings grew rapidly after the Brexit deal failed to include a new returns agreement, making it harder to return migrants. www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
The mystery is why LAB & Tories don’t point this out. Fear of Farage? Perhaps but they need to get that they’ve now got nothing to loose by calling him out.
Indeed. Again we didn’t need the prof to tell us. Farage successfully conflated ‘free movement’ with ‘unlimited immigration’. Voters conflated EU citizens with migrants from the Rest of the World. And what happened? We did what Farage wanted, no EU workers & 1.5m from Rest of the World…
People should be more concerned about severe problems with food.
The crisis is manufactured, built by Brexit and Farage and Starmer is fusing with the BNP dangerous agenda. You know this happened in 1930s Germany.
No, I don’t think the crisis was made by Farage. He’s exploring it. It started with Merkel’s day if humane 2015 decision. I said so at the time. Few listened.
German economy was boosted by welcoming migrants. Irrespective of that, in the EU we were sheltered with Dublin convention.
What was boosted was the German Far Right. Merkel was a disaster, I’m afraid, on so many fronts, incl this one.
We can’t change the past, Germany’s decisions have little impact on us, the issue was just weaponised by right wing press and Farage. It was entirely scaremongering.
No, I don’t think so. Germans like everyone else in the works want to feel secure in their way of life & their culture. Borders matter. If this gets ignored the Far Right prosper. It’s not rocket science.
The only way to stop the boats is by extreme and inhumane measures, to offer safe routes or more support back home. Farage will do the first, but no civilised nation should ever consider that. What needs to change is the language about small boats from both our political class and the MSM. 1
The only (civilised) way to stop the boats is to get France to stop exporting its problem to the UK. These migrants should not be in France in the first place. That’s the truth.
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You can’t really believe any govt can stop people getting in boats??? And also most are coming in Lorries and vans - on ferries. The small boat thing is exaggerated.
They have to. The most humane way is by getting France to take every boat migrant back. If it’s not stopped, Farage will be in No 10. You don’t want that. Nether do I.
This isn’t joined up thinking, it is isolationist. The migrants coming from France likely first entered Europe in Greece or Italy. Leaving the Dublin convention meant we lost ability to send them back. Farage insisted on this
Yes, I know. We all warned this would occur with Brexit but were mocked. In 2016 our Govt esp the FCDO didn’t take the issue seriously as I know from personal interaction. Clueless. However we’re in a new & dangerous place now, Liz.
We are but adding to the hysteria around asylum seekers only makes it more dangerous. They want to justify leaving ECHR by weaponising xenophobia. Meanwhile they’re intent on disposition and land clearance. Brexit was desired to steer us to the unthinkable
We shouldn’t be hysterical, no. We should try to solve real problems rationally, with clear policies, carefully explained. But LAB policies so far (1 in 1 out = the same number in) are clearly not satisfying public opinion. That has to change. LAB have one shot at this. Just one.
Yes, France should have all migrants, sovereign UK zero. That is fair 🤪
This might come as a surprise to you, but by far the majority of refugees are staying in their own country or direct neighbouring country, as close to their home as possible to return asap. In other words, the often poorer countries. Should they keep ALL refugees, and the rich nations none???
They are not illegal invaders and criminals. Their numbers are not that shocking. And in a world where wars and climate change wreak havoc, it is not something that will go away. 2
We will need to cooperate with our neighbours and other developed & prosperous nations to deal with this in a fair and responsible way. And I tell you one thing, severely reducing foreign aid will be counter productive. /end
If you’ve not read Rory Stewart’s ‘Beyond the Edge’ on the use & abuse of foreign aid, you should. It’s a really important book overall.
No doubt foreign aid has been abused by local crooks. Should we therefore stop all foreign aid or make it abuse proof? And education (for women) and vaccines are foreign aid too. Not worth educating people and preventing them from dying? 1
And do you know that experts are warning that stopping vaccines in poor nations will make mutations etc and a new world wide pandemic far more likely? But hey, experts eh? 2/2