Personally, I’m not against people wanting or needing to come to the UK, but I do think that there should be greater integration and adoption of the UK way of life. Having separate communities doesn’t make sense. Why come to the UK if you don’t want to be part of things.
It's a complex situation tbh. When I was in the south of France I worked with the French, learned the language, had French friends, etc. Most of the Brits I knew listened to Riviera Radio in English, used the English Angloinfo website, had English shops, English bars, etc. They worked for English villa/yacht owners and used English workmen to do jobs in their houses. They had English doctors, dentists, etc ... ... it was pitiful seeing them out for lunch and having their pre-teen kids ordering for them.
Migrants/ Asylum Seekers are fine.......providing they are correctly and fairly vetted before the step foot into our country. At the moment these Illegal Imigrants are Illegally employing People Smugglers to break both International/UK Law purposely to get to us. These people are fighting each other on the French beaches with sticks and knives even before the get into the boats. They are drowning. They have stabbed each other on these boats and some are throwing their passports into the sea. We do not know their criminal history.......and yet they still arrive in their thousands. How can they claim that they are fleeing harm when in fact they have just travelled through so many safe countries to get to France? And when they do arrive in Dover, we wrap these criminals in cotton wool. Yes, in the House of Commons, this is what they are saying, because when you purposely break the law, you are classsed as a criminal. Get vetted correctly and the we will accept them under our own Laws etc...
It's a question that is a bit like a double edged sword. We have a lot of immigrants who are willing to do the work the English don't want to do and we look down on them as sub serviants. But they're essential. Then we have immigrants who come to take advantage of the welfare system that we were promised wouldn't happen after Brexit. If you think it's only the UK you're mistaken. We have taken in far less than most European countries.
That's the problem mate. If an anonymous person arrives you're stuck with them unless you deal with them quickly. Sticking them on a barge in the south of England is hiding them, not dealing with them You can't always 'take them back' if you don't know where they're from and you can't put them in prison because we don't have enough cells for British criminals. They have to be processed and that's where we've totally failed. If people were rapidly processed and returned that would be a deterrent. They've paid a lot, travelled a lot and risked a lot to leave so going back would hurt. Being sent home is a much bigger deterrent than going to a nice apartment in Rwanda with benefits. Sadly Europe, since we decided to turn our back on them, are less likely to cooperate ... daft thing to do imo.
When I was a student, I lived in a predominantly Muslim area of one the UK cities with the highest Muslim populations. There was a mosque at the corner of the street; sometimes I'd wake up to the calls of the muezzin. There's a famous department store there selling goods from the subcontinent; I used to love going in there and buying bits and pieces I couldn't get in other shops. Our landlady would occasionally knock on the door and say "I bought this cake in Morrisons but it's got alcohol in it (it never did) you lot better have it (she was just being kind)". When he daughter got married there was loads of leftover food, she brought us dozens of containers of it. There was an old boy down the street who was always sat out the front when I was on my way to lectures, he always spoke. That's not to say there weren't tensions. I was sat in a packed pub watching an England game and some kids threw a lit firework in through the door. I was held up at knifepoint by a lad from the area wanting my wallet and my phone (I was on my way home from playing squash so he made off with the 20p from my locker and a squash ball). I had a mixed race girlfriend who was sometimes mistaken for being Muslim and attracted some unpleasant comments (I'm sure you can guess the words) from the local lads of our age. Now I live in a big town just outside London. I live in quite a well-to-do part of town. My neighbours are mostly professional people. Every few houses has a Merc on the drive. House backs on to a park which also happens to be a bit of a cut through to the town centre. The park is full of kids playing (my daughter and friends love it out there) and dog walkers, especially elderly people. But I'm constantly on the phone to the Police about yoofs riding motorcycles around the park. There's more yoofs who lurk in corners of the park wearing winter jackets with the hoods up and balaclavas on even when the temperature is nearing 30 degrees. A couple of years back, there was a period of several weeks where groups of lads were going round smashing the windows of cars parked on people's drives. These were all white yoofs. My experience is that some people are nice but some people are absolute dickheads. It's got nothing to do with their race, their ethnicity, where they were born, what religion they are. What does concern me is that there seem to be more and more dickheads about.
That is spot on for me. We need to recruit massively for Border Force enforcement officers and processing staff, so undesirables are processed quickly and shipped out. Once this is running smoothly and effectively, migrants who are not fleeing persecution will think twice before risking thousands of pounds in trying to enter illegally. Where I disagree slightly with you Smug, is that this isn't an EU problem, it's a Europe-wide problem and countries need to be getting together to solve it whether they are in the EU or not. The open borders have made it easier for immigrants to make their way through Europe unchecked and this has to stop. Maybe the creation of a European Border Force operating across Southern Europe staffed by people from all European countries, whose job it is to process people landing in the southern med, may help to alleviate the chaos that is happening in the likes of Italy, Greece and Turkey and send a lot of the illegals back to their homeland much earlier than it is happening currently. Without collective enforcement across Europe, the problem is only going to get worse.
"My experience is that some people are nice but some people are absolute dickheads. It's got nothing to do with their race, their ethnicity, where they were born, what religion they are. What does concern me is that there seem to be more and more dickheads about." I realised, 40 years ago, that the UK was copying everything bad from the USA. When I said we'd end up with serious gangs, drive by shootings, uncontrollable youths, police with guns and no-go areas of our lovely country I was regularly laughed at. It never bothered me, I just retreated into my own happy little bubble and that's where I'll stay. I feel so sorry for my grandchildren growing up in this strange world where childhood ends at 12 year old, people called 'influencers' are allowed to flourish and every other TV show is just a different kind of popularity contest. Growing up in a pit village seemed tough, at times, but we never had our first pint until we were almost eighteen ... ... now schoolkids watch serious porn, experiment with drugs and change sex on the NHS.
Quite right mate, it's the only way. Lunatics like Farage might talk about their solutions but they're impossible and also illegal. I've advocated a system whereby we undercut the gangs and invite people being persecuted in Iran or Vietnam or wherever. "WeTakeAnyImmigrant.com." "Are you a doctor, nurse, dentist, agricultural worker or tradesman - do you have family in the UK who'd house you - fill in our online form and, if you qualify, we'll put you on a flight to the UK - save £10,000 that you won't have to pay the gangs - receive a temporary work visa and we'll review it after a year."
I feel that people are definitely more self-absorbed these days. Wife made me go shopping the other day for clothes for going holiday. I was stood looking at socks and some ****ing bloke comes along and stands literally in front of me, between me and the display of socks. I don't know how he missed me, I'm not exactly small. Completely oblivious to the fact I was stood there. That seems symptomatic of how so many people are recently- as long as they can do what they want, **** everyone else.
I’d be the same and want to integrate with my new surroundings if I ever moved abroad. Even going on holiday I try to pick up bits of the language. I suppose everyone is different and some prefer what they know and are comfortable with.
If I go abroad and don't try a bit of the local cuisine and culture, I feel like I've wasted my money. I can drink Stella and eat fish and chips without leaving my postcode.
I guess that’s why you and me are different. In the 17 years I’ve lived here I haven’t touched a witchety grub.
I am all for controlled immigration however too many illegals coming in. We paying all that money to france and they're not stopping them. So stop sending money to france invest it in our own borders and simply turn them back round simple as that. F**k all these do gooders "eee you can't do that they're human beings". Charity starts at home. As someone said above where are all the children and women supposedly fleeing for thier lives. It's bollocks, only reason they will stop coming is to take a stand and turn them round. Once a few realise it's pointless trying they will stop.
Absolutely correct. A human with unmet need did this horrible thing. He didn’t do it because his family were born somewhere else.
24.3% of asylum seekers are children. Roughly 20% are women. Small boat percentage is heavily swayed towards males though.
