Frustrations with modern parties 4 The small boats

All the parties say they want to end the small boat voyages from France. All regret the loss of life and want to root out the business organisers. There are more varied thoughts over those migrants themselves that are illegals wishing to buy their way into the U.K. Some want to offer them safe routes and the right to come, others wish to say they do not qualify.

The public is deeply disappointed that these trips have not been stopped by now. The U.K. and French state have great power and resource. They can see the boats get onto the beaches through aerial surveillance. They can trace the money. They can intercept the buses taking migrants to the beaches. They could damage the Ā boats before they leave France. They could arrest the boat organisers to stop them leaving . These traffickers are breaking rules over boat safety and passenger numbers, over seaworthiness and launch arrangements, over paying tax on profits, over assisting people to commit border offences and much else. Worst of all they put migrant lives at risk, and can put the rescuers in danger when the small boats get into trouble. Why isnā€™t more action taken?

Canā€™t the authorities do more mystery shopping for places on the boats? Intercept deliveries of the boats? Ā Listen in to the chatter of the organisers? Spot the Ā large sums of money when they move in or out of the banking system?

Many law abiding voters know they will be caught and penalised if they exceed a speed limit, park in the wrong place or travel on a restricted road. Why they ask canā€™t the surveillance that polices these more minor offences tackle the small boat organisers who put Ā peopleā€™s lives at risk and make a mockery of tax and anti money laundering rules?

165 Comments

  1. Stephen Sharp
    August 8, 2024

    The drivers you write about are not law abiding if they break the speed limit.

    Reply My point is they stay law abiding because they know they are being watched and would be fined

    1. PeteB
      August 8, 2024

      Every boat could be stopped if the powers wanted to, however:
      1. The French don’t prevent boats leaving as they want the migrants out of their country.
      2. The UK doesn’t rescue migrants in French territorial waters and return them to the nearest port as they don’t feel they can annoy the French.

      What’s gong to change there?

      1. Peter Wood
        August 8, 2024

        Interesting that Starmer recognises the deterrence effect of gaoling a few moronic brick-chuckers on the rest of the daft mob, but can’t see the same effect on sending a few illegal migrants to Africa.
        Once again, we see incompetent Labour dogma exercised instead of common-sense. Yes, I referring to Net Zero again.

        1. Lynn Atkinson
          August 8, 2024

          Interesting that lifelong Labour voters have been defined as ā€˜far-right thugsā€™ by the Labour Party.
          What does that make the Labour Party?

          1. Mitchel
            August 8, 2024

            An organ of the Establishment-as it has been for decades.Keir Hardie is probably spinning in his grave at what his namesake is doing.

          2. Peter Wood
            August 8, 2024

            I don’t think the ‘average’ Labour voter has anything in common with the Parliamentary Labour Party.
            But then I could say the same about the average conservative voter, with reference to the PCP.
            Jenrick — flappy mouth, insert foot….

          3. hefner
            August 10, 2024

            LA, How do you know that they are ā€˜lifelong Labour votersā€™?

        2. Berkshire alan
          August 8, 2024

          +1

        3. Peter
          August 8, 2024

          PW,

          1 Claim 100 protests are planned.
          2:Then claim success when these alleged protests do not materialise..
          3 Jail bingo players with no previous convictions for two years for affray.
          Round two is now over.

          Smart protesters will turn up in plain clothes,with no identifying flags, mob-handed – 40 in the back of a pantechnicon when they are least expected. They will not broadcast their actions in advance to all and sundry.

          It will not be like football hooliganism, which would be limited to maybe ten possible locations on a match day.

      2. Hope
        August 8, 2024

        Pete,
        Spot on. There is no intention whatsoever. 50 ft dinghyā€™s need transporting to beaches, they could stop en route on any road! What is a travesty is giving France Ā£500 million of our taxes. I have come to realise it is a dishonest contribution to EU to help with migration costs! Our taxes to the French clearly not intended to stop boats! Belgium turn boats around in their own waters!

        Tory party, again, caught preventing Brexit to leave EU and stop funding to EU. Our taxes given to France is dishonest backhander.

        1. PeteB
          August 8, 2024

          Intresting how Reeves flagged a claimed Ā£700m spend on Rwanda as waste but didn’t do the same for the Ā£500m gifted to France…

    2. Lifelogic
      August 8, 2024

      They stay law abiding (well in general) but loads of roads are clearly deliberately arranged to trap motorists into minor speed excesses, bus lanes fines with time confusing changes, hatch junctions issues so as to raise maximum fines. Rather like the one just before the end of the M11 (as you slowed for the junction roundabout) that led to Chris Huhne and his ex-wife, Vicky Pryce being jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice. How many speeding fines does 16 months in jail cost? If you did not slow early for the roundabout you got fined, points, possible bans and higher insurance bills too. They never got me though, just wore my brakes out with rapid braking when I spotted the evil mugging trap.

      1. Peter
        August 8, 2024

        Lifelogic,

        You frequently say ā€˜Allister Heath is surely right in todayā€™s Telegraphā€™.

        Looking at the responses to his latest piece, it seems the readers definitely donā€™t agree.

        1. Lifelogic
          August 8, 2024

          I only partly agreed with Heath today. I have no wish to see violence on the street or policie being attacked, but the best way to stop this is to stop the blatant two tier policing and stop lying that it has not been taking place. Have there been any charges for the Manchester Airport incident yet?

          I see that Starmer and Sir Mark Rowley are also claiming credit for stopping the non riots last night. Many seemed to in favour of destroying Israel and of having completely open UK borders it seems.

          Taylor Swift’s three Austrian concerts have cancelled after government officials confirmed they had foiled an ISIS terrorist plot ahead of her Vienna gigs. Thank goodness they foiled it! Were they far right too Starmer?

      2. glen cullen
        August 8, 2024

        …and they only ever put the mugging traps in nice middle-class areas, never in the trouble estates ….they know how to generate an easy revenue without any dilemma

    3. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      Right to reply
      I believe that 99% of UK citizens comply with the highway code and the rules, laws and regulations of the road because those laws have been seen to be justified & reasonable ā€¦.however, peoples behaviours towards and trust in new laws are waning as they see a two-tier approach, limited enforcement and a source for taxation and social engineering ā€¦.many new laws donā€™t have the consent of the people

      1. Lifelogic
        August 8, 2024

        Exactly when they are clearly designed mainly just to mug people all trust will be lost and there are far more of is than of them.

  2. David Andrews
    August 8, 2024

    Very good questions but no good answers or, indeed, any answers at all. Two tier Starmer said he would smash the gangs organizing this trade. How many has he smashed so far?

    1. Bloke
      August 8, 2024

      A government is voted into office for the purpose of gaining power to act in the way the nationā€™s citizens most want.
      Those to claim to intend action but have no intention of doing anything effective deceive us all, and should be removed from office permanently in disgrace, and punished for such deception.

  3. Lfelogic
    August 8, 2024

    The only ways to stop the boats are:-

    1. to make it clear arrivals will never be able stay.
    2. Wait until the UK is so crowded and unpleasant that they will stop wanting to come.

    So which option would you like Two Tier Kier to take?

    1. majorfrustration
      August 8, 2024

      We appear to moving rapidly towards No.2. We could of course turn the boats back and take the flack – which would soon pass. But is there the political will?

    2. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      The Laws are already there …but not enforced
      Illegal Migration Act 2023 – https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/37/contents/enacted
      (1) The purpose of this Act is to prevent and deter unlawful migration, and in particular migration by unsafe and illegal routes, by requiring the removal from the United Kingdom of certain persons who enter or arrive in the United Kingdom in breach of immigration control

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        August 8, 2024

        Arbitrary application of the law. You know what that is?
        One machete wielding community in uniform ā€˜policeā€™s itselfā€™. So no arrests, no jail.
        If it policeā€™s itself what does it use for law? Itā€™s own laws?
        And all this is authorised by the elected Government of the United Kingdom?

        1. glen cullen
          August 8, 2024

          Our government(s) can say, till their blue in the face, that ‘sharia law’ doesn’t exist, isn’t scanctioned or indeed lawful in the UK ….the people know different

    3. Peter Parsons
      August 8, 2024

      Wrong. There are other ways.

      The UK government could undermine the criminal gangs’ business model by providing an answer to the Tim Loughton question – provide a safe and legal route to claim asylum in the UK that doesn’t first require someone to be on UK soil.

      Example solutions:

      Allow asylum claims to be made at UK embassies or consulates (with appropriate conditions on maintaining eligibility, such as regular reporting). Other countries already do this. The USA allows people to claim refuge in the US from outside the US. Hungary has a similar scheme via its embassies in Belgrade and Kyiv.

      Create a processing centre in northern France (a proposal that has previously been discussed multiple times).

      1. Martin in Bristol
        August 8, 2024

        PP
        If you privide a “safe and legal route to claim asylum” in (for example) France then you will increase numbers ten fold.
        Many millions wish to come to the UK in search of a better life.
        Is there any number per annum where your generosity eventually is satisfied ?

        1. Peter Parsons
          August 9, 2024

          What is your evidence to support your assertion?

          The UK should be working with our neighbours and agreeing to take a fair and proportional share. Of course, that requires working together constructively rather than throwing insults (as has been the habit of some in previous administrations).

          Currently, France takes about 3x the number of asylum seekers than the UK does. Greece takes more asylum seekers than the UK does.

          Are you suggesting that a country like the UK can’t do better than, say, Greece?

          1. Margaret
            August 11, 2024

            Tha land space to the ratio of number of immigrants is what is relevant.

      2. Donna
        August 9, 2024

        And those who are rejected by the processing centre will of course just say “OK, I guess I’d better stay in France or go back home.” They won’t find the local trafficker and pay them to break into the UK …..

        Wanna buy a bridge?

        1. Peter Parsons
          August 9, 2024

          The vast majority of asylum claims made to the UK are accepted. That would take away the vast majority of the criminal gangs’ business as each accepted claim is another potential customer lost to them.

          Taking away up to 3/4 of their current customers will have a negative impact on any business, including a criminal one.

  4. Donna
    August 8, 2024

    They don’t want to stop the boats. If they did, they would do it. The close coordination between the French and British Authorities indicates that there is an agreement in place that we will “take our fair share.” For the sake of appearances, Sunak pretended he wanted to stop the boats and Macron pretended he was trying.

    The policy comes direct from the UN and its Global Compact for Refugees and Migration, signed by Treason May with no mandate and in contravention of the “promises” given to reduce immigration. It is supported by the WEF / IMF and various other organisations run by Globalist Elite (ie the Bilderberg Group).

    The long-term intention is to eradicate nation states and create a One-World-Government; levelling down affluent western nations by importing huge numbers of poor migrants who take entry-level jobs, supported by western taxpayers, who can immediately access public services they haven’t paid for and siphon money off their host country and transfer it to their families “back home.”

    The British Establishment supports the aims of UN Agenda 2021 / Agenda 2030. It will do nothing to stop the process. Basically, they support the policy to eradicate the British peoples. At the current rate of immigration, the white native British population will be a minority in its own lands by 2050 – and probably sooner.

    ā€œA nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.ā€
    ā€• Taylor Caldwell, A Pillar of Iron

    1. BOF
      August 8, 2024

      So true Donna. How long will it take for this rotten state to collapse and will it be in time? Where will our very own Viktor Orban come from?

      1. Hope
        August 8, 2024

        Spot on Donna.

        Jenrick who voted remain, ie for freedom of movement now trying to claim he is against immigration! Jenrick who thought he could move family to second home outside London during covid and visit parent during covid rules clearly only applied to little people.

        Badenoch patronised voters about voting Reform when She betrayed the reason to be in govt by scrapping 4,000 EU laws! She scrapped her own bill to scrap EU laws. Hardly a clear thinker, nor loyal to a cause or puts her country and voters first!

        The rest pro EU one nation types just seeking power and have no ideological difference to Labour!

    2. Michelle
      August 8, 2024

      Spot on Donna, they could have stopped this long ago had they the will to do so. There has never been any intention to stop it.
      The only good thing is all those champagne socialists and the liberal types who say they should all be welcomed, but who don’t qualify for state paid protection themselves, will soon have a chance to savour their dream.
      I’ve known many over the years who’ve taken a very relaxed attitude to it all, who then change their minds once they’ve become enriched.
      As for those who voted Labour but will now watch as the council housing they’ve been waiting for goes to a more worthy recipient (according to their Labour politicians/councillors) from elsewhere. Well what’s to be said.
      They watched it happen before under Blair, believed the Conservatives were telling the truth with Cameron’s immigration blurb but got exactly the same, so skipped back to Labour. Round and round it goes, but hopefully the ‘bleeding obvious’ has started to sink in.

    3. Old Albion
      August 8, 2024

      You make some interesting observations/points ‘Donna’ I suspect they are mostly correct.

    4. Ian B
      August 8, 2024

      @Donna – Starmer signed up to that, WEF is his go to mentor to him Parliament is an unnecessary impediment. He even announces that is his choice in the media, everyone then in the HoC just says oh OK then…

    5. Original Richard
      August 8, 2024

      Donna :

      +1

      In addition they are sabotaging our access to affordable, reliable and abundant energy with Net Zero in order to destroy our economy and military capability. PM May again signing into law with no vote or costng 100% Net Zero by 2050.

    6. Timaction
      August 8, 2024

      +1

    7. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      Weā€™ve tried the carrot with France, maybe we should start using the stick ā€¦.repeal all fishing licences, switch off the energy interconnectors, impose high tariffs on French goods ā€¦.until they stop the boats, and accept all returns

      1. Clough
        August 8, 2024

        Glen, there is no ‘we’ to try those ideas, excellent though they are. We in the sense of you and I and Joe public have no decision-making ability whatsoever. It’s ‘they’ who decide, and they won’t do any of those things. Five weeks of Starmer should’ve made that utterly clear, if it wasn’t before.

    8. RichardP
      August 8, 2024

      +1 Donna
      Itā€™s clear the Globalists donā€™t want the boats stopped.

    9. Lifelogic
      August 8, 2024

      +1

  5. agricola
    August 8, 2024

    Simples, France is overwhemed by illegals too. She unlike the UK has a very clear idea of what her culture is and takes steps to defend it. Not being too fussed when illegals make it to sea, and even escorting them to the median line is seen as lessening what she sees as an assault on her culture.

    The first part of France’s problem and that of Europe as a whole is the EU’s porous borders. They have failed to stop the influx from North Africa and the Middle East. Returning illegals on rescue or arrival would be a good first step. The second would be to round up established illegals and return them.

    For the UK it is equally simple, remove the incentive for coming. No legal aid, no income, no free mobile phones, no accoommodation. Guaranteed arrest on arrival in our waters or shores and charge and conviction for all the offences you list. Transportation to a very remote prison/work camp, i have suggested West Falkland others uninhabited Hebrides. There they could be offered makework or return to their country of origen. If there are any genuine refugees among them then treat them as such. Destroy the incentive and stop the flow.

    You lump all political parties, who to date have failed collectively, as ineffective. I would add, out of touch with the electorate. You are wrong on one count. Reform are committed to the Austrralian solution, electoral realisation will grow to the point of electoral support. There is always the chance that the snake oil salesmen from other parties will make even more worthless promises, but we know them of old. What is your solution to this running sore.

    1. BOF
      August 8, 2024

      +1 Agricola.

      1. Hope
        August 8, 2024

        Agricola,
        UK could do the same as Trump did, no return of immigrants no aid or trade! It also stops them coming.

        When UK promises immigrants it will force change to existing culture to accept theirs, give them welfare for nothing, housing, education and health what is not to like or risk from coming. A free lifestyle for life without contributing anything!!

        Rayner will force all councils to provide social housing at huge cost to communities through community charge hikes! Where do people think immigrants will live if there are no Bibby barges, detention centres, military barracks etc.

    2. Berkshire alan
      August 8, 2024

      +1
      Do not forget that the illegal immigrants are actually willing partners in this so called trade, they seek out the smugglers and pay them to be transported, they know the risks because they communicate amongst themselves.
      They clearly believe the risk is worth the reward, and so far they have been proven correct, few have been refused the right to stay or been returned, and as long as that is the case they will still attempt to come.
      Likewise it would seem that France is not making a great deal of effort to stop them, it seems to be a good riddance if you want to leave attitude.

      1. a-tracy
        August 8, 2024

        I agree, Alan.

        We are told the numbers coming in by boat are just a very small percentage of the overall numbers being allowed to come legally (38,546 arrivals ‘detected’ in year ending March 24 gov.uk). Then we’re told there aren’t enough legal means to come. Well, how did over 500,000 come legally last year, then?

        Statista said that in twelve months to Dec 2023, 1.22 million people migrated to the UK, 532,000 emigrated, a net migration figure of 685,000 (how is that not enough legal means to arrive here)?

        The Tories got a backlash for this, and Labour will get a backlash for this. They will attempt to cover it up and spread the people around the UK so they don’t fully take over our big Cities like London, Birmingham, and Manchester. Everyone will take their share. That is what people voted for, electing Labour, they never promised to stop anything.

      2. BOF
        August 8, 2024

        Berkshire alan.
        I would like an explanation of where these migrants from 3rd world countries get the money for their journey. 5 to 6 grand to cross the channel for starters. Before that they have crossed the Med after travelling halfway across Asia or Africa.

        I contend that this scam is being funded and the trafficking gangs are simply the middle men!

        1. Berkshire alan
          August 8, 2024

          BOF
          Some sell their future earnings, with the family left behind as the guarantee of payment to the smugglers.
          Given they are illegal, they will be working for the gang masters forever in probably illegal work groups, never paying any tax on their illegal low pay earnings, or will the gang masters on their profits, how does that increase the tax take for the government, and improve the GDP of the Country.
          So what do our politicians in goverment do, nothing but wring their hands and say itā€™s all too difficult.
          Pathetic

        2. glen cullen
          August 8, 2024

          They havenā€™t got the money, its loaned under condition that they work it off in the UK ā€¦.its more than evil, thatā€™s why we should return the boats the same day to stop this modern day slavery

    3. Michelle
      August 8, 2024

      ++ Spot on. Many of those on the sharp end of this for some insane reason have just voted in a ‘human rights’ lawyer, who has immediately reinstated all the flashing lights and ringing bells which encouraged so many to come here. No doubt he’ll add more.
      A paper on the Henry Jackson website written before Starmer election gives a clear indication of what to expect under him. I hope the author doesn’t get arrested!!

    4. Donna
      August 8, 2024

      The Establishment doesn’t WANT to stop the boats or stop mass immigration. That’s why they do none of the things you, very sensibly, suggest. If they destroyed the incentives, they would destroy their own policy.

      1. glen cullen
        August 8, 2024

        I foresee Labour introducing (with the help of the Tories) an amnesty for all illegal arrivals & visa overstayers ā€¦problem solved

        1. Berkshire alan
          August 8, 2024

          Glen then even more will come ,

          1. glen cullen
            August 9, 2024

            I know

    5. Mitchel
      August 8, 2024

      Cameron,visiting Libya with Sarkozy in September 2011,after the toppling of Col Gaddafi:

      “This does go beyond Libya.This is a moment when the Arab spring could become an Arab summer and we see democracy advance in other countries too.

      We must keep on with the NATO mission….until this work is finished.”

      Well done,NATO!!

  6. DOM
    August 8, 2024

    The boats don’t stop because they (the woke bigots) don’t want to stop the boats. It’s called complicity. The agenda to change the demography will accelerate now true disciples of woke fascism are in control. Surely our kind host can see that or is he totally blind to reality?

    It’s quite simple. Those Tory snakes could have smashed the woke infrastructure when in government but they didn’t because they quite simply couldn’t be bothered.

    Bye bye Britain and all because Cameron hated being called a bigot and a racist

    As an aside. I see the definition of terrorism has been widened. If that isn’t sinister enough then seeing Rowley acting aggressively towards a journalist doing his job should strike fear into the hearts of everyone who cherishes freedom.

    I also note how quickly the wheels of justice can move when they want them too. It now seems the decision to prosecute and imprison in a timely manner and according to due process is now based on considerations other than the laws set out by Parliament.

    We now live in a nation that’s been deliberately racialised by woke scum. It’s genuinely heartbreaking, no one’s a winner, we’re all losers

    1. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      I agree with all your comments

  7. Lifelogic
    August 8, 2024

    Civil servants cash in on Ā£26,000-a-year pensions ā€“ while private workers (who are forced to fund them all) receive just Ā£7,000. Generosity of schemes is ā€˜unsustainableā€™ and threatens to bankrupt Britain say experts.

    Plus WHITES NEED NOT APPLY ā€“ ā€˜Racistā€™ Hiring Policy. See Peston on X. Is this blatant discrimination legal? Clearly this too is ā€œtwo tierā€. One way blatant discrimination allowed but not the reverse.

    1. Michelle
      August 8, 2024

      At the teachers pension strikes a few years back my niece decided not to join the strike.
      She explained to me that all her friends from University had gone into the private sector, and she knew exactly what her pension was going to give in relation to what she will be putting in.
      For her friends in the private sector, it would take most of their salary to get near to her pension benefits.
      So she felt she had no right to whinge.

      As for the job advert, this sort of thing has been going on a long while. It’s made to sound nice, but it still means the same thing.

    2. Timaction
      August 8, 2024

      It’s called the non Equality laws that Labour created and the Tory’s added to it. DEI/ESG? The Companies Act. All anti capitalism and woke, drives businesses abroad or reluctant to invest here. Meritocracy…………forget it. Look at all our Health, public services, quangos, Councils, emergency services all run by the DEI/climate farce agenda. ( etc Ed) The problem the Uni Party has stored up is………we all know it and who is responsible for it! Reform will be in power next time!

    3. Hope
      August 8, 2024

      Head of Home Office Rycroft got a Ā£30,000 bonus on top of his Ā£180,000 ! For what!

      Two Teir policing will become embedded under Starmer, his police minister ignorant, incompetent or untruthful about two tier policing. We see it for ourselves!

      1. Hope
        August 8, 2024

        Thuggery used a lot by govt ministers. How about Rayner preaching hate by thuggery? Calling Tories scum? Is this not hate speech/crime? Lammy calling Republican president a ā€˜nazi sympathising sociopathā€™ is thuggery hate speech against a conservative is it not?

        So is Two Tier Keir going to sack them?

    4. Mike Wilson
      August 8, 2024

      Generosity of schemes is ā€˜unsustainableā€™ and threatens to bankrupt Britain say experts.

      Do you have a link for that please? Public sector pensions are one of my pet hobby horses.

      1. Narrow Shoulders
        August 8, 2024
  8. Sakara Gold
    August 8, 2024

    The police used their APNR system to put motorists under what is effectively a mass surveilance system. This will get worse now that they have derogated responsibility for moving traffic offences to the councils. Council-run APNR will be used to nick people for accidentally driving into “No entry” zones, or the yellow boxes at junctions etc

    Of course the real reason is to raise revenue, like the exorbitant charges for parking when one wishes to go shopping

    1. Berkshire alan
      August 8, 2024

      Agreed look forward to more cameras and more fines.
      Impossible to constantly. drive at below 20mph in such zones, keep your eyes on the road, and read all of the roadside signage at the same time, even if you have a car fitted with cruise control or a speed limiter, as cruise control disengages as soon as you touch a brake, and with stop start traffic a steady cruise is not possible.
      Bad enough in areas with which you are familiar, but if travelling on a new route you need to read directional signs as well as signs, arrows, speed limits, box junctions, bus lanes written on the tarmac, which are often covered by the vehicle in front, especially if a lorry.

    2. Lifelogic
      August 8, 2024

      Indeed and the parking rules bus, bike lanes, hatch junctions, no entry zones, no right turn, no left turn will be made as confusing and difficult as possible with variable rules they keep changing so as to trap and mug as many cash cow motorists as possible.

    3. Old Albion
      August 8, 2024

      Yes, the good old motorist cash cow.

      1. glen cullen
        August 8, 2024

        +1

    4. Ian B
      August 8, 2024

      @Sakara Gold – The APNR is the Worlds largest tracking system database. Monitoring all movements made by everyone, without proper legal justification or over-site.

      1. glen cullen
        August 8, 2024

        ….and they don’t delete their records if no offence has occurred …prelude to 15 min cities

  9. Sakara Gold
    August 8, 2024

    One observes that the press is still fighting it’s “project fear” election campaign – on Labour’s plans for taxation. Despite no immediate announcement from the Chancellor on new taxes, much hot air is being expended on claims that Labour will raise this or that tax

    Let’s be truthful about the current, extraordinarily high, levels of taxation. In 14 years, Tory Chancellors taxed, borrowed and spent their way to a doubling the national debt from Ā£1.2 TRILLION to Ā£2.4 TRILLION, or roughly 100% of GDP.

    Clearly, the project fear threat of higher taxes under Labour are designed to deflect attention from this dismal record.

    Reply The government has announced big unfunded spending increases and are very likely to raise taxes in the budget. This is not an attempt to divert attention away from the big debt and tax build up brought on by the Covid policies of the last government which were anyway fully supported by Labour.

    1. Lifelogic
      August 8, 2024

      Well if they want net zero by 2030 they will need several Ā£trillions plus loads of extra benefits for the millions they render unemployed with this economic lunacy.

    2. Old Albion
      August 8, 2024

      Wait for the first budget from Two-tier and Reeves ‘Sakara’ and start hiding your money under the bed.

    3. Ian B
      August 8, 2024

      @Reply – a manufactured ‘black hole’ that equates to all the unfunded spend that is now in place since Labour took office. The new OBR restrictions some how don’t seem to apply to a Labour Government

    4. Richard1
      August 8, 2024

      The list of dumb stuff by Labour is lengthening. So far we have c. Ā£8bn for the pointless energy quango, and Ā£8bn for a national wealth fund – an absurdity for a nation with 75% net debt / GDP and a budget deficit of 4%. We have Ā£10bn blown on higher public sector wages with no attempt to improve the diminishing service provided to the public. Although they clearly have no answer the illegal migration crisis I read they are going to ā€˜clamp downā€™ on visas for tech workers, software engineers etc. an exceptionally foolish move. It seems they wish to emulate the EUā€™s AI act which is already hampering the development of that sector in Europe and will restrict consumer choice. It is clear also that despite saying they want more investment and growth they are about to raise taxes on entrepreneurship and investment, as a result of which of course, we will get less.

      The Conservatives may have been a disappointment and periodically incompetent, but as some of us pointed out, Labour will be far, far worse.

  10. Richard1
    August 8, 2024

    The unspoken reality is this probably suits the French govt quite well. They get to unload some of their large surplus of unwanted illegal migrants onto the U.K., and probably also like stirring up a significant political problem for the U.K. post Brexit. To get it to stop the U.K. govt would have to find some point of leverage over the French. very unlikely Labour would behave in such a way, their whole strategy is to curry favour in order surreptitiously to sneak back at least into the single market. A better strategy would be to admit the objective, do it openly and see whether small boats could be part of the deal.

    1. Old Albion
      August 8, 2024

      It’s clear the French have been facilitating illegal crossings for years.

      1. glen cullen
        August 8, 2024

        ”Itā€™s clear the UK have been facilitating illegal crossings for years”
        I’ve corrected that statement for you

  11. Ian wragg
    August 8, 2024

    Why on earth would the French put any effort into stopping the boats. Every illegal who leaves is one less problem for them.
    The French government doesn’t supply hotels, mobile phones and dedicated police security like they get in 2 tier policing Britain. The liblabcon have no intention of stopping the boats as they are wed to the UN, WEF refugees policies.
    I think last night the police were fooled by the spoof online campaign which didn’t materialise, it’s not the end of the unrest by a long way and as the Birmingham police chief says, the protected species can police themselves. Hence no arrests when a public house is targeted.

    1. Ian B
      August 8, 2024

      @Ian wragg – you have to ask how come Greece and Italy just turned the boats back and the flow ebbed away

  12. Hat man
    August 8, 2024

    A very topical piece, or it would be if the year was 2021. No longer. We know by now the answer to your “Why, oh why?” questions, Sir John. If the authorities running the country do nothing to stop illegal migration, it’s because they want illegal migration, and have for years now shown they do. Or rather, in fairness we might say they’ve been told to accept it. There is the well-known UN agenda of supporting mass migration, there is the UN-sponsored 2018 Global Compact which explicitly set out to ‘facilitate’ migration which Theresa May signed us up to (unlike Australia, Israel and the US which opted out), and there is a whole host of NGOs carrying out that agenda. In Britain they go under such names as Migrant Help, Migrants Rights Network, Right to Remain, Here for Good etc. That’s before we even get on to the international NGOs and pressure groups such as those run by Soros and others. Then of course you have the employers’ organisations in this country who want to employ cheap labour. So all together you have a huge tentacular network of agencies working to facilitate migration, legal or illegal, which I think is far more powerful than British governments that tried to restrict migration. Or claimed they did. I’m not trying to defend Sunak’s record on migration, but I do think we need to remember the sheer scale of the task he and his predecessors faced, had they really wanted to take on the immigration industry. The present government won’t even try to do that.

  13. Sakara Gold
    August 8, 2024

    Last year Mrs Gold supervised my gardener in the construction of a wildflower meadow in my back garden, visible from the dining room window. The existing lawn turf was removed and the ground dug over (to groans from Old Jim – it was hard work), followed by sowing of a wildflower meadow seed mix. We also added a number of Buddleia shrubs around the boundary fence. Old Jim got some overtime and a bottle of Mrs Gold’s lethal plum wine

    I am astounded at the number and variety of butterflies, moths and other flying insects that these simple pro-wildlife measures have attracted. This morning a small charm of Goldfinches have been feeding on the wild flower seed heads. Beats watching riots on the TV!

    1. Peter
      August 8, 2024

      SG,

      Donā€™t see a charm of goldfinches often mentioned. It is the official term for large numbers of them though.

      I get a couple of them on a feeder with what are now renamed as ā€˜nyjerā€™ seeds. The birds look fine in photos, but unless you are fairly close you cannot see much detail. Red heads yes, but yellow flashes in the wings – no.

    2. Mike Wilson
      August 8, 2024

      I wonder if you are telling porkies. EVERYone else in the country is reporting almost no butterflies this year. Last year our buddleias were covered with peacocks and red admirals. This year Iā€™ve seen one. We have plenty of wild flowers and our garden borders a meadow full of wild flowers.

      I went for a walk yesterday well off the beaten track. Beautiful countryside here in West Dorset. Heavily wooded in places – open fields with unmassacred hedgerows in others. After a while the silence struck me. Not a single bird or flying insect. It had a weird ā€˜after the holocaustā€™ feel. Most odd. There are more birds and insects in the town than in the open countryside. What are the farmers doing? Someone has to stop this. This is serious. A lot more serious than the boats.

      1. Peter
        August 8, 2024

        MW,
        Maybe things are different where SG lives. I see butterflies but I am in suburbia. Birds come and go. Sometimes they go mad for stuff they have ignored for weeks. Chasing off parakeets is a regular task. They deter smaller birds.

        I am more concerned about Old Jim who sounds like a character from the Archers. I imagine him telling the locals that one one of his lovely manicured lawns has been destroyed at the request of Mr & Mrs G. He might not even want the overtime. Limited hours might suit him better.

      2. Sakara Gold
        August 8, 2024

        I wonder if you should make an appoinment with Specsavers. Mrs Gold did the Big Butterfly Count this year. The recent warm weather brought them out in droves – the lady counted 14 Gatekeepers in one 15 min spell. Plus lots of others – Meadow Browns, Ringlets and several Red Admirals

    3. a-tracy
      August 8, 2024

      SK, how lovely. It is a shame our local council doesn’t know your gardener. Their wildflower patches are an absolute mess. There is no colour; it just looks like roundabouts full of weeds and long grasses, and all the verges between the roads are full of high grasses, and thistles obscure views. Months on end of mess making the area look an eyesore, but it cuts down mowing costs. We have as much grass growing out of the curb stones now as some people have in their gardens. I’m sick of sprinkling baking soda to make it easier to uproot them that I’ve just given in and left them other than those in front of the drive.

      Footpaths that people used to be able to walk next to someone are overgrown with soil and grass and hedges. I shall look out for beautiful birds, but most of ours seem to be fat pigeons and magpies.

      1. Peter
        August 8, 2024

        AT
        Rewilding is an excuse for not mowing and saving money.

        Round my way, the council cut the grass on the council estate where one of my pals lives. Well built in the 1950s by Surrey County Council, with lovely front lawns, then a path, then even more lawns. I imagine in later decades it will be gentrified. Stark contrast to the skyscrapers I see on the train between Clapham and Vauxhall. I cannot imagine those residents thinking ‘home sweet home’. Many of them my be foreign investors though. Not many in the sky pool between two of those skyscrapers despite the reasonable weather. I wonder how long that will survive?

        1. a-tracy
          August 9, 2024

          I drove through our old ‘council’ estate just this morning. Their paint has gone mouldy on their front facias. The ones that bought and painted themselves or cladded are fine. The streets have weeds and grass growing so high out of the curbs that you could lose a dog in them and the grass verges have had a strip mown and the rest left to wild. When they’re looking for work for all these community punishment people I could give them a list as long as my arm.

          1. Margaret
            August 11, 2024

            I have given up with my wildflower patch and have dug out lots of weeds and regrassed.There are still many insects and butterflies,though due to surrounding blossoms and flowers.The foxgloves are plentiful and last for weeks on end getting longer and longer.Alas the squirrels have taken all my strawberries and the birds my cherries . Apples are slowly swelling but these fruits also feed the wild creatures. In comparison to last year there are less bees on my lavender border.Things change with weather and most insects return.

      2. Margaret
        August 11, 2024

        Tha land space to the ratio of number of immigrants is what is relevant.

  14. Nick
    August 8, 2024

    The French authorities could also apply their own regulations governing vessels carrying fare paying passengers. They must be seaworthy, licensed, inspected, under the control of competent crews and not overloaded.

    Instead we see gendarmes on the beaches supervising the departure of over-loaded, unseaworthy, unlicensed craft, French coastguards escorting them to mid-Channel and British coastguards and lifeboats awaiting them there as if by arrangement.

    1. Mike Wilson
      August 8, 2024

      Nigel needs to get out there again with some drones and live news coverage. He should notify the Home Office that boats are leaving and expect them to notify the French authorities so they can stop them. After all, thatā€™s what we pay them for.

    2. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      I do not blame the French for doing what we should be doing ….I fully blame our own government(s), and only them

  15. outsider
    August 8, 2024

    Dear Sir John,
    Some deterrent administrative actions could have been taken years ago if the government mchine had been so minded.
    Those crossing illegally fall into three groups: people fleeing persecution and state terror, economic migrants who cannot qualify for the legal route and bad actors who wish to harm our country or join crime gangs.
    Genuine asylum seekers will have done their utmost to bring some form of checkable identification or will be able to name checkable referees here or back home. They should be welcomed, taken to the front of the queue, have their credentials checked fast using all available resources and, if approved, given immediate help to integrate here.
    The others without documents should be charged with their formal crime and sent straight to makeshift prison camps, the authorities having made clear by all possible means of communication, that this minimum test for refugee status will be applied.
    Those whose only real crime is to be chancers should be treated kindly and offered a ticket back home or to any other country that we can help them find that will take them.
    Those who can be identified as bad actors, such as those shown by aerial observation to have launched or steered the boats should, to paraphrase the Prime Minister, have the book thrown at them and be punished as severely as an imaginative use of recent and historic laws (including fraud and conspiracy) will allow.
    To stop a runaway train of harmful actions, as in the M25 cases and more recently, it is occasionally necessary to make an example of people that would seem needlessly harsh, even inhumane in more normal times.

  16. Rod Evans
    August 8, 2024

    The simple answers to the questions you pose Sir John are usually the correct ones.
    If the authorities wanted to stop the ingress of undocumented migrants then they would do that. It follows that the authorities both French and British do not wish to stop the migrant flow across the Channel. This simple observation then raises the question, why do they allow the blatant illegal traffic to persist? Not only do they allow it to persist, they allow it to increase in scale from the initial flow to a flow. This year that flow will exceed the total number of migrants allowed into the UK during the years we authorised/controlled migrant flows below 50,000/yr. in the last century.
    Since the Blair policy of ignoring migrant control was introduced and continued as a policy under Brown, Cameron and all subsequent PMs, the home office has abandoned any meaningful role in border control.
    That perhaps gives us the answer to the puzzle of mass migration flow. The authorities want mass migration flow for reasons that are not revealed, though they are hinted at.
    The lack of domestic population growth has forced migration to be adopted as a means of populating the country. The quality and cultural make up of the incoming may be questioned, for obvious reasons, but the need for replacements of our declining native population is what is driving the tolerance of open migration.

    1. Hat man
      August 8, 2024

      Not sure why you say ‘reasons not revealed’, Rod. Twenty years ago Labour told us their reason – to ‘rub our noses in diversity’. Employers’ associations want mass migration to fill the jobs paid at the wage levels they offer, and they say so at their annual conferences. UN and globalist billionaire-backed organisations openly say they want to make migration easier, to achieve a fairer world, or some such idealistic purpose. Our so-called authorities do what they’re told, and carry out the agenda imposed on them by those who hold power.

  17. Lynn Atkinson
    August 8, 2024

    Simple answer: the Governments enable this crime. They are therefore complicit.
    What can be done when successive Governments are complicit in crimes?

    1. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      They’re also complicit by not enforcing their own laws

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        August 8, 2024

        They enforce the laws arbitrarily. The hallmark of an endemic and old politics in Europe.

    2. a-tracy
      August 8, 2024

      Quite, and pretty soon, you will be cancelled for even saying that! Communist eastern block; here we come with people whispering to their partners for fear of nighttime arrests.

  18. Linda Brown
    August 8, 2024

    Put this to Yvette Cooper and Keir Starmer and ask for their replies. Report back if none received.

  19. Sir Joe Soap
    August 8, 2024

    I truly believe that Reform would have the cojones to do this, whoever else was upset by it. I don’t believe any other parties in Parliament would.

  20. David Cooper
    August 8, 2024

    “The small boats” is, of course, a convenient abbreviation for “the concerted invasion of the UK, in plain sight, by illegal immigrants”. All too often, the main parties’ talk appears focused upon the danger of a Channel crossing in a small boat, not the inherently illegal acts on the part of their occupants and those who arranged for them to travel from their home countries and get on the boats.
    To place this in further perspective, one of the cornerstone functions of a civilised nation state (indeed, duty owed by government to citizens) is external defence: this not only comprises standing up in opposition to an enemy under arms, but also defending borders. If a nation state is unable or unwilling to defend its borders, has it ceased to be civilised, at least in part?

  21. Dave Andrews
    August 8, 2024

    You say all the parties want to stop the boats. That is true of the new Labour government, for whom the illegal immigrants are a headache. However, the rows of back benchers behind them I’m not so sure. I get the impression they welcome all the new arrivals with houses and services provided for them at taxpayers’ expense.

    1. dixie
      August 8, 2024

      The new Labour government do not wish to stop the invasion of immigrants, they will “stop the boats” by setting up reception processing points on the continent but the flood will not stop, if anything it will increase.
      How will anyone be able to complain then particularly if there are no obvious UK reception centres and especially if negative comments are no longer allowed on any medium?

  22. BW
    August 8, 2024

    Have the government just given up. Another 90,000 illegal migrants given amnesty to swell the ranks of the refugees ( illegal migrant) welcome mob. 3000 more welcomed into the fold since they got into power. Letā€™s face it, British culture, our history and future cannot compete with these figures. Especially when those speaking out, like Nigel are viciously verbally attacked by has been failed politicians who still have an axe to grind because of Brexit.
    Brexit failed because of the continual opposition by these failed remainers and their civil servant lackeys to any advantage we may have gained.
    The same is happening with the British nation now, with anyone speaking out in favour of stopping immigration labelled far right, and rounded on by the left wing media and unfortunately members of parliament as well.
    The difference in the treatment of different sections of society, by the police and the establishment is astonishing. To deny it just amplifies the stupidity of those in control.
    No I donā€™t support rioting, neither does Nigel.
    The fighter pilots of 1940 must be turning in their graves having wasted their lives defending the country, western values, and our way of life against invasion and tyranny, who I suppose these days would be regarded as far right having dared to call one of its squadrons ā€œCrusadersā€
    The attack on the Albert Memorial is the latest move to erode our history. Just remember that appeasement has never worked and these continual attacks on anything British will eventually erode the very fabric of Britishness until it simply disappears under our very noses.

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      August 8, 2024

      +1
      Iā€™m afraid the British spirit died in the Battle of Britain. We are just a rump that remain. All those who rounded on protestors and called them ā€˜riotersā€™ deserve what is coming their way. That includes those in Golders Green.

  23. Cheshire Girl
    August 8, 2024

    Apparently, there is no need to Stop the Boats, according to those assembled at North Finchley and Walthamstowe last night, many holding banners saying ā€˜Refugees Welcomeā€™ . That lets Labour off the hook.

    While I am very pleased there was no violence last night, this message goes against what an awful lot of concerned people are thinking. However, the Government are wondering where to send those from the Bibby Stockholm. Maybe, they have their answer.

  24. Michael Dalgleish
    August 8, 2024

    Perhaps obvious, but a further point is that the government asked for our agreement to rule over us, made promises, and then failed to do the duty that thus arises. Trust is eroded, and the public have every right to feel cheated. The cumulative breakdown of normal rules in our society is one major consequence.

  25. Ian B
    August 8, 2024

    The labour Government has formally renamed criminal entry into the UK as irregular entry – despite the Law saying it is something different.
    All irregulars can now expect first place on the housing register, free schooling and health and of course free money in their pockets.
    All indigenous people that have contributed to the UK’s wellbeing are now required to pay extra in taxes and take second place when it comes to support and services.

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      August 8, 2024

      We have to stop funding this government. Legally. Just Stop!

  26. Wanderer
    August 8, 2024

    You have a lot more sympathy about loss of life than I do.

    I’ve stopped supporting the RNLI because of their illegals’ ferry operations. This is despite me being an inshore navigator and living in a coastal town with its own RNLI station. I went to the expense of altering my will so they won’t get a penny.

    If lawbreakers chose to use traffickers to illegally cross borders, then the risk is on them. That sadly includes their babies and children that they have chosen to take with them. If I was at sea and saw someone in the water then I’m not so heartless that I wouldn’t pick them up. But I would not go out of my way to help, and nor should Border Farce/RNLI.

    There are millions of desperately poor people in the world. We do not have a moral obligation to help them escape poverty, even when they put themselves and (more unfortunately) their children in harm’s way. Sadly the reality is that, give a penny, they will take a mile and we have to toughen up. If we had the Australian solution then we wouldn’t have any such moral dilemma as nobody would bother coming here.

    1. Ian B
      August 8, 2024

      @Wanderer – the RNLI used to be my go to charity before all others. Their now newish boss changed that with his attitude as to what ‘he’ would spend donations on.

    2. Berkshire alan
      August 8, 2024

      Wanderer
      I said similar to the RNLI collector who approached me a couple of months ago.
      Why should I fund the boats that bring people illegally into our Country.
      I wonder if the Government (taxpayer) is funding the RNLI charity in some way to maintain and repair their boats that will soon become knackered.
      Aware of anything JR ?

  27. Christine
    August 8, 2024

    The French could break this business model overnight by accepting the return of all migrants who manage to land in the UK. They choose not to. The French and British governments plus the charities and NGOs are complicit in this vile trade.

    Now we are told that every area in the UK has to accept a share of these people who will be given council houses and rented accommodation at the expense of locals who will be left homeless. This government, as expected, puts foreigners above the needs of the British people. I still canā€™t understand why anyone voted for them.

    1. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      The UK government(s) hasn’t even attempted to return or turn around a single boat ….Its not the French, its the UK’s lack of backbone

  28. Paul Freedman
    August 8, 2024

    I really think the mystery shopping suggestion is excellent. If the illegal migrants can find where to buy a pass for illegal entry into the UK then the UK and European domestic ‘security’ agencies should easily be able to that and then arrest the criminal supply side.
    I also think we could stop the demand-side of illegally entering the UK by enforcing our existing border laws. It is an offence to enter the UK (and any other country) illegally. No other country has the responsibility for illegal migrants other than their home country and so that is where they should be deported to, irrespective of returns agreements in my opinion. Even one deportation flight back home would quell the demand side and 2 or 3 will all but eliminate it and 4 or 5 will completely stop it as the prospective illegal entrants will know they will always fail to enter the UK. They would then likely find alternative places to illegally enter or not bother at all. Some might ask what about ECHR? (then leave it), what about their treatment at home? (bargain behind the scenes), what about the 130,000 here already? (same process – if they are not refugees then they are illegal entrants and thus are deported accordingly) what if the home country does not accept the flights? (bargain behind the scenes or dock them by ship). If illegal entry to the UK is not stopped then the UK will be poorer, more disrespected, more dangerous and hurt accordingly and I think everyone has had enough of it all already.

    1. Mike Wilson
      August 8, 2024

      and I think everyone has had enough of it all already.

      Clearly not the case. There is an army of middle class, financially comfortable, liberal toasters who fully support allowing anyone who fancies it to come here. I look forward to the day when gangs are roaming middle class areas.

      1. Mike Wilson
        August 8, 2024

        liberal tossers- not liberal toasters. I donā€™t know how liberal toasters are.

  29. J+M
    August 8, 2024

    ā€œ Why they ask canā€™t the surveillance that polices these more minor offences tackle the small boat organisers who put peopleā€™s lives at risk and make a mockery of tax and anti money laundering rules?ā€ Answer: because they do not want to.

  30. Original Richard
    August 8, 2024

    There has been wonderment as to why PM Sunak called the GE so early.

    It is quite clear that by declaring a GE before the Rwanda plan could be tested the Uniparty wanted illegal immigration to continue unabated.

    If the Rwanda plan worked neither side of the Uniparty would dare to cancel it after the GE, not even the Labour Grouping.

    So by calling the GE early, and thus not testing the efficacy of the Rwanda plan, the Labour Group could easily cancel the Rwanda plan as promised in their manifesto.

    Job done.

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      August 8, 2024

      The Rwanda plan was carefully crafted NOT to work. They take no chances.

  31. glen cullen
    August 8, 2024

    Just comply with the rule of law and the International Law of the Sea, and return them to the save harbour from whence they came ā€¦.its our politicians not enforcing our own laws and international treaty

  32. Nick
    August 8, 2024

    International maritime law guarantees freedom of the seas to all ā€œinnocentā€ traffic. Smugglers, like pirates, are not innocent. UK could legally refuse to accept the dinghies into its waters.

    The French coastguard would then have to escort them safely back to France. But it seems our government would rather betray its own people than disoblige the French.

    1. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      +1

  33. DOM
    August 8, 2024

    1997 rang the death knell of our nation, a cry of ideological war against its ancient foundations and its cultural beauty. Today it lies in tatters. The law is biased, policing is biased and truth is crushed.

    The authorities now advertise their allegiances and want some to see it in full public view. Their actions are designed to emit a most sinister message.

    I’m weeping to see what is happening to our most cherished land. Gutted to what those Tory and Labour guttersnipes and lowlifes have done to our most sacred earth and all in the name of a most cancerous political ideology

    Notre pays n’est plus

  34. Alan Paul Joyce
    August 8, 2024

    Dear Mr. Redwood,

    I have not done any investigation into this at all (I have not the time nor the investigative skills) and I may obviously be wrong but it would not surprise me if the number of migrants reaching the UK in small boats as a percentage of the total number of illegal migrants reaching the EU is comparable to the percentage that the UK was of the EU (when it was a member) for budgeting and other distributive processes. Perhaps, I am succumbing to the conspiracy theorists!

    However, I do know Starmer wishes to take a share of migrants from the EU as part of his resetting the relationship talks between the UK and the EU.

    In short, there would seem to be collusion going on between nation states and other bodies to make sure the UK takes its fair share. As you have stated, the very fact that there are any number of steps the authorities could be taking to try and stop the boats is indicative that they do not particularly want to.

    Lastly, we are not deeply disappointed that the boats have not been stopped by now, we are bloody furious about it!

    1. mancunius
      August 8, 2024

      They are not ‘migrants from the EU’, they are migrants to the EU that the EU wants to expel.
      We have no earthly reason to take them.

  35. Michael Staples
    August 8, 2024

    We should adopt the Australia solution. Put them in a well found boat 12 miles off the South West French coast but nowhere near England with just enough fuel to get back to France. If they choose to throw themselves in the water, so be it. They can be rescued by their own boat.

    1. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      No; we should tow back the boats immediately they cross mid-channel, back to Calais ā€¦its our duty under the international law of the sea ā€¦the French have to accept them under the same treaty

  36. Ian B
    August 8, 2024

    The MsM is fighting for the sound-bite, the nastier it can be made to sound the better “right-wing Popular Conservatism faction” this is referring to the latest polling. Not the Polls saying that but the media spinning it
    The UK’s centre ground, those that do, look after themselves and others are now the ‘Right’

    The bit I agree with, as it highlights why they threw the election away.
    “An overwhelming 90% either strongly agree or agree that the Conservative Party needs to become more democratic with a greater role for members in choosing the leader, policies and candidates.”

  37. Paul Wooldridge
    August 8, 2024

    One thing is for sure that the EU and especially the French have no interest and no motivation in stopping migrants coming to the UK and we are misguided and naive to think otherwise.
    The UK must therefore come up with its own foolproof deterrent which so far has been lacking, which gives us total control over asylum seekers and where strict rules to enter the UK apply and are adhered to;
    If immigrants cannot prove they have a right to residency in the UK, which would not include the fact they already have family in the UK, if there is no reason given for coming here apart from the free benefits they will receive, and if they haven’t first applied for residency BEFORE they arrive giving their reasons for coming here with an explanation of who they are bringing with them, the benefits they are able to bring to the UK,an up to date summary of their health, wealth and evidence of employment being offered/accepted, and where they will be living, and thus their ability to live in the UK without seeking state aid, then we should send a strong message that whether legal or illegal, if they haven’t complied with the rules of entry to the UK they will be sent straight back to the country they came from, on the same day they arrive in the UK, if they are unable to show proof they have been granted permission to remain.

  38. dixie
    August 8, 2024

    Any solution requires the government (all arms not just MPs) to be fully seized of the need to prevent and eradicate illegal immigration. Until you have that attitude and intent you will never get any solution.
    And since this requires those people to put the needs of the UK population ahead of theirs or their newly welcomed dependents it will never happen.

    1. dixie
      August 8, 2024

      I’ve just been reading of one possible solution to the second issue outlined in Reform’s contract under constitutional reform – replacement of civil service leaders with successful professionals from the private sector who would come and go with the government.

  39. Roy Grainger
    August 8, 2024

    Why would France wants to do any of those things ?

  40. Bert+Young
    August 8, 2024

    Sir Johns’ comments are a cry in the wilderness ; the French don’t want them and they turn their backs on any effort to stop the boats – bring on Jenrick .

  41. George Sheard
    August 8, 2024

    Hi sir John
    It’s easy to stop the boats
    just put people undercover posing as a migrant when they come to hand over the money to the traffickers arrest them
    We should be arresting the people steering the boats and putting them in prison instead they are returning to France to steer the next boat
    Also we have British police over to help looking out for trafficking on the beaches what are they doing sunbathing
    what about the millions of pounds we have given to France? But when you have French police standing by watching the people getting into the boats that’s no deterrent
    And then stop using boarded force and the RNLI as taxis
    If this was drug smuggling they would stop it WE HOPE
    Thank you

  42. Lynn Atkinson
    August 8, 2024

    I am just reporting this news and not commenting.

    Today in Spain a man was beaten to death with a bat by 3 Moroccan migrants when he tried to save a young Spanish girl that they were preparing to r pe.
    Crowds have surrounded the ā€˜churchā€™ that the peaceful rapists attended, demand it be closed down.

    1. glen cullen
      August 8, 2024

      One unknown …is too many

    2. Peter Gardner
      August 9, 2024

      Many such examples in Sweden and UK. Such crimes are disproportionately committed by immigrants and it is why Sweden is clamping down on immigration. In UK the authorities don’t release the identity of perpetrators because they know that doing so would give the lie to their policies favouring indiscriminate mass migration.

  43. a-tracy
    August 8, 2024

    Oh, My Goodness!
    What a tangled web and complex situation is developing in the UK.

    The anti-right can drum up large numbers to show unity with a large number of people arriving without papers or money or wherewithal to accommodate themselves in the UK from all over the World; whoever wants to come we are told we are welcome, no matter what criminality or mental health disorders. Nothing to see here; look over there, we have banners pre-printed and ready to deploy to counter the right (who didn’t seem to know they were expected).

    Their belief that we are easily fooled is reinforced by some individuals who, unfortunately, act foolishly and criminally smashing up business properties and burning vehicles.

    I asked myself why I felt tense and stressed. Recent distressing news in the newspapers has left me feeling anxious and troubled, for example; a young lad on his way to school being slaughtered with a blade by a man in London, a British military officer in Kent being repeatedly stabbed nearly to death in the street in his uniform by a 24-year-old masked man on a motorbike, it was related to his mental health we were told.

    Keir Starmer said he was “shocked and appalled”. I don’t think many of us are shocked anymore. It’s becoming commonplace to have masked men with knives stabbing people. This leads on to a young man, only 17, born in Britain to parents we took in when they wanted to escape their homeland, their son, on a nice summer day, took a taxi specifically to an out-of-the-way dance class with little girls and their teachers having fun for a couple of hours, then turned it into a blood bath as he slaughtered with a knife (in our European neighbours countries he’d have probably just been shot, no excuses, no legal aid, no prolonged court case to get him off, like the chap with mental health in Nottingham who knifed those young students and the caretaker). It is a worrying trend of violence!

    Next, we see a dozen men in a seaside town running around in the late afternoon with machetes. But it is all ok now because people are showing unity by marching on our streets with police officers in caps instead of helmets, tasers, shields and batons, not a horse or dog in sight, all randomly gathered out of the blue to show unity!
    Unity to whom? Don’t they have similar concerns about why these men kill and stab our children and military protectors?

    1. Chickpea
      August 9, 2024

      How right you are, itā€™s amazing how these people show no support for the little girls or the other people you mention. Why didnā€™t they take to the streets then? It makes me wonder (perhaps Iā€™m a cynic) whether the majority have been paid to protest and it was organised? I donā€™t trust anyone anymore. I canā€™t believe this is my country, we are slowly but surely becoming the minority with our voices.

      1. a-tracy
        August 9, 2024

        Chickpea, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised that John had posted my concerns. Our voices are to be silenced; its the way socialists work all over the world with people too afraid to speak up. We are told daily we are now ‘far-right’ and ‘racist’ even to think such things or hold those thoughts.

        There is an elderly lady near me I used to see on my daily walk on a Country lane; she used to do that walk three times a day and chat to everyone because it was quiet and off the main road; she has stopped doing that walk probably because of the lads we see selling drugs from time to time behind there, and the reports of females being murdered whilst walking their dog last week, the old fella stabbed to death in Hartlepool in May, the pensioner in Wigan stabbed an 18-year-old did that. These kids are learning they can get light sentences for stabbing people, and if they are 12 years of age like the machete-wielding murderers in the Midlands, they get their identities hidden and will probably be out by the time they’re 22 to a better life they’d have had without murdering a young man. People aren’t even safe getting tube trains, and I have family in London; a man pushed another man onto the tracks as a tube was coming. His life was saved by a whisker of time and the help of another concerned citizen for looking at someone funny!

        Our concerns are entirely ignored, and I could get into trouble for saying it. These crimes aren’t over several years; they’re in the last six months.

        1. dixie
          August 11, 2024

          You are not alone in your concerns.
          What I find shocking is the unwillingness of government and the police to tackle the violence and intimidation around the events you raise. They are able to find the manpower and resources to tackle idiots (without protected characteristics) rioting but not remove armed gangsters from the streets.

          1. A-tracy
            August 11, 2024

            The problem is no-one dare voice concerns in the House of Commons for fear of a political death, being tarred and feathered as a racist and polished off as a bully, ā€˜far-righterā€™.

            So if our paid representatives canā€™t address our fears, and ask how we can suddenly afford to lock people up for 2-3 years, within a week but weā€™re having to release people who have committed manslaughter, and fearful crimes because there arenā€™t enough places. We canā€™t process criminals because there isnā€™t enough court time, people are being let off because theyā€™re showing remorse or canā€™t speak English and didnā€™t know xyz was wrong. Youā€™re constantly looking over your shoulder on Country lanes in case someone comes up behind you and hits you over the head. The lady I spoke of, Iā€™ve seen her twice now on my way to work or home from work having to walk a circuit on the main roads, sucking in fumes and noise, people with dogs constantly passing her narrowing the path, avoiding dog muck and grit flicked up off the road, head down, speed walking.

            Iā€™ve had enough of it. Other people I speak to have had enough of it. We have enough home grown criminal elements to worry about, at least we can return visiting criminals after their sentences are completed, Oh no, we canā€™t do that either.

  44. Mike Wilson
    August 8, 2024

    I donā€™t know what the answer is. I am pretty much against the boats whereas my wife is in favour. As part of her argument she says (to me); ā€œHow would you feel if there was no future here for our sons? If this country was like Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan and they had no future – youā€™d encourage them to leave wouldnā€™t you – to a country with a much higher standard of living, with a stable political system etc.ā€
    And I have to admit I would encourage them to leave.
    That said, one of mine left for Australia last January – but he was back 6 months later. Missed his family and friends too much. That said, he earns big money and works on line so his situation here is not comparable to a young man in Syria. Who could blame young men in Gaza if they would do anything to get out of a madhouse?

    1. Berkshire alan
      August 8, 2024

      Mike
      But would your wife support them if they tried to enter another country illegally and paid gangs to do so.
      What if all our young men had ran away in 1939 instead of fighting for what they thought would be their/our freedom.
      Nothing wrong with making a legal attempt to move home to another Country if you think it will improve your life.

      1. Mike Wilson
        August 9, 2024

        Hi Alan
        Yes, but, in some countries there is just no hope for millions of people. Look at the kids scavenging on rubbish dumps in some countries. There is no legal route for them out of what looks like a living hell. That said, there does seem to be a legal route into this country – they’ve been letting in plenty lately.

    2. Peter Gardner
      August 9, 2024

      You refer to economic reasons, not asylum seekers. Anyone who meets the requirements for entry into another country is legally free – not entitled but free – to do so. For most, if they can afford to pay people smugglers they can afford an air fare, which is very cheap nowadays. Most countries allow temporary residence for work. They can apply for a job and if offered the job they are free to take up temporary residence to do the job. Permanent residence is another matter. The trouble for most of the unlawful entrants is that they cannot get a job offer because they have nothing to offer other than manual labour, speak little English, cannot be self-sufficient (ie would be a burden on the state) etc.
      The vast majority of the unlawful entrants to UK are not entitled in UK to the protection of the UN Convention Art 31 because they have spent a lot of time in France where they have that protection and are safe. They have no right to travel to UK – other than family connections etc..
      There is a particular problem with those who could get a job offer but are not allowed to leave their state of domicile. There were many of them in the USSR and WP and still are in China & North Korea but these are very few among the unlawful immigrants in France and UK.
      So that leaves the political question of why should countries that are easy for asylum seekers to reach directly shoulder the main burden of genuine asylum seekers. I suggest most people would agree that a burden sharing arrangement would make sense if it were practicable. But whatever arrangements are put in place to sift out those not in genuine need of asylum are rapidly overwhelmed by those with no genuine need and who do not qualify for legal immigration or residence and therefore claim asylum. The arrangements must also be proof against infiltration by terrorists and other criminals. It is not easy.

  45. glen cullen
    August 8, 2024

    With the continued rise in boat-people & overstayers, we need to identify and regulate the criminal black market businesses that are employing the hundreds of thousands of illegals ā€¦.theyā€™re not just coming for the state benefits but to work in the grey sector

    1. Mike Wilson
      August 8, 2024

      Would you agree with ID cards and massive fines for anyone, business owner or private individual, that employs anyone without an ID card. I would. I donā€™t understand the objections to ID cards. It would make it a lot harder to steal an identity. At the end of the day, how do you prove who you are.

      Reply Not an answer. Everyone getting a job is meant to have a unique NI number but more seem to be issued than legal workers. There would be a great business in making forged ID cards for the people traffickers

      1. a-tracy
        August 9, 2024

        Mike, they share work codes for food delivery biking, they become window cleaners, gardeners, cleaners, when cash is extinguished they’ll use Bitcoin people who live outside the system prosper because they don’t pay the heavy taxes on the rest of us to support them in free accommodation, then they have children and are on the serious money gravy train whilst British women can’t afford to have kids until their 30s.

  46. mancunius
    August 8, 2024

    ” Why isnā€™t more action taken?”
    Because the French politicians want to be re-elected, so they use the Channel as a sluice to rid themselves of their unwelcome guests and foist them on us. You need to stop thinking of the French as partners.

    1. Berkshire alan
      August 8, 2024

      +1

  47. Bryan Harris
    August 8, 2024

    Good comments.

    Yet we all know the answer to why nothing is being done to stop the boats. All major parties are playing their part in making sure the treaties signed by May, to give illegal immigrants privileges, is adhered to.
    There was never any need for such treaties, but the globalists made sure that the indigenous were put at a disadvantage.

    Labour in particular want more voters, so they will just encourage the illegals.

    While the state uses ever more oppressive powers over it’s own citizens, it refuses to safeguard them. Globalist strategies will mean that those born in this country will soon be outnumbered, and very soon it won’t be our country any more!

  48. K
    August 8, 2024

    ‘Parties’ ???

    The Small Boats is firmly a Tory story. This and their mass legal immigration has destroyed them. They will never form a government again.

    Labour have only been in a few weeks.

    Britain is finished. Those pathetic scuffles by ignoramuses we saw last week were the last harrah ! of a dead nation. What follows is a bit of tit-for-tat sectarian killing and the accelerating slide into a wildly different nation altogether.

    1. Bryan Harris
      August 9, 2024

      @K – You forget – Mass immigration started with Blair

  49. ChrisS
    August 8, 2024

    As a skipper with more than 55 years of experience boating in the UK, Europe, and the Far East, I know that if I attempted to launch a boat in France without all the proper equipment and with even one person aboard more than the certified number, I would be arrested and fined.

    The French are deliberately turning a blind eye and doing the absolute minimum they think they can get away with to keep the flow of money coming in from our stupid government(s). Who are the fools here?

    Rwanda at least had a chance of succeeding, Mrs Balls hasn’t a clue what to do. In the meantime, the smugglers know that there is now nothing to stop them from ramping up departures because there is now no deterrent whatsoever!

    1. a-tracy
      August 9, 2024

      Yes, exactly, Chris.

  50. Peter Gardner
    August 9, 2024

    From the French viewpoint, these unlawful entrants are no more welcome in France than they are in the UK, French resources are stretched so why should more resources be allocated to stopping unlawfuls leaving France for UK when the main thrust of french policy is to stop them crossing other borders into France in the first place and secondly to remove those unawfully in France. It doesn’t matter how much UK pays France unless the sum is so vast as to pay for officers and facilities and the training of these officers and associated benefits, none of which would otherwise be required. That sum would be much greater than just the day to day operational cost of the anti-Channel unlawful migrant operations in France, much greater.
    Furthermore the UN Convention on Refugees gives France an easy way out. Art 25 specifically requires a state such as France to assist those seeking asylum elsewhere. Art 31 requires France not to restrict the movement of refugees or to penalise them in any way if they have travelled directly from the place they have fled from. Contravention would quickly result in numerous legal challenges to French action against those seeking travel to UK.
    The UK should simply return the channel crossers to France on the assumption they have all been issued with identity/travel documentation iaw Arts 27 & 28. They can be regarded as residents of France, since that is what they are in legal terms. It makes no difference to the requirement to posess legal travel documents to enter the UK whether they have travelled by air, the Channel Ferry or by a boat hired for the purpose.
    UK also has recourse to its domestic law. If the passage is unsafe, the drivers of the boats should be arrested and charged with endangering human life at sea under under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
    The UN Convention oin the Law of the Sea gives the UK the right to act to prevent a breach not only in its territorial waters but further out in the Contiguous Zone up to 36 nm from the UK coastal baseline.
    There is nothing in law to prevent UK exercsing its sovereignty by sending the boats and their passengers back to France other than a lack of political will by both the entire Westminster and Whitehall establishment – excepting the Reform UK MPs.

    1. Peter Gardner
      August 9, 2024

      PS. the requirement not to penalise asylum seekers resident in France is why we see videos of French officers standing idly by watching the migrants. If there is a fracas, it’s better for the French if those involved get across the Channel so they don’t start legal proceedings in France.

  51. Audrey Moulds
    August 10, 2024

    I agree 100 per cent with all you say. In fact I continually make the same observations to friends when discussing this dreadful situation. Why are we paying large sums of money to France for a service which is withheld entirely it seems.

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