There is understandable impatience by many over the illegal migrants turning up across the Channel after chancing to people traffickers. It is high time the governments on both sides of the Channel clamped down more effectively on this wicked and dangerous trade.
Whilst governments will want to help anyone inĀ peril on the sea, they should also wish to send clear signals to all involved that people trafficking will not profit the organisers and will not gain the objective of the customers. If both parties think they will get what they want out of their rash and dangerous actions, they are likely to continue. If the traffickers deliberately put the customers at risk in an unsuitable boat, forcing rescue by government, it is important that theĀ people trafficker is apprehended and not remunerated. Ā The UKĀ and France need to step up joint action, and France needs to try harder to stop the boats leaving their shore or proceeding far out to sea with the danger that introduces.
May 11, 2020
It will only stop if the UK makes it clear they will not be allowed to stay in the UK. Clearly they are not remotely doing this. They might as well put a sign up on the white cliffs of Dover saying all are welcome (if you just get here) so go and find a boat.
People who apply correctly through the system however will have endless expensive hoops and delays to jump through and will be rather be unlikely to get in.
May 11, 2020
Why do they want the UK? Well, France has a ban on certain garments, unlike the UK. France restricts most arranged marriages, unlike the UK. France takes effective action against FGM unlike the UK. France does not fund reIigious schools, unlike the UK. France requires ID cards and regulates the cash economy, unlike the UK, so it is hard to work unseen there. France does not allow religious activity on public property, unlike the UK. France does not have a pre-existing, largely separate cash economy among some people’s respective kin, unlike the UK. France has historically stressed integration above multi-cuIturaIism unlike the UK. France denies citizenship to those who do not expressly and solemnly state their allegiance to the letter of its written constitution unlike the UK.
If not for that, then maybe some would not try to come here.
Voting Leave changed nothing though, did it?
May 12, 2020
Well have not even left the EU properly yet and we clearly have a government lacking the backbone to even try to address this issue. They try to sound tough but do nothing of substance. Nothing to see here. The Kent police even knocked on Farageās door for his reporting and publicising the numbers coming in every day to Kent.
May 12, 2020
Mic those all sound like sensible reasons to stay in France.
May 12, 2020
Martin, People who you support prevent us implementing those sensible French measures. And we still pay and obey the EU empire – until at least 31 December.
May 12, 2020
MiC’s comment has succinctly put the real issue in perspective.
“It is high time the governments on both sides of the Channel clamped down more effectively on this wicked and dangerous trade.”
John, is yours a serious comment? It did make me chuckle. It is the considered opinion this Government and its predecessors have been deliberately derelict in their duty to protect the British society and legal immigrants. I would further add…mass immigration typically votes Labour (the plan), but then of course you know this, hence the shallowness of Politicians in general?
I would strongly suggest people are waiting “over-patiently” for actions and certainly not more disingenuous political platitudes! It appears only Farage is up to the job, and the Establishment clearly do not like him drawing the public’s attention to the gross ineptitude of the present Government on this important matter?
May 11, 2020
UN migration Pact signed by Mayhab. Two weeks ago UN told nations to treat illegal immigrants like they were legal and provide health care and housing. Is your govt signed up to this or not? Secondly, is this another example where your govt tells the nation one thing, like cut numbers of immigrants to tens of thousands, but actually does the opposite? Tell us the truth JR because your govt lied to us over ten years on immigration and acted in stark contrast to its published policies!
You will also be aware the govt released 700+ from its immigration deportation centre a few weeks ago! Will they become lost to the Home Office system like the three hundred thousand under May and Rudd?
May 11, 2020
Obviously our govt know that is the case, which leads me to believe that they are deliberately encouraging the trafficking as part of their commitment to the UN Global Compact for Migration which Mrs May signed us up to.
May 11, 2020
>Clearly they are not remotely doing this.
No, instead they are flying irregular migrants in from Athens as we speak.
May 12, 2020
From the rise of UKIP and the Brexit Party to all the elections and polls over the last ten years, a single ideal, a single theme, a single message was sent by the peopleā¦.get immigration under control
May 11, 2020
As an ambassador friend of mine (who had leading posts in migration authorities) said “If you take them they will come”. I would add “If you pay them they will flock” With migrants entitled to annual payments far in excess of a British State pension (for which the British have to work a lifetime) this island is Shangri La for them. What a farce.
May 11, 2020
Why should France lift a finger? You Brits chose to walk away from the EU, the place where Europeans co-operate and solve our problems in common. You took back control so get on with it, stop whining.
Reply The EU didnāt help us when we were in it.It usually delighted in forcing us to accept laws and policies we did not want.
May 11, 2020
Pierre
Why should France lift a finger ?
Why am I not surprised by that attitude.
Because perhaps France are attracting more and more streams of illegal immigrants to enter what I assume is your Country (France), in order for some of them to try and get to the UK.
Have you ever been through the so called no go areas of Marseille, and the northern parts on the outskirts of Paris.
If not, then can I suggest you go and view for yourself, and ask the French Government if they are happy with the number of illegals entering France, from other Countries under the so called Free movement process.
May 11, 2020
Most of them want to stay in France or in Germany.
Only a relative few want to come to the UK, but that is still a considerable number.
May 11, 2020
and all of them unacceptable.
May 12, 2020
Many will be, but we don’t know the facts in all cases do we?
May 11, 2020
We will look after ourselves, thank you, with our German, Spanish, Polish, Irish etc friends. You look after yourselves, on your own. It is what you voted for.
May 11, 2020
we will enjoy watching your chums looking after each other.
May 12, 2020
Well, they’re doing pretty well so far, if you look at the fall in cases there, and at the absolute numbers in many countries.
The most withering criticism of the UK government’s appalling complacency and inaction is in the Italian, French, German and Spanish press, not in our own.
The Continent is aghast.
May 13, 2020
Martin in Cardiff
Perhaps you should read non-english European publications (use google translate) and better understand there are indeed serious issues throughout Europe….even better if you have family, friends or colleagues around Europe that can provide a rather more in-depth coalface evaluation of reality.
The biased (some say, politically motivated) MSM are very adapt at muddying the waters when it comes to information for British consumption?
If an individual has a myopic view point, then they are rather easy to persuade/manipulate towards a particular narrative…don’t be one of the fooled?
May 11, 2020
It means you can go on holiday via Drance without quarantine. Presumably to boost Frances air line industry and economy.
Two weeks ago Johnson gave the EU an additional Ā£754 million to find a vaccine! Did he learn nothing from Germany’s recent reaction for PPE and every country for themselves including India refusing paracetamol to be exported and France seizing two lorries of face masks destined for U.K. etc! Utter idiot.
May 12, 2020
+1
May 12, 2020
No, it means that you can come back from holiday IN France.
France is a sovereign nation entitled to impose whatever restrictions it wants on people entering France.
You’ll be quarantined there, soon, if not already.
The UK is now a serious health menace to other countries.
May 12, 2020
Martin, France is certainly not entitled to impose whatever restrictions it wishes. France must obey the EU in these matters.
May 12, 2020
Wrong, Nick.
Public health matters are sovereign.
May 12, 2020
EU law allow the imposition of quarantine and the suspension of free movement.
May 11, 2020
All Frances no go areas, 750 of them, are not subject to The French lockdown. France has no control over anything. Britain must take control. We insist that all illegals are repatriated to their last port – France.
May 12, 2020
Says you and whose army?
May 12, 2020
That’s childish playground stuff, even by your low standards, Martin.
May 12, 2020
I was expecting ‘my dad’s bigger than your dad’ from Martin
May 11, 2020
Immigrant unaccompanied minors are left to wander around France, falling prey to people traffickers and abuse.
What kind of behaviour is that for a civilised society? Why do the French authorities not step up to their responsibility of taking these children into care?
May 12, 2020
They have and have reached an agreement with the British government whereby those underage children are to be reunited with their relatives living in the UK on compassionate grounds…
… except that the UK government has dragged its feet and refused so far to take any despite its promises of the contrary for fear of what the Daily Mail would say.
France is not there to solve Britain’s problems. The UK is a sovereign state.
May 12, 2020
Tabulazero, The UK does not have this problem – France does.
May 12, 2020
Problem which easily be solved by letting all the people above jump into a boat.
May 12, 2020
Very interesting comment. Two decisions were taken by the French Government in conjunction with children-related agencies about this problem, one on 10/09/2018, and the other on 31/01/2019 (trying to) define/ing a proper framework.
The second one has created the so-called AEM database (Appui a l’Evaluation de la Minorite) a national biometric database aiming at registering these youngsters/young adults ‘left to wander around France falling prey to people traffickers and abuse’.
The real ‘mineurs’ (aged less than 18 years) then become the responsibility for education, health, care and other social services of ‘Aide Sociale a l’Enfance’ (Social Aid for Children). People found aged over 18 (thanks to various investigations) are made the responsibility of another service for lodging (often immigrant-linked charities).
The main problem it seems is that only about 60% of the youngsters/young adults accept such a situation, which include French language classes and schooling/training
The other 40% are thought likely to drift towards ‘Calais’.
So the problem clearly exists but it is much more complex than the caricature you drew.
I wonder what a civilised society like Britain’s does in similar cases. Expect the newcomers to dissolve in the landscape and then declare there is no such a problem as in France?
May 11, 2020
A strange attitude to take to a neighbouring allied country. The EU really has become very dysfunctional at so many levels.
May 12, 2020
Brexit is fundamentally hostile to France and the rest of Europe. The no deal the UK government is actively seeking will hurt the economy in France. I really wonder who is the bad neighbour there ?
May 12, 2020
No, no, Tabulazero, you kept telling us Brexit (which hasn’t happened yet) was self harm and the EU was too big to care, and too big to be harmed.
May 12, 2020
You kept telling us that the UK would not leave without a deal. I think the German car manufacturers were supposed to do something.
May 11, 2020
We did indeed take back control. The spat is between us and our government for not using it, and not with France. From France, we never expect any co-operation. Our host is wrong to do so now.
May 11, 2020
Peter. Only five eastern EU countries didn’t sign the UN migration compact and you are all commited to assisting economic migration across the Med and across your country. Your gendarmes could stop this racket if they were instructed to by Macron. But he is a creation of a clique of globalists who, like big business, support the migration of cheap labour to replace a falling proportion of native workers. You couldn’t even help yourselves.
Good luck to your hotels and restaurants this summer. We will miss them.
May 11, 2020
You French didn’t do much to deal with the illegals in your country when we were properly in the EU. The rules don’t allow you to stop them on entry, and so you like them getting in a rickety boat/dinghy – perhaps drowning, making their way over to us. With Border Control you could have turned them back. But then you have the EU.
May 12, 2020
Maybe the UK could introduce some form of ID cards to check who is entitled to stay in the country and who is not… like pretty much the rest of Europe ?
Why did you think migrants were so desperate to get to these shores ? The weather ?
Reply People come with passports.
May 12, 2020
even illegal immigrants do you reckon?
It is hard to ask other countries to solve your immigration problem while the UK is not doing much about it.
May 12, 2020
Tabulazero, Yet it is people like you, and who you champion, who squeal at the first sign of a clamp down on immigration. Not that immigration is ever really halted, of course.
May 12, 2020
Tabulazero, Why are these people so keen to escape from your EU empire?
May 12, 2020
Because they know that once they are in the authorities have no intention of expelling them.
May 11, 2020
There are far more Channel migrants now than there ever were before Brexit. Another humongous failure by the Brexiteers who said theyād end it but who have failed on an epic scale.
May 11, 2020
Blame France
Nothing to do with Brexit.
May 12, 2020
Itās native EUROPEANS escaping the EU to the U.K. as well if course, we provide for 3 million of those at least.
May 12, 2020
Lynn
And how many of our ‘native’ Englishmen/women are escaping from a brexit England? I would guess millions won’t want to live in the sort of country you want to drag us into. Like stepping back centuries.
Of course people like you never think about previous centuries when our own people were the world’s biggest migrants and swarmed all over the globe destroying local culture wherever they went.
May 12, 2020
Margaret H, Everything you claim there is false. You have no basis for your view that millions of the English will emigrate because of Brexit. Most of the world is not in the EU – are they “stepping back centuries”? Of course not. Moreover, it is quite a different matter to migrate to an empty land compared to migrating to an overcrowded country like England. Population numbers matter, even if you don’t have the ability to understand that.
May 12, 2020
Recently you were telling us that we couldn’t live abroad in Europe due to leaving the EU.
Now here you are predicting millions will be leaving the UK to live elsewhere.
Strange logic.
May 11, 2020
Being in the EU meant NO BORDERS and free movement for everyone. So any criminal being handed a bought, fake passport in Bulgaria or Romania – could walk straight into the UK with hands out, free everything.
May 11, 2020
bigneil
Some more Brexiteer rubbish. We never joined Schengen and could do what we wanted. Now we have to fly in Romanians/Bulgarians to harvest our crops as the locals won’t budge from their armchairs. And maybe some more Chinese cockle pickers from Wuhan?
What a laugh.
May 12, 2020
Your “we”, the euphilic infested civil service does not do what we the electorate wanted or want.
Plenty of local people applied for crop picking, the problem is the euphilic farmers don’t want people who won’t live in their caravan parks and take even lower pay.
May 11, 2020
Rubbish Pierre. We were saddled with these illegal immigrants even when we were in the Eu. When have the French ever helped us? It is a problem for France and shouldn’t be shifted to us..
May 12, 2020
Shouldnt be shifted to us?? Well tough, matey, France HAS shifted to us, so what you going to do about it? As an EU member, we in the UK could use the Commission, MEPs and the ECJ to put pressure on France. Outside the EU, we have nothing, nada, zip. Great job Brexiters, you have left our country weaker than it has been since 1066
May 11, 2020
You ignoramus, Why should France lift a finger? Because we are paying them Ā£Millions to do what they should be doing anyway but as usual they take but are incapable of doing their job. These invaders should be returned to France before they reach the UK, the UK Gov as usual are ignoring their own promises to return the aliens to France. Methinks the day will come when the True Brit has to take matters into their own hands. BNP & Britain First are starting to look very good to me. Priti Patel is beginning to look like all talk and no deeds. She was going to do hell and all to stop Foreign Aid, she did nothing, she was going to stop these aliens, she has done nothing. just can’t trust Cabinet MPs to keep their word anymore.
May 12, 2020
I think that France is making a better job of restraining these people than the Tories are of suppressing the coronavirus epidemic, and the latter is costing hundreds of lives every single day.
But get worked up about this if you prefer.
May 11, 2020
Why should France lift a finger? You Brits chose to walk away from the EU, the place where Europeans co-operate and solve our problems in common?????
Yeh, we have seen with the COVIR_19 how co operative and brotherly you all are.
Riots in France & Germany, eu27 closing their borders from each other, non of you can agree on a monetory aid package, Germany stops export of PPE, Germany gets 52% of the apple pie, France 20%, the rest bitz? The only good thing about COVIR_19 is that there is a good chance it will destroy the eu once and for all. Music to my ears.
May 11, 2020
“…… the EU, the place where Europeans co-operate and solve our problems in common. ”
I’m surprised you can say this with a straight face. As soon as the seriousness of Covid-19 became apparent, national boundaries returned. The EU is a house of cards.
And I doubt if Greece would agree.
May 11, 2020
Barry
Just what have we done to help others? We can’t even keep Scotland, Wales or Ireland on our side because they don’t trust us to do right by them.
May 11, 2020
Pierre
“Why should France lift a finger?”
Why did we lift a finger to liberate your country from tyranny ?
You have a very ungrateful attitude.
May 11, 2020
Pierre
“the place where Europeans co-operate and solve our problems in common.”
We shall see about that, when the EU fails. You’ll be at each other’s throats, but guess what…..next time we won’t be helping you out.
May 12, 2020
+1 – but remember that we British have wonderful friends in every European nation who want for their nations exactly what we want for ours. They are willing us on so that their own people have the hope of achieving the same.
God help EUROPEANS, their leaders have collaborated in their destruction.
May 11, 2020
+1 we should not have allowed de Gaulle to march into Paris first. It confused the French as to whom they owe the lives.
May 12, 2020
Haha!
“We”!!!
You weren’t even thought of in WWII!
May 12, 2020
Reply to reply
“The EU didnāt help us when we were in it.It usually delighted in forcing us to accept laws and policies we did not want. ”
We begged to be allowed to join when our own attempts to create a trading bloc like EFTA was overtaken by the EU – no doubt because it was superior to our own. When you join a club, like your local golf club or whatever, you accept the conditions rather than re-write the rules.
France’s de Gaulle didn’t want us in and ironically it was Germany that backed our application. No doubt they have come to regret it.
May 12, 2020
When you join a golf club you pay the fees and play golf. You don’t expect the Committee to tell you how to run your life. We want free trade that’s all, so do the EU if they had the sense to admit it. The Common Market as was has gown like Topsy as any organisation will do when you put people in charge of other people’s money.
May 11, 2020
All good in theory John, and given we have funded the building of miles of fencing and extra security in France over the years, you would have been forgiven to think that co-operation has already been in place for some time.
Unfortunately experience shows this is not the case, and clearly it is not working.
Given that the French have border control officers in the UK, and we have likewise in France, why not take the ones who actually get here, straight to the French Border force in the UK to be sent back to where they came from.
Why cannot we patrol the French coast with our border force, and any illegals get turned around whilst still in French waters, this is what happens to illegals caught attempting such in Calais Port, they are simply returned to the outside of the compound surrounding the Port
It is not really that difficult if both Countries really want to stop trafficking, and there is the problem, do you really think either Country can be bothered.
The illegals and the people traffickers are making both Governments look like fools, you may as well put up sign posts now such is the flow.
May 11, 2020
Why would France want to let British patrol boats in its territorial waters? Brexiteers have made clear their contempt for the idea of EU vessels in our waters. Yet you expect something back. Odd.
Also your suggestion on what to do with the people rescued at sea is illegal. If the claim asylum we are legally obliged to help.
May 11, 2020
It is 21 miles from Calais to Dover.
International waters are 12 miles from each coast..
You do the maths.
May 11, 2020
Andy
Ever been through Calais Port and others to see how it works Andy, you go through two passport controls, one run by the French one run by the British, exactly the same operation in Dover.
So why not have joint patrol boat crews at both ports and the surrounding seas.
Hardly blue sky thinking is it, where there is a will there is often a way !
May 12, 2020
They don’t land at the ports.
They make shore anywhere along the coast, the more secluded the better.
May 12, 2020
Andy the French don’t mind being in our territorial waters for fishing do they?
May 11, 2020
How do you know that they came from France, and not from Belgium or from the Netherlands, say?
You see, they often will not say. Nor where they entered Europe, nor their home countries.
So to where are they to be returned?
May 11, 2020
I think most come from America.
I think I am right.
May 13, 2020
To a bribeable Third World country outside of the EU which we pay to take them. No point in returning them to France, the smugglers often offer a free second attempt. Of course they would have the choice of returning to their own country instead, with our assistance if necessary. Once it was clear that they cannot stay the flow would dwindle to a trickle as they turn to easier pickings in the EU, which after all invited them. Australia did it, all it requires is genuine political will.
May 11, 2020
And the French are turning a blind eye whilst the Home Secretary duckspeaks and achieves nothing. The only way you will stop this is by confounding the business model. Returns at sea by vigorous patrols and ensure that no boats can reach our shores and are sent straight back to France. Offer to jointly patrol the French border with the French to see how cooperative they really are to stop this evil trade which is all coming from French shores.
It will take too long to keep trying to prosecute the traffickers for them to be replaced by others. Confound their business model, they are doint it for profit!! Blue sky thinking Home Secretary, eat your own words!
zorro
May 11, 2020
” ..and clearly it is not working.”The Tory Party enjoys promoting procedures which clearly don’t work.
May 11, 2020
Whilst governments will want to help anyone in peril on the sea, they should also wish to send clear signals
Yes you are not wanted here should be a strong message, just stop helping them into Great Britain they know that once theyāve landed in Britain they have a very slim chance of being sent back to Europe so tow the boats back to France , and while your at it Sir John why not introduce a bill so I.D cards are introduced for every one we are living in changing times, itās now time to get tougher with illegals
May 11, 2020
The first people to obtain IDs will be the āasylum seekersā they will arrive on the beach with one. Thatās why no IDs.
May 11, 2020
The racist left really have got the Tory party by the cojones. The BBC and the Guardian control the Tory PM’s actions on certain issues. You can see it since 2010.
Your party’s desperation to neutralise the left’s accusation of racism against your party has led us to this point.
Your leaders have capitulated across the board to the race and ethnicity activist pressure lobby and crush debate on any issue that dares touch on skin colour and ethnicity.
In effect the Tory party in government have crushed freedom of expression and exposed this nation to harm to protect its own skin on this and indeed other leftwing issues such as sexuality, gender and gender. This is not Tory thinking.
May 11, 2020
+1
Brilliant comme toujours!
May 11, 2020
Do you understand these two words, Dominic?
“International”?
“Law”?
Now, put them together and try to work out what that means eh?
May 11, 2020
Do you understand that we recognize and obey democratically enacted law? Who makes āinternational lawā (or European law) and how do we sack them?
May 12, 2020
Well, try breaking a serious one, as say, Serbia did, and see what happens eh?
May 11, 2020
People traffickers should be treated and dealt with like terrorists. There is a lot of support for such an approach in France, especially as regards those trafficking people across the Mediterranean.
Once a few have been made an example of the trade should stop. Unless someone has the right to claim refugee status it must be clear they are deported in the first instance back to France and then it’s up to the French.
May 11, 2020
Everyone has the right to claim asylum. And the UK has a legal duty to consider their claim.
May 11, 2020
And reject it.
May 11, 2020
Indeed, it is in the French interest to confound the business model. Are they happy with having a permanent refugee camp presence in the Pas De Calais??
zorro
May 12, 2020
The French people are in despair! They are fighting for their country physically! On the streets! Never confuse the government of a country with the people.
May 11, 2020
I have never heard of a trafficker being arrested, has anyone here? It must be so easy to confront them – ‘I’m a refugee and I’ll pay you’ – ‘Actually I’m a police officer and I arrest you’.
So no one is interested in tackling the traffickers so no stopping it. Etc ed Not a single journalist has identified a trafficker? Who’s selling the boats? oh that’s a secret and no one is allowed to find out.
Where does the large money go to – Romanian/Bulgarian banks? French banks? Untraceable?
May 11, 2020
IF we were really serious about deterring illegal immigrants, we’d collect them and immediately deport them back home – rather than making them welcome with all that that means – Time we stopped playing the soft touch…!
France only cooperates with us when there is some advantage to it, like money, and then reluctantly – otherwise they (Political France) do not make good friends – they cannot be relied on – we must make our own rules on this and stick to them
May 11, 2020
It is important to remember that the French are always there for you when they need us.
May 11, 2020
Q – How many French would it take to defend Paris?
A: – who knows – its never been done.
May 12, 2020
Fred H
Some more cheap digs? They should belong to the comments pages of the likes of the DMail rather than the blog of a respected member of parliament.
May 11, 2020
Immediately rounding them up and sending them back is illegal. Do you have an option which isnāt against the law?
May 11, 2020
Yes
Stop them leaving.
May 11, 2020
Do like Australia and keep them in an off mainland detention centre. South Georgia sounds about right but it may upset the penguins.
May 12, 2020
Whose laws @Andy – I suspect you are talking about international law??
It’s more likely to be one of the two UN treaties that May signed to give immigrants special status
We need to change our laws in this respect, for sure.
…. but we cannot discuss here any UN treaties that take away our deocracy
May 12, 2020
Andy, you’ve repeatedly told us a) that you run a successful business and b) you object to measures to stop illegal immigrants. Could there be any connection between the two statements?
May 11, 2020
Exactly as I have said for years, they only respect you if you are strong.
zorro
May 11, 2020
Bryan Harris
“IF we were really serious about deterring illegal immigrants, weād collect them and immediately deport them back home”
Won’t happen until we get government with the guts to stand up to France.
May 11, 2020
Good morning -again
France wants to offload their problem. As a consequence they have no desire to prevent this illegal activity. We have also made this worse by signing up to agreements which prevent us from labelling illegal immigrants, illegal. There is more we can and should do.
Finally. What happens to these people once they arrive ? Are they released into the community or, held somewhere in quarantine? Given the current situation I think it is very important that the government make this clear.
May 11, 2020
Those who are successful hide in the cash economy amongst their kin.
They do not report to the nearest police station do they?
But their numbers are dwarfed by those landing normally at airports and simply overstaying visas, having melted into the crowd.
The recent problems with flight perhaps have increased these attempts.
May 11, 2020
Well said Martin!
+1
May 12, 2020
Only Labour proposed to address this problem with ID cards and checks on the cash economy.
John’s party prevented that.
May 12, 2020
ID cards don’t belong in a country like ours. We’ve never had ‘papers please’ like the continent. ID cards can be forged and would be.
May 12, 2020
Because it was very unpopular.
May 11, 2020
We have drone technology That is used in Afghanistan/Syria etc it beggars belief that flying up and down the channel they cannot spot these people before they launch. Again like the virus your incompetence is putting lives at risk. How many terrorists are getting in?
The French couldnāt give a fig, after all they are illegals there as well, so losing a few is a good thing, so stop this illusion that they will take some action.
Your government from promises made in Mays time as Home Secretary to now has lied to the British people about being serious about this problem and Ms Patel appears no different.
I will huff and puff and blow your house down.
May 11, 2020
Drones are used and are flying over the channel, operated from Lydd. They cannot detect the boats crossing using the cover of darkness.
May 11, 2020
In addition to the drone used, operated from Lydd, a light aircraft is being used for ‘surveillance’ It flies from Doncaster, making a round trip of approx 700 miles to give perhaps 4o mins of on site viewing. Surely it could be operated from Lydd also, if not then choice of Biggin Hill, Southend or even Gatwick would make for greater cost and operational effectiveness.
May 11, 2020
Turns out hard problem are hard. And no amount of Faragist hot air will fix them. Who knew? Wait til you find out that Brexit wonāt fix your petty problems either. That will majorly set you off.
May 11, 2020
I hear the French will not suffer two weeks quarantine if they land here.
It’s funny, I’m not bad at spelling but I have to look up the correct spelling of ‘quarantine’ every time I write it. It could be, after doing great research, because being British I’m not completely au fait with little used words
May 11, 2020
Simple lack of political will, if our political class really wanted to stop it they could easily. But rather like “immigration down to the tens of thousands” they say one thing but pull the levers of power in the opposite direction.
We are still printing uncapped work visas for Indian nationals to come in with skills in oversupply. Not just a virus problem, but a problem for the economy.
May 11, 2020
The government and public officials are too indifferent and/or incompetent to stop the flow of illegal cross-Channel migrants or else it would have ceased years ago.
So instead of enticing us with promises of a solution, can the Government confine itself to overblown, vacuous Ministerial statements of intent?
May 11, 2020
If migrants can find the traffickers, why canāt the authorities?
And if it is the case that the traffickers find the migrants, then the traffickers would find undercover officers.
The authorities, on both sides of the channel, are not bothered.
There is no point taking back control of our borders and then letting everybody in.
One can feel sorry for individual immigrants, but the flow must be stopped.
There needs to be more effort to increase economic opportunities in the source countries. The border needs to be enforced. Traffickers need to be put out of business.
Control The Borders. Stop Trafficking. Save lives
May 13, 2020
Anyone found in our territorial waters illegally should be escorted back to where they came from, or to international waters if they will not say where they came from. They are criminals and invaders.
May 11, 2020
Yes a cooperative French Government would arrange it’s refugee camps in Vichy. I doubt the burghers of Calais appreciate their location adjacent the town. By now the details of the traffickers set up should be known and their structure. Said parasites should be swept up and returned whence they came. Then the humanitarian victims could be humanely dealt with.
May 11, 2020
Propelled by flawed advice from pseudo-scientific āexpertsā our government continues to get things dreadfully wrong.
Countries like Denmark and Austria have demonstrated the success of restricting inward travel, but here great numbers of potentially infected arrivals have been able to land at e.g. Heathrow and hop on the Tube with little or no precautions.
An excellent recent study by De Kai et al. presents grim warnings of what is going to happen here unless the goverment very swiftly advocates widespread appropriate use of face coverings in public situations – reading strongly recommended, free full text may be downloaded by searching for ā Masking is Urgent in the COVID-19 Pandemic ā
May 11, 2020
Just on a related topic, why are arrivals from France going to be exempt from this 14 day quarantine plan ? So someone arriving from South Korea is quarantined but someone from Paris isn’t – where’s the logic in that ? Also the quarantine plan is idiotic anyway, just make arriving travellers pay for fast covid tests – Austria are doing this already, people who take the test and are negative don’t have to quarantine for 14 days.
May 12, 2020
Itās important to catch CV19 from the right people, obviously!
May 12, 2020
The rate of community infection in France is now far, far lower than it is in the UK.
The danger is to the French, from the British, not vice-versa.
May 11, 2020
“Understandable impatience”. I’ll say there is. Apparently the government has limitless resources to squander for locking up it’s own citizens and wrecking the economy but is completely unable to prevent small boats crossing the channel full of illegals. Indeed the illegals are ferried here by the very people charged with preventing their entry. What exactly is the state for? Oppressing it’s people whilst it replaces them? That’s what it looks like.
May 11, 2020
Putting a British water taxi service in the channel has not exactly deterred the illegals, has it.
May 12, 2020
As you well know, it is not supposed to.
May 11, 2020
This absurd situation highlighted by Nigel Farage requires answers from the Home Secretary. We all had such high hopes that she would at the very least sort out this nonsense. Unfortunately all we have had from her is total and complete silence. Is she working or perhaps she has been furloughed?
May 11, 2020
Only forcibly removing them and returning them to their homeland/country will send the signal to those wishing to enter the UK illegaly and those that profit from this trafficking.
If the traffickers are shown as not able to deliver in the homelands of these people they will no longer get the custom. A hard ask, task and not a nice thing to be forced into doing but, in the end necessary to save lives.
The UK has a history of providing a safe haven to those that genuinely suffer persecution elsewhere. The Illegal Immigrant is robbing those we would instinctively help from getting a place in the queue.
At the moment is acting as agent of the traffickers – that cannot be right
May 11, 2020
Anyone who attempts to travel from France to the UK without going through the proper immigration procedure is a criminal and should be treated as such. They should definitely not be rewarded for their illegal actions by letting them remain in the UK. The only exception would be in the highly unlikely case of a French citizen fleeing persecution by the French authorities.
May 12, 2020
This is what I have been saying. Their very first act upon arriving on our shores, is to break the law.
May 12, 2020
To be in this country without lawful authority is, without more, a civil, not a criminal matter.
May 12, 2020
Wrong.
May 12, 2020
No, it can be criminal, just as playing the trumpet can be, if you defy a court order to do it.
But without more, just like that, it is not, as I said.
May 12, 2020
Don’t you believe the barrack room lawyer?
May 11, 2020
It is clear the French are not cooperative nor are they particularly interested in being partners in solving this serious problem.
What is needed is firm action by our government. Why is it considered that we must get the agreement of the French before doing something, anything. Our borders are being challenged and violated – it’s not a problem for the French after all. Appeasement is the mindset enjoyed by our establishment and other leaders, especially of the French who always make demands.
Do something. Act. Tell the French, yes, tell them our borders are closed from now on to illegal activity and we will patrol close to their coastline and elsewhere in the Channel as there are also many reports of people in distress in unseaworthy vessels and criminals attempting illegal movements Any such boats will be taken to their shores as the nearest safe place.
And let’s not call the illegals ‘customers’, are we afraid to call them ‘spades’? I dare say it’s a fear of upsetting someone which prompts its use. That wouldn’t do would it?
May 11, 2020
I think the Brexit Party view on this would be to assume that the French have no interest in stopping this trade, and to take action on our own behalf. Take back control of our borders, not rely on others to do it for us.
May 11, 2020
IMO French authorities have been aiding and abetting the removal of illegals from France and our Government, like all Governments since Bair, has no intention of restricting or preventing imigration, legal or illegal.
What the people of the UK think matters not a jot to them. If we had offspring just setting out in life I would suggest emigration.
May 12, 2020
What, and inflict yourselves as immigrants on others?
May 11, 2020
France maybe should do more to stop people leaving their shores…well they won’t will they, because they are leaving the country so why should they bother? If migrants choose to endanger themselves at sea, that’s up to them. Those posters on here who bang on about Britain having a “duty” to rescue these people are actually condoning the illegals arriving on-shore. Most boat trips are in good weather with calm seas, they are hardly “in danger”. They should be turned away. The Home Office is under some malicious magic spell, the inaction is beyond belief. I and millions are furious. This is aided invasion.
May 11, 2020
Oz has shown how you deal with boat people, as has Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, you don’t allow them to land , and you certainly don’t allow them to barge their way into your country. Our Government has not only failed to learn this, yet again, but has rolled out the red carpet with Priti Patel’s Channel taxi service.
We are told these illegals are monitored for Wuhan flu, but we know that is a load of rubbish, the British state has probably lost track of them the moment they walked out the door. Of these people who have come from a safe country, France, barely handful have been kicked out, its clear if a migrant gets to the UK there are here permanently , there are no borders here worth describing as such and no control, the British state has given over our border controls to, charities, human rights lawyers and activist judiciary.
I gather we can’t deport one undesirable because he hasn’t got an NHS to go to, so it seems the human rights lawyers and activist judiciary have found a wheeze that means we can’t deport anybody, for no other country has r NHS, and if enough weren’t washing up on our shore I gather the British state is flying a plane load of migrants in from Greece. But never mind we have lots and lots of unused open space, lots and lots of spare housing, and we aren’t one of the most overcrowded countries so can take an unlimited number of people. Not!
May 11, 2020
Sorry not related to the post.
I see it reported that China is looking to put an 80% import duty on Australian barley for their temerity to challenge China on the Wuhan flu. They are waging an economic war against Australia, they are trying to silence them. We have also seen China , under the cover of Wuhan flu, making military incursions into the Philippine sea taking control of several reefs. Meanwhile our lot are Kowtowing like mad to the Chinese Communist Party. This has to stop, we must stand by our Australian friends.
May 12, 2020
+1
May 11, 2020
What’s this tosh agreement between the Uk and France? Anyone coming from France are not required to go into quarantine yet others are? So a boatload of French migrants can turn up in Dover and stroll right into the UK?
What type of party have the Tories morphed into? Quite simple, this party when in government is not prepared to do what is right out of fear of being accused of racism and xenophobia
You are now totally captured by the London centric activist left and i include the BBC, Labour, the unions, celebrities and any other virtue signalling idiot who enjoys taunting the Tories with the race card
Why should the 90% have to suffer demonisation and the destruction of our freedom of expression because your party haven’t the guts to do what is right? Indeed the part itself have self-subjugated and demonised themselves to please the left
When will you understand that you will never be able to placate the left and their political program to use race and ethnicity as a battering ram
May 12, 2020
Correct on all points.
You don’t appease them, you fight them. Heath tried to, and lost. Mrs.T didn’t, and won.
May 11, 2020
Why would France want to do that ?
May 11, 2020
more nonsensical garbage for the dwindling masses- whatever happened to taking back control
May 11, 2020
I gather we are not going to quarantine travellers from France. Is that to ensure there is no hindrance to the free flow of migrants from France ? I suppose if we did quarantine them that would go against their human rights, be traumatic for them, and open the British state up to be sued for oodles of British taxpayers cash.
May 11, 2020
Usual talk from politicians and no real action.
May 11, 2020
We should adopt the WĆ¼rzburgā type of installation detector as was constructed at Douvre, France, with a graph, ‘R’, lots of curves to prove its authenticity to Remainers.”It will work!”
May 11, 2020
We know what must be done. Australia demonstrated it.
Every illegal migrant who is caught trying to break into the UK must be turned back / shipped straight back out again. They must learn that they will not be allowed to stay.
At the moment, we’re providing a free ferry service, courtesy of the Border Farce.
Sadly, whilst we have a so-called Conservative Government which has removed the Civil/Human Rights of the British people via a Statutory Instrument, they treat illegal migrants as “special people.”
May 12, 2020
Curious that you don’t want to do the same as Australia did about coronavirus.
That is, stamp it out decisively and effectively.
They do not have hundreds dying every single day.
May 12, 2020
And they closed their borders.
Which you dont want.
May 12, 2020
The UK should have started quarantining all arrivals at the very beginning, along with test, trace, and isolate.
It was all too much bother, it seems.
But there would have been no need to seal the borders, which, as these people show, cannot be done anyway.
May 11, 2020
It appears that France as well as Ireland is to be exempted from the quarantine rule for incomers. This seems inexplicable unless it is to spare the government the embarrassment of having to quarantine the two to three thousand illegal arriving every month. It really is time to get much, much tougher.
May 11, 2020
Our Government is all talk and no action. The patience of the British people is at an end. Until we see actions like withdrawing our signature from the ludicrous UN Global Compact For Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration; disbanding our lefty EU loving Supreme Court and leaving the European Court of Human Rights then I will not be convinced anything will change. When we canāt even deport a criminal back to Zimbabwe because he wonāt get the same level of medical care as in the UK then we know the establishment puts the rights of foreigners above that of its own people. Iāve lost all faith. I hoped a huge Conservative majority might change things but apparently not.
May 12, 2020
+1 Boris must go!
May 11, 2020
As long as you leave out the honey, the flies will keep coming. Remove all financial support to those pitching up on our shores uninvited.
May 11, 2020
The UK is our home. If people enter our home illegally, we should not allow them to stay in our room just because they managed to sneak in unnoticed. People in peril should be assisted to safety & comfort, yet that does not extend entitlement to citizenship.
Those who recklessly imperil themselves, with intent to be saved as a fast track admission to live in the UK, should be treated accordingly. Questionable cases should be routed to a Haven Island, funded internationally, with basic facilities for people to live, work and improve their circumstances. Each Haven resident would be able to apply to any country in the world willing to accommodate them.
May 12, 2020
Rather than create a colony, the services of a cross-channel ferry could be utilised to provide basic accommodation while collecting an economic consignment for transfer to British territory. Gibraltar would seem ideal. There are several such vessels ‘furloughed’ at present.
May 11, 2020
YES, 50 refuges fly in from Greece today and no quarantine if arriving from France.
May 11, 2020
From Factcheck “In April 2017, the Home Office responded to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request asking how much it had āspent since 2010 to deter illegal immigration in Calais and the surrounding region.ā
The government response says that it spent Ā£316 million from 2010/11 to 2015/16. The sum was Ā£40 million in 2013/14, Ā£49 million in 2014/15, and Ā£112 million in 2015/16.
Itās unclear how much of this spending is counted within the Ā£150 million spent in the last three years, reported by the Press Association.” Dated Jan 2018
Do we get a rebate from France?
Do we not patrol the Channel? Don’t we have any checks on vessels that sail from France? So someone could come into the UK with bombs, guns and all sorts and just sail across the border in the Sea unchallenged?
Why do they want to come to the UK instead of staying in France, what more do we award to them? How do people get here legally, where do they wait if they apply, how long does it take them to come legally if they have family here?
May 11, 2020
You can’t get into Cherourg without showing a passport but you can land anywhere alone the Kent coast without having one
May 11, 2020
What are we doing in England that makes these so called asylum seekers come here, that they are not doing in France.
When the reason(s) are identified, stop doing it/them.
May 12, 2020
Read my first comment.
It is often what the French are doing that the UK is not, which makes them want to come here.
Also that there are large numbers of their co-ethnic fellows here already, but not in France.
May 11, 2020
Get the navy off their rears in Portsmouth and start patrolling the Chanel. Intercept the illegals and tow them back to French waters. Priti Patel is doing a lot of talking but not much action is taking place. The French must be delighted.
May 12, 2020
Frankly, the French are probably more busy with COVID-19 right now.
May 12, 2020
Yes, and they are winning too.
Deaths per day down to tens from hundreds.
May 12, 2020
Macron screwed up at first but he managed to get a grip on the situation in the end. This is still far from a good performance.
What I donāt understand is why BJ with all the advance warning in Europe and the fact that the UK is an island waited so long before ordering the lockdown ?
If hospital in Northern Italy are overrun, what exactly was he waiting for ?
May 11, 2020
Well done for mentioning the objective of the people traffickers’ ‘customers’. This situation is not all down to traffickers and often only half the story is told. It is the customers who initiate the passage and provide the money. They are not victims – if they were being trafficked against their will they would surely be delighted if we were to offer them a return flight home. And lastly, while much is said about the danger these migrants face, no politician ever seems to focus on the danger they pose to us.
May 11, 2020
I’m not one to quote The Sun newspaper, but Trevor Kavanagh hits the nail on the head here… https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11592292/trevor-kavanagh-lockdown-terrible-mistake/
Kim Jong Al has put our economy in danger whilst Sweden, whose urban centres where most of the population live has a similar density to ours, has a far lower death rate and a functioning economy. Some interesting figures about the casualties in Sweden which include a high percentage of African (Somali) immigrants, which supports the theory about the inability to absorb Vitamin D.
zorro
The Dear Leader has made some terrible blunders
May 11, 2020
Perhaps if we all wear Rainbow coloured neckerchiefs and carry Costa Coffee “recycling” cups we will send him positive vibes!
zorro
May 11, 2020
France has no incentive to stop the illegals leaving. They are part of the stupid Schengen agreement so are overwhelmed by immigrants, especially those let in by Merkle with her ‘we can do it’s mantra.
Now many French and German cities are no go areas.
Of course they want us to suffer.
May 11, 2020
Angela Merkel was the only world leader with the humanity and courage to help these refugees fleeing civil war and often certain death.
Although it was our own illegal invasion and war against Iraq that started the whole Middle East tragedy, we decided to leave others to deal with the dreadful consequences.
A stain on our country but a heroic decision by Frau Merkel who came to the rescue and risked the anger of her own political opponents.
May 12, 2020
There is no point in entering into a moral debate with people who clearly have no moral consciousness, Margaret.
The “thinking” goes no further than “Who cares what we did to them? Or what problems that caused for the Continent? They’re all foreign” it seems.
May 12, 2020
Are you actually kidding, we have taken in thousands of legal immigrants fleeing, thousands, we have also paid out millions to refugee camps problem with you and Martin margaret is that you have nothing good to say about the UK and feel that you own the moral highground.
July 2019 The UK this week reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Syrian refugees in Jordan with a Ā£55 million donation to UN humanitarian agencies over three years. The funding will support UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF and will be primarily used for cash-based assistance to Syrian refugees as well as broader services for refugees and the host community.
28 Apr 2016 – TURKEY and a string of Balkan states will be given a Ā£1.8BILLION by Britain
The British Red Cross supports vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers.
Save the Children – The UK has provided more than Ā£1 billion in humanitarian aid to the Syria crisis, and most recently pledged Ā£84 million to help the Government of Jordan ensure Syrian children are attending school.
17 Jan 2020 – The new Ā£320 million UK aid will run over the next five years, supporting a further 22 million people and 3.9 million small businesses across 45 countries in Africa, including giving them access to mobile banking for remote communities.
20 Jun 2019 – The UK’s Ā£14 billion foreign aid budget
go google for more yourself perhaps you could add some of the good we are doing right now.
May 12, 2020
First as an East German she acquired the WEST. Then the dim countries around her made Germany the treasurer, the manufacturer, the High Court, and in a stroke allowed a million or two ‘soon to be workers’ trample across borders to join her workforce.
Can’t be bad eh?
The Frau has certainly got balls.
May 12, 2020
Ian Wragg
“Now many French and German cities are no go areas.”
Really? Where are they? Can you name them?
And how many weekly stabbings do they suffer in comparison to say, London?
May 12, 2020
Read comments in Guido about 750 no go areas in France France running a parallel economy on drugs and crime.
There’s an excellent piece by a French academic saying he feels France is heading for a civil war
If Marine Le Penn gets in at the next election she will use the army to sort it out.
May 13, 2020
If it is on Guido it must be true then.
May 13, 2020
IW, Iām pretty sure you must know all the details.
This Guido thingy is in fact based on a story put by Daniel Pipes on his website on 14/11/2006. This author has updated the site over the years and includes some entries till 20/12/2015.
Did Daniel Pipes (contrary to Guido?) go and visit these no-go zones?
First, what is being called āno-go zonesā is what the French Government calls āZones Urbaines Sensiblesā (Sensitive Urban Zones), areas where the French police has over the years had and still has difficulties with the local population.
Second: Yes, Daniel Pipes visited some of them and has a statement about them on 14/01/2015 (interestingly after quoting some Nigel Farage immediately before):
It is under āMy replyā 14/01/2015.
So there you have it (danielpipes.com) if you are curious enough to check for yourself.
May 13, 2020
Ian, I have been searching on the Guido website and could not get anything about these 750 no-go areas. When did this item appear on Guido? And who is this French academic? This information would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance.
May 12, 2020
And London is run by another leftie who’d rather play politics than do his job.
May 11, 2020
If, say, 50000 people die from the virus, how long will it take to replace them? At YOUR governmentās normal rate of immigration- 300,000 net a year, it will only take 2 months to get the dead replaced. Every cloud, eh?
May 11, 2020
Kim Jong Al has shown his true colours – he is no conservative. All those doubts like when he bottled the leadership immediately after winning the Brexit vote come smashing home – Gove was right!
Two very hard hitting articles on the Conservative Woman website today which lay his foibles bare and may well show that Sweden and Belarus had it right all along. We know now that the lockdown appears to have encouraged the transmission of the virus by close, enforced contact with others. Why are people catching it at home after seven weeks of lockdown?
https://conservativewoman.co.uk/bottler-johnson-a-truly-terrifying-disappointment/
https://conservativewoman.co.uk/is-there-any-point-in-social-distancing/
Zorro
May 11, 2020
The lies are getting more outrageous – Sir Patrick Vallance stating at a 5āo clock press conference that the ONS are including death certificates with COVID 19 when there has been no testing of the individual involved.
JR, THIS IS OUT AND OUT FRAUD, CAN YOU PLEASE TAKE THIS UP WITH THE AUTHORITIES!?
Policies and decisions are being made on the basis of fraudulent information!
Zorro
May 12, 2020
This is provided for in the SI. Also that Doctors signing death certs need not have ever seen the patient. Johnson is colluding to increase the death stats to justify his bankrupting us, but now he is accused of being the ābiggest failureā as the U.K. is worse than elsewhere. He is unwell and must step down.
May 12, 2020
There is not enough capacity to test the livings. Why spend it on testing the dead.
May 12, 2020
We normally ascertain cause of death to ensure no murders are undiscovered.
May 12, 2020
And what the government does now (since April 29th) is to record as a covid death people who sadly died while exhibiting the symptoms.
The symptoms are enough.
Now if there was testing capacity to spare then testing those people would be better but given the current situation it is better to test the livings.
May 11, 2020
I think Sir John you are making the Error of suggesting that only smugglers are breaking a law by ferrying migrants from Calais
They are responding to a need and these illegal migrants intent on entering U.K. illegally are willing to,pay well for their service ,they are not forced There will always be someone willing to supply a boat assured that U.K.Border Force will respond to their call to collect passengers
I suggest that those who solicit this service with a clear intent to enter U.K. illegally should be held accountable also.
It should also be the law that they are required to have a passport or I.D which they had already produced in France or not be processed but returned to the Port they departed from .
May 11, 2020
fully agree
May 11, 2020
Returning to Test and Trace – -examining data linked to in the 50 pages:-
Deaths mentioning Covid-19:-
London 55% / NW England 42% / NE England 41%
Deaths in Care Homes:-
Week 16(latest) 7316
Week 15 4927
Week 14 3600 only approx provided.
Week 13 2400 only approx provided.
Surely this alone demonstrates where the focus ought to be addressed.
Travel rules and social distancing must be enforced geographically.
No movements between Hospitals and Care Homes, and full PPE to be ensured at Care Homes.
May 12, 2020
Fred, the Government’s attitude seems to be along the lines of “What? You mean soldiers need ammunition? And weapons? No one told us that”
Sadly, people such as Ed2 here claim that to be a perfectly valid excuse.
May 12, 2020
See you are getting another dig in Martin.
You lefties sadly can stop it.
Here you make up stuff that I never said.
Really pathetic.
May 12, 2020
Just trying to bring some simple focus to the ‘Elephant in the room’.
In order to whittle down how it gets spread, a focus on WHERE and HOW needs to be addressed – the ‘hotspots’ and the ‘easy victim contacts’. Once inroads are made on the few big-hitters the R number will fall and the cases naturally decrease, which in itself will allow easier tracking and testing. A win-win cycle.
May 11, 2020
I am sure that Australia saved countless lives with its policy of preventing unauthorised migrants from getting to the mainland.
By contrast, the eu policy encouraged more risks and undoubtedly cost many lives.
We should do all we can to ensure that unauthorised migrants on boats are sent back.
This will save lives imho
May 11, 2020
and australia has only 97 covid-19 deaths….let me say that again only 97 deaths total
May 12, 2020
The European Union has no immigration policy.
It is a sovereign matter for member nations.
May 12, 2020
Rubbish.
It’s one main part of the 4 freedoms imbedded in Treaty law.
May 12, 2020
Movement of Europeans around Europe is not considered to be immigration by anyone other than English europhobics such as you, Ed.
May 11, 2020
“People who travel to Scotland for anything other than essential purposes are “potentially in breach of the law”, Nicola Sturgeon has said.”
Give little people power….
May 11, 2020
It would need to be essential before travelling to Scotland, surely?
May 13, 2020
Scotland is part of my country which Sturgeon has made ugly and nasty. She has cast a snarling bitter shadow hiding the sun of Scotland. Does she snap bite, we think so.
May 11, 2020
what law ?
May 11, 2020
It is eather gross dereliction of duty by the Government, or the Remainers are still in charge,
I expect it is the latter.
Why must we put up with these Government Remainers, just get shot of all these people working for The Other Side should be a criminal offence ?
May 12, 2020
You are “the other side”.
Of civilisation, that is.
May 11, 2020
Most are being trafficked by criminal gangs for money.
These exploiters buy their tiny boats and then fling them into the sea.
Whilst they have an understandable desire to reach the UK, they have already travelled through many other safe countries other than their own.
Being in France means they are already in one of the world’s best democratic nations.
But if they reach here we should test all of them and quarantine those who prove positive..
May 12, 2020
Edward2
Good morning , Constable, good weekend?
May 12, 2020
… bleats the lower third hall monitor
Slow day in the Berlaymont? Grow up bill/hans, whatever your name is.
May 12, 2020
Lockdown getting to you bill?
May 12, 2020
Edward 2
Considering I am working in Asia with no lockdown I could not care less, Constable
May 12, 2020
Sad man.
Grow up.
May 12, 2020
Democratic? – – Thats what hundreds thought on the carts heading for Madame Guillotine!
May 11, 2020
How many times does it have to be said…..it’s the french authorities.
This is not just traffickers.
Now we have Boris Johnson exempting France and RoI from quarantine.
Border control? sick bloody joke.
Why the hell is it so difficult to have a PM with the guts to stand up to France ? It’s pathetic, downright bloody embarrassing to be honest.
May 11, 2020
We should say if someone attempts to enter the UK illegally then they will be locked up until we convict them of their criminal offence (illegal entry), after which they will be refused entry to the U K on the grounds they have a criminal record. A nice Catch 22.
Of course this but a pipe dream as an army of libertarian do-gooders and well-fed lawyers have so undermined our legal system as to make it nearly impossible to keep people out. Itās only bad weather in the Channel that protects us. On calm days (e.g last week), across they come. More fools us.
May 11, 2020
and if someone says that the French health system isn’t as good as the NHS the illegal migrants can stay in the UK forever
May 11, 2020
Apparently – A group of 16 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and 34 adults left Greece Monday morning on a flight to the United Kingdom, where they will be reunited with family members who are already there.
It seems this is a part of the EU scheme to bring 1600 child migrants from Greece to various countries in the EU. I suppose the UK gov and/or the Joint Committee of the Withdrawal Treaty have agreed to this. The scheme for our destruction continues.
May 11, 2020
Far too soft John. Despite promises to the contrary, successive governments have been letting in illegals without hindrance. This has to stop. It should have been stopped years ago.
May 12, 2020
It has to be reversed!
May 11, 2020
Boris was vague yesterday to sidestep mischief makers using the Employment Rights Act to cause, in effect, a general strike.
Today’s GOTCHA questions for Boris “So if I’m out meeting one friend and another comes around the corner do I ignore them ?” or to that effect, or in response to any wilfully obtuse question such as “So what is work ? Can I go or not ?”
I wish Boris had been direct. I wish he said this, “Our people understand that we need to get the R rate down and what we need to do it and have proven themselves capable. I trust them and treat them like adults.”
Are we having a general election ? Sir Kier Starmer was on the box giving a political broadcast about who’s worth what.
May 12, 2020
There’s another who is scared stiff and wetting his pants at someone mentioning flu deaths.
May 11, 2020
This is one of the subjects in which the public have been misled for decades. Its as if successful governments are in favour of illegal immigration; an element of which is (I understand) slave (or serf) trading; some of the illegal immigrants are no doubt evading their responsibilities in their homeland.
May 11, 2020
The British public are not falling for this! We have all had our rights stopped temporarily – that goes for anyone attempting to come into this country. This should be so anyway, under the present conditions we have been placed under – why should we all have to adhere to lockdown when foreign people can enter by sea and air, without any checks and not have to be placed under lockdown. This justs makes a mockery of the whole exercise and has acted to convince the public that the whole virus issue is a fantasy event, that is the reason why so many people are now ignoring the ‘rules’.
May 11, 2020
Using the media to brainwash us is not compatible with free speech or journalistic inquiry
May 11, 2020
The Bracknell Tip is still closed – please Sir John advise the authorities that others all over the UK are opening.
Excuses are wearing thin – 1 man inspecting driving licence address through the closed driver’s window is not going to spread the virus.
May 11, 2020
Fred
I contacted Bracknell this afternoon, this now for the fourth time in four weeks, I asked when the Tip would be open, Customer Services said “we are waiting on advice from the Government”, I said you had that yesterday, the reply, “but they have not told us yet how to do it”
My final comment, do you really need someone to tell you how to run a Council tip safely, do you not have a Health and Safety department.
Their own web site say’s it open, the excuse given “we are waiting for Google to change it”.
Astonishing, absolutely astonishing, and I pay these people nearly Ā£3,000 a year in Council tax.
Must be wonderful to have captive customers who are legally forced to pay you no matter what sort of service you provide.
May 13, 2020
Re3 Centres in Reading and Bracknell will reopen to the public from 18 May, but on advanced appointment only. This can only be settled within seven days of the desired ‘trip to the skip’ at
https://www.reading.gov.uk/recyclingcentrebooking
May 11, 2020
Interesting to read that the ‘clapped out’ USA has been conducting 300,000 tests every day.
May 12, 2020
Phew, imagine what it could do if it was not doing our testing for us and was not clapped out. āOur NHSā is the only thing that really deserves to be clapped ou – even I would open the door and bang my pots.
May 12, 2020
One possibility is to turn Stornoway into a large internment camp. If you enter UK illegally, you either return back whence you came or stay indefinitely on Stornoway. Nice enough in summer but ..ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦
May 12, 2020
JR you haven’t got time to read everything I write. I know. I love my country. It hurts me in this time. Like with high priced tobacco, many usually law abiding people get contraband tobacco, the young facing high priced alcohol and tobacco choose drugs as a cheap alternative which they can afford. Many have told me this. I worked with the young. I’ve been young unlike politicians. This is what my peers told me also.
The point. People one way or another will mix despite alleged danger which ‘conveniently’ does not wipe out generally under 60s. They will say “So, I will not go near old people”. Many don’t anyway.
Darn it, let the young go back to work! Less time bumping into old people!
It just doesn’t work, gradualism. A restaurant or cafe or pub depends on optimum number of customers for margin profit. As one experienced barman told me when I questioned him about the close proximity of another pub locally as to competition “No, we feed off each other, they flit too and fro and the fish n chip shop is between the two”
In a larger context, the pubs, the cinemas, the theatre, the cafe, the fish n’chip shop and even the bookshop and the sweet shop feed off one another..My point is made. All, start together!Profitable and employs the most.
I know “experts”..what they say. It is a pity the UK does not have any and I must watch such as Brett P. Giroir who is in my estimation the greatest! I heard him again tonight. He is a genius. Yes I do respect genius and true experts. He said things I did not know more about!!!!! Our Chief Medical Officer is not fit to lick his boots!Really!
May 12, 2020
We are in the middle of a communist coup, what looks like an intentional cull of the elderly all over the globalist world and people are moaning about some immigrants coming in from Calais? You are all under house arrest.
May 12, 2020
Re above comments on recent regular migration / arrivals from Greece: Would suggest that it is likely that this is in line with the bilateral agreement between Greece & the UK, reported in “The Greek Reporter” last month, signed 22 April between the UK’s Immigration Minister Mr Philp and Greece’s Alternate Migration & Asylum Minister. The strategic plan I understand provides for the reallocation of unaccompanied minors from Greece to the UK & the reunification of refugee children with any relatives who are already in the UK. Was also reported that the Greek Coastguard would also stage joint search and rescue operations in the Aegean Sea with the UK’s Border Force.
May 12, 2020
Pierre, If only! Actually you need our cooperation in other areas, so you will have to get used to cooperating with the UK on a fair basis, rather than just bossing us about as you did before.
May 12, 2020
Margaret H, Some more Remain rubbish. In the EU we must let in anyone from the EU and we can’t stop them. All that not being in Schengen achieves is that we can check their paperwork. Nor do we need to import labour – it’s people like you who insist on that. Leaves were specifically opposed.
May 12, 2020
Have these latest migrants,flown in from Greece,been tested? What about the regular arrival of migrants on boats. Do they get tested? Time for Priti Patel to take some action,not words.
May 12, 2020
Well said.
It makes a refreshing change for an MP to side with the majority of British people and take a stand on illegal immigration.
It should be quite easy to spot boats coming from France and return them. And any illegal immigrant found in our country should be deported immediately.
Traffickers should have their assets confiscated.
I am quite happy for our country to provide aid to genuine refugees who go to the closest area of safety from a conflict.