Portsmouth this evening

[Shmoigel]

Has anyone else seen the news about what’s happening in Portsmouth this evening
A boat has arrived in Hampshire and the protesters from Dover are currently in the sea blocking passage with hundreds more on the quay blocking coaches waiting.

You’ll have to say more. How is ‘ordinarily’ changing it?

A memorandum of understanding with the French nationalist anti immigration party formerly known as the National Front is going to take in immigrants that it had just got rid of?

How long is Farages photo opportunity going to last in French politics ?

www.reuters.com/world/farage-bardellas-small-boats-pact-draws-criticism-france-2026-09-05/

I don’t think you’ve understood a word I’ve said.

Shall I try once more? It is the government’s job to defend our borders and protect its citizens. We elect them and pay them taxes to do so. They invest in an army, navy, police force and border control who are all tasked with defending our borders.

They are not doing so. Why? Well, not because it’s too difficult or because ShakeMeUpJudie hasn’t suggested exactly which method they should be using. No, they are not doing it because they have chosen not to.

So the issue is not “How can we get illegal migrants back across the channel?”. The questions are “Why is our government failing to use its vast resources and capabilities to defend our borders?” and “What can we do to get our government to defend our borders?”.

Whoever said the protestors threw water first, I'd like to see a link to that video because all the ones I've seen quite clearly show the protestors having water thrown at them deliberately to soak them to make them move out of the water.

They posed no risk to the police or the RNLI so there was no justifiable cause to do it.

Also multiple videos of police using batons to attack people who you can clearly see are just standing there.

Absolutely disgusting.

Then why are people begrudging and calling to defund the RNLI, when by your own admission it isn't up to them whether they go or not? Can't have it both ways.

Here’s a nice fellow who has made their home in Portsmouth…

Absolutely. It is the same argument around ambulances and drunk people, extreme sports etc. There aren't many true emergencies that have absolutely no root in a poor decision. Even the hardiest seafarer can make the wrong call, just watch "Saving Lives at Sea" 😉

No - you have ‘misunderstood’
The call handler routes the call to the RNLI.
The call handler should be given better training and not route the call if it is out of territorial waters, or a migrant dinghy.

Yes, how else do you think a lifeboat gets launched? A call comes in, they launch. If, as previously stated, the lifeboat is launched through the Coastguard, then it isn't the RNLI's responsibility at all, and all the eejits on here ranting about cancelling their non-existent donations ought to be apologising and redirecting their ire appropriately. Which is it?

Yes, so why are people ranting about defunding the RNLI and saying that any volunteer with moral fibre would not be going out to those calls? Rant on about the coastguard! Or any other emergency service you want to name. Why pick on the easy target?

A call handler can reroute to RNLI, yes, but that isn't the sole way of launching a lifeboat.

Have you watched any of the videos from Portsmouth last night? If you had you would be aware of the level of planning that has been coordinated between various agencies including RNLI to welcome the “asylum seekers “. The RNLI are not sitting by their phones waiting for an alert to “rescue” a small boat of “asylum seekers”. They respond whether the boat is in trouble or not and are clearly working with the authorities to bring these men ashore.

Also interested in those going on about the masked protest in Dover, do you think of the many masked pro-Palestinian protestors who have filled our streets for almost 3 years as 'thugs'?

The BLM protestors?

These?

Masked Muslim youths take to east London streets to 'defend our community' after police banned UKIP march to 'reclaim' the area | Daily Mail Online

They was a reason the Dover demonstrators wore masks. The demonstration was not announced ahead of time to the police, therefore the police couldn't arrest for concealing identity as the area wasn't designated for protest activity, or more importantly try to stop it which has been happening.

It should be noted there were NO ARRESTS from the Dover demonstration, which has apparently largely been attributed to the police not being made aware in advance so no 'counter protestors' like Antifa being bussed in to agitate and create tensions.

Saw that with the Bell Hotel in Epping. Would never have believed if it they weren't caught on video getting out of the minibuses with the police standing at bus exit as they got off!

That poor boy

I wonder who ‘called the RNLI to report a vessel ‘in danger’?
Seems like it wasn’t since it was seaworthy enoght to make a lengthy crossing and no-pne was ‘in peril’ when they were welcoming the illegals.

Now I've heard everything, how big do you think the Falklands are? Great, British government betrays British people that live there.

Anyone offering up Falklanders as sacrifice needs to take a good look at themselves.

You don’t see it then? I accept there’s different viewpoints and one’s core beliefs will influence perception.

However, to me the rise in racism, thuggery, bully boy tactics and misogyny seem part of the same zeitgeist.

I completely accept concerns about males coming here. I used to work with refugee YPs and while the vast majority were wonderful, we did have 2 males (Afghan and DR Congo if my memory serves me well) who had been boy soldiers and needed a lot more rehabilitation.

Nevertheless, the reported increase in sexual violence from asylum seekers is vastly exaggerated (Oxford observatory via Radio 4 More or Less) through statistical manipulation.

The greatest threat to women and girls, sadly, remains in the domestic setting. This isn’t to say I don’t believe that all newcomers should not be vetted, supported and if necessary detained if deemed necessary prior to decisions about going or staying.

It isn’t a perfect solution but what is? And definitely better than those thugs embarrassing this country on the beaches. Again, displaying aggression toxic masculinity.

Let's be honest, this situation with the boats is insane if you look at from a pragmatic POV.

The immigrants got into France after travelling through Europe unhindered due to those countries choosing to be part of the Schengen Area.

They stayed in France and did not chose to claim asylum there hence you could argue they are not genuinely fearing for their lives (or their claims were refused in France and the other EU countries they travelled through), therefore they have no legitimate claim to asylum and are classed as 'sans papiers' in France. This is a crime resulting in a fine and deportation.

It's is France's responsibility to ensure these 'sans papiers' have legal action taken against them immediately they become aware of them, which is not hard to monitor. We could help them if needed!

Instead the French allow them to set up encampments and hang around for weeks or months BECAUSE they don't want to deal with supporting the migrants while they are engaged in years of legal battles to prevent deportation costing millions in euros (they give that gift to us). They don't have to pay anything for them while they're in the encampments and obviously WANT them out of their country so to go to the UK.

Any reasonable person might ask - but hang on, you LET them in your country by not having enforceable borders which you chose to do by choosing to join Schengen.

The UK did not join Schengen. We are an ISLAND.

Simplest solution is to either transfer migrants to a Navy vessel and return them to France if they manage to get into our waters.

France should face heavy penalties for each boat as what they are doing amounts to people smuggling.

We should also use our Navy to patrol the Channel with warnings to migrants boats to turn around of they will be escorted back.

A few months of demonstrating migrants WILL go back and France WILL have to arrest illegals and deport, will surely be a massive demotivator.

Why can't we put this in place?

Some of this depends which version you believe

The official version...

The boat got into trouble about an hour of the coast in France and the passengers made a Mayday call

So at first it was French authorities escorting the boat.

The HM Coast Guard contacted the RNLI and they liaised with the French authorities to arrange for them to arrive at a particular landing spot.

to be honest, it pretty much follows the pattern of how these things always happen, except I'm not aware of them having landed at Portsmouth before. There's always a huge amount of official involvement isn't there?

I looked into this a lot yesterday because of the unusual route. There will be more to come at the weekend I think. Something to do with tides. And unusual launching an arrival point but the authorities are on higher alert for it to be used later in the week. But that basically means the boats get an escort, yeah.

Why didn't the French coastguard escort the boat back to France if the Mayday call was in French waters?

Because they don’t want them and they know well happily take them?

I dont understand the comments saying * let them drown shall we or just shoot them ? "

I heard a navy man on the radio and he explained how the larger boats have smaller boats that would bring the migrants aboad then return them wherever ? Or block and escort them back.

Sorry but you haven't a clue. A workmate of mine 15 years ago, moved away from Keighley with his family (where they'd lived all their lives) because his teenage daughter couldn't walk in peace to the bus stop without a car full of Asians kerb crawling and making indecent suggestions. Nowt to do with the far right and bloody flags!

My understanding is that it’s always the case that it’s considered a massive risk to actually try and turn a boat around? In the case yesterday, these unstable mega dinghies are considered particularly risky. I think it might be one of the reasons why the traffickers overcrowd them. Because then it becomes more and more hazardous to actually try and turn them around. The risk of people drowning is very high.

it has been done, I suspect the movement of the tides and so on will be connected. I suppose they only do it if they consider it safe to do it. It has been done but not very often I think.

I agree that the French are likely to have questionable judgement on what is safe or not because they don’t want to deal with them. Again, it’s just my understanding, but I think yesterday‘s crossing was considered to be particularly risky.

I think activity is going to be particularly high before winter kicks in, and we will see more and more unusual launch points.

Not that I want to give the traffickers (and all the Care for Calais etc crew) ideas, but why don’t they aim for the Channel Islands?

I don’t know why some people refuse to believe this is a problem.

Girls and women (and sadly, boys as the story people have shared from Portsmouth). should not be harassed when walking down the street.

If posters who don’t believe it live in areas where girls can walk home from school freely and without issue then good for them.

That doesn’t happen where I am. My daughter is 13 and is not living a carefree childhood. She’s not allowed to the local park, just across the road from our house, without adult supervision, none of her friends are. There are always a couple of parents sitting on a bench, just incase. And parents have had to step in before when groups of men have approached the girls. It’s not right at all.

She is driven to and from school as there have been so many incidents outside and around the school, the amount of car pools parents have set up as they just don’t feel safe with their daughters walking or getting public transport it’s shocking. They can’t have any freedoms as it’s just not safe.

Yes, the one of the hotels that housed them near the school has been closed down, but what happened was they were moved to HMOs in the same area, so it did nothing.

I get lewd comments (broken English, but you can tell the meaning by their gestures they make), when I walk my dog through the park. I am 46 and can shout at them to go and fuck themselves and flip my finger, they don’t intimidate me, but I don’t want my child put in a situation like that. She would be frightened.

People can talk about the police all they like but this shouldn’t be happening.

I think people are just wilfully ignorant if they can’t see this is happening.