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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Lily Allen in Calais

310 replies

parrots · 12/10/2016 19:43

Couldn't find another thread on this. The situation in Calais is awful, but AIBU to see Lily Allen's overtures as slightly virtue signalling and self-indulgent?

OP posts:
EnthusiasmDisturbed · 13/10/2016 17:14

Now Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary are among those far more affected than the UK

Not sure they have had much choice in the matter Germany announced all were welcome and there was a sudden huge influx that other countries who were not prepared has to suddenly deal with hundreds of thousands of people trying to get to Germany. Italy are really struggling with migrant gangs and thousands of rufugees are trying to make their way into Europe via Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary are often very hostile towards refugees and have had an increase in support from the far right (this happening all over Europe) and in Greece gangs of locals and refugees are fighting and again many refugees are facing hostility and want to move on

They are taking more refugees but it's not without problems

PortiaCastis · 13/10/2016 17:49

Does Lily Allen have a new album ?
The bottom line is we have thousands of children here who need homes. Why is the scandal of Rochdale never mentioned by these egotistical z listers who say they speak for Britain.
Sorry Lilly you do not speak for me until you become a foster Parent and take in homeless children yourself. Go to a British children's home and stop the young girls getting out to be used as prostitutes.?
Help those who are told you're on your own aged 18. Work in a homeless shelter on Christmas Day love and then preach to your Country from your comfy mansion

sportinguista · 13/10/2016 18:08

Why is nobody taking on Putin to offer refuge to some of the refugees? After all he is the one doing much of the bombing in Syria and the Russians also had historic involvement in Afghanistan. Is it because he would say get lost?

PortiaCastis · 13/10/2016 18:18

sport yy to that.

justgivemeamo · 13/10/2016 18:28

Indeed Sporting good question.

myfavouritecolourispurple · 13/10/2016 18:33

yy - and Japan, which historically takes very few refugees at all.

I have to worry about what these people are being told about life in France if they think a camp with horrible living conditions and trying to get to the UK illegally is preferable to seeking asylum in France. I realise some have family here but then why have they not gone to the British embassy in Paris or indeed in their own countries to apply to come to the UK?

sportinguista · 13/10/2016 18:43

A great many immigrants actually choose to go to France. DH aunt and uncle are living there now. They haven't got great jobs and have had to learn the language but they've got by and life isn't horrible at all. Many people from the former French colonies choose to go there also ( I guess they do have the advantage of language) but they also do not start out with a job and place to live etc.

unlucky83 · 13/10/2016 19:01

Just noticed I had my post deleted - and no idea why...
So I'll precis the point
If we take everyone in (or even just certain ones -unaccompanied children, pregnant women etc) all we will be doing is encouraging more people to risk their lives or the lives of their children to get to the UK under the misapprehension fostered by the smugglers that the UK is some kind of Utopia...when they get here (especially illegally) they are likely to find it a very different story.
Meanwhile the smugglers will be making more money -none of those people in Calais got there without paying -the people smugglers aren't transporting them out of the goodness of their hearts...and the money paid wilkl be funding other criminal activity - drug and sex trafficking.
The people in Calais should be strongly encouraged to seek asylum in France - staying in official accommodation and keeping within the law etc they won't be subjected to tear gas or rubber bullets.
We need to support the camps around Syria and take the needy from there (the ones who can't afford to pay the smugglers).
Taking refugees from the Calais jungle may seem like a good idea - the right and moral thing to do - but in reality it is the very worst thing to do...can only lead to more misery...

Haunter · 13/10/2016 19:13

If we take everyone in (or even just certain ones -unaccompanied children, pregnant women etc) all we will be doing is encouraging more people to risk their lives or the lives of their children to get to the UK under the misapprehension fostered by the smugglers that the UK is some kind of Utopia.

Just thought I'd repost as it seems many people are having difficulty understanding this very basic fact. Let them in=more people die trying.

Me2017 · 13/10/2016 19:27

Indeed and the UK is doing more in terms of aid where it is needed than most other countries. We should be terribly proud of our efforts.

Lots of people already here in the UK don['t have proper housing. We are not some land of milk and honey with loads of spare money where everyone lives in houses like immigrants might have seen on TV shows.

aquashiv · 13/10/2016 19:41

She sounded genuinely upset by what she saw. You would have to be a right old cunt not to be moved by it. Cue Katie Hopkins.

Cubtrouble · 13/10/2016 19:41

The refugee situation is in Calais not the uk. I haven't done anything to cause it. I do think we should look after genuine refugees. We also send a lot of aid over seas,

However like that self righteous prick Bob geldoff Lily Allen can shut the fuck up. She has the audacity to flaunt herself in that camp where people literally don't have a pot to piss in and she's down there lording it up over people. She has no clue what it's like to be that poor and I hope that's the last of her crap those folk will have to listen too.

lizzieoak · 13/10/2016 19:45

Honestly, people can be a bit thick. When I first moved to the UK a fair number of English people did not think I was "up on the facts" as I insisted that Canada has poor people and they insisted this was not the case. Basically because they'd seen American sitcoms and pretty much everyone looked rich, and Canada was basically America, so (dusting off hands) job done.

So it seems entirely credible to me that migrants and refugees to Europe hold the same daft view of Britain, based on seeing a film of Buckingham Palace and perhaps an old episode of Poirot. Not everyone reasons that well, & people do tend to believe what they want to believe.

My English family and everyone on Corrie seem to basically believe that living in Spain or Portugal = a trouble-free existence.

deblet · 13/10/2016 19:46

I really don't see how over populating a small country like ours helps anybody? Esp now when we are very likely to go into a depression for a few years and money will be thin on the ground until we manage to settle everything.. I see working in social care now how little our own people are helped we do not have an ever open wallet or space. New Zealand and Australia have lots of space why are they not being harangued to take people? Why is it always us?

Babbas · 13/10/2016 20:20

It was a bizarre reporting imo. Lily looked like she was faking the crying. The guy facing her was clearly in his 20's and his complaining that 2-3 months waiting to get into the UK legally was too long was odd. Everything the daily fail readers loves to lap up. The maddening thing is that she raised some awareness but also damaged the cause for genuine child refugees. There are so so many children in calais who need help urgently. Why film with one who already is being processed to come to the UK legally and who clearly was not 13!

I volunteer with refugees and those who are genuinely fleeing death and destruction are resilient, resourceful and grateful to be alive and safe. However, there are also some who have fled poverty not death and they actually have damaged the cause of refugees no end. Those from Pakistan, Afghanistan, sudan, Iran, Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea. .... are mostly fleeing poverty.

But then who are we to judge what category of refugee deserves our help? We have been the cause or catalyst for much of what is happening in these countries.

BeckerLleytonNever · 14/10/2016 16:04

The bottom line is we have thousands of children here who need homes. Why is the scandal of Rochdale never mentioned by these egotistical z listers who say they speak for Britain.
Sorry Lilly you do not speak for me until you become a foster Parent and take in homeless children yourself. Go to a British children's home and stop the young girls getting out to be used as prostitutes.?
Help those who are told you're on your own aged 18. Work in a homeless shelter on Christmas Day love and then preach to your Country from your comfy mansion

and this ^^

MaryTheCanary · 16/10/2016 02:55

Sweden has had extraordinarily generous asylum seeker policies in recent decades, and pretty much let anyone one who asked nicely (poor old Sweden is currently backpedalling from this policy with some speed).

One consequence is that Sweden has had to slash its foreign aid, because they can no longer afford it--they are spending so much money trying to take care of people within Sweden.

Developed countries like Sweden have far higher costs of living (housing, food etc.) than developing countries, meaning that a million dollars worth of funds will purchase a fraction of the amount of food and housing that it would have purchased if you had spend the money helping the same people in their own (developing) country.

And the people who tend to make it to a developed country are, almost by definition, the strongest and fittest people, and yes, they do tend disproportionately to be young men. More vulnerable people tend to stay behind.

So... to sum up: what Sweden has chosen to do is to spend its money helping smaller numbers of less vulnerable people.

Norway, by contrast, adopted much tougher criteria for asylum seekers, and unlike Sweden has therefore been able to maintain its extremely generous and large foreign aid budget. A million dollars spent by Norway, therefore, assists much larger numbers of much more vulnerable people.

Put like this, it is not actually quite clear why "let everyone in" is actually a particularly altruistic or sensible choice.

I think Britain is doing the right thing by keeping the barriers high, BUT spending plenty of money supporting people in other countries. I DO support generous foreign aid and helping refugees overseas without stint.

Oh, and by the way....

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3840098/Calais-Jungle-boy-silly-Lily-cry-father-ex-Islamist-fighter.html

parrots · 17/10/2016 16:10

The first of the unaccompanied migrant children have arrived in the UK

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3843900/First-migrant-children-arrive-UK-Calais-French-prepare-raze-Jungle-camp-ground.html

OP posts:
EnthusiasmDisturbed · 17/10/2016 16:14

No girls

Garthmarenghi · 17/10/2016 16:23

Big,big boys

Me2017 · 17/10/2016 16:25

Indeed. We do less good encouraging people to risk life and limb to come here and by rewarding those who enter illegally than if we help them abroad.

The few (137?) children in Calais with relatives lawfully in the UK might as well come to the UK. I don't have a problem with that and it's not a huge number and they will largely live with their families and hopefully not be a drain on the state but 200,000 economic migrants from Africa with no skills and mostly male is a very different kettle of fish.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 17/10/2016 19:52

I'd be interested to know if those images show what they're claimed to show - after all it wouldn't be the first time a mistake had been made in pursuit of a point

If they are accurate, I'd also be interested to know how it's been determined that some in the photos are actually between 14 and 17 ...

Garthmarenghi · 17/10/2016 20:19

Sky showed a report on this evening's news of the ' children' getting off a coach and going into the reception centre in Croydon today. Same 'children' that were shown in the Mail.

backonitonmonday · 19/10/2016 14:03

I would have more respect for her if she and all the other Look at us we're so Minted lot opened their big houses and took some of these people in.
But that's never going to happen.

I know of one celeb who supposedly opened his doors, but they weren't the doors to the actual house where he and his family were living, (we like to appear caring and generous, but god forbid we should have to have them living under the same roof as us, or god forbid next door)
Far better if you house them in a bedsit/second property you happen to own, somewhere far away, possibly in another town, or even better, another county.
That way, you can appear to be generous without being too involved or too close.

When will Slebs realize that we see right through them.

Publicity. End Of.

backonitonmonday · 19/10/2016 14:05

How many refugees is she going to house?

Big fat Zero I would guess.