The People demand that the Boats are Stopped.

[noblegiraffe]

I keep reading about the Tory government working hard to deliver the people's priorities:

"Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Government are focused on five immediate priorities. We will halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut NHS waiting lists and stop the boats."

Halve inflation (will happen anyway), grow the economy (vague), reduce debt (vague), cut NHS waiting lists (maybe by paying nurses and doctors more?), stop the boats (what?).

Maybe it's just where I live, but I'm not seeing this immediate urgent need to "stop the boats". It's certainly nowhere near my top 5 priorities for the government to be immediately tackling. If it was, I'd probably look at creating legal routes for genuine asylum seekers as a first step rather than shipping them to Rwanda.

Is it in your top 5 urgent government priorities? Are they speaking to the people and I've just completely missed it?

YABU: Stopping the boats is in my top 5 government priorities.
YANBU: I'm more concerned about something else and would bump Stop the Boats down the list.

Can you imagine how desperate someone must be to do that?

My top 5 priorities would be
Education
Social care
Reducing corruption
Trade relations
Green energy

I could get on board with stop the boats in terms of better safe routes and stopping people trafficing but not in a 'no refugees here' way.

So is it, or not? I mean, the thread is asking 'is it in your top 5 priorities' and you're posting on it, so I'm not sure why you're being coy about whether it is or not?

I could get on board with stop the boats in terms of better safe routes and stopping people trafficing but not in a 'no refugees here' way.

Excellent point - and speaks the range of people who may have concerns for the current situation re: boats. from Farage to Starmer via Sunak.

Nobody crosses the channel from France to the UK because they are "desperate". They do it because they know we're a soft touch and we'll give them benefits and free housing.

I’ll bite. Tell me about these mythical legal routes.

Quite a few posters have said why they suppose it might be in some people's top 5, while it not actually being in theirs.

So you've met and spoken to asylum seekers have you? You understand their reasons? You have a good understanding of this "free housing and benefits"? Because I would beg to differ on all three...

justteanbiscuits - They don't need to be desperate, France and all the other countries I listed earlier plus numerous others are not at war. Now if it's traffickers threatening them and forcing them to hand over money and forcing them into boats then it's even more important to put a stop to this.

“Stopping the boats” and “stopping the people” are two different issues though aren’t they. Stopping boats is high on my priorities list, because they’re so horrendously dangerous, but stopping the people is low. I’d like us to do lots more to a) stabilise/grow other countries so that people don’t need to leave and b) put in place actual safe and accessible routes for asylum seekers. And maybe c) review the visa system so that some of our desperately empty roles can be filled by people who want to do them.

If it’s a “populist” policy though, I’d assume people with a wider view of the UK than me have done work to be sure it is. Otherwise it would just be “unpopular”.

I'm not being coy I just think it's tied up with other issues too and haven't actively thought about what my personal priorities are as the country is such a mess. Its very narrow minded to not be able to see why for some it's a bigger issue than it is for yourself. You're also not really responding to the insight you've asked for so what's the point?

What a shame OP that you are being so very antagonistic by even starting this thread, given that your previous posts have been very illuminating regarding the crisis in education.
As any old fashioned socialist will tell you, it is the poorest in society who are most affected by uncontrolled immigration. Their living standards that drop , their wages that decrease and their employment rights that are eroded.
Employers have gorged on cheap, disposable labour for years and this has directly lead to our low productivity levels. The other issues you mention are all directly affected by our enormous and rising population density. Even the water pollution issues relate to this as our infrastructure simply cannot cope.
Those that see no problem with people arriving uninvited condone people smuggling, modern slavery and insult those who go through the visa routes. When do you suggest that enough is enough? Our first duty now is to Commonwealth countries, as maybe it's time for a bit of payback. Who we have here now is welcome but we need to be aware of the quality of life for current occupants . I also don't see any of the virtue signalling directed at those European countries actively building walls to keep out asylum seekers, so easy instead to smugly label people here as racist without acknowledging facts

There are many reasons people want to get the UK.. language, relatives, support system. Living in filthy, dangerous tents in France in all weathers.

It's vital that safe passage is created to prevent the traffickers - that is who the anger should be directed at.

DoginaTent "Immigration and Europe were noone's priority until it was manufactured as a priority sometime after 2010.

The small boats are a recent creation of the current Government"

I'm wondering your age. As the 47 year old daughter of an immigrant, these matters have been under discussion for decades before I was born. The small boat route was reported on the news when I was a child.

OP I think we needed to have a reasonable conversation about legal and illegal immigration years ago but especially as immigrants and children of immigrants, we are told we are horrible racists so we just keep quiet.

Stop the boats is the new “Get Brexit Done”

Isn’t people drowning in the channel enough of a reason to want to stop the boats?

I was surprised that Sunak put it into his top 5 priorities to be judged against when there is next to no chance any of the things he is prepared to do will do anything about it!

I'm not against immigration done in a controlled and legal way.

But I am against people being trafficked and people being put in horrendously dangerous situations (both those in the boats and services such as the RNLI having to deal with it).

I am against the eye watering amounts of money being spent putting refugees in hotels, lining the pockets of rich hotel owners all the while the NHS, our teachers and emergency services workers are put under ever more strain, are woefully underfunded and poorly managed.

If by stopping the boats Rishi means he will sort out the immigration shit show and backlogs and work with other EU nations in order to make improvements for everyone. To address increasing crime in some areas and to free up money to be spent and prioritised elsewhere then yeah, it's in my top priorities.

But somehow I don't think that's what he means.........

That's a good question. How many people actually have stopping the boats as one of their top 5 concerns, so how many people does this directly affect, rather than how many people perceive it as an issue due to government and media messages.

For me, it is not in my top 5 concerns, I would very much like safe and legal routes to be introduced (maybe via an embassy/embassies), and for the vetting process to be sped up. I don't like the prison ship, it demeans our country. I would like to hear from those affected about what things could happen in their locality to help resolve the issues for them, and then support them in the implementation.

For those saying they are affected, how, and what would help you personally?

justteanbiscuits - In an ideal world we'd all be able to live where we wanted to, but it doesn't work like that. We can't solve all the world's problems, we can't say that if someone doesn't want to live in France because they're not treated as well as they would be in the UK, then they should be allowed to live here. Where does that end, when do you say enough is enough, our population in the last 30 years has grown a lot more than both France and Germany percentage wise, yet the UK is a smaller country.

Areas of extreme economic deprivation are already struggling to get the needs of their residents met in terms of education, health, social care and housing provision. If you then add a few thousand vulnerable, unwell, homeless people who aren't culturally savvy into the mix and you're going to be sitting on a ticking timebomb unless you address the concerns of these communities sensitively.

But I think you're smart enough to know this and I doubt you started this thread with genuine intentions.

I am asking, because it is a top 5 priority for the government. They have lecterns with 'Stop the Boats' on.

As I said, it is not something I see an immediate urgent need to address, to the point that it makes the top 5. I'm not saying that it's not an issue, and certainly it needs tackling although as I said in my OP, by creating legal routes for asylum seekers would be my first step.

I mean, when you think about social care, NHS emergency care, schools, house prices, rape prosecutions, access to GPs, childcare, crime, they've got three that are basically the economy, one that is a small aspect of the NHS crisis and then stop the boats.

But, as I have started threads to try to tell people about the crisis in education, perhaps I am missing the crisis caused by the boats that is affecting large swathes of the population like the other issues.

You don't think it's urgent we stop people dying needlessly? Irrespective of the impact on communities when they do land there are people dying daily attempting that crossing, surely that's enough to want to stop the boats?

I mean if the govt were serious about stopping the boats and saving lives they would:
(1) put more money into the immigration system to clear the backlog
(2) open safe and legal routes
(3) work with other countries so that people wanting to claim asylum here can apply eg. from France
(4) co-operate with countries where a lot of asylum claims are rejected eg. Albania to ensure swift and legal returns
(5) fund the system adequately so that those waiting for a response to their claim can actually live some kind of life while they're waiting, not just be stuck in a hotel

Somehow I don't think they're going to do any of that though...

Indeed.