Statement by the Chair of the Conservative Party

[newnamethanks]

"If they don't like barges they should fuck off back to France". 30p Lee Anderson of course, not the BNP. Not the National Front or whatever their current name is. The Chairman of the Conservative Party. Supporters must be so proud. What a statesman. So Churchillian.

France would need something to be offered in return

Some thoughts about safe routes here

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/channel-crossings/

Ah, thank you DuncinToffee; that sounds like an update and a reasonably sensible-sounding one at that

A bit concerned though about "The agreement will also see a new 24-hour zonal coordination centre with permanent British liaison officers that will bring all relevant French authorities together to coordinate the response towards the small boat crossings", considering the French approach to bureaucracy.
"Bringing relevant authorities togther" is hard enough in the UK and I wouldn't want to assume they'd do it any better, far less that they'd appreciate British interference in their own systems

@Crapsummer2023 These are the people 30p Lee attracts.

I wonder who (or what) John Prescott attracted ?

Nobody much. Blair gave him a job as a sop to the unions. Give him his due, he wasn’t racist and never suggested anyone should fuck off back where they came from.

It would be a big spike in applications. Anything that is easy brings with it high numbers, then you have to work out how to process and house people. I don’t think an easy and contained approach is doable.

Applications don't automatically become granted.

And anyway, I thought this was about stopping the dangerous crossings?

You won't believe it when you hear who has been running (ruining) the country since 2010. If they're fixing it they're taking a hell of a long time about it.
But....but..... Labour...

Tracey Temple?

Corbyn! You forgot ButCorbyn.

Applications don't automatically become granted

They do if the numbers go up and up, and to hide the mess created the government hand out yet another amnesty for tens of thousands ...

The accommodation offered is better than many tax payers in the UK have which is why so many stand behind his words. We also have a massive crisis currently over all this as do France and Germany and many other places. This is not something unique to the UK other than in France they sleep in damp tents in fields and in the UK tax payers pay money they don't have to house them in hotels etc.

One solution surely is to stop them landing. Also we are in new times of climate change etc and Europe will simply not be able to accept as many asylum seekers nor legal immigrants so changes are going to have to be made.

IClaudine
Right now Labour does not have to set out its policy on immigration or anything else if it doesn't wish to.

Stephen Kinnock (Labour's Shadow Immigration Minister) has already argued that the Hong Kong scheme is too expensive for poor Hongkongers to access - so presumably Labour will want to lower the barriers for entry to the UK under that scheme. Kinnock also keeps name dropping the Dublin Agreement as though a returns agreement similar to the Dublin Agreement' is the answer - he called Dublin a "success" a few weeks ago, which clearly it wasn't;

According to the Home Office, between 2015 and 2018 ... the UK made 18,953 outgoing requests to transfer people to other Member States [under the Dublin regulation] from which 1,395 people were transferred abroad. This amounts to around 7% of outgoing requests by the UK resulting in a transfer.

Dublin was not much of a "success" for Germany last year either;
in 2022 Germany tried to send back over over 68,000 migrants to other EU countries under rules government by the Dublin accords. The majority of those attempts failed.
Just 4,158 asylum seekers in Germany were sent back to other EU countries where they had first claimed asylum in 2022.
https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/46133/germany-unable-to-send-back-most-migrants-under-dublin-rules

So, the next time you hear Stephen Kinnock (or Yvette Cooper) talk about the Dublin Agreement ask for a few facts and figures.

But Jeremy Corbyn, please.

Going by the pp France don’t want to become a centre for the processing, Labour are not going for it either so no one is putting it forward as an option

It’s because the numbers would be prohibitively high and become a big draw for movement of people

And you’d still need some harsh controls if anyone outside a yes pays a smuggler

And you r point is what, exactly, Clav? Your use of the word "presumably" indicates that nothing is yet decided in terms of how Labour will approach immigration.

IClaudine
And you r point is what, exactly, Clav?

The next time Stephen Kinnock name drops the Dublin Agreement you know he hasn't got an answer to the problem.

Does Sunak, Braverman?

Well he's not in charge if immigration, so I don't expect him to at the moment.

The official number is actually 676,000 and most appear to be second homes and short lets.

There are around 3.6 million second homes in France.

That nice to know, how many in other countries?

Well he's not in charge of immigration, so I don't expect him to at the moment

He's Labour's Shadow Minister for Immigration.

DuncinToffee
That nice to know, how many in other countries?

No idea - I thought Lee Anderson referred to France.

Exactly. Not in charge.

He is talking about offering asylum seekers housing in French second homes?

Yes. Shadow minister. Not currently in charge of immigration.

I don't expect Labour to be able to unravel all the fuck ups of the past 13 years in one fell swoop. It is going to take years and probably a few false starts to get us to somewhere even approaching a better place.

Also, even if SK somehow did by some miracle have a solution to the issue right now that would please everyone, why on earth would he share it and run the risk of the Tories stealing his idea.

Now I have to go out, but I'll be back later 😀