To wonder if there'll be a revolt?

[TreatTreat]

In the country that's stretched to its limits, today it was announced that Keir has agreed with Mr Macron that just 50 illegal migrants per week will be sent away.

I know so many people are totally fed up with the state of the country.

Will there be protests?

I’m not specifically suggesting open borders. I’m saying it should be addressed globally, maybe in many different ways, but realistically it won’t or maybe even can’t be.
The welfare system is broken with or without immigration- and let’s be honest immigration benefits the government/important people in countless ways - it excuses all the failures of public funding, it saves people asking why the rich are left alone, much of it does in fact benefit the economy legally and officially, it fills roles others won’t do officially and unofficially and there’d be massive issues if the black economy fell apart. It irks me that no one important is ever fully honest about this and about the fact it can’t and won’t be stopped, and all the reasons why (economy, law, international law, history etc) it’s just left for people to blame immigrants for stuff that isn’t even their fault. A more honest discussion would clear the way for a more equitable system for everyone.
Don’t be under any illusion Frogface can change it - he just uses it to sell his snake oil dream.
I generally have supported Lib Dems though have floated a bit over my life, I voted labour this time to ensure the Tories left, and am generally ok that this is better - but I dislike their approach to immigration only slightly less than the Tories- obviously these are just my views, it is a massive subject- the hate makes me saddened though and whilst I do dream of ideal worlds for my kids and grandkids just to lose so much division and hate would be a start.

No not the first but sometimes the last.

Two things that stood out on reading on this, traffickers use SM to promote the easiest countries. In this instance it would flip from Greece to other.

And many are willing to pay more and travel further if the end destination is easier.

And pensioners

Some are a danger to women though. Some of these men come from cultures where women are second class citizens.

We have a domestic abuse crisis in the UK, so a lot of men are a danger to women. 0.3% of asylum seekers are coming on boats and aren't responsible for our abuse crisis.

This ⬆️ absolutely

Yet when Sunak said that 200 migrants per YEAR would go to Rwanda we called him the Messiah

Some probably think the mechanism is the same for the 50 migrant swap.

I guess we'll find out if any are deterred by it.

Yes. Define “safe”?

Fleeing from Syria, with your family, your first “safe” place is Turkey. Turkey takes nearly 70% of all refugees from Syria, there are currently 3.6 million living there. If you are placed in a refugee camp, you can be there for years, little access to schooling for your children, poor sanitation, poor healthcare. There are issues with women and children being abused. These are not entirely safe places for women. If you make it out of the camp, you are placed in ghettos with limited access to work and schooling being granted asylum can take a decade. Frequent raids scoop up refugees and send them back to war torn areas. Tensions are high with Turkish people, refugees are frequently attacked. How is someone expected to re-build their life in those circumstances? By saying they should stay in that first “safe” place, you are saying the best they should expect is to not be living in a place where they might be killed.

The myth about women being left behind is nonsense. According to the UNCHR, around 50% of refugees are women. They are not left behind. It is more common for single men to reach Europe, but there are some fairly basic reasons for that. Women are more likely to die on the journey. Families are more at risk if they travel together. Women are more at risk on the journey, nobody is sending their young daughter to make that journey alone. Women are not left in war zones, the vast majority will remain in that first “safe” place whilst a family member reaches somewhere to claim asylum, where they can settle and support their family to make a safe journey to seek asylum with them. Who wouldn’t do that?

When you say “safe place” you are saying you don’t believe we should take any refugees. When you say they are entering UK illegally, you need to point out what the “legal” route is for someone from Syria (hint: there isn’t one) Anyone who believes we shouldn’t be letting these young Syrian men in might ask themselves why we were tripping over ourselves to welcome Ukrainian refugees.

Name a country where women are entirely on an equal footing with men.

I’ll wait.

I bloody hope so

Did you feel like starting a revolt when all this was happening plus a massive increase in legal immigration under the last Conservative government, or is it only when Labour are in power that immigration is a hair trigger?

Why would you assume Muslims are a hive mind?

Beliefs on blasphemy are diverse among muslims and non muslims alike.

Absolutely of course.

Although it’s not “shopping around”. It’s going to the place where I can feel “safest” and that includes somewhere I have some prior connection, family link, language is a more open society, already etc. If the choice is that or a tent in an overcrowded camp in a safe-ish place I would select option 1, if I could.

And I think if you are honest, you would too.

All of this but also add Jordan. When I was in Israel years ago approx 1m Syrian refugees were festering in camps in Jordan.

I wish people were honest. The “first safe location” argument is a smokescreen. They simply do not want us to offer asylum and should say that.

But you must have citizenship to consider Aus? They're not going to let you in as a refugee.

If so then it's a different kettle of fish, you won't be seeking asylum but just moving to another place you can reside legally.

In asking this do you think all countries are the same wrt how they treat women and girls?

I'm not sure what you're asking has to be the case for some countries to be considered worse for women and girls.

But that doesn't mean it's OK. I sympathize with Spanish people who resent Brits not bothering to learn the language, flying union jacks, and falling about drunk in the street. People have a right to preserve their culture and identity. It's a lie that you can have mass immigration and multiculturalism and still be the same. Of course you can't.

Take an island like Okinawa, near Japan. Their population is 1.3 million. Imagine if 800,000 Swedes moved there over the coming decade. Obviously they'd completely change the culture and identity of Okinawa. Do you think that's fair? Don't you think the Okinawans should at least have a say in whether that happens? I really do feel like my identity is disappearing. I noticed this year that I've begun watching old YouTube clips of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers and Peter Cook. I've even begun re-watching Hancock's Half Hour. And I've also been re-reading P. G. Wodehouse and Dickens and Jane Austen. I felt a weird need to do it. Like I was being compelled. It suddenly occurred to me that I was doing all this because I'm desperately clinging on to my English-British identity. Even as I type I can see the smug, sneering faces of people like Owen Jones and Stewart Lee. But if I was an Australian aboriginee or a Kalahari Bushman and I said the same thing, smug Oxbridge liberals like them would be hugging me and marching in the streets in my defence.

Yes, I doubt that Australia would consider many people turning up on their shores as genuine asylum seekers.

Are there any dangerous countries anywhere near Aus? It may well be a very attractive choice for a number of reasons for somebody coming from the UK in the event of a theoretical civil war or other meltdown here - it's a really popular choice already amongst Brits wanting a new life without any danger of civil war in the UK - but I think you'd be extremely hard-pushed to the point of incredulity to claim that it was the only acceptably safe place that you could have escaped to from the other side of the world.

This 👆

When we start to realise we’ve been getting angry at the wrong people, then we might have a chance of putting things back together again.

I sympathise.

I noticed this year I have been re-reading The Mabinogion and Dylan Thomas. I have been watching old clips YouTube clips of Windsor Davies in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and eating my body weight in Welsh cakes 😋

I now realise all this is because I am clinging on to my Welsh identity, so thanks.

(I am assuming your post is satire).

1. Australia has a refugee program
2. I do have an Australian passport which I stated and gave as an example of a place I would choose due to a connection.

3)It’s one of several places I mentioned point being I would not select the closest “safe” place.

This.

Also benefit tourism - you may wonder how many of our homes are actually mostly empty/ a facade as the occupants aren’t in the U.K. for more than a few days a year. But boy do they claim all those benefits, including carer allowance, PIP, UC, rent and council tax relief etc.

I work in fraud and we can’t touch them.

They just don’t let you in if you do arrive on their shores. There are other programmes but they’re different.

Deep down, in our heart of hearts, we all know that Starmer’s freshly-announced deal with Macron will not amount to a hill of beans.

It will be quietly shelved later in the year, of that I am confident.