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Cologne Sexual Assaults IX and David Davies Web Chat

654 replies

LumelaMme · 07/02/2016 13:07

On New Year's Eve women in Cologne were amongst those who were sexually assaulted and robbed in mass attacks.
This is a link to the last thread which has links to all the others.

Some of us have begun a petition asking the government to uphold women's rights and freedoms:

THE PETITION _ Please sign and share
The petition

We also hope that tomorrow, Monday 8th February, David TC Davies MP will be on MN for a web chat between 1pm and 2pm - it should be a sticky on either Chat or In The News. David was one of the few MPs who has shown any interest in this whole issue and who has responded sympathetically to those of us concerned about women's rights in a changing world.

OP posts:
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sportinguista · 15/04/2016 05:52

It is a possibility and was very firmly on the table a few years ago. For what it's worth my DH has an ID card for his country. When we go there he carries it with him but in all the years we have been going across he has only had to show it once. He said that you do become used to taking it with you. There used to be a high level of fraud with the old paper ID but now it's all biometric. Which reminds me I think we might need to renew it this year as well!

HildurOdegard · 15/04/2016 06:10

Shins - back in 2001 a Belgian boyfriend interviewed a man whose Flemish wasn't up to much, so he swapped to French - not great there either. Born in Brussels.

Sporting - I will say re: ID cards that it's possible to circumnavigate them. They are a legal requirement in Belgium and it's possible to be detained and fined without one. However, I lived in Belgium for 10 years and only had an ID card for four of those despite buying a house and car.

sportinguista · 15/04/2016 06:27

DH once very naughtily sold his back in the day when he was living in a squat (don't ask!). If caught without it I understand he might be fined or asked to present himself with it at police station. I don't think it's heavily policed but that might change with the movement if people.

HildurOdegard · 15/04/2016 06:37

Apparently the Belgian thing was (back when I was there) to "deter vagrancy). You had to carry your ID card and 400BEF (about £8 back then). I'm sure if I were homeless my ID would've been a top priority. Wink

Fanakapan · 15/04/2016 06:51

Hildur I carried one for twenty-odd years and was only asked for it on a handful of occasions.

I have no objection whatsoever to carrying ID; I have a passport and driving licence.

I am far more opposed to being asked for a sparks card or club card every ten minutes, which I know will be used to monitor my purchases, run some algorithm and abuse that information to sell me processed food and chemical-laden cleaning products.

I have lived in some unpleasant police states. UK ID cards hold no threat for me.

HildurOdegard · 15/04/2016 07:27

I have no problem really carrying ID, but know from experience there are ways around it. Guns have rules in the UK, but we all know it's possible to acquire one without jumping through hoops.

HildurOdegard · 15/04/2016 07:29

Funny story: nearly 20 years ago in Brussels a shop refused to sell me a computer because I couldn't produce a Belgian ID card (my UK passport would not suffice!) - and now look at what's happening in Brussels. The world (Europe) has changed...

sportinguista · 15/04/2016 08:14

Yes there are ways around ID cards but it may trip some people up at least, those with less technical and other know how. It leaves the police and intelligence service free to concentrate on those who are more sophisticated.

I personally have no problem, in fact it would be handy as I don't drive and as I look on the young side I sometimes still get stopped for alcohol purchases and I really don't want to carry my passport in case I lose it.

Agree about clubcard etc. there seems to be a positive horde of loyalty cards!

MariscallRoad · 15/04/2016 15:08

www.ibtimes.co.uk/merkel-approves-prosecution-german-comedian-insulting-turkeys-president-erdogan-1555071
Merkel approves prosecution of German comedian for insulting Turkey's President Erdogan
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the prosecution of a German comedian who read out a satirical poem on television mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can go ahead, DPA reports.

unlucky83 · 15/04/2016 16:22

I've said before - it was in the 90s though so maybe things have improved but I used to know some asylum seekers working illegally waiting for their claims to be heard. They worked on fake EU ID cards - which had been good enough for them to get legitimate NI numbers, open bank accounts - definitely fool employers. They have managed to get across a continent and into the UK illegally -small things like ID is a minor problem..
In fact I could have got myself a fake passport - for a couple of hundred quid...British passports and (therefore ID cards) won't be in demand as similar to what Hild said - if you have a British passport/ID -they are harder to pull off - you have something saying you were born in the UK but you can hardly speak any English, or have a strong accent very suspicious but eg a French ID card is easier to pull off even if you can't really speak French very well- even at all...unless you happen to be employed/interviewed by someone who does speak French well ....and even then cares...(they have a copy of your ID they have fulfilled the requirements to check you are eligible to work in the UK)

sportinguista · 15/04/2016 19:33

There are also lost and stolen ID which end up in the wrong hands. Unless these are checked against a list or passed through a biometric scanner they might not be rumbled. It does rely on employers etc to look out for suspicious signs. I do remember the house next door being raided by the police and home office immigration people a few years ago, bit of a shock coming out of the door to that! We had a cannabis farm too in same property, ironically we called the guys next door the triads then it turned out to be true. Lively street ours!

TheHoneyBadger · 16/04/2016 10:22

omg we are prosecuting comedians now? i may as well have stayed in the middle east where children are imprisoned for making comedy videos on their phone taking the mickey out of isis.

i arrived back in uk yesterday - hope to god we don't see comedians being censored here.

Fanakapan · 16/04/2016 17:20

hope to god we don't see comedians being censored here

Welcome home!

They don't need to censor comedians because the only ones allowed airtime are the generals of the Regressive Left.

So comedy, certainly as far as the BBC is concerned is essentially a bunch of smug unfunny knobs sniggering about how amazingly superior and liberal they are and anyone else is Nigel Farage.

Although Nigel (and the wonderful feminist David D of this thread fame) was the only UK politician to have been 'racist' enough to ask questions about Cologne.

sportinguista · 17/04/2016 08:57

I must admit I haven't watched much British comedy in a long time as our TV tends to be tuned to the sport or news half the time but I haven't seen anything too controversial that I can think of for years. We tend to watch a bit of the Portuguese stuff and they don't tend to be afraid of offending much !

Yes some of it was not particularly nice but I've seen worse.

I keep being surprised that more politicians are not raising Cologne in the sense of looking into why it happened, are there ongoing issues linked to this event, has it highlighted a problem, what can be done? You can ask these questions without being racist, it's more in the nature of making sure we can all live together in harmony.

sportinguista · 17/04/2016 12:39

I think he is right, the solution automatically does lie in the affected regions, there needs to be a concerted effort at solutions. I was reading an article on the DRC and efforts that were being put into education and development by the people there like proper sanitation and schools and business opportunities. DRC has one of the most wealthy potential economies in Africa, but this is largely not of benefit to the average person as the wealth ends up either abroad or skimmed off by a minuscule elite. DRC has had peace for a short while but there are to be elections but many expect president Kabile to cancel these in an attempt to remain in power causing war again and then the progress that has been made will be again lost. It is the same with a country like Afghanistan, if the Taliban are allowed to take hold again any progress made will go. But the solutions lie with the people of the land, if they are shown things that make their lives better they do want it, the problem is those who want power above all else.

CutTheWaffle · 17/04/2016 15:45

"as far as the BBC is concerned is essentially a bunch of smug unfunny knobs sniggering about how amazingly superior and liberal they are and anyone else is Nigel Farage."

Yes I too find the current range of comedy not very funny at all. I prefer Joan Rivers, Jackie Mason, the Two Ronnies, M&Wise.

MariscallRoad · 29/04/2016 16:43

Shock horror.

sportinguista · 02/05/2016 07:28

I know we are probably getting too used to stuff like this aren't we?

TheHoneyBadger · 02/05/2016 10:47

tht's the thing it's not a shock at all is it. i hope we're not paying for the years in prison - algeria is a safe country and he could be deported to prison there surely?

MariscallRoad · 17/05/2016 12:58

Two arrested for rape in Samos
<a class="break-all" href="https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=el&u=news.in.gr/greece/article/%3Faid%3D1500077721&prev=search" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=el&u=news.in.gr/greece/article/%3Faid%3D1500077721&prev=search

sportinguista · 17/05/2016 15:12

The thing is these incidents are becoming more common not less. And I assume that as the two populations mix more and more the incidences might grow. Is it known what is the incidence rate for sexual assault etc in the regions most of the refugees come from or are there no figures due to the upheaveal in many?

Andante58 · 18/05/2016 20:00

"They don't need to censor comedians because the only ones allowed airtime are the generals of the Regressive Left."

Very true.

sportinguista · 19/05/2016 12:27

The people who fear ridicule are those that are weak and fear that there is some truth in it. Those that are strong in their integrity rarely do.

It says more about president Erdogan and his fears. He is a little man.