Women's safety in Europe after Cologne

[DavidTCDaviesMP]

I have been invited onto Mumsnet to discuss the situation for women in Europe following the attacks in Cologne, and the challenge we face in Europe in trying to help millions of mainly young men, who are arriving in Europe from cultures which treat women very differently. I believe this is an issue which needs open discussion by political leaders yet is swept under the carpet. David Davies MP

Izlet .... Thanks for the link to the Polish newspaper.

The prime minister rejected an EU quota of refugees, saying that last year’s terrorist attacks in Paris had changed things.
I did not realise that a EU member could decline to take the quota alloted to them.

Yes they can, most of Eastern Europe has declined, mainly because they quite simply do not have the funds to manage this influx. There is of course a dose of xenophobia there as well, remember the countries of the ex soviet bloc did not have any sort of immigration, never had colonies, plus with the isolation of the soviet period they were quite insular. Before Paris Poland had reluctantly agreed to take Syrian Christians only iirc.

Good link Izlet , thanks. Has Hungary reviewed it's stance on accepting any more refugees do you know? I've seen that, starting tomorrow, Austria is capping asylum seekers being admitted to 80 a day, but Brussels is claiming that as being "unlawful ".

Perhaps they've been watching this chap

Eloquent isn't he!

Hungary I think were going to lead a legal challenge to the quotas, along with most of the other Eastern European countries. I'm not sure where that went, but it's pretty much guaranteed that Orban is not going to accept any if he can help it. Not helped by the issues caused by refugees/migrants crossing the country on their way to Germany. I think what will happen is Greece will effectively get sealed off from the rest of Europe by the Balkan and Mittel-European countries who also happen to be the most resistant. Add to that the hundreds now being turned back from Germany and Austria every week and the situation in those countries will probably turn quite ugly quite soon. The Balkan route used to be the least popular, most migrants favouring the Med crossing to Italy, precisely because the countries were deemed too hostile. However when the trickle became a flood this hostility was no longer a deterrent, based on the sheer weight of numbers.

It's a good vid, January. The far Left that is driving this mish-mash of movement. As the man in the vid says - it's an Unholy Alliance of Islam and the Left. I think it is part of the move to One World Government.

RockingMrE: "Take your fair share of fake refugees, you racist white Europeans."

God, the regressive Left really have done a number on us, haven't they? Utter paralysis of the middle class liberal for fear of being called racist.

I thought that it was strange, that I'd come across most of the posters on my wide rambles across MN before. Not you though. I do think you might need a break. Just take a rest. I do. It gives you perspective and distance. I also post on lots of other subjects too. My all is not this one thing, it's many things, it's what makes me who I am. Do a search it's complicated, the person that I am, doesn't fit a box neatly.

I've just learned that it was Maajid Nawaz of Quilliam who coined the term 'regressive Left'. It's ironic, PaleBlue, that white liberals of every class are called racist by those who are horrendously intolerant.

I suppose you're seeing how far you can push it now. He's made a video defending the EDL and Britain First too and defends Roosh V on his blog.

Yes Britt My thinking was that the Left would defend women's rights, gay people's rights and workers' rights if it came to the crunch, not throw them under the bus in favour of maintaining their multicultural ideology no matter how many right wing zealots and misogynists shelter within it. But that is because I did not know that the regressive left and what I thought of as the left were such very different creatures.

I must admit I think Helena has a point about class. Over the past couple of decades, the white working class has been pointed at and vilified as small-minded racists for complaining about the negative effects they feel high net immigration has had on them, or the way rapid community change has been forced upon them. www.jrf.org.uk/report/white-working-class-views-neighbourhood-cohesion-and-change

But now as a middle class liberal, I get a taste of the same thing when I am upset that my own well-being - in the form of freedom to be out in groups in public spaces without being molested - looks shakier after Cologne. Only to have my concerns minimized in just the same way and the dreaded 'R' and 'X' words thrown in my direction to shut me up.

Actually the scales fell from my eyes some years ago on a different issue in my locale but the same point applies. Do the white working class feel they were thrown under the bus quite some considerable time before the women?

Now for the bedtime
relax!

Martha Argerich - [Chopin] Nocturne No. 4 in F, Op. 15, No. 1

there is storm in the middle and then calm.

Martha Argerich is one of my fave pianists - a master.

I didnt actually mean immigration to be fair. The working classes have always been made out to be at fault.

My mum came over from Italy when she was 24. She is 80 this weekend. Has spent more of her time in the UK than she did in Italy.

What concerns me is all these cuts to things like domestic abuse services and social housing which will affect both British and refugee women fleeing domestic abuse.

Denying the facts about Cologne does a huge disservice to cultural and ethnic minorities in Europe. It implies that all migrants and refugees are part of one homogeneous group — a gross generalization that has been jumped on by the far right. In fact, the far Right has benefited greatly from the confusion following the Cologne attacks, using it to stoke up fears about asylum seekers in general. Protests by groups such as HoGeSa and Pegida have taken center stage in Germany over the last month, and angry mobs have taken to the streets threatening to “clean up” Cologne. In going to any lengths to avoid offending minorities, we become complicit in the broader, deliberate attacks on individual rights. The result is a genuine threat to hard-won freedoms in the West. Unless the sensible among us are honest about the issues facing Europe, we will leave a large void within the debate to be filled inevitably by those who want to strengthen rather than break down the divides among us

I've added Emily Dyer to the list

January can you add me to your list as well please?

" Do the white working class feel they were thrown under the bus quite some considerable time before the women?"

Er... the poorer folk of Britain have been absolutely vilified in recent years. Where to start? You know the talk about the squeezed middle? Well imagine having a lot lot less than them, with no work that actually pays any more, soaring costs of living and the newly-resurfaced constant rhetoric about the 'undeserving' despite the evidence that what matters in life is how much you are born with and what luck you have. Sometimes nothing goes right no matter how you try. People are dying on unjustified and really quite silly benefit sanctions. The disabled have been hit the worst, the UK was being investigated for human rights abuses against the disabled. Homelessness has increased a third since just 2009 (statutory homelessness, the stuff they can actually count). Don't think austerity has hit the richest do you? And it's not a matter of having the freedom to go out, it's a matter of survival. The concerns of the poorest about immigration should have been listened to a long time ago. Go look at Johnny Void if you want a taste of the anger out there among the abandoned. johnnyvoid.wordpress.com

"Getting by" by Lisa McKenzie www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-By-Estates-Austerity/dp/1447309952 is an ethnographic exploration of what it's like to be poor and disengaged. It is also based in a multicultural area.

Emily
I'm adopted mave. I used to be on an at risk register because of neglect and abuse."
that sounds really tough and I hope you have a supportive and loving adoptive family. I apologise for my comment speculating that you would never foster as clearly you have looked after a relative's child, i hope you can accept my apology, my comment was ignorant and personal.

"Widely different situations of course, but two kids all the same that deserved a home and not to be blamed for what had happened to them."
Emily, it is important to differentiate and to be open minded. You sound like someone who cares and who has experienced some difficult circumstances. Sometimes we have to be tough to be kind. In the context of the thread tough on difficult aspects of immigration to protect a reasonable way of life in our countries. I personally think our politicians are shite, shite, shite. Our standard of living is partially based on child slave labour, destroying the planet etc. but it is so difficult to change this for ordinary citizens. It is unfair that large parts of the world are loving in abject conditions but the overall situation is not made better by everyone coming to europe. There is mor but i need to organise the dc.

Haven't checked in with johnny void myself for a bit. When you have a government engaged in blaming you for low pay now, is it really surprising that people might turn to the right wing? johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/working-full-time-and-think-youre-safe-from-the-jobcentre-not-if-the-dwp-get-their-way/

BungoWomble you are right People are dying on unjustified and really quite silly benefit sanctions. Helena I like your posts and I agree. Cuts have started from Labour who hit widows and children loosing father and mother - shame Labour - and then cuts sontinued by ConLibs and then by Conservatives.

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/28/man-starved-to-death-after-benefits-cut
Vulnerable man starved to death after benefits were cut

It is a shock a shame and disgrace that disabled are left to die in a rich country because their benefits are cut.