There has to be a better way. Where’s our compassion? These Tories want to do away with Human Rights altogether. They’d banish unions and all protest too if they could!
Well Said Gary Lineker!
There has to be a better way. Where’s our compassion? These Tories want to do away with Human Rights altogether. They’d banish unions and all protest too if they could!
Opher's World 
Gary Lineker has it right. That someone who has justly earned riches and great popularity comes out so publicly against the establishment, is something of a watershed. And the BBC deserves to be shut down.
On the issue itself, my view is that only the few hundred people in the immediate neighbourhood should be able to refuse entry to someone who wants to come to live there.
I can’t see that working Neil. Think about the practicalities. At the moment the boats are arriving in a few places. What can the locals do? I think the system must be to work with the French and close down the smuggling rings. It’s a tricky situation.
I think Gary was very brave to put his job on the line by speaking out. But the BBC shouldn’t be able to muzzle anyone.
Ah yes, the French. They are more to blame for the boats situation than anyone else. It would be possible to work with them, but only if they are willing to be reasonable about it.
My thinking on migration comes out of my views on property rights. As an individual (or a society) you are entitled to control who enters your property, and under what conditions. But the political state claims a right, through its “borders,” to control access to large areas, including your and my properties, which it doesn’t own. That is plain wrong. On the other hand, while anyone should have a right to visit public (that is, open to all) property anywhere, taking up residence is a much larger step. In my scheme of things, the neighbourhood level of governance, being responsible for the character of their local area, should be able to vet candidates for residence in their neighbourhood. In practice, that would mean presenting yourself at a neighbourhood meeting, explaining why you want to live there and answering any questions. In a world without states (which is what I’m aiming for), I think this would be as good a way as any of allowing people to move around with only a minimum of formalities, without offering opportunities for gangs to come in and “take over” an area.
As to the BBC, of course they shouldn’t be able to muzzle anyone. But they do (climate realists, for example).
Well, understandably, given the unpleasantness of Farage, Frost and the ERG, the French do not want to cooperate. Why should they? They’ll have to have a good reason.
Neighbourhood meetings each time someone wants to move? I think you’d spend your life in meetings – and that’s only a tiny part of what would need meeting about. Do you really think that would work?
Off the topic of your latest comment, which I’ll try to deal with tomorrow. But while looking for something completely different, I ran across this: https://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/press/2023/3/6407794e4/statement-on-uk-asylum-bill.html. Quite strongly put. And I don’t often agree with the UN! The best solution would seem to be for them to go through the UK asylum process while they still in France. That was mooted some years ago, but I don’t think it actually happened. Of course, the stumbling block is that if the UK refuses them, they then become a problem for the French.
That makes sense to me. We need a proper system to deal with genuine asylum seekers. Setting it up in France (or elsewhere) seems the obvious option. At present, the numbers are not huge and we need workers.
Yes, the numbers are not huge, compared with immigration as a whole. And that’s what most people (particularly on the political right) don’t seem to understand, or perhaps even know.
As to “we need workers,” I suspect you could better have said, “the state needs workers.” I’ll leave you to work out why.
BTW, the e-mail I got because of your comment took me to a non-existent page when I tried to reply that way. I had to go back into your site from the top. It looks like a WordPress problem.
Lol – OK – lots of various we’s in different parts of the country could do with an extra worker or two with the skills they require to get their various jobs done so that they can produce the goods they want to produce, pick the fruit or veg etc. Is that better?
Wordpress seem to be doing a lot of things wrong. They’ve changed something. My traffic suddenly went down by two-thirds!