Ken

Well, the reason they are referred to as 'illegal' immigrants is that is precisely what they are. You can be an illegal immigrant or a legal one there isn't an in between. Asylum seekers or refugees are still immigrants. Their status depends on how they arrive in the country, legally or illegally. It may be sickening that the term is offensive but then reality is always difficult for some!

The sea isn't a motorway or street. 'Blocking' a boat is a ridiculous concept. If it were possible, which it isn't, just how long do you 'block' it for; an hour, a day; week perhaps! In the mean time several other rubber boats move in. Perhaps you would have a whole line of gunboats stretching for miles along the coast all tied together to form a barrage! Utter nonsense I'm afraid. As is the suggestion the people of Kent will take the law into their own hands. Brits don't do that sort of thing. Sure a few idiots may cause some trouble, at some point but I doubt even that in the case of illegal immigrants. I can just see the people of Kent making war on women and children suffering from the wet and cold!!!!! There is no practical solution. It has to be political and as France and the U.K. don't exactly see eye to eye on anything that is a remote hope!

You are saying that Britain should build a fleet of gun boats, patrol offshore and stop the immigrants, is that right? I wonder how they would stop them! Run them down, I don't think so. Machine gun them , even worse. How about just whizzing by them and cause them to capsize perhaps? Tie a rope and tow them back into French waters ? I think the French would have something to say about illegal entry into their territorial waters. In short your suggestion is a non starter. Almost certainly every method would involve people in the water and some drowning. That would be unacceptable not only internationally but to the people of Britain themselves. Quite clearly Hitler's rubber boats could be machine gunned. Illegal immigrants, women and children can't. The government is facing tremendous pressure to do something about this problem and all I ever read are rather silly and unworkable 'solutions' Try again, I'm sure the authorities would be pleased to find a solution. Incidentally I have no idea how to stop it either!

I wonder just how the military, if deployed in Britain, to stop illegal immigration would actually operate? I haven't read either of any military intervention regarding illegal immigrants and perhaps the reason is that it would be absolutely pointless to do so. What would they do, machine gun the immigrants as they landed? People make all sorts off suggestions without thinking it through. There is no way to stop illegal immigration other than making it unattractive in terms of the largesse Britain offers. I would be interested in ideas as to just what the military could do that the civil forces are are not doing!

It is frustrating but also a little unfair , I think, to compare the two. if British forces can help the E.U. stop illegal entries in to the E.U. then that must help stop those same people eventually washing up on Britain's shores. Of course it should be the E.U,s problem but the reality is it is also ours. With regard the problem on the British coast. I doubt anyone would want illegal immigrants forcibly turned around in the channel with the almost certain results being of people drowning! Sitting in our comfortable armchairs it may well seem the solution but again the reality is that Britain would be seen as killing these people and that it can't do. I think ALBFs suggestion is about the best and it may have been discussed by the two countries, who knows! Shame it won't come to pass though. Britain and France working together!!! Not whilst Macron is President anyway.

Sounds like a good idea Until you reflect on the bit about France and the U.K. working together! In any event Utopia is just across the channel for these illegal immigrants. The rest of the E.U. doesn't want them either. Still your idea is the best I have seen so far. Shame it won't come to pass. As for Macron; the French are not going to vote for either Le Pen or Zemmour in the final round so I'm afraid another dose of Jupiter is in the offing!!

To state that illegal immigrants are not entitled to state aid is disingenuous. Anyone washing up on Britains shores, if they are destitute, will be given accommodation and certain welfare benefits such as food and medical care. They cannot 'claim' benefits in the same way as a legal immigrant but they do, in any event, receive state aid which is funded by the tax payer and paid to private companies to provide aid for illegal immigrants. A rose by any other name!

Indeed! Why don't they shut up when they don't know what they are talking about!! Economics isn't your strong point that's for sure!!

Did you get out of bed the wrong side this morning or are you always rude? I said it sounds expensive, and to me it does. It isn't going to be cheap installing a private charger in a block of flats. As regards not having a clue. Only a dimwit would lay out a large capitol sum in the certain knowledge that, if they are of advanced years, they would never recuperate the outlay. A younger person might! Now, I suggest you go back to bed and start again!

I don't know but, installing a charging point for oneself in a block of flats sounds very expensive. Given that electric cars are not cheap plus installing a charging point I wonder if it is economical? Like many things, glazing, heat pumps, solar panels etc. the capitol outlay can never be recovered unless you are around 20 years of age to start with!!!

The cost of second hand cars has increased considerably, not only here but other countries as well; notably the U.K. It's all to do with the scarcity of micro chips apparently. Many customers are complaining that the new cars they are buying don't have all the 'gizmos' they should have because of this problem. Hence the cost of second hand cars increasing because they do have all the 'gizmos'!! Second hand cars have always been expensive in France, as is everything else I have found (second hand that is!) I have been used to second hand 'stuff' being mostly very cheap in the U.K. so when I look at second hand French prices I'm quite shocked.

Zemmour, in my view talks sense, well most of the time I think! He is right with regards the accord, why should France allow a British border on French soil. Not that it of any use! And illegal immigrants should be returned but obviously there isn't a mechanism that allows that to happen, someone slipped up when the accord was signed!! It's all, academic anyway; he still hasn't declared and even if he does and gets to the final round the French will simply (as they are doing already) compare him to Hitler, why I don't know. The left hate him and the public fall for the nonsense spouted about him. People I speak to simply say "he is far right' without any idea what his policies would be (me neither actually as he hasn't stated any) Presumably, should he declare , one policy would be to do something about immigration. A 'Trump wall' perhaps! I'm afraid another Macron term beckons.

I agree, the numbers do seem to be down. A couple of weeks ago there were many flights, some just above the house because of the strong warm winds from the south. I can only think that the relatively warm weather has kept them in the north longer this year and that, eventually, as winter sets in they will head south in their usual numbers. We shall see!!

Had my test done this morning, negative I'm glad to say. Now I have to figure out how to let the NHS know!!! Their site is only for home grown people, not a French resident!!!

Well each to his own. You embrace it I'll just live with it. As for the N.Y. Times; multiculturalism, well N.Y. is a very fine example I suppose!

I don't have a home in the U.K. so that can't happen. It would seem that the different departments are not coordinating as the NHS message clearly stated I should self isolate! I'm afraid I don't have much faith in the NHS anyway. I do have my test today , hopefully negative then I shall, somehow, contact the NHS and put their mind at rest!!!

You are right about me being a foreigner in France. Where I live I don't know of any other 'foreigners' at all, English or otherwise; I'm pleased to say. As. for London, the only ones who seemed to speak English without a 'foreign' accent were the descendants of Pakistanis and Indians!! No, neither hypocritical nor racist. Just sad at what London has become.

O.k thanks, I shall take a look.

As a kid growing up in London there is no doubt that 'Paki' was a racist term. As a youngster I didn't appreciate the 'finer' points of racism. I almost certainly used the word along with many others that described blacks, Jews, Italians, Greeks and just about everyone else including 'Jocks and 'Paddies' No one was exempt! There is no doubt, in my mind at least, that some terms are benign in a certain context whilst the same term in another context is definitely racist. How to tell the difference? Only the speaker knows that and has to be aware of what he/she is saying and to whom. These days it seems everything is racist. The whole issue is a hopeless and impossible to discuss mess!!!

I tend to agree with your view suggesting it is overpopulation that is a major, if not the reason, for the planets woes. But what to do about it? No government addresses it; the Chinese have given up on it and India is suffocating in it! What to suggest? Anything and you are trespassing on 'Human rights'! Human rights will kill us all probably!

I would support a total ban on amateur hunting. I understand the need for culling certain animals (though I still don't like it!) Amateurs with guns!!! a definite no!

Went to the U.K. for the weekend. Flew from Biarritz where my passport and vaccination certificate were checked. Arrived Stanstead, exited through the E; Passport control. No checks whatsoever ever. Had my Day two test that evening in Euston (negative) and got the test result four hours later. To come home Sunday evening my passport and the attestation were asked for by the airline at Stansted, nothing else. At Biarritz just my passport was asked for. The Locater form for the U.K, and the attestation form were not asked for by either countries officials. This morning I had an email from the NHS saying that the tracing service had come across someone who had tested positive that I may have been in contact with. and that I have to self isolate for ten days!! I intend to have another test ASAP as I doubt I have contracted anything other that an increased dislike for my home Town Which seems full of foreigners!! I wonder if that can be construed as racist, probably!!! The NHS wanted all sorts of details with an online form but then it came to my home address and it wouldn't accept a foreign address, so that was a waste of time. I shall have the Covid test ASAP and then I will try and contact the NHS with the result, whatever it is or otherwise I can see I will be pestered for weeks!!!

My point still is that if a country accepts immigrants with its present laws then changes the laws after they have accepted the immigrants that, I feel, is wrong. It might be seen as all sorts of things, racism even!!

The point is that people have been told, retrospectively, that their dress and customs have to change. The hijab is still legal in France but if the amendments are made to legislation then it could become illegal. As is the full Burka head covering which was legal. People who were accepted in France had to change, after being accepted as they were.

Might just add my pennyworth!!! Politicians seem to make a mess of most things and the arguments surrounding the hijab and indeed other coverings and religious practices exemplifies the mistakes made over the years; and not only in France but other countries. My view is that once a person has been accepted by a country, without any pre-conditions then that person should be allowed to follow whatever traditions they want to. I believe it wrong that people are told retrospectively, that after having been accepted they have to dress differently or behave differently, of course there is going to be trouble. Potential immigrants should be told of any requirements regarding their dress or customs before permission is granted to immigrate then, if they accept the conditions, there can be no argument. If they refuse then they are not allowed to settle. Hindsight is wonderful of course but governments have to be held responsible. The genie is very much out of the bottle now and the problems that mass unfettered immigration is causing can only become worse. Any attempts at controlling it or even suggestions about controlling it are met by screams from the left that the extreme right is advocating something dreadful. Meanwhile it just gets worse!