The Open Doors of Perception
Here is a brief timeline of events.
On Saturday morning I listened with great interest to the announcements of the results of the Labour leadership contest. I raised an eyebrow at the announcement of Mr. Corbyn’s win, and sipped on my coffee before continuing with whatever it was I was working on. I then listened to his acceptance speech. A fine speech, and in a sense there was nothing at all that I could particularly disagree with. We all want to live in a fairer more decent world, with more homes for people and so forth. However he did rather go out of his way to make great of the point that we should be open and welcoming and decent to refugees; nothing inherently wrong with that either; Britain has been doing that for years. But there was no mention of the word “migrant”. And the tone is often the key. I rather gained the impression what this was coded language for: we should live in a world without borders and adopt an entirely open door policy to everyone at all times. Another million former Labour voters alienated there, I mused. And carried on.
On Sunday morning I was up early and read Dominic Lawson’s piece in the Sunday Times. The previous week he had argued (rationally and in measured terms) that Britain’s policy towards asylum seekers or migrants if you will from Syria had been fundamentally more moral and effective than encouraging and accepting high levels of migration across the Mediterranean. In this week’s piece he wrote that he had expected to be, as it were, ritually slaughtered at the altar of public opinion. But far from it, he had had an almost universally positive response. And numerous polls of public opinion reveal real concern about the levels of migration and want very little part of it. Those attending rallies and throwing their doors open wide are, in fact, the minority.
I pause here to record that I have extreme sympathy for anyone fleeing civil war in Syria – I would too. There seem to be a large number of families, often of talented and decent people who simply want to get out of a hell hole. Of course we should help. How is the issue, and at what costs to ourselves and to Syria, if most of its educated population flees never to return. Later on Sunday morning I heard that Munich, which been so welcoming of many thousands of refugees, was in distress. That’s very interesting, I thought. And it seemed more people were on the way.
In the afternoon I took the train up to my local big city to buy some books. The city was indeed bustling and busy, but I couldn’t help noticing that there was an undercurrent that I didn’t like. There seemed to be more people sleeping begging and sleeping rough, busking, often pitifully badly, with one bloke even just standing on his head in yoga pose to get attention, more strange behaviour from people who one would describe as mentally inform, and many more languages being spoken than I remember from years gone by. A chance encounter with an acquaintance elicited that he too had noticed the much increased number of people sleeping rough and begging.
On the train there and back I dipped into “social media” or to be precise, Twitter, I now get Wi-Fi on the train, and although I do not know what that is, it means I can see a lot more messages a lot more quickly. What I kept noticing troubled me. I genuinely try to keep a balanced “time line” and keep away from politics – I have no need of the added stress of bickering with trolls. I like cute pictures of cats or cartoons, that sort of stuff. But what I was getting – not all the time but a lot – were references to social strife and trouble from migrants, and frankly anti-migrant demonstrations and even violence which were not being reported in the mainstream media. Please understand I am not trying to justify any violence by anyone against anyone else, but these reports were out there. It felt like one of those standard scenes in a film when they are cranking it up for some sort of social collapse when they always cut to different cities and show riots taking place, just ready for the World Government to step in and impose martial law. That’s a bit strong, but there was this constant undercurrent and the complaint that it was not being reported. Was I being paranoid?
I was trundling back home on my train when a tweet from a particularly sharp, worldly-wise and often cynical correspondent crossed my time line. I know what this person does for a living and he travels the world in matters of high finance. The tweet was this:
“Germany closes its borders. Hungary and Austria better start making some egg sandwiches….”
I sought clarification from the Twitter Hive Mind. Another very smart man of the world – literally for he too travels the world on business and has links both to NATO and the defence industry simply replied as follows:
“#Schengen is dead, and not before time”
And so it is. The borders may not be shut as such, but border controls have been re imposed. The time-honoured phrase of “Vere are your papers” can now be heard ringing out from a German policeman again. It is dressed up as a temporary measure to ease pressure on Munich. It is nothing of the sort. It is a recognition that Germany’s open door policy was and is foolish, reckless dangerous and also in some respects immoral in that it promotes and encourages people smuggling. The free movement of peoples across Europe’s borders is totally fundamental to the Great European Project. It’s not dead, but it is fatally wounded. It’s like someone stabbed in the lung with a fine stiletto. They’re still upright, still staggering about, but they’re drowning in their own blood inside and there is nothing they can do. There will be massive blow back into Austria and Hungary. Wait for the happy scenes there and refugees or migrants, call them what you will, fin their path to the Promised – literally promised – Land is barred! Do you think it’s going to get pleasant? If the way is blocked then Greece will come under even more pressure.
I have the sneaking suspicion that in Germany someone has taken the bonkers but bossy Mrs. Merkel on one side and pointed out that, as I hear, there is a great deal of unrest in Germany about what has been taking place, and that things were going to get serious unless something was done. And by that I don’t just mean trouble on the streets, I mean that she would be removed – by whatever means. You see I take a rather cynical view of the world. It’s just an intuition.
Once Germany has admitted other countries will follow suit. Because they will recognise something which has been self-evident to anyone but criminally deluded loons like Mr. Corbyn and Merkel. That there needs to be border security across Europe because there are very, very bad people in the world, and that Europe, even as a whole, cannot cope with the mass transit of people from the sub Saharan Africa and the Middle East, or at least if it could it would do so at such a horrific cost to itself as to cause radical social change and instability. On the other hand that may be what Mr. Corbyn really wants.
Whisper it quietly, because this could be the first stone in what will build into a mighty avalanche as nations states retrench. The EU’s response to the migrant crisis has been lamentable, pathetic, unethical, and criminally weak. It may even be that this is the first step towards the collapse of the EU itself.
Gildas The Monk
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September 15, 2015 at 9:28 am -
Merkel is clearly a very well-meaning person, but her immigrant policy is as foolish as her energy policy.
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September 15, 2015 at 11:09 am -
God save us from well-meaning people.
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September 15, 2015 at 4:49 pm -
Spot on, Don: despite claiming a scientific background, she closed down Germany’s nuclear-power industry in the wake of Fukushima; when did Germany — or any neighbouring country — last suffer a significant earthquake?
ΠΞ
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September 15, 2015 at 7:07 pm -
It (Merkel’s ‘getting Out Of Atomic Energy Policy’ for the sake of the Kinder and ze little fluffy bunnies) is even nuttier than many realise because France and Poland(?) have made a habit of building their nuclear power stations as close to the border with Germany as is possible without actually needing German planning permission.
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September 15, 2015 at 9:49 am -
Merkel dancing to the strings being pulled by French Lefties.
Time the Germans cut loose from French post-war bullying. -
September 15, 2015 at 9:53 am -
Well, this is what happens when those in power (usually the much wealthier members of society) make decisions that don’t really affect themselves. I’ve said it many times, it’s all very well for politicians like David Cameron to make gestures of largesse, it’s most unlikely that he will have a Roma gypsy or a Somali war lord for a neighbour. I also commented recently that as far as I’m concerned this country has long since reached bursting point. My estimation (as reliable as any “official” figures) is that the UK population is now hovering around the 90 million mark. There are those among us who will not be satisfied until every acre is covered in concrete and housing – I dread the prospect. For humans to live contentedly they need some “breathing” space.
Sad as it is that there is a war in Syria and that many African countries are “shit holes”, I don’t see that it’s our concern much beyond giving some aid in those regions. I certainly do not feel that the UK is under any obligation to house millions of people who are simply looking for a better way of life. I’m tempted to point out that if they abandoned their ridiculous religious beliefs and stopped fighting each other their own countries could and should be quite pleasant places to live. It seems that the Germans have finally started to wake up to the realities of life.
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September 15, 2015 at 9:59 am -
“There’s still upright, still staggering about,”
Sorry. They’re still upright, still staggering about. I was writing at some speed on Sunday, and had to dash.-
September 15, 2015 at 10:49 am -
Amended and altered. Sorry, that one passed me by!
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September 15, 2015 at 11:13 am -
Also I think that Lawson “expected” not “accepted”.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:05 am -
Total lack of foresight of the EU. This current refugee situación could be foreseen several years ago & the Syrian civil war should have been nipped in the bud or, Dubya & his cohorts (Blair incl.) should never have been allowed to invade Iraq which appears to be what ser off the fuse affecting mostró of the hellish current mess in the M East.
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September 15, 2015 at 11:49 am -
I don’t think the invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam from power had much effect. It might have made the Syrians wish even more than usual that they could be rid of their loathsome dictator too, but the Arab Spring in general was going to happen anyway.
The three major groups pushing for power in the Middle East have been the secular Fascist/military dictatorships, the Iranian Mullahs, and the Muslim Brotherhood. The extreme Sunnis (Al Qaeda and ISIS) are a fourth, smaller, group.
All the religious groups are influenced by the fundamentalist ideas of Qutb, just as all the varieties of Communists were influenced by Marx.
In the end the Middle East will sort itself out, as Europe did from the 17C to the 20C. But the Europeans had the Americas as a sink for emigration.
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September 15, 2015 at 11:53 am -
but the Europeans didn’t have the Great Powers jockeying to keep their Kings in place while they fought against them, as the US and EU are doing to protect the Saudi hegemony. What was it Marx said about the opium of the people? Pass the Wahaabist gum.
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September 15, 2015 at 1:07 pm -
There hasn’t been an Arab Spring in Saudi Arabia at all as yet.
The Saudi royals seem to be very hostile to Al Qaeda and ISIS, both of which would like to depose them. They are supporting, rather half-heartedly, the less extremist rebels in Syria.
There are half a million Syrians in Saudi Arabia.-
September 15, 2015 at 4:26 pm -
“Al Qaeda and ISIS, both of which would like to depose them.”
Well they’re both funded by the Saudi’s and are used against Saudi’s enemies rather than the deployment of the Saudi armed forces.
One observation, the West hammers Iran for its use of terrorist proxies, but we are watching the Saudi’s do the same thing.
As more time goes by I’m beginning to understand a little, that one of (not the only) root causes of the instability in the Middle East is the US-Saudi-Israeli Faustian pact.
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September 15, 2015 at 4:33 pm -
As root-causes go, that’s the biggie – the rest are all secondary and consequential on that one. Just don’t go saying it too loudly, they’d rather we didn’t all know.
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September 15, 2015 at 6:23 pm -
They may be partly funded by some Saudis, but I don’t see the Saudi Royal family funding its enemies. The IS has plenty of money now that it commands territory. And I think sympathisers from all over the world contribute.
It is of course true that fundamentalist Islam started in Arabia (as Wahhabism). But the basis of the country is a pact between the Sauds (who get political power) and the religious forces (who get to decide moral and social matters).
“As more time goes by I’m beginning to understand a little, that one of (not the only) root causes of the instability in the Middle East is the US-Saudi-Israeli Faustian pact.” That was Bin Laden’s opinion, and why he started his campaign.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:05 am -
It is dressed up as a temporary measure to ease pressure on Munich.
No it is dressed up as a ‘security issue’ but is designed to safe guard the Cash Cow of the Oktoberfest next week. All the border guards/police are doing is registering the refugees and sending them on to other towns. No one is being turned back. Can I just repeat that for the Xenophobes among us? The Borders aren’t closed, no one is being refused entry and anyone found in the back of a lorry still gets to experience German suppenkitchen cooking, a warm dry bed, & medical care of a standard that you will not find in any UK A&E . Infact Deutsche Bahn are even running special trains (yes I know that just sounds wrong in the ear of history) High Speed intercity trains even to disperse the refugees around the country , anywhere away from the 6 million or so heavily alcoholised tourists about to hit Munich. Germany hasn’t closed it borders, it is trying to close off Munich. 70K refugees have arrived in Munich in the last fortnight alone and earlier this week the CSU (the bavarian coalition partner and sister party to Merkel’s CDU) started to grizzle loudly in public about ‘terrorists slipping in to Germany in the guise of refugees’. Yesterday those same CSU politicians were smiling for the tv cameras…and trying not to be to smug about the millions of euros about to wash in on a tide of Löwenbräu & Paulaner .
As the Burgomaster of Munich traditionally says when opening the Oktoberfest: “It’s tapped!”
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September 15, 2015 at 10:15 am -
So Munich being full of foreigners means that being full of more foreigners would be a potential problem? Something not quite right about this logic. Politariat divorced from the daily reality of the volk trying to find ways to keep themselves that way. Bavarians have little truck with their masters from the north at the best of times.
In a similar vein of cant and hypocriosy I was reading protests about Cameron sending all the refugees to the north in England; yet the North is the home base for those caring sharing socialist corbynistas, so surely they should be dancing in their clog with delight? Something wrong with that picture too.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:27 am -
So Munich being full of foreigners means that being full of more foreigners would be a potential problem
Yep, when the Germany government orders trains to stop running . Again I repeat that: The German government decreed that train travel between Austria and Germany was to ShhTOP! For those who know little about Germany and it’s trains, that is akin to the NHS charging an Entrance Fee to A&E. German trains run, and run on time…it is an immutable law (and a myth). Wet snow and leaves can’t stand against the might of Deutsche Bahn.
70k (already and more on their way)teetotal muslims and 6 million (according to Wiki) drunken White Middle Class europeans . I’m amazed Munich hasn’t already started chartering special flights to get as many refugees out as possible.
It’s all about the money, it always is.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:28 am -
Fascinating BD! I love the insight we get from Raccoonistas. Let’s watch this space…
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September 15, 2015 at 2:36 pm -
Here’s some film of happy Kurds and Turks singing ‘Kumbaya’ together in Frankfurt:
https://www.facebook.com/RTvids/videos/vb.1038359576174295/1073578262652426/?type=2&theater
Rather oddly, I draw the conclusion that those most against German immigration are German immigrants.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:19 am -
“It may even be that this is the first step towards the collapse of the EU itself.”
You are a wise man, Gildas, let’s also hope you are prophetic!
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September 15, 2015 at 11:02 am -
Let’s not jump into what could be illusory hope from too great a height, shall we?
Most generals are there because they don’t do stupid. But any general who, in a conflict, split his forces into a large number of independent autonomous groups to defend different geographical locations with no coherent overall strategy, logistics, or reasonably common tactics, could probably expect to be fired when things all go pear shaped, as they most likely would.
And, as the troops on the front line may well be the first to suffer the consequences if it does, you might find that they all too rapidly come to the conclusion that joint might is the greater right.
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September 15, 2015 at 12:09 pm -
It’s just a tad hypocritical of Frau Merkel, only weeks after she berated Cameron so vociferously with her view that ‘freedom of movement’ is an integral feature of the EU and, without it, the EU would collapse, then she quickly embarks on a programme (or progrom) of closing Germany’s access-points, denying that very ‘freedom of movement’ which was, only weeks ago, apparently so vital (but to a different argument).
Perhaps the flexibly-moraled Mutti Merkel has finally realised that the collapse of that vile and failed institution is now inevitable and she’s started the process of ‘re-arming’, as history proves that her nation is occasionally wont to do.-
September 15, 2015 at 1:30 pm -
she quickly embarks on a programme (or progrom) of closing Germany’s access-points, denying that very ‘freedom of movement’
Except she hasn’t. Seems to be a misunderstanding of terms (wilful?). The opposite of a Schengen style ‘open’ border isn’t a ‘closed’ border in the ‘red white stripey pole is lowered, none shall pass’. All Germany has done is to reinstate the same border controls we have in the UK, and you’d not argue that Dover is closed?
Asylum seekers are still free to move into Germany but they will get stopped or ‘caught’ by the border controls and registered before being sent off to anywhere in Germany that isn’t Munich.
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September 15, 2015 at 3:21 pm -
Here’s a wedge, and here’s the thin-end of it – can you see the rest of the wedge yet ?
That’s the trouble with those pesky rose-tinted specs, they tend to be very selective in what they can define. Wonder what happened to Mr Chamberlain’s pair ?-
September 15, 2015 at 5:52 pm -
Chamberlain , he woz that bloke what started the second world war like? (And before anyone gets all ‘b-b-b-ut Germany started it!’ , I mean by ‘started it’ he officially declared war -or, if memory serves-he confirmed a state of war existed after Germany had refused to kowtow to his ultimatum). Even perhaps more telling is the attitude that he and his government took towards Jewish refugees, an attitude that would not be out of place here. I didn’t know until recently that at the start of the war the much vaunted Kinder of the fabled Kindertransports were interned in camps as ‘enemy aliens’ (infact the whole kindertransport episode is a shameful, not a statue erecting, episode of British history). The clue is in the name, it was ‘Kinder’ cos the British government wouldn’t grant visas to the parents for fear the influx of Jews would destroy our Christian culture and take jobs from British workers.
Sound familiar?
if Germany actually re-complying with the Dublin Agreement/International Law( and not just letting Refugees wander across borders without Registering) is the thin edge of the wedge then it is a wedge we Brits have been merrily applying for ages.
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September 15, 2015 at 6:03 pm -
re, “who started it” pertinent that it’s not some new-age Nazi’s causing the wars that are causing these people to seek a new life elsewhere, it’s us. So we seem to be in a huge circularity here anyway. All I would say is that if the coalition starts hitting England with airstrike, I’ll be heading for Wales, Scotland or Ireland for refuge…. NOT Syria or Iraq…. if you get my continental drift.
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September 15, 2015 at 6:15 pm -
I’ll be heading for Wales, Scotland or Ireland for refuge
Even NATO air and drone strikes are NOT a valid reason to go to Wales. Your post put me in mind of that line from Blackadder about where the prince might escape the wrath of Wellington…*from memory so probably wrong*
Prince:”Outer Mongolia?”
Blackadder: “He and the Chief Mongol were at Eton together”.
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September 15, 2015 at 8:39 pm -
The Brits weren’t that keen on helping Jews AFTRR the war either, even when they weren’t coming to shelter under Britannia’s skirts…. I learned this tonight:
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September 15, 2015 at 10:26 am -
Follow up post:
I have followed with some interest the “Hunger Games” series of films. I am hardly the target demographic, but I found Jennifer Lawrence’s central performance very compelling. For anyone who doesn’t know, the premise of the series is that after some sort of global war and melt down, a post apocalyptic America (at least that is what I assume it to be) is divided into Districts run from a central metropolitan city state. The outlying Districts are kept in poverty a sort of state of pseudo slavery, supplying their produce to the City, where the citizens live in effete, lavish abundance, largely concerned only with “fashion” and consumption and so forth, whilst its military keeps the underlings in the various Districts under the its heel.
It has often occurred to me whilst watching the present crisis – for that it is – unfold: Is that how we in Europe are, or are perceived? Certainly I could make a case for Western society being effete, self centered, shallow, consumerist, selfish and happy to exploit the rest of the world. But would it be a fair characterization? I suppose the answer might be: in part.
Meanwhile we seems to be watching an “every man (or state) for himself” situation unfold. My real point, I think, is that the dream of an open Europe with open borders is dead. What is billed as a temporary blip is the start, and there will be no going back. As I watch the razor wire being erected in Hungary and the like, I ask the questions: Is that moral, and is it, in fact, the first step to retrenchment from the Great European Project? My sense is that it is. As for Merkel and Germany’s policy, it seems to be summed up as follows: “All are vilkommen! oh hang on, there’s a few more than we expected …oh bloody hell. Right. Everyone has to bale us out….” This was always madness. What the politicians fail to grasp is that this is not “just” many thousands of refugees fleeing war, although it involves that; it is the mass migration of peoples.-
September 15, 2015 at 10:37 am -
it is the mass migration of peoples.
Actually Merkel grasped that long before anyone else. She was talking openly the other day about how Germany is going to change drastically socially/culturally due to the mass volkerwanderung. Germans don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing …although there is a rapidly growing movement against it.
I find this British fear of being overrun by foreigners a little strange for a nation whose patron saint was Syrian….
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September 15, 2015 at 10:43 am -
It all stems from the Welfare State. In the old days we would just just shrugged and say, “Good luck mate. One of them incomers are you?”.
Now we have to care and share and pay tax and be everybody’s pal. Something to with there being no such thing as society, unless it’s High Society that is-
September 15, 2015 at 10:53 am -
It all stems from the Welfare State
You might well be right but it’s strange that Germany -that invented the Welfare State/Universal Health Insurance if I recall aright- doesn’t seem to have the same concerns. …by and large (although you should hear The Bestes Frau In The World go on about all the refugees flooding into Germany…although she is a foreigner living in a foreign land herself (actually I have no clue what planet she lives on , let alone which country).
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September 15, 2015 at 11:27 am -
How do you know what the volk feel? All we see is politariat and middle class enthusiasts. naturally difficult for Germans to step forward on this issue. Greeks calling them nazis just weeks ago. Key to understanding here is the French. They take none and the ones who are there are bottled up in camps in Calais, trying to get the hell out. The French of course have a politically powerful Nationalist party. Speaking of which, the SNP famously cast itself as multi-kulti, has an empty country. The silence from Sturgeon is deafening.
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September 15, 2015 at 11:59 am -
How do you know what the volk feel
I don’t. Usually I just go with the opposite of whatever the Bestes Frau In The World thinks. She being clinically insane, the opposite of any thought she has, has to be ‘sane’ right? Works for me.:P
OK seriously ,I don’t but the polls in Germany are around 60-70% in favour of continuing to help the ‘refugees’ – would a poll in the UK asking about accepting ‘Migrants’ get similar results? (and bear in mind German Polls are…accurate…biased but accurate) I put the terms in speech marks because it illustrates the difference in public perception. Can you imagine Eddy Mair interrupting the PM programme with nightly appeals for donations to the Charities Kombinat ‘helping the refugees at home and abroad’?
There was a fear that the volunteer refugee helpers in Germany would be ‘over run’ or ‘burn out’. Instead they have the other problem, too many volunteers.
Pretty sure you’re right about the French though.
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September 15, 2015 at 12:27 pm -
September 15, 2015 at 4:53 pm -
We’ll see how long this friendliness towards the immigrants lasts. One of two attacks by the swarms of ISIS volunteers hidden amongst the migrants will quickly change public opinion.
I also think we’ve been browbeaten by “racism” accusations to the point of self destruction. Has no one noticed that Sweden is now the second worst country in the world for rape?
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September 15, 2015 at 12:51 pm -
“The silence from Sturgeon is deafening”.
Really?
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/1327991-sturgeon-scotland-will-do-everything-possible-to-help-refugees/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-34146653
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1211515/Nicola-Sturgeon-spoke-Scotlands-commitment-refugees.html
Pay attention at the back!-
September 15, 2015 at 4:54 pm -
These people are shocked and ground down by sectarian violence and extreme poverty, why make their lives that much worse by sending them to Scotland?
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September 15, 2015 at 6:43 pm -
Worse? Not at all. None of the ISIS lot will be going there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gMJBQoHJ4E
BTW, that’s definitely NSFW
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September 15, 2015 at 3:36 pm
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September 15, 2015 at 10:43 am -
Not sure that a Saint from over 500 years ago has any relevance to the way that people will think 500 years later. Personally I have as much empathy for the people displaced by mass immigration (either physically or as a consequence of their standard of living reducing due to increased demands on resources in a small place) as I do with the poor sods (if indeed they are) who feel the need to leave their own country.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:48 am -
Not sure that a Saint from over 500 years ago has any relevance to the way that people will think 500 years later.
It was dwarfish quip, a jibe …poking fun at the ‘We are only a SMALL island’ brigade. Infact , to be accurate, I think (if I remember my hagiography) St.George came from what is now Israel.
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September 15, 2015 at 12:52 pm -
As I said earlier .. it’s the ones that are displaced here that I have empathy for. Their quality of life eroded continuously by people who don’t have to live with decisions they are making because they have homes in really nice parts of West London, Hertfordshire, Surrey and perhaps even second homes in Monaco, Brussells and Luxembourg. Jibing at the small guy seems a little insensitive to their problems, calling them xenophobic… I assume you’d call the Romanian that I spend time with xenophobic as well.
I don’t mean to be personal but it does seem that many people criticise others and call them names simply because they have concerns about their own quality of life. Not much point in having a quality of life if you invite several thousand people ..or more and they end up living a similar life to where they’ve come from and reducing the quality of the people who were originally there.
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September 15, 2015 at 1:24 pm -
calling them xenophobic… I assume you’d call the Romanian that I spend time with xenophobic as well
I call my own dearly beloved German wife a xenophobe when she, from the comfort of her English couch, goes on about ‘hordes of foreigners’ coming in to both the UK and Germany. I tell my half foreign Youngest Son that voting UKIP is a vote for xenophobia (safe in the knowledge he doesn’t know what the word means nor could he even spell it). So yes, if your Romanian started bemoaning the fact that England is going to break with tradition and take in a measly few thousand refugees (and 20,ooo is a ‘measly few’), he’d get called ‘xenophobic’ as well.
I have plenty of sympathy for the ‘small man’…they don’t come smaller than me (come on, ‘dwarf’ has to be a clue:P)…in financial/social terms. I make no secret of the fact I live off benefits (I care for my insane wife 24/7) in a rented flat paid for by housing Benefit.
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September 15, 2015 at 3:38 pm -
Bearing in mind your circumstances … I am not sure you have the right to call people xenophobes .. in the same way as some (not me by the way) have the right to call you a scrounger.
Your circumstances may mean that your personal life quality may not be adversely affected. Truth is – it is always the people in the middle whose quality of life is affected by governmental decisions. On occasion a government may make a a change that could affect someone on social or handicapped etc.
The effects of immigration may not affect a lot of people .. but they will affect a significant portion in areas where population is dense. Not least of which would be earlier immigrants both past and recent like Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian.The notion that because it doesn’t bother or affect you makes others a xenophobe is prejudiced.
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September 15, 2015 at 6:09 pm -
Your circumstances may mean that your personal life quality may not be adversely affected
Wouldn’t change my opinion if i was adversely affected. I tend to put my money where my mouth is. I would be the last one to complain if the government decided to place a Syrian family with us and expected me to feed them from our benefits….just to get all personal and ickily soppy.
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September 15, 2015 at 7:17 pm -
Yeah right … easy to say when it isn’t happening…. but so be it. I won’t hassle you further on the matter. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have an unknown family within my own family. My wife would certainly not be happy and her rights are as important as my own. I also wouldn’t be content if my children or my neighbour’s children couldn’t get a place at the nearest school as a consequence. It’s bad enough at hospitals where my current youngest girl had ab appointment for a broken foot at 11.00am and she and the wife didn’t leave hospital until 3.00pm and all that was done was to remove the cast. The queue in the waiting room was immense.
Yes I understand that we’re still lucky blah blah, however it doesn’t have to be so overloaded and in Luton the system is overloaded. Andrea on her last child was placed in a waiting room with seats …. many women were standing and in the last 24 hours of labour. They were waiting for a temporary bed on a temporary ward. Andrea was eventually seen despite the problems the staff were facing and ended up in an operating theatre … 6 hours after arrival.
It was a result – in the end – but it shouldn’t be like that.-
September 16, 2015 at 7:51 pm -
6 hours after arrival.
That is disgusting but, I fear, not unusual.
You might just find that 20,000 Syrians needing medical care from the cradle to the grave forces the NHS to buck it’s ideas up-instead of worrying about whether or not people were daring to smoke in it’s grounds. Stranger things have happened. -
September 16, 2015 at 8:40 pm -
Seems particularly pertinent when a supplier I know in Germany tells me (this morning) his town of 250,000 inhabitants has 6 hospitals … in Luton we have 1 and the population must have exceeded 300,000 now.
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September 16, 2015 at 9:30 pm -
seems particularly pertinent when a supplier I know in Germany tells me (this morning) his town of 250,000 inhabitants has 6 hospitals
Poor old Germans having to make do with a health care system that not only works,provides world class care and
even makes a profit. Oh how they must long for our “envy of the
world” NHS (although your supplier Freund can probably tell you some
horror stories…not everything is ‘gut’ in the ‘sick houses’). Even I had to wait a whole fortnight to see Germany’s top Herr Professor Doktor Doktor of Gastrology(two doctorates so two “doktors”in his title).
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September 15, 2015 at 3:02 pm -
Turkey, actually (Cappadocia, which is more-or-less in the middle of Asia Minor), although he became the Bishop of Alexandria.
Gibbon, in chapter 23, has some amusingly rude things to say about our patron saint:
George, from his parents or his education, surnamed the Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller’s shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite; and the patrons, whom he assiduously flattered, procured for their worthless dependent a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army with bacon. His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his malversations were so notorious, that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice. After this disgrace, in which he appears to have saved his fortune at the expense of his honor, he embraced, with real or affected zeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation, of learning, he collected a valuable library of history rhetoric, philosophy, and theology, and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the new archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror; and each moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant, qualified, by nature and education, to exercise the office of persecution; but he oppressed with an impartial hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese. The primate of Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty station; but he still betrayed the vices of his base and servile extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust, and almost universal, monopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt, paper, funerals, &c.: and the spiritual father of a great people condescended to practise the vile and pernicious arts of an informer. The Alexandrians could never forget, nor forgive, the tax, which he suggested, on all the houses of the city; under an obsolete claim, that the royal founder had conveyed to his successors, the Ptolemies and the Caesars, the perpetual property of the soil. The Pagans, who had been flattered with the hopes of freedom and toleration, excited his devout avarice; and the rich temples of Alexandria were either pillaged or insulted by the haughty prince, who exclaimed, in a loud and threatening tone, “How long will these sepulchres be permitted to stand?” Under the reign of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury, or rather by the justice, of the people; and it was not without a violent struggle, that the civil and military powers of the state could restore his authority, and gratify his revenge. The messenger who proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of Julian, announced the downfall of the archbishop. George, with two of his obsequious ministers, Count Diodorus, and Dracontius, master of the mint were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public prison. At the end of twenty-four days, the prison was forced open by the rage of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms of judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and men expired under their cruel insults; the lifeless bodies of the archbishop and his associates were carried in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel; and the inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed a shining example of evangelical patience. The remains of these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea; and the popular leaders of the tumult declared their resolution to disappoint the devotion of the Christians, and to intercept the future honors of these martyrs, who had been punished, like their predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. The fears of the Pagans were just, and their precautions ineffectual. The meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of the Catholic church. The odious stranger, disguising every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero; and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the garter.
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September 15, 2015 at 3:25 pm -
September 15, 2015 at 5:58 pm -
I believe, and it has been a long time, that St George’s origins are disputed by learned men…nicely in keeping with just about every other ancient Saint… hell with an entire faith that doesn’t know for sure where it’s founder was born! Infact pretty much the one thing we know for certain about JC (Christ not Corbyn) is that he wasn’t born in Bethlehem, if he even existed at all.
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September 15, 2015 at 11:12 am -
Hunger Games? Nah!
You should get yourself a copy of Fallout: New Vegas, make some caps, and chill out on Sunset Sarsaparilla, man
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September 15, 2015 at 10:48 am -
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.John Donne
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September 15, 2015 at 1:47 pm -
Yes indeed. And to quote The Bhagavad Gita:
“He who experiences the unity of life sees his own self in all beings and all beings in his own self….”
But I guess we will manage to destroy ourselves, helped by antagonism between institutionalised religions, before people generally come to believe that we exist as temporarily individual parts of that unity and act accordingly.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:49 am -
One interesting thing is that the majority of these ‘refugees’ are able bodied young men – why.
It has been said that at least 1 in 3 of these young men are ISIS jehadi fighters being sent into Europe and the UK to start the fight for the Caliphate there. This does open the question of what sort of checks are being made on those that would enter Europe and the UK or are they depending on the emotional feedback from the few women and children with them.
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September 15, 2015 at 7:51 pm -
I understand that Syria has compulsory military service and that potential recruits are leaving the country rather than fight ISIL in the Syrian Army. Perhaps that is why so many “refugees” are young, fit, men?
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September 15, 2015 at 11:03 am -
This cartoon sums-up the situation aptly:
http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/nakedpastor/files/2013/07/jesus-feeds-5000-550×570.jpg
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September 15, 2015 at 11:22 am -
Obama played to the crowds by promising to accept 10,000 refugees/migrants.
Just how, without passports & documentary evidence of identity, they’re going to get past the infamously fastidious Department of Homeland Security remains to be seen.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/10/syrian-refugees-obama-us-admit-more-fiscal-2016
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September 15, 2015 at 11:35 am -
There are Labour MPs who want to let a flood of refugees into Britain.
According to Breitbart, Rachael Maskell, the Member of Parliament for York Central, declared:
“We need to shout so much more and say 20,000 is not enough, 30,000 is not enough. We will keep going until we hit our saturation point because what does it matter if we have to wait another week for a hospital visit? Or if our class sizes are slightly bigger? Or if our city is slightly fuller? What does it matter if things are slightly more challenging? If we have to pay a little bit more into the system? Surely it is worth it to see those lives being restored again.”
No doubt this is Corbyn’s Labour policy.
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September 15, 2015 at 12:06 pm -
Yes, as a fully paid up, xenophobic member of the “we are only a small island bigade” I am still waiting to hear just how many of these immigrants the politicians who spout the sort of crap you quoted are willing to house and support on a personal basis. Even if a few of them do step forward, you can bet any money you like that the “families” offered such acommodation would would be thouroughly vetted and hand picked, and of course would be the subjects of a “photo opportunity”.
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September 15, 2015 at 12:35 pm -
Yes, as a fully paid up, xenophobic member of the “we are only a small island bigade”
That’s the first step to recovery. Admitting it in public.
However I suspect you’re right about the politicians and their opening their homes to the refugees. Isn’t going to happen beyond anything but a token, well vetted, gesture.
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September 15, 2015 at 12:48 pm -
Alex, I don’t regard myself as xenophobic, but I agree.
If migrants were only admitted if sponsored by guarantors (not the taxpayer) providing homes and jobs for them, I don’t think we’d have a problem.
And although the bleeding hearts are a serious problem let’s not forget the major enemy within; the CBI and all those migrant hungry businesses that would sooner someone else paid for staff to be trained, and that the taxpayer will underwrite their low wage business model by massive benefit payments. Massive compared to wages that is.
Excellent post from Gildas, thank you.
About time the wealthy Middle East took on it’s Arab world responsibilities; let’s remember the Arabs once controlled the Med rim including half of Spain & North Africa.
Africa I just don’t know; but I haven’t forgotten that RSA was attracting desperate migrants from the rest of Africa 10 years before Mandela was let out; yet the contribution of the conscientious hand wringers here was to boycott outspan oranges.
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September 15, 2015 at 12:44 pm -
We have been told a lot in recent years that ‘free movement’ is core to the ‘Project’ and something that Cameron can’t negotiate away.
However when were about to join the Club of Six we were told that in practice this ‘free movement’ never happened to any great extent and the situation wasn’t expected to change. Of course that was before we took on the under-developed Eastern European countries and providing a free ferry service across the Mediterranean.
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September 15, 2015 at 12:58 pm -
“It may even be that this is the first step towards the collapse of the EU itself.” We can only hope . . .
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September 15, 2015 at 1:55 pm -
Interesting. I hear that Germany is taking the line that if other countries don’t pitch in, then funds and subsidies are going to be cut. But says who? And another point which troubles me is: supposing people are sent to other countries – where they patently don’t want to be. Why should they stay there? I see no mechanism to prevent them following their desire to enter whichever “Promised Land” they desire. Sometimes I get depressed about the state of the world. Other times I feel like just putting my feet up in an old armchair, putting on the news on the telly and opening a huge bucket of popcorn….
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September 15, 2015 at 3:10 pm -
Gildas, ‘….Germany is taking the line….’
I suppose the ever closer union both planned & now necessitated by membership of the euro will move all the decisions about who gets sent where to Brussels. Loss of national sovereignty coupled with economic power will impose quotas as surely as if done with guns. Same old misery, just less blood.
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September 15, 2015 at 1:56 pm -
Someone in the comments on Guido suggested that it wasn’t an accident at all.
First she argued for quotas, and they were turned down.
Then she said all are welcome.
Then they shut the borders, leaving the other countries to pick up ‘their fair share’.
A bit like musical chairs. -
September 15, 2015 at 2:21 pm -
I think if someone posts another ‘Germany has shut/closed/stuck the red stripey pole in place with super glue’ comment I shall scweam and sweam and SWEAM!
FFS People! Do you really think any EU politician would want to see live YouTube coverage of photogenic snivelling-with-hunger-and-cold Syrian children being turned away from the Promised Land that is the BRD?! Not to mention the Austrians would be more than a likely just a little ‘narked’.
Let me ‘bold’ it for those among us who have problems with the EU in general and who in their haste to say ‘i told you so’ haven’t actually stopped to consider what is actually being said.
Germany has N O T closed it’s borders. Germany is N O T turning away refugees. Germany has temporarily reinstated UK style border controls (no doubt more effectively than the UKBF) to ‘catch’ & register the refugees before they can get to Munich.
Alles Klaro? (‘Clear?’)
Move along, folks, nothing to see here…
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September 15, 2015 at 3:04 pm -
Yes, but Germany has shut its borders.
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September 15, 2015 at 6:00 pm -
Thank you for restoring my faith in Human Nature. Mind you, I had a little side bet going with myself that the ‘germany has shut it’s borders’ retort was going to come from Muddy or Ho Hum.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:37 pm -
I hope you weren’t assuming that I would be expressing similarly anally retentive sentiments as our good friend our Butt Plug? Although his does seem to fail frequently …
If you were, then take your current score and add (minus a lot)
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September 15, 2015 at 10:38 pm -
And as I have had two glasses, can we assume that you had double that? LOL
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September 15, 2015 at 3:28 pm -
There’s only nothing to see for those who are unprepared to look, for whatever reason. Those of an objective viewpoint can assess the developing situation without prejudice – they tend to be proved right.
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September 15, 2015 at 4:11 pm -
I keep telling you, Blair and Bush are to blame. I hope you are all going to vote UKIP.
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September 15, 2015 at 5:52 pm -
I have just come back from five weeks on a small Greek island, not directly effected by the present twin crises of austerity and migration. A late night dinner with several Greek politicians and an ex Italian MEP ,produced the fanciful idea that were Brussels to continue to ignore the migration situation then Greece and Italy might start to issue the migrants with EU passports. Thus solving the problem locally and effecting mayhem throughout the EU.
Even the fearsome rough and tumble of the Raccon Public bar would not allow me to repeat the Greek’s opinions of French and German Banksters. Malakas almost came across as polite.
As to the previous comments on Scottish devolution. I suspect that the “Braveheart” Nationalists have little concept of what Brussels has planned for them. In fairness nor did I, prior to the same dinner party, as I had never seen the logical progression and consequences of their “independent” membership of the EU. Taking a few tens of thousands of migrants annually will be the least of their burdens. If they think they are subservient now, they have a chilling shock in store.-
September 15, 2015 at 10:47 pm -
As I have pointed out before, my countrymen are great on technical matters, have great empathy and warmth, are so well meaning, but then spoil it all by applying their cold hearted, small minded, harshly judgemental, neo Presbyterianism when it comes to dealing with big minded, strategic, politics, where their contribution needs to be wider than their own, very limited, horizons. See Raccoons passim
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September 15, 2015 at 6:15 pm -
Looks to me from my perusal of the early evening news that it won’t be long until there is serious disorder in Hungary and Austria. For the migrants only Germany will do. In Germany the joyful scenes of welcome are starting to wane as the scale of the problem becomes clear.
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September 15, 2015 at 6:26 pm -
Gildas, I think you are right. However both the Germans and the Austrians will be able to contain and control all but t the most violent disturbances, as they have both the resources and the expertise. Not so Greece. From what I saw on Greek television, there is a violent tragedy in the making. Just awaiting a spark to ignite the situation.
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September 15, 2015 at 8:42 pm -
Maybe it’s an opportunity for Boris to flog them back the odd water-canon he bought from them, without first checking whether that nice Mrs May would let him use one.
I reckon those previously-welcoming Germanic types are going to need all the kit they can get – it could turn out to be the new version of an “EU It’s A Knock Out” spectator sport from where we’re sitting, as the giant water-hoses try to blast the athletic rag-head draft-dodgers off the big fences.
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September 15, 2015 at 6:30 pm -
Most of the refugees and migrants are good people and would normally be welcome, and would contribute to their new homes. The problem is the numbers.
It comes under the heading of “too much of a good thing”. The Jesus cartoon is about right.There is quite a lot of room in Scotland and in Norway, but people need houses. And electricity, and water, and supermarkets.
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September 15, 2015 at 6:57 pm -
In Germany the joyful scenes of welcome are starting to wane as the scale of the problem becomes clear
Dunno but I’m fairly sure Merkel & GmbH (‘co’) have been clear about the scale of the possible influx for a while now. This is the woman who, along with Old Ironsides (her crippled Finance Minister), pulled Germany through austerity to prosperity & ‘0’ borrowing almost single handed. She’s pretty good with numbers…any numbers…migrants…balance sheets…whatever…it’s a German thing . Less so the ordinary German on the strasse. Haven’t seen the ZDF evening news yet today so don’t know if there is any real ‘waning’ from yesterday and the weekend. For those who don’t know ZDF News is sorta like the 6 0’clock News here with just as much liberal eye-wash, femnazi, fASHist and anti-semitic reporting as the Beeb but with slightly more accurate facts (come on, they are German)…when they have to use facts and can’t rely on guesswork.
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September 15, 2015 at 8:42 pm -
Hysteria and impromptu hunger strikes in Serbia and Hungary. Only the Holy Grail of Germany will do…..
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September 15, 2015 at 8:56 pm -
I can remember when Anna and the few trusted feature writers made quite properly the longest word count, now it is the blocked dwarf filling each page with specious verbiage who is not nearly as amusing or enlightening as he thinks he is. Can we have an ‘ignore’ button for him please?
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September 15, 2015 at 9:03 pm -
Ancient + Tattered Airman.
I feel your comment lacks a certain Christian charity, Dear Boy.-
September 15, 2015 at 9:23 pm -
Not sure about Christian charity, but we all recognise our Blocked Dwarf as the virtual ‘Sean Connery’ of this bar: no matter how wonderful he reckons his beloved Scotland is, he just can’t quite find it in himself to move there to live and pay his dues, but that certainly won’t stop him boring the pants of everyone perpetually puffing it up, even when the evidence stacks up against it. Spooky that.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:50 pm -
Surely the Scots have to draw the line somewhere?
I’m impressed that he stays here to show solidarity with you…
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September 16, 2015 at 1:21 am -
Ahem, it seem that the virtual consumption of the landlady’s finest virtual victuals is clouding some of our regulars opinions.
I have only heard mention of Blocked Dwarfs habitation in Norfolk and Germany, with occasional mention of cockney grandparents. He will no doubt correct me if I am wrong. As to his stout defence of Germany, I am glad to read it, it is not a view that one would normally hear in British news, and frankly I am too lazy to process Spiegel Online through Google translate to get those opinions and news. .
That is not to say I am in complete agreement of his views, nor in complete disagreement of Ancients views either. I tend to the view that this crisis was set in motion by the criminally stupid actions of Sarkozy, camoron and obama with their Arab Spring nonsense, and it is their countries who should bear the maximum burden of their actions that has reached into Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and as far south as Nigeria. Christians have been horribly persecuted and received NO help from this useless trio, that the inhabitants want to run far from these hellholes is understandable-now you the long suffering taxpayer have to pay for it. Well done camoron. the fact that germany has stepped up to help these morons speaks well of the country, even if their public pronouncements have been extremely naive.
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September 16, 2015 at 7:07 pm -
Blocked Dwarf as the virtual ‘Sean Connery’ of this bar
Me, the ‘Big Milky from Glasgie’? That’s quite a comparison. I’m flattered…and don’t let my attempts to correct some of the misconceptions about Germany ( and sometimes the EU) fool you into thinking I actually like the place or it’s people in general. There are reasons why I choose not to live there at the moment and not all of them because The Bestes Frau In The World couldn’t bear to parted from her GrandKinder. I particularly dislike Merkel (whom I have refered to as ‘Merkel The Ferkel’-‘Merkel the piglet’ here before now). But credit where credit is due and all that….it’s a British thing. You should hear my views on Dresden- not the bombings- but it’s current inhabitants and all their fellow Saxons. Do I think the bombings were a war crime? Yes….but it is a shame they rebuilt the place after.
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September 16, 2015 at 6:59 am -
I quite like being informed about Germany, by someone who used to live and work there, speaks the language, stays in touch with it through the German media (and who knows, even relatives?) – and has a German wife. Maybe he is posting a lot here to counter a lot of other ill-informed ideas.
Anywho, you don’t have to read it.
I don’t always get the jokes either…
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September 16, 2015 at 7:41 am -
September 16, 2015 at 7:20 pm -
Maybe he is posting a lot here to counter a lot of other ill-informed ideas.
Thank god someone has seen through my cunning plan….and yes you’re right, I tend to talk (or spew) at length on things I know something about and am passionate about. You should hear me on “Xian Sects, New England,1844 and all that” (one of my party pieces).
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September 16, 2015 at 6:45 pm -
Can we have an ‘ignore’ button for him please?
Trust me, there are times when I wish for an ‘ignore’ button for myself. I come out with some utter crap at times-as do 99.9% of the posters here….even the Sainted Gildas has his moments (thankfully few). Strangely enough, and make of it what you will, I tend to regard your posts as some of the more readable, and well thought, out here so i’d hope any ignore button wasn’t bilateral. I just wish you’d realise that Britain won the war (ok albeit with a little help from the US) and that that was some 70 years back. Get over it, move on, Christ alone knows what you’d be like if “We’d” lost.
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September 15, 2015 at 10:21 pm -
And you would be right, John. It has been sorely depleted at the utter lunacy displayed over the migrant hordes intending to come here. I neither want nor need a fresh influx of welfare cases when this land of mine has produced more than enough of its own. The UK has a total of over 8 million people who were born elsewhere. God only knows how many illegals there are. Enough is enough. My life is nearing its end and if anyone were to offer me the ‘Elixir of Life’ I would decline it. I am worried on behalf of my grandchildren.
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September 15, 2015 at 11:44 pm -
Apropos nothing to do with this subject and given that I’m into the second bottle of red, I’ve just watched an interview (Newsnight) with Paul Gambaccini. I think he suggested that the current harassing of celebrities is as a direct consequence of the the police failure to pursue Saville. Is he implying that he knew something about Saville? Is he implying that Saville was guilty of something.
Hope the noble Ancient + Tattered Airman (given yesterdays special remembrance for past Airmen) will forgive any unnecessary verbiage.
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September 16, 2015 at 10:36 pm -
There are a lot of factors at work and to say there is a simple answer denies the complexity of the situation.
There has always been a small inflow of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa into places like Lampedusa. A decade ago there were reports of migrants in detention on the rock causing overcrowding. Long before the current crisis.
The EU policy of refusing to agree trade deals with African countries restricts their ability to grow economically. Hence why there was already a steady but small (and importantly manageable) flow of migrants from impoverished African states to the prosperity of Europe.
The conflict in Syria added to the flow but again it was manageable, mainly because neighbouring states like Jordan and Lebanon housed the millions of refugees at great cost to themselves. The stability of Libya provided a cap on the flow of migration and there are even reports of EU states paying Libya to restrict the flow of migrants.
Then France and the UK decided to wade in with their size nines and help the “Arab Spring” uprising in Libya which basically removed the stability and security of a dictatorial regime and replaced it with anarchy.
Now the lid on the African pressure-cooker was removed and the trickle became a flood. So much so that the traditional method of getting to the EU, rafting to Lampedusa was no longer an option and now hundreds were put in overcrowded boats and shoved off the Libyan beaches. But even as that route became congested and too risky, migrants were using the land route through Turkey over water to Greek islands or further by land through the Balkan states and Hungary to Austria on the way to Germany.
There are many millions of people now in transit through these various routes attempting to get to the holy grail of a prosperous EU country. Far too many for the EU to house with any semblance of security. Sub-Saharan Africa, Syria and other states may be in the toilet but thanks to western aid the mobile phones still work. Reports get back down the chain very quickly these days.
When Austria started to buckle under the strain Germany said it would take a large number of migrants in a pompous “we’re better than you lot” public statement. The fact of the matter was the number of migrants they were able to receive with any semblance of order was surpassed within days, hence the closing of the border.
All around the EU countries are closing borders because the numbers are too great to deal with in any official capacity. The EU is being tested as never before and being found to be weak and ineffective. The system has collapsed and unchecked migrants were and are roaming free across Europe, without us knowing who they are or why they are here.
As you say Gildas, this signals a significant moment in the history of the EU. It HAS to get a grip on the flow of migrants and start to process them. It will take huge resources to do so, beyond the purse of any single nation state. The EU has to collectively fork out for decent controls at the southern borders and facilities to hold and process migrants. Those genuine refugees can get refugee status and be housed under UN and EU rules, those found to be bogus claimants need to be quickly removed and returned.
It is contrary to the security and stability of the EU and its member states to do anything else. Denial and inaction is not an option.
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September 17, 2015 at 12:58 am -
Germany said it would take a large number of migrants in a pompous “we’re better than you lot” public statement. The fact of the matter was the number of migrants they were able to receive with any semblance of order was surpassed within days, hence the closing of the border.
You are German/speak German and you actually heard/read a statement that sounded pompous to you? I’m guessing not , not judging by the misinformation you seem to have based your comment on. At a guess I’d hazard you are just regurgitating some nonsense from some English source….otherwise you’d know that neither are the German borders closed nor was anyone anywhere particularly surprised that, when Germany put the Dublin Agreement on hold , Germany got hit by the Refugee-nami. That was clear to pretty much every commentator here. Germany has a lot of experience in taking in thousands of refugees in one go. I remember the 100 odd thousand that they shipped in from the Basketcase formerly known as the People’s Paradise of Yugoslavia. As late as last weekend the Burgomaster of Munich was gushing with pride about how his city had coped with ten’s of thousands. I don’t know any figures off the top of my head and TBH CBA to check but thousands of civilians ‘signed up’ to help deal with refugees. All leave was cancelled, retired civil servants were called back in. Closed army barracks where reopened, empty warehouses and factories turned into shelters.
This is purely my personal opinion and perhaps wrong but IMO there is nothing German civil servants love more than bringing order to chaos. If Jesus had used German civil servants to organise the Feeding of the 5000, there would not have been 12 baskets left over, it would have been costed down to the last shekel and any rubbish left would have been correctly sorted and disposed of in an environmentally correct way.
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September 17, 2015 at 8:06 am -
At a time when every country around Germany was unable to cope with the numbers of migrants (and I’m including Austria here, hardly a backward country) the announcement that they would take migrants in did sound pompous in a “we can cope better” kind of way.
You’re entitled to your opinion, as I am mine.
But it did sound just a bit pompous.
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September 17, 2015 at 9:18 am -
Pompous = Idealistic, in an ivory tower sort of way.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lina_and_more/223938166/
Known locally as “Angela’s washing machine” I believe.
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September 17, 2015 at 7:56 am -
TBD & combatants – I can’t pretend much knowledge of Germany based a few trips of entirely a business nature, but I do wonder if the upheaval of re-unification developed an understanding & competence absent in other European states.
re: the arguments about borders closed or not, it seems to me irrelevant; what matters is that if we have no borders within Europe, we must have a secure periphery. The periphery is not clearly not secure, therefore we need some form of processing of all uninvited guests to ensure the most basic protection of the society these people are so attracted to. I don’t see this as contradictory to humanitarian obligations, real or imagined.
For me, the Schengen arrangements are much like the euro- how nice for the holidaymaker or small business, but how potentially disastrous. The fact that something sounds like a good idea doesn’t make it one, unless of course the the objectives are totalitarian in nature, discomfort not being an issue.
The problems of increased migration were entirely predictable, as were the euro risks (identified beforehand); I have to wonder how many of these grand gestures without contingent planning the eu can stand.
Just how I see it.-
September 17, 2015 at 11:26 am -
Schengen is only the acknowledging of the reality that on the Continental European landmass, physical borders will be porous, as they always have been.
The notion that many seem to have that, now, somehow, measures can be taken to change that is bonkers. The cost of the infrastructure and its management would be immense, and unsustainable. Just think of the Irish border as an example, or, regardless how much pleasure it might give to the miniscule minded, the problems of dividing England and Scotland
And, returning to the Continent, if based on local commitment, finance and management, it will only be as good as its weakest link. And there will be a lot of those
If mass immigration into Continental Europe is to become controlled in any way, I agree with you that it’s going to entail a joint effort which must must be targeted at the external physical periphery and, as I said above, that will only serve to strengthen European unity, not weaken it
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September 17, 2015 at 11:51 am -
Anyone want to bet that the maritime surveillance role version of this…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper
…isn’t being touted hard round European capitals right now?
Or that the Israelis aren’t hard at work developing such for the marketing of their own drone systems?
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September 18, 2015 at 9:58 am -
When I first read that Germany were ready to take 800,000 I thought that Angie had lost her Merkels, as it were. whoever thought that the exact number meant anything? to any desperate family trying to save their lives it just means ‘ a lot’ ‘or ‘all of us’. No one fleeing that kind of horror reads the bit about ‘ over a period of time’
I cannot imagine that Merkel or any European leader has a mandate for that number but then mandate sort of implies democracy doesn’t it?
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