Mutter Angela and the Sorting Hat
I read in my Sunday broadsheets that Angela Merkel is starting to get a bit of stick in Germany. For example “Mutter Angela” is featured on the front page of Der Spiegel in full Mother Theresa style. I also read – according to Eurostat, the statistic office of the EU – that of the asylum-seekers making applications for asylum in Europe between April and June of this year, 21% were from Syria; which means, according to my mathematics, that 79% were not.
I find this deeply troubling, since my observation of Sky News suggests that the overwhelming majority of migrants or asylum seekers are English-speaking nuclear families from Syria consisted of parents who are brain surgeons or internationally acclaimed concert pianists, with twin girls aged 8 who aspire to be teachers of children with special needs. Of course I am being facetious, but Sky does seem to home in on the “Syrian families issue” – with whom I do have great sympathy, by the way – and rather gloss over the very high levels of young men from many other countries who are on the march. There are a number of things that puzzle me about the present migration crisis. And I would like our esteemed readers and commentators to assist, because I am genuinely puzzled what the answer would be.
Let’s leave aside the big question of why the whole bloody (and I use the word deliberately) shambles has been allowed to develop in the first place. In fact, I wrote a piece for this site a few years ago when Dish Faced Dave was bathing in the glory of having played a leading role in getting NATO to help in the overthrow of Gaddafi. The gist of the piece was: well, that’s great, Dave; but beware the Law of Unintended Consequences. I must see if I still have it. I suppose I might give myself a little smug self-congratulatory pat on my own back (can you do actually do that?). But we are where we are.
The first question is: why is Hungary bothering to put up a bloody great razor-wire fence? You could argue that this is a perfectly rational thing to do, in as much as Hungary does not want large numbers of people from war-torn Africa and the Middle East and Afghanistan, about whom it knows absolutely nothing and who could be absolutely anybody – a refugee, a murderer on the run who fancies a new life, an ISIS fighter intent on causing as much slaughter and mayhem in Europe as possible – wandering about across its roads, and I suppose that statistics and common sense suggest that there will be all three present, and more.
But my question is: why bother? It’s giving Hungary a “bad press” with some, although I always thought the first duty of a government was to defend and secure its borders. But the migrants, refugees, whatever, appear to have no interest whatsoever in staying in Hungary for any appreciable length of time. They appear to simply want to pass through to get to the Promised Land of Germany, or some other northern European country. I heard an interview with one chap who wanted to go to Finland. Who knows why? Perhaps he had read the “Moomin” books by Tove Jansson when he was a kid, and fancied a snow house in the forest. But overwhelmingly Germany seems to be the destination of choice, where they will be provided with the new house, the new car, and the well-paid job migrants believe they will get. Admittedly, Germany will have to curb its famous beer-drinking activities for fear of offending many of its new citizens, but that is surely a small price to pay for making sure that they feel at home. As I understand it, Germany has committed to take 800,000 such refugees or migrants. That is rather a lot. But, as we all know, the problem is bigger than that. This is the mass migration of peoples. If left unchecked, it is Exodus. The movement may move into millions, even many millions.
Again, as I understand it, Germany’s solution to this is to call upon other EU nations to take a share of the refugee-migrant numbers, and even to threaten economic consequences for those who refuse to do so, whether out of xenophobia, racism or merely the view that they took a rational view, rightly or wrongly, that the sudden arrival of large numbers of people from radically different cultural backgrounds might cause social and economic tensions.
My problem with Germany’s position is this. Which 800,000? Who does it choose? Is this to be like some colossal version of Whacky Races and an outright race to the finish line by any means? Will it be pin-ups Peter Perfect and Penelope Pitstop from Syria, or the rather less attractive Slag Brothers from Somalia? Perhaps the Ant Hill Mob from Eritrea will make it first. Or is some other process of choice to be engaged? If so, what? A lottery perhaps, with a colossal bag of tokens that the migrants must pass by and hope they get a winning token? Or a system like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory based on Golden Tickets in chocolate bars. How about a Harry Potter style Sorting Hat? I can see that working; it could allocate the refugees a new country just like sending students being sent to their respective houses at Hogwarts. This one is…Portugal! So, Sorting Hat it is. But that’s just where the problems start.
My next question is: what does Germany do if they don’t want to leave? These people have just travelled right across Europe so that they can enjoy the delights of Germany’s famously efficient public transport and watch Bayern Munich, and now the Sorting Hat is telling them they have to go to Greece or back to Hungary. What happens if they say “no”? So far, these people seem to have made their intention to reach Germany and Northern Europe reasonably plain. Are we to see Germany pack them onto trains by force and send them on their way? Germans have a bit of history there, so that might be a bit awkward…
But the problem doesn’t end there. Suppose that the refugee or migrant is, for example, lured to his or her new home (as allocated by the Sorting Hat) by some sort of elaborate ruse: let’s say by being sent to collect a pizza. He or she is now informed that he or she has to stay there. What is there to stop them coming back? I see Molesworth at the back there is shouting “border controls, sir!” But that’s not very “Schengen”, is it? And anyway, as we can see from our television pictures, it’s not as though anything short of a razor-wire fence is going to stop them and even then they will tear it down if it’s not “vigorously” policed. By which I mean manned by riot police who look like something out of every dystopian sci-fi thriller which features a Fascist police state.
I have written the above in slightly tongue in cheek style. I shall conclude not in that style at all. I am pleased if this country can offer refuge for 20,000 decent Syrian people genuinely fleeing war and persecution – genuine refugees; families, not migrant young men. I believe we can and should and can cope with that number, taken from the refugee camps, and thus not encourage the people traffickers and criminal gangs. I hope we help many more in the region. I regard Germany’s stance as utterly crazy and irresponsible. On Germany’s own head be it: it will produce civil strife and the rise of the “Far Right” once again.
Gildas The Monk
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September 22, 2015 at 9:35 am -
For me it is simply tied up with France and Grrmany’s long term vision – since the 50s – of a Europe which is a country on its own right. That ideological position has always been there. I believe Merkel and Juncker see this crisis as a tool to manipulate political shifts.
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September 22, 2015 at 10:02 am -
These are all good questions: who sorts the sheep from the goats, in what time frame, and what happens to the goats afterwards.
Questions which could have been asked a couple of years ago, when arrivals in the islands of Southern Europe first became a problem. Thing is, they were a problem for little islands and the countries that own them. Northern Europe seems to have belatedly realised that in a Schengen set up they can quickly become their problem too.
Merkel looked at a chip pan fire and thought ‘What that needs is a bowl full of water’ – her neighbours will get their feet wet and then probably burned, but at least she was doing something rather than running round in circles and telling everyone else they should be doing something.
And still there are no EU reception centres to separate the family sheep and prevent them from having to walk the length of the continent carrying their lambs.
It’s a world class screw up, a failure of epic proportions. -
September 22, 2015 at 10:15 am -
Let all those (politicians) who unilaterally decided to allow entry to the migrants, be the first to remove their own front doors.
http://i.imgur.com/IVCdhlO.jpg
Obama pledges to admit 200,000. Yet the US has The Dept Of Homeland Security created to keep out every last visitor without complete & pristine documentation including a Visa permit.
Few refugees, and even fewer migrants keep their passports.
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September 22, 2015 at 2:07 pm -
Very well said!
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September 22, 2015 at 10:35 am -
The EU could have done something, and indeed did, a bit. They could have helped the UN set up and fund refugee camps in the surrounding countries. Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have millions of displaced Syrians. Jordan has millions of displaced Palestinians too, but that’s another issue. They did, but only a token attempt has been made so far.
For some reason the EU has decided that the usual methods of dealing with refugees is no longer the correct method and EU countries have to take them in. Why? What is China, Russia, Iran, India, Brazil etc etc doing to help? Nothing. So why is it down to the EU alone? Could the reason really be that most of these refugees are not refugees but economic migrants. Could they even be true that they are not mostly Syrian? When a large proportion turn out to be Pakistanis and Eritreans they are not simply refugees anymore.
We are being lied to by the press but why? It’s not as if the press have a moral impetus so it can’t be because they think the people won’t accept large scale economic migration without getting angry and we need to be saved from ourselves. So what are the reasons? Who is powerful enough to force the press to behave in concert? Why would Sky, not normally a liberal outfit play along with the leftist BBC and so shamelessly lie. Even the Daily Mail is at it, which is somewhat mind blowing. Only on the internet do you get a glimpse of what is really going on.
I’m not one for conspiracy theories so I don’t give much credit to the idea that this is Agenda 21 or disguised Bilderberger Lizards. But something is going on which we are not allowed to be privy to and will not accept if we knew what was really going on. So what is it?
Is it really something as mundane as cheap labour?
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September 22, 2015 at 11:09 am -
Is it really something as mundane as cheap labour?
It will be about the money it always is. As far as I can tell most of Merkel’s German critics are actually just pissed that She hasn’t given enough Euros to the regional state governments to house the refugees…yet nor employed enough Federal Civil Servants to deal with writing out cheques and issuing food stamps…yet.
The german nightly news shows German volunteer civilians, non NGOs, handing out food and water at borders everywhere along the ‘routes’. Yes, believe it or not, a hell of a lot of ‘normal’ Germans have been moved to take unpaid leave, fill up the Audi with Evian and those yellow Baco-foil sheets and head East. Infact at some crossing the unofficial, unpaid, non-NGOs have taken over from the Red Cross.
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September 22, 2015 at 10:42 am -
Apparently (per Radio 4), there is a roaring trade in selling Syrian passports and documents to Libyans, Egyptians, Iraqis, Afghans etc. I wonder how many people from Africa are now become Syrian?
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September 22, 2015 at 10:44 am -
Merkel rhymes with the German word for ‘piglet’ and after yesterdays Snoutrage, putting Cameron and Merkel in one sentence gives rise to unfortunate mental images that would upset Frau Spamcam greatly…
That aside, yes Merkel has been getting a lot of stick from everyone and his brother (at least for those who won’t be getting a cut of the projected 1 billion turn over of the Oktoberfest). She was almost in tears the other day (and she rarely shows any emotion) saying something like ‘if the country expects me to apologise for showing the human face of Germany then all I can say is that isn’t my country’ which is a bit garbled (and I haven’t checked the exact quote) but on the richter scale of political emotion ranks up there with what Mrs T said after being knifed by
BrutusGreyus Greyus Majorum.Watching the German nightly news I constantly get the feeling that we in the non-German EU are missing something. Sure the Xenophobes and Europhobes may be certain it is all a German plan to conquer the EU and send the panzers down Downing Street, whilst others seem to think that one of the most experienced politicians in Europe, or the World for that matter, has suddenly stopped thinking 3 moves ahead and can’t see what letting a couple of million refugees into the EU would bring.
A lot of the MSM coverage here reminds me of that bloke down the pub, you all know him-the one who knew EXACTLY what financial policies the government needed to take but couldn’t balance his own cheque book or pay his tab.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:17 am -
Agreed. In this case it is much simpler to believe that Merkel has simply dropped an enormous bollock which can’t now be undone without blood on the carpet. It is all the more odd because usually she is the arch strategist, if only compared with the other EU leaders.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:49 am -
TBD
This Merkel open arms policy seems odd to me.
Was it so many years ago millions of Turkish ‘guest workers’ were being encouraged to go back home, no longer needed on site? Obviously before reunification, which presumably provided another rich source of labour. Even speaking the right language.-
September 22, 2015 at 12:04 pm -
Even speaking the right language.
You obviously have never East German spoken then, it sounds to West German ears the way Yorkshire sounds to British.
And it would be ‘odd’ if it were an ‘open arms’ policy. It isn’t. As far as I can make out, Angie is reacting to the collective will of her electorate to help the refugees (as the German News insists on calling them no matter where they say they have come from). As I have said before , some (at the last count) 70% of Germans think they should be taking in refugees.
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September 22, 2015 at 12:04 pm -
Edit *never heard East German spoken
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September 22, 2015 at 1:40 pm -
Thanks TBD.
One further question; ‘..taking in refugees.’ Is that what they are?
They don’t look like it from the footage we see.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:09 am -
Immigration can be a good thing and has worked well for all parties on some occasions in the past. A quick and dirty study into these cases suggests that the numbers involved should not be too large, that the culture of the incoming group should be able to adapt to that of the host country and that the incoming group sees a value in identifying with the incumbents.
The current situation fails all of these criteria and will end in tears, disaster or war ( take your pick).
And we should not be to smug watching our Euro chums shooting themselves in the foot. When one in nine of us is not from round here, it does not do much for community cohesion or any sense of shared identityThe Romano Britons will have regretted inviting the Germanic and Norse mercenaries to help with their short term difficulties. The penny will have dropped when they had lost most of their land to the Saxons and Danes.
Are we all to become the new Welsh?-
September 22, 2015 at 11:30 am -
At least the Saxons, Danes and Vikings did finally convert to Christianity.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:37 am -
That is spot on.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:44 am -
Are we all to become the new Welsh?
all the more terrifying as the word ‘Welsh’ actually comes from the Saxon for ‘Slave race of sheep shagging retards’ or something like that. Becoming Syrianized I can live with, always fancied learning Arabic and being able to read the Quran in the original Foammouthyness, but Welsh?! Heaven forfend.
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September 22, 2015 at 1:41 pm -
Death or, convert………ooh lets see here?
Bowing to the east five times a day, the call of the Imam drifting across the landscape of England and even – aye, in Yorkshire Pakistanified grinning tones, “like………………….. you will be given a choice my brother or sister, innit?”
Merkel, is a communist, always was and still is, agenda 21 very much appeals to her and she is in goose step with the European elites and corporate backers who run the EU. The Brussels Mafia, who are dedicated to bringing about the end of the nation state. Thus “Islamification – but so what they say?”
It [Daesh], is neither here nor there to them and Angie said, “Islam is Germany” – remember that one?-
September 22, 2015 at 7:09 pm -
Angie said, “Islam is Germany” – remember that one?
Do you? If so you’re probably remembering it wrong. What she said (AFAIK and I may be wrong) was “Der Islam gehört zu Deutschland” ‘Islam belongs to/in Germany’…reiterating something the now disgraced-then-undisgraced former President Wulff said.
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September 22, 2015 at 7:12 pm -
I meant to add the best translation into ‘normal’ English would be ‘Islam is a part of Germany ‘ in the sense Xianity, Judaism and The Shining Path Of The Jedi are all parts of Germany or being German…..and yes I did just make the Jedi one up.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:53 pm -
Hmm, I should have said – “paraphrasing” or some such but you got the drift.
Course, and we know that, the Germans have long dabbled with the followers of the death cult, not least in the guise of, the Muslim Brotherhood.
President Woolfie? sing it loud! I’ll go to dammerung – another ‘amoeba’ single brain cell ‘libtard’ who cannot discern which way is up and a perfect fit for those wets – CDU-ites.
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September 22, 2015 at 9:13 pm -
It comes from the Anglo-Saxon slang “Wylich” meaning “dirty foreigner”. If you want a modern equivalent, think the “N” word of the “P” word.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:15 am -
As a monk, perhaps the glaring omission from your piece is the religious aspect – most of these people are not Christian and will inevitably alter the towns and cities where they are re-settled. This, combined with language and cultural differences, will cause the most significant (& irreversible) changes to Europe in millennia.
But most of the televised images portray organised, well-clothed, well-fed and certainly not poor young men. There is reasonable doubt about their origins and intentions – these are not families fleeing poverty or asylum-seekers, but luxury-seekers. Some may be jihadists embedded in a Trojan way to infiltrate Europe (although this is most likely a media-generated scare).
Helping those families suffering in war-torn countries should be our priority, not these young men.
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September 22, 2015 at 2:22 pm -
I agree that the Islamic nature of almost all the migrants, current and those to come, has been underplayed. Islam, and not just Islamism (a distinction with little to no difference) is incompatible with the form of society practiced in any EU country.
Given that it is an entirely intolerant religion/political movement, and only pretends to be peaceful until it has the upper hand, I’m afraid we are heading towards a point of no return.
Due to immigration and demographics there will come a time when Islam will want to assert its dominance. Unfortunately that tipping point is at a lower level than it used to be. How many younger people living in, say, Britain will resist Islamic takeover as politicians gradually give away more and more of our freedoms?
Increasingly the young people of fighting age will be Muslim. Few of our nice Muslim neighbours will resist their co-religionists and many will hop on the radical bandwagon.
Many non-Muslims have little cultural attachment to the UK and will simply leave when it gets too hot. Many others have been so conditioned to be tolerant towards the brutally intolerant that they won’t realize their fate in time.
Many Muslims will fight brutally and to the death for Islam right now; how many others will fight as determinedly for liberal democracy before it is too late?
Some will say that this is too alarmist – and I wish it was – but take a look round the world at Islamic states. Islam doesn’t do democracy when it has the choice. Islam doesn’t co-exist on an equal level unless it is forced to.
The only grim satisfaction to seeing liberal democracies becoming oppressive Islamic theocracies would be the look on the faces of assorted mainstream “journalists” and assorted panderers when they see every ideal they supposedly hold being crushed underfoot.
If a line isn’t drawn, and determinedly adhered to, soon. Democracy in Europe will be on an inexorable slide to extinction.-
September 22, 2015 at 4:26 pm -
AC130 over Bradford?
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September 23, 2015 at 12:16 am -
I really do want to disagree with you but albeit very reluctantly find that the logical processes in my mind lead me to a similar conclusion.
All you say is, ineffably and unbearably true.
It’s been a long time since blood was spilled in quantity upon the fields and in the towns of
BritainEngland but as sure as the Sun is setting on the west, war is coming. The cult of death, its followers will be cause and the source. The pyjama wearing moderates will be silent, in acquiescence and the facilitators, the quislings, those who went native, the white UK multicultural ideologists will be the first to be put to the scimitar and hung high on the gallows [it is one small consolation].-
September 23, 2015 at 12:53 am -
The cult of death
Traditionally the ‘sex-death-cult’ was always a Xian thing. I doubt ISIS will even get close to the numbers that Xians have slaughtered (or ‘saved from themselves’) over the years. You have to remember that us Xians had a 600 year (?) headstart on Mohammed. From the ‘God will know his own’ to the ‘Rave In The Nave (Adventist ‘Holy Flesh Heresy’) , Koresh and Kool-Aid,Xianity’s ‘book’ is a rorschach picture of deeply dark stains.
Not to mention….
…The Spanish Inquisition. Bet you weren’t expecting that …no one ever expects The Spanish Inquisition !
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September 23, 2015 at 9:34 am -
The founder of Christianity said to turn the other cheek. Yes Christianity has been infested by power-seeking arseholes at various times and has done harm.
Islam is constituted to create political totalitarianism and intolerance along with violence and deceit against anyone outside its ranks.
The list of crimes at islams door is vast. The estimate of 270 million murdered over the 14 centuries of the RoP that is sometimes bandied about is likely an substantial overestimate. But many millions have been killed . They ran an African slave trade every bit as large as the Western one and even more brutal–and for longer. Castrating male slaves was SOP (islamics know all about the danger of demographic takeover and were ensuring it would not happen to them). The crimes of Christianity are mostly long in the past. Islam started the 20th century with a massacre of Armenians and is has attempted to destroy Israel several times out of their hatred of Jews. More people are dying in the Islamic conflicts in the middle-east every year than were killed in three centuries of the Spanish Inquisition.
So don’t come it.
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September 23, 2015 at 11:01 am -
The list of crimes at islams door is vast.
You are absolutely right of course about Islam’s body count. Blame lateness of the hour for my unthought through post and the fact I am far more au fait with the Sins of our Xian forefathers (and fathers in some cases).
But not sure I’d go with Islam is constituted to create political totalitarianism and intolerance along with violence and deceit against anyone outside its ranks. but i have only read the Quran a couple of times in the original German and English and have only talked with a liberal Imam (his wife wore skin tight jeans to Primark kind of liberal) on Nestorian influences on the Quran once or twice so can’t really claim to know much about the principles of Islam TBH.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:28 am -
Merkel’s well-meaning policy over immigrants is of a piece with her well-meaning policy over energy.
I think providing substantial aid for those in the camps in Jordan and Lebanon is more helpful.
Eritreans can reasonably be treated as true refugees as that country really is a hell-hole.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:56 am -
I think providing substantial aid for those in the camps in Jordan and Lebanon is more helpful.
Actually I think Dave ‘would you like to see my truffle’ has the right idea *crosses self*- just 20K is far too low a number to take from the camps. Add another zero and we’d be talking real help.
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September 22, 2015 at 1:52 pm -
‘Ang about.
It took the media about a decade to recognise that quite a large number of ordinary Brits were a bit dischuffed about high levels of net migration – which hasn’t been stemmed at all, and was at a figure of 330,000 last year (plus all the ones that snook in under the radar). Nothing whatever to do with racism or xenophobia, simply a recognition that that level of immigration brought significant problems. Now you want to push the figure up by another 200,000 a year? Haven’t we already got a problem with Islamic extremism? Haven’t we already got a stretched health service, a housing shortage, and unemployment of about 1.8 million? Don’t we already have to import about 40% of our food because we can’t grow enough to sustain the population?
We can’t house everyone on the planet, nor even everyone on the planet currently displaced by war or a desire for a better life, even if we wanted to. Where exactly do we draw the line?
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September 22, 2015 at 2:15 pm -
Glad you said all that Engineer, I fear that if I had done so I would have been yet again called a “xenophobic little island Englander”. However, I agree with you 100% on this issue.
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September 22, 2015 at 3:38 pm -
And what they never emphasise is that the 330,000 figure is only NET migration – the actual total of immigrants was around 650,000, meaning that 320,000 had left for elsewhere. Now imagine that most of those 320,000 escapees were native/white/Christian types, then the ethnic-dilution effect of those 650,000 actual immigrants is twice as great on the balance of the UK’s overall population. That’s about a ‘Leeds’ every year.
So it’s even worse than most realise, courtesy of that silky-tongued-out-of-a-sow’s-ear Mr Cameron only using the Net figure, albeit still three times as high as he’d promised. Pig-ignorant fool.-
September 22, 2015 at 5:14 pm -
And what they never emphasise is that figure is for that year only, the count is reset to zero at the start of each year BUT the migrants of past years don’t magically disappear (or integrate?).
Of course politicians have always played that game. Last years’ price increase vanishes from the inflation figures but we continue to pay it.
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September 22, 2015 at 7:34 pm -
Haven’t we already got a problem…
Yes, although I doubt that the Islamic Extremist problem is anywhere near where the ‘Irish Catholic’ problem was a few short years ago and yes, Britain is broken but then again it always has been…at least since 1911ish (yes I’m banging on about the Parliament Act again) AND i think you might have underestimated the real number of Unemployed (ie not counting the ‘hidden’ ones on ‘DHSS’ and on the’Sick’).
You will not hear much disagreement from me on all that and the state of the NHS.
However if the UK were to take 200K in one go or even a million…do you think the Government would be able to keep the current levels of funding or systems of distribution going? No they would have to spend more, a lot more. There would no longer be debates about whether we could afford to fund the Olympics, HS2 or Trident. The Government would have no choice but to pump money and resources into building homes, employing Doctors (fortunately as gildas has already pointed out a lot of the syrians seem to be doctors), teachers, building schools. There would be no more talk of austerity. Taking in vast amounts of refugees tends to focus minds and resources wonderfully….as Germany is already finding out. Amazing how quickly you can suddenly get planning permission for that old factory in Munich now. Or a negative example- as an engineer you will appreciate the speed at which Hungary, who normally couldn’t organise anything-judging from my trip to Budapest last year- managed to put up what (from what I have seen) looks like a top of the range razor wire fence, of a sort not seen in Europe since the end of the DDR or Millwall playing away, from one end of the country to other.How long have the Israelis and the Americans been trying to do the same on their borders? Suddenly the impossible becomes ‘tomorrow AM ok?’.
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September 23, 2015 at 2:40 pm -
Unfortunately exactly the same arguments can be made in favour of having a war.
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September 23, 2015 at 2:54 pm -
Indeed they can…but then again have we ever needed an excuse to go to war?
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September 23, 2015 at 7:41 am -
I have been making the same point for years. It gets even more distorted when you look at the economics. I will give you a practical example. My wife and I moved to France ten years ago. We sold two houses in the UK, bought a house in Normandy and lived off our capital until our pensions kicked in. Now we have our pensions transferred to France to pay our way. We are tax resident in France and are part of the French health system. We have bought French cars.
Compare our economic “worth” to the UK with that of two “immigrants” from “insert name of Country here” and take into account the costs associated with these people (Housing, Child benefits, unemployment possibly, etc) and the picture becomes increasingly murky.
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September 23, 2015 at 8:24 am -
Yet the immigra-phile BBC and the sponsored media still parrots the message that immigration is good for the economy – take a look at Bradford and see just how good it’s been for the economy there and you’ll get a clue what’s in store for the rest – a broken, crime-ridden wreck of a once-proud city.
Maybe they meant it’s good for the French economy, or the Spanish economy, or anywhere else that white-flight takes us with our money. Make room, I’m heading there soon.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:40 am -
I sometimes wonder if Angie reads here.
Not as unlikely as you might think. She spends a lot of what little free time she has with her husband in Cambridge. After a busy morning shopping at Waitrose or Aldi ( i assume Grantchester has one or the other these days?) for the evening’s romantic meal, is it sooo impossible to believe she’d kick back with a glass of Chateau de Lidl and a bar of Cadburys (try german chocolate and you’ll understand), slip into her Union Jack onesie and catch up on googling herself? All politicians do you know. It goes with the pathological narcissism.
Actually that’s a bit unfair, German chocolate is very very good …but it doesn’t have drum playing gorillas nor a glass and a half of full cream milk.
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September 22, 2015 at 11:55 am -
I’m off to the Oktoberfest tomorrow to create a percentage of the German GDP for Frau Merkel to spend on her new guests. I’ll keep an eye out for her if you like……
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September 22, 2015 at 12:56 pm -
If you speak German it would be interesting to get the view from the Beer ‘tents’ -although I dare say there aren’t actually that many real Germans, let alone real Bavarians, at the tables these days. In cervisiam veritas and all that.
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September 22, 2015 at 2:09 pm -
A lot of the media coverage is odd. Lots of hand-wringing about ‘refugees’, but almost nothing about what the UK government is doing about it. As far as I can gather, the UK is trying to help those governments right on the front line of the Syrian refugee crisis; Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan. I gather they’re doing more than the rest of Europe put together. That seems to be a sensible approach, to me. I just can’t see the sense in sending signals that migrants presenting themselves at the EU’s borders will be welcomed in, because it will just make all the problems and suffering we currently see as people try by any means they can to get to Western Europe infinitely worse, as even more people put themselves at risk chasing the dream. The only people to benefit from that will be the smugglers.
What do our well-funded NGOs and international charities have to say about the causes of all this, and the solutions? So far, all I’ve heard from the likes of Oxfam is a deafening silence.
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September 22, 2015 at 2:20 pm -
So far, all I’ve heard from the likes of Oxfam is a deafening silence.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/emergency-response/syria-crisis
Oxfam’s response in Lebanon
Oxfam has reached more than 250,000 vulnerable people in Lebanon. Our response has included:
•Providing 3,200 hygiene kits (accompanied by hygiene promotion and awareness sessions), toilet cleaning kits, and 840 environmental cleaning kits, and distributing household, communal and municipal waste bins.
•Building and repairing over 1,100 toilets, ensuring that each is shared by no more than 20 people.
•Installing over 720 water tanks in communal areas.
•Delivering 10 million litres of water through water trucking, providing refugees with clean water for drinking, cooking and washing.
•Constructing or repairing 70 shared bathing facilities, and providing families with jerry cans and water storage containers.-
September 22, 2015 at 2:20 pm -
Oxfam’s response in Jordan
In Jordan we work in both Za’atari refugee camp and in Jordanian communities that are hosting Syrian refugees. Za’atari camp is now the fourth biggest population centre in Jordan, housing around 90,000 Syrian refugees.
Oxfam currently works in three of Za’atari’s 12 districts, supervising water and sanitation, refuse management and the cleaning and maintenance of wash blocks, we also co-ordinate hygiene promotion activities. In addition, together with UNICEF and other international actors, we are installing a water network in the camp, which will ensure refugees have safe access to water. To date, our response has included:
•Building 50 water, sanitation and hygiene blocks, including 318 toilets, 288 bathing areas, 72 laundry areas, and 100 water points, serving up to 15,600 people.
•Maintaining 120 water, sanitation and hygiene blocks in 3 districts benefitting around 25.000 people.
•Installing 270 portable latrines as a temporary measure.
•Distributing 75 commodes for disabled users.
•Provided 19 x 95,000 litre and 378 x 2,000 litre water tanks.
•Installed 10 hand-washing facilities in the market area.
•Built 24 toilets in youth centres, sports grounds and playgrounds.
•Constructed 10 water, sanitation and hygiene blocks (showers, toilets and water points) at border crossing areas.
•Distributed hygiene materials to 96,000 people across the camp.
•Design and preparation for construction of a piped water network to benefit all 90,000 people in Za’Atari
•Solid waste management for up to 25,000 people
•Hygiene promotion and community mobilisation for up to 25,000 people (36,000 during water network construction)-
September 22, 2015 at 2:21 pm -
Oxfam’s response in Syria
Oxfam has had an office inside Syria since July 2013, responding alongside other agencies to the urgent need for clean water. An estimated 35% of water treatment plants in Syria have been damaged during the conflict and there are concerns over water contamination.
Since January 2014, Oxfam has built and repaired water systems that serve almost one million people inside Syria. We have also undertaken water treatment activities, improved sewage systems, and worked on hygiene promotion in schools.
We have brought two water treatment plants back on-line using multiple truck-sized generators, capable of continuously pumping more than 700,000 extra litres of water per hour – enough to deliver safe water to around 500,000 people in Damascus city and the surrounding province (Rif Damascus). These generators are the first of 18 to be installed.
Our plans for 2015 include:
•Drilling of 3 strategic wells to provide new water sources to Syrians
•Emergency response through water trucking in different governorates
•Sanitation and public health promotion
•Hygiene promotion and supply of cleaning kits-
September 22, 2015 at 2:24 pm -
Well, why is the media not reporting it? Like I said – in the first line of my comment – a lot of the media response is odd. Why?
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September 22, 2015 at 2:27 pm -
In fact, the reporting in general from the ‘front line’ of the Syrian refugee crisis is pretty lamentable. Is that because the hotels in Greece are better appointed?
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September 22, 2015 at 2:40 pm -
This is a very good question. A quick Google shows that Save the Children are similarly active, and while both CAFOD and Christian Aid are understandably more circumspect, they are channelling funds to “partners” in the region. The media, meanwhile, seems only interested in the migration to Europe of the minority.
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September 22, 2015 at 4:46 pm -
The MSM have their very own very odd agenda. The days of investigative reporting, and filling newspaper columns with factual stories are long since gone.
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September 22, 2015 at 4:43 pm -
A good effort by Oxfam!
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September 22, 2015 at 2:35 pm -
What puzzles me about this is how Merkel was able to open Germany’s doors without first clearing it with her Schengen mates. Anyone Germany lets in would have the right to travel from there to any other Schengen country (if they wanted to) so wouldn’t it at least have been polite to consult them? Or did I miss something?
Having said that, I’ve been to Syria (just before the unpleasantness) and they seemed a cheerful, hard-working bunch. If these migrants really are Syrians, we could do a lot worse.
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September 22, 2015 at 3:51 pm -
You really don’t understand this EU-equality thing, do you ? The last thing Frau Merkel would ever need to do would be ‘consult’ her Schengen mates – she tells them to jump and they merely ask “How high, Mutti?” – that’s how it works for everything. Merkel doesn’t do consultation, just like the EU doesn’t do democracy (or financial audits, come to that).
And it’s not only the Schengen states at peril thereafter – once granted asylum, the so-called ‘refugee’s will go on to gain full citizenship of that state, which then entitles them to completely free movement throughout every EU member state – the only thing Schengen does is potentially remove the need for visas and passports. With a full EU citizenship passport each, they will all then be free to move to Britain, for example, once Frau Merkel has sorted out the ones she wants to keep and made it adequately uncomfortable for the rest. You have been warned.
That Referendum, if it happens, is our only chance to limit the impact of this to something we can manage – remember that when you vote.-
September 22, 2015 at 4:47 pm -
I’m getting a prayer mat for Xmas , growing my beard,and the wife’s getting a burqa, we’re both keen to fit in with new Britainistan
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September 22, 2015 at 5:47 pm -
Australia here. Some lessons to be learned. We elected a buffoon (recently replaced by someone with a few more braincells) on a ‘stop the boats’ slogan. Huge election issue, to stop the people smugglers, country shoppers’, illegals, queue jumpers and so on. Our arrivals far outstripped places and nobody from UN camps got a look in. Cost heaps, our navy intercepted boats and turned them around, if they tried to scupper them then they were returned to indo in a lifeboat. Most of our residue are in detention in PNG. Those found to be genuine are given temporary protection visas. It is really hard to be rid of those who have destroyed their papers. Some have been in detention for years. Some are gay men who merciful allah does not love. War is not the only reason they come, there is environmental degradation, unemployment, overpopulation etc. I grieve for Europe. This will not end well.
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September 22, 2015 at 9:36 pm -
Fair dinkum sport, I’ll neck a cold one from the esky on your behalf. At least you’ve got salties to mop up any that get through!
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September 22, 2015 at 5:28 pm -
without first clearing it with her Schengen mates
and her Schengen mates are livid, some of them have made no secret about it…and I don’t just mean Orbán. ATM the Austrians are scared shitless that Germany will suddenly close their borders like they didn’t a few days ago.
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September 22, 2015 at 7:31 pm -
Germany must have changed a lot since I lived there in the early 80s. Then it was quite blatantly racist and apartments were advertised as no foreigners, when we asked about this, thinking it might be difficult to find one we were told they don’t mean you! They mean Turks and maybe Italians. I had an English friend married to a Turk who had been brought up in Germany, attended Heidelberg university and ran his own business but they found it almost impossible to rent an apartment in a good area. She said as soon as they said their name they were turned down. I wonder how much it really has changed I must ask my German friend.
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September 22, 2015 at 7:46 pm -
LOL! I had exactly that ‘we don’t mean your sort of foreigner‘ happen to me on several occasions whilst flat hunting in Germany in the late 80s and early 90s! We were all ‘Ausländer’ but some, usually those with darker pigmentation than me, were more ‘Ausländer’ than others.
And yes, AFAIK, Germany and German attitudes have changed a lot in the last 15 or so years. Probably due to the large numbers of Germans of turkish descent that now vote. It is getting to the point where seeing a German first name and a turkish surname together is considered normal…such as my nephew Fritz Ergül .
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September 22, 2015 at 9:39 pm -
Probably changed a bit, remember Harry Enfield ” I vish to apologises for ze voor”
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September 22, 2015 at 8:52 pm -
Gildas has given us here a nice concise ‘greatest hits’ of anti-migrant arguments. This sentence caught my eye particularly: “Hungary does not want large numbers of people from war-torn Africa and the Middle East and Afghanistan, about whom it knows absolutely nothing”. Ah, yes! Where have we heard that before? The far away places and far away people of whom we know nothing and with whom we should not be involved. The problem is the world gets smaller and smaller and we find that far away places and people involve themselves with us one way or another, whether we like it or not. Perhaps the solution is that we start to get to know them?
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September 22, 2015 at 9:16 pm -
“… about whom it knows absolutely nothing..”
I read that to mean whether they were criminals, jihadis etc. NOT that they came from some far off ‘dark continent’ that Hungarians had never heard off.
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September 22, 2015 at 9:17 pm -
I suppose I have, Alcibiades. And have no doubt that as I continues, those people contain decent people fleeing war, criminals and terrorists, and others.
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September 22, 2015 at 9:48 pm -
But those people may not want to live our way of life or our freedoms. Already in the uk we have some British Muslims committing acts of terror against us and wishing to live very separate lives, where they hate gays, their women are subservient covering themselves from head to toe.
Not a Britain I enjoy.
Other religions peacefully co-exist with us eg Indian Sikhs and Hindus, Chinese Buddhists , Jamaican Rastas etc
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September 22, 2015 at 9:40 pm -
We do know that among the migrating swarm, there are some jihadis. We know that because ISIL has explicitly said so. We also know that there was a police hunt for a known jihadi among the migrants at Calais a couple of weeks ago – no report of his being detained yet that I’ve heard.
They ain’t all refugees fleeing conflict – that we do know.
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September 23, 2015 at 12:29 am -
………..”Perhaps the solution is that we start to get to know them?”………….Well in the case of Syria and several other places, the people who know them best are the neighbours who want to kill them. So perhaps getting to know them wouldn’t help.
As someone of part Hungarian ancestry I can assure you that Hungary is quite familiar with Muslims. Many of us feel that it would be an act of cultural imperialism to encourage them to leave their natural habitat in the Middle East where they can indulge their taste for despotism, tribalism, religious bigotry and mutual slaughter to their heart’s content.
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September 22, 2015 at 10:36 pm -
Less than one fifth are Syrians so 80% are from other countries. Now we hear about forged Syrian passports. I mean, who would have thought?
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September 23, 2015 at 7:08 am -
‘I am pleased if this country can offer refuge for 20,000 decent Syrian people genuinely fleeing war and persecution…’
Southampton & Winchester councils are already appealing for landlords with ‘spare’ property and families with ‘spare’ bedrooms to house the Syrian families that they have been forced to take.
What are they going to do when people say ‘No!’..?
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September 23, 2015 at 8:28 am -
Just a suggestion – look up all those daft individuals who posted photographs of themselves holding up messages of welcome on social media and get them to provide shelter and support for these “refugees” – there was at least one commenter on here who was willing to offer a room, albeit someone who apparently already receives various forms of state benefits. Problem solved?
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September 23, 2015 at 10:10 am -
I like your style…
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September 23, 2015 at 11:10 am -
I like your style…
I don’t…I resent greatly any inference i might use Social Media . Sweet Jesus wept, even being on benefits I have some standards. I was going to reply in kind to his post but simply don’t have time, Jeremy Kyle and Dinner Date on my new FOAD Widescreen (thanks all you suckers who go to work, I appreciate it) won’t watch themselves y’know and there is a 2 litre bottle of White Cider and bumper pack of doritos with my name on them *scratches balls through his boxers and lays back down on the couch exhausted from his labours*
But for the record I am more likely to have written to my MP to offer a room, than to have written on a photo on twitter.
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September 23, 2015 at 9:03 pm -
You have been selected by your local council to house a Syrian refugee family.
Abdul and family of three wives and 10 children will arrive next week.You should welcome them.
You should vacant your master bedroom for Abdul and his wives.
You may wish to live in a tent in your garden for a while, but you should allow enough room for Abdul’s livestock to live in it.You can no longer drink alcohol or eat pork in your house as this may offend Abdul and show your cultural intolerance.
Several rooms of your house will need to be set aside for a makeshift Mosque and you are welcome to worship with Abdul and his family provided you remove your shoes and are respectful.
If you do not do this you are at risk of being removed from your home as you will be breaching Abdul’s Human Rights.
If Abdul and his family wish to stay in bed till noon before going to the mosque you must not make them get up earlier.
Phrases such as “get up you lazy fucker, I’m paying for this lot” are not acceptable in a modern multi cultural society and may breach Abdul’s human rights and be a criminal offence under the Racial and Religious hatred Act 2006 and you could be imprisoned.
You should be proud of Britain, however you may need to pay more in taxes to help Her Majesty’s Goverment pay for this in times of austerity.
Thank you for voting for me in May 2015
David Cameron
Prime Minister-
September 24, 2015 at 12:32 am -
Oh dear, and there was me thinking you were just a ‘b-bb-b-ut we’re only small Island’ Daily Mail reading Xenophobe. My mistake, my bad.
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September 23, 2015 at 12:41 pm -
Sorry, was I lowering the tuna of this plaice again?
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September 24, 2015 at 4:15 am -
I’m not sure the consequences were all that unintentional. They seem happy to take the refugees in. I’ve heard it’s because they want a bunch of cheap labor or perhaps they want the people out of Syria so it’s easier to bomb. Syria is an oil-rich country it’s obvious the US along with its European friends want control over it. It’s pretty hard to buy the whole “humanitarian” angle the media is trying to push when France just announced it’s going to start bombing Syria for no apparent reason.
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