A Metro reader shares a radical solution to the small boats crisis
Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
Joining Schengen: a bold move that could stop traffickers?
I agree with Debbie Hawker’s suggestion that those who wish to claim asylum in the UK should be able to do it on the European mainland (MetroTalk, Wed).
Another idea, from a friend, is they go to a British embassy in their own country, although this would not be possible in Afghanistan or Syria.
However, an even better way of stopping the boats would be for the UK and Ireland to join the Schengen Agreement.
You don’t have to be part of the EU for this membership, as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are members.
I know that Leavers wouldn’t like this idea, but folk could buy ferry tickets and come to the UK freely.
If we were in the Schengen Area, the traffickers would have no work. It is the fact these people need a visa to get here, while being able to roam around Europe from arrival in Greece, Italy or Spain, that gives the traffickers an opportunity on the French coast.
Of course, the Border Force would need to check car washes, nail bars and building sites for those who don’t have a right to remain. But they have to do this anyway.
On the other hand, I wonder whether the UK’s appeal would lessen if these migrants came here making a safer, cheaper journey and saw it was not the land of milk and honey they thought it would be.
Some migrants have regretted coming but they’ve spent thousands of euros and are then stuck. If we were in Schengen, they might try the UK and then head to one of the more affluent European countries. Penny Munden, Croydon
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Determined migrants won’t go back
As things stand, you can’t make an asylum application from a safe country. It would be automatically rejected.
The people who use small boats to cross the Channel have made a very long and very expensive journey from far-flung corners of the world to get to the UK because they have family or relatives here. They’re not going back. They’ll wait their turn, and get here they will. The only thing that might stop them is if we used our Navy to patrol the entire border and turn them away before they got into our water.
However, that would be seen as an extreme measure by the international community and various people and organisations in this country. Tim, Northolt
Forcing the too sick to work
Former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn, who has been brought in to advise the current government, says the long-term sick must be required to look for jobs to lower the UK’s unsustainable welfare costs and reduce the need for immigrant labour from abroad.
Are they to be dragged from their sick beds to look for work? Will this not make them feel a lot worse?
I have been in this situation and had to take early retirement 17 years ago on the grounds of severe ill health.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with immigrant labour, if it’s needed to help sustain the British economy and build growth. Alan Jensen, West Hampstead
JSO need practical solutions not annoying stunts
The debate about Just Stop Oil activists has been thought of as between those who view them as peaceful protesters, who are innocent of crimes, and those who think they should be imprisoned.
The protesters were planning disruptive protests that would have harmed others, so they should not be considered peaceful protesters. They were deservedly punished, even if the sentences were overly harsh.
Just Stop Oil is thought to be taking these actions to tell the truth about climate change, but this is not so. It exaggerates the climate science for its own doom-mongering and misanthropic agenda.
The scientific consensus is that climate change is a serious issue that must be tackled. To do so requires not childish stunts but practical solutions.
Until Just Stop Oil starts engaging in these, it should be considered part of the problem, not the solution. Mark Dawes, London
JSO aren’t the only ones causing traffic
Am I missing something here? Mrs Lesley Findlay-Bill (MetroTalk, Thu) claims that Just Stop Oil activists have ‘inconvenienced the public and caused untold harassment and distress’ and deserve their long prison sentences.
Why all this manufactured outrage about traffic jams on the M25 caused by protests when we all know we are held up daily by our gridlocked roads in UK cities?
London has the worst traffic congestion in the world, and roadworks are a major contributor to this.
How many times have you queued for hours in crawling traffic only to discover the hold-up was caused by traffic cones around deserted roadworks that haven’t even begun?
Should Nick Harris, the CEO of National Highways, be sentenced to five years in prison, as Just Stop Oil activist Roger Hallam was for the M25 protest? Stephen Micalef, London
Traffic, or natural disaster?
Like most people, I don’t like being held up in traffic, but it strikes me that floods and heatwaves causing infrastructure to buckle and break down – it not having been built to withstand what is becoming the new ‘normal’ – will also hold up people.
Likewise, having children who can’t play out in the sun, unbearable heat in Spain grilling holidaymakers, drought hitting sports pitches and hosepipe bans will also prove not a little vexing. E Denkmann, Manchester
Den (MetroTalk, Wed) talks of being trapped in his house by protests. By ‘trapped’, he of course means he couldn’t drive. Ironically this is part of the aim of Just Stop Oil. Lewis Gibson, Birmingham
Excusing violence, get the Royals on the Bibby and considerate cats
I’m sick and tired of hearing the same excuse for acts of violence. In
the latest case, a soldier was stabbed in the chest by a masked man on a motorbike (Metro, Fri). Surprise, surprise, the police are saying it might be ‘mental health-related’. Is it not possible the perpetrator was just a
bad person? Martin, South Croydon
Reading that King Charles is set for a £45million pay rise while the rest of the country struggle to pay their bills is infuriating (Metro, Thu). Talking about the wider royal family, with fewer ‘main members’ they should get a pay cut.
In fact, I propose moving the entire royal family to the Bibby Stockholm barge once it gets decommissioned for use in housing asylum seekers. They can then sail around the world on their tours and help save the environment. It’s a win-win! Darren, Sunderland
Blake from Wigan says cats poop in other people’s gardens, leaving it for them to clean up (MetroTalk, Thu). Blake is obviously not a cat-owner or an observer of cat behaviour.
Unlike dogs, cats don’t leave their poo for owners to pick up and dispose of. After they’ve defecated, they fastidiously scratch a hole and bury their effort. Helena Newton, London