The wonderful EU and Migration thread!

[boltonboris]

..

[thebish]

Which of your "friends" is the expert now? It have you just been on a different website than Prufrock?

(I think Spotty might have been referring to the crisps!)

[jmjhb]

I see Amir Khan has now got involved. Shameless self-promotion.

Colour me insensitive and cynical, but would he have got involved if the migrants weren't majority Muslim? I think not.

[William the White]

I see Amir Khan has now got involved. Shameless self-promotion.

Colour me insensitive and cynical, but would he have got involved if the migrants weren't majority Muslim? I think not.

But since he is Muslim is there anything not praiseworthy about the charitable efforts he's making? What, precisely, is wrong with them?

[Beefheart]

I see Amir Khan has now got involved. Shameless self-promotion.

Colour me insensitive and cynical, but would he have got involved if the migrants weren't majority Muslim? I think not.

But since he is Muslim is there anything not praiseworthy about the charitable efforts he's making? What, precisely, is wrong with them?

He's doing more than I am to help. Fair play to him.

[Bruce Rioja]

I see Amir Khan has now got involved. Shameless self-promotion.

Colour me insensitive and cynical, but would he have got involved if the migrants weren't majority Muslim? I think not.

But since he is Muslim is there anything not praiseworthy about the charitable efforts he's making? What, precisely, is wrong with them?

It's de rigueur to stamp all over anything he involves himself with, Will. Well, in the eyes of many of his hometown folk it is anyway.

[boltonboris]

(I think he might have been referring to the crisps!)

you could be right (I don't think you are), but looking back it was too argumentative so I've got rid

[Hoboh]

Renas, 25, a Syrian-Kurdish construction worker from Qamishli, said he had no other hope than trying to reach Europe to claim asylum. “We are running away from a war and from the oppression of [Syrian president] Bashar [al-Assad]. There is nothing in Syria anymore, no jobs, no life, no future. In Turkey life is very difficult, because we are not allowed to work and there are no jobs here.”

Kind of defines the status of these people, MIGRANTS!

Five other men, former soldiers who defected from the Iraqi army in Mosul, hope to go on to Germany. “At home Isis wants to kill us because we were soldiers. We cannot go back. Don’t we have the right to protection anywhere?” one of them said.

The well trained, well armed, shithouses who legged it at the sight of a 4x4 flying a black flag springs to mind!

[thebish]

Renas, 25, a Syrian-Kurdish construction worker from Qamishli, said he had no other hope than trying to reach Europe to claim asylum. “We are running away from a war and from the oppression of [Syrian president] Bashar [al-Assad]. There is nothing in Syria anymore, no jobs, no life, no future. In Turkey life is very difficult, because we are not allowed to work and there are no jobs here.”

Kind of defines the status of these people, MIGRANTS!

well... except for the bit in blue...

[Hoboh]

Renas, 25, a Syrian-Kurdish construction worker from Qamishli, said he had no other hope than trying to reach Europe to claim asylum. “We are running away from a war and from the oppression of [Syrian president] Bashar [al-Assad]. There is nothing in Syria anymore, no jobs, no life, no future. In Turkey life is very difficult, because we are not allowed to work and there are no jobs here.”

Kind of defines the status of these people, MIGRANTS!

well... except for the bit in blue...

The 'bit' in blue finished the day they crossed into Turkey!

Meanwhile,

By mid-2015, Dabiq itself was draped in the group’s iconography, black flags flying above all its mosques and civic buildings. Many of its homes have been painted with the familiar black backdrop and white Islamic creed that Isis uses as its calling card. Columns of fighters come and go from the town, the population of which has more than doubled since Isis took over. Nearly all the locals have left, however, surrendering their vegetable farms to the marauders, who dress in ankle-length gelabiyas and eschew most of the trappings of modern life. Many wear ammunition belts around their chests. Most carry weapons. The tomb of Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik has been destroyed, as have all other graves not considered modest enough. Save for the utility trucks, generators and modern weapons, everything else in town now has the feel of 7th-century frugality.

This begs the question, How serious are the West about ISIS? One surely would be correct in asking, given the population has all but left, why are B-52's not levelling the place and it's new inhabitants?

[Lost Leopard Spot]

(I think he might have been referring to the crisps!)

you could be right (I don't think you are), but looking back it was too argumentative so I've got rid

Oh dear, flavour rage. I was merely pointing out that Prawn Cocktail are semi tasty whilst Salt & Vinegar rate up there with Shit & Piss flavoured crisps. (I don't get the bit about "friends" and experts, but maybe I wasn't meant to, maybe).

[William the White]

How serious are the West about ISIS? One surely would be correct in asking, given the population has all but left, why are B-52's not levelling the place and it's new inhabitants?

Yeah - can't beat the B52. Look at Vietnam. They worked really well there.

Fine aircraft. Moronic strategy. So moronic hoboh has great affection for them.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

How serious are the West about ISIS? One surely would be correct in asking, given the population has all but left, why are B-52's not levelling the place and it's new inhabitants?

Yeah - can't beat the B52. Look at Vietnam. They worked really well there.

Fine aircraft. Moronic strategy. So moronic hoboh has great affection for them.

I don't think the use of B52s necessarily lost America the war in Vietnam: I think it was the greater fervour of the Vietcong to suffer the pounding in contrast to piss poor fighting capabilities of yer southern Viet Danh (ARVN), combined with an upwelling of public opinion back on the US as the body bags multiplied, plus some other stuff like most of the GIs out of their heads on weed, fragging of officers, feedback loops regarding racial tensions in the army and in civilian life, no ground follow up to the air campaign, and the like.
In short the B52s performed to expectation

[Hoboh]

https://youtu.be/YeMQGhtttyc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Poor innocent migrants!
look how well they will fit into law abiding countries, warms the cockles of your heart!

[bobo the clown]

^^ fools. They should have a load of children at the front if they're going to get tear gassed.

Why the fck would anyone want these gits in their country ? You simply KNOW that once there they aren't going to be satisfied.


... & they're untidy feckers as well. Wherever they're filmed it looked like a gypsy camp's been there for a week.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

And still the willful blindness, the tunnel vision, of the media goes on. Today in the Times, isolated stories about the 20,000 refugees/migrants (just called people in the article) crossing into Croatia...
Not a fxcking word about the daily 'trickle' occurring elsewhere. Nothing about the daily 4,000 crossing from Italy into Switzerland/Austria/France; not a peep about the 2,000 shipped across the straits of Gibralter to Spain from Morocco; sod all about the 3,000 a day crossing into Slovakia from Moldavis/Romania/ Ukraine; not a word about the estimated 500 crawling off boats docking in Zeebrugge/Hanover/etfxckincetera every single day from Bangladesh/Indonesia/Tanzania...
Nope, none of that shit's going on. Make believe, until of course the next Big News Story.

[William the White]

The bish has posted a poem, by a Somali poet, on how refugees might feel, on the Poetry thread.

I think it is stunning, intense, moving and, above all, true.

I suspect hoboh, bobo and LLS will be immune, but I'd be genuinely interested in their response to it. I say this without aggression or argumentative intent of any kind.

But I'd like every other reader of this thread who, by definition, has some kind of interest in politics to read it also - I think it's good to be able to hear this voice.

Many thanks to thebish for this post.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

transferred to poetry...

[Lost Leopard Spot]

There is an article in the Times today (by Daniel Finkelstein, under the Opinion banner: and yes, he's Jewish, I know that'll upset some of you already) that completely sums up my stance on migrants...
It's a long article but the summary is: "This country has a proud tradition of welcoming refugees. But in return, they have to live by Britain's liberal values"
(i.e. I don't want Anjem Choudary's fxckin mob telling me Britain needs to be living under Sharia law).

[BWFC_Insane]

There is an article in the Times today (by Daniel Finkelstein, under the Opinion banner: and yes, he's Jewish, I know that'll upset some of you already) that completely sums up my stance on migrants...
It's a long article but the summary is: "This country has a proud tradition of welcoming refugees. But in return, they have to live by Britain's liberal values"
(i.e. I don't want Anjem Choudary's fxckin mob telling me Britain needs to be living under Sharia law).

What are "British values" defined as? It is important to note because what you consider them to be may be entirely different to another British person./