Question time on now....

[Rob_F]

William Hague is dying out there on the issue of a cap on asylum, bad idea Conservatives, bad bloody idea. They should have just gone for a policy of far stricter screaning/centres for immigration, not a quota.

Anyone else watching and cringing?

Cheers,
Rob.

[Twincam16]

Yep, I'm watching it. The self-righteousness of the Green Party woman is grating my teeth, Robin Cook is incomprehensible, William Hague is pretty much common sense all round (pity he wasn't like that when he ran the Tories) and, despite her being a Lib Dem, I do have a lot of respect for the Baroness.

Any party that mentions the word 'immigration' first is *d, TBH. It's just too divisive a concept and, in reality, doesn't actually impact too badly on Britain.

[Rob_F]

I completely agree about Hague, I prefer him to Howard, the trouble is you cannot get away with saying you will set a limit on asylum. Also we live in too politically correct times for someone to be perfectly blunt about it - the majority of asylum seekers come thru' other countries such as France first, and they should stay at the first country they reach - indeed you would think if you were being tortured even living with the French wouldn't be so bad.

Cheers,
Rob.

[Twincam16]

Oh, quite, but as I always say, this country doesn't have any 'problems', it just has 'issues'. An asylum 'problem' happens when you are a third world country over the border from a war-torn state with lots of people literally running for their lives, and they'd be better off with the money we spend on pointless civil servants.

We need to know how many asylum-seekers there are in the country. They need to be registered and we need to know why they're here, but it's far from 'problem' status at this time.

The rest of Europe (especially France), however, needs to be far more accommodating of asylum-seekers.

[Rob_F]

Twincam16 said:

Oh, quite, but as I always say, this country doesn't have any 'problems', it just has 'issues'.

I would disagree, the discontentment from the general public from the "issue" of illegal immigrants is a real problem for a race-relations point of view. This illegal immigrants won't have driving licenses, but many drive so they are uninsured. They use are public services but work in the black economy (sorry, i forget the politcally correct term i was told to use at university..) so don't contribute. And the press will always report the illegal immigrant that killed somebody driving a car because they were not trained, or ended up in a fight etc, etc. This will turn into a real problem for genuine asylum seekers as people will have less sympathy every time an illegal immigrant comes into the country.

So to recap; I would say we have an asylum "problem" because the longer it carrys on like this the more support right wing partys like the BNP will have, and racism will breed.

I'm sure we're singing from the same hymn sheet tho'

Cheers,
Rob.

[Twincam16]

Rob_F said:

Twincam16 said: Oh, quite, but as I always say, this country doesn't have any 'problems', it just has 'issues'. I would disagree, the discontentment from the general public from the "issue" of illegal immigrants is a real problem for a race-relations point of view.

True, but how much of that is whipped up by the newspapers. The whole 'coming over here, taking our jobs and our money' is a tired cliche. I can see that it's a problem for some people, but I can't see quite how it can be an election for the whole country.

Rob_F said:

This illegal immigrants won't have driving licenses, but many drive so they are uninsured. They use are public services but work in the black economy (sorry, i forget the politcally correct term i was told to use at university..) so don't contribute.

I could show you entire neighbourhoods of British people like that. I see them as more of a problem than a few immigrants (I still think immigrants should be registered though).

Rob_F said:

And the press will always report the illegal immigrant that killed somebody driving a car because they were not trained, or ended up in a fight etc, etc. This will turn into a real problem for genuine asylum seekers as people will have less sympathy every time an illegal immigrant comes into the country.

I agree entirely, which brings us back to the newspapers - how much of the immigration issue is the result of the media, and how much is genuine?

Rob_F said:

So to recap; I would say we have an asylum "problem" because the longer it carrys on like this the more support right wing partys like the BNP will have, and racism will breed. I'm sure we're singing from the same hymn sheet tho' Cheers, Rob.

You're quite right, but I'd say the problem is with the press and the likes of the BNP, who are prepared to say anything to get the Sun-reader types on their wavelength. Asylum itself is not the problem (I don't think that's what you said anyway), British reactionism is.

[Rob_F]

Yep, it's the press using fairly infrequent cases and playing on peoples natural xenophobia. However you can't change that, so they better get it under control so the press can't do this. Otherwise we could well see a party like the BNP becoming a real force...

Cheers,
Rob.

[Hardcore2000]

Anyone watching "this week" That abbot woman is aweful, she is so biased towards letting anybody enter this country regardless of status. When that farmer mentioned albanian gangsters who come to england to comit crime she just smiled at him like she knows better. Har and Portillo seem to get along nicely. That man has truely lost the plot.

[Twincam16]

It really does worry me, as I see these sorts of issues polarising politics: the only parties willing to 'do something about it' are the fascists and the socialists, and the ordinary parties will begin to fade from view. Scary.

[JagLover]

Twincam16 said:

It really does worry me, as I see these sorts of issues polarising politics: the only parties willing to 'do something about it' are the fascists and the socialists, and the ordinary parties will begin to fade from view. Scary.

That happens when parties like the Conservatives cannot advocate sensible policies on immigration without being accused of right wing extremism.

I regard the whole asylum issue as very important. If you let in people under the work permit scheme you can check them for a criminal record and import those whose skills are most needed, if they commit crimes/ do not work, they can be deported.

The current system favours those who can smuggle themselves into the country, often through criminal gangs and then make a false asylum claim, whereupon little effort is made to deport them.

A sensible immigration policy would be nothing like the current chaos.

[Duncan23]

JagLover said:

A sensible immigration policy would be nothing like the current chaos.

Quote of the week.
If anyone anywhere disagrees with this I would be astounded. The only thing worth arguing over is different in what way?

The Tory idea, with UNHCR deciding who is a genuine asylum seeker and every country accepting their quota is a superb idea. Now all we need is international agreement to put it into place. Unfortunately without some sort of international agreement, it's just pie in the sky. Even if it was just an EU thing it could work. So the question becomes "Can they get international agreement?"???

[dr strangelove]

Twincam16 said:

True, but how much of that is whipped up by the newspapers. The whole 'coming over here, taking our jobs and our money' is a tired cliche. I can see that it's a problem for some people, but I can't see quite how it can be an election for the whole country.

Said a student...