Batons and synthetic pepper spray were used to repel hundreds of masked, black-clad vigilantes in Portsmouth on Sunday, it has emerged, as the policing minister said officers had been injured as they repelled organised “aggression”.
@kibcol1049 Don't keep us in suspense! Was it pro- or anti-immigration?
@h4890 Against illegal immigration and in particular the small boat crossings it seems. Apart from the extreme dangers of these, to the people on the boats and the rescuers, it occurred to me that the total cost to the UK must be huge. In order to pay for it I suppose some deserving UK citizen doesn’t get some help they need. That's just my opinion though.
@kibcol1049 The only two solutions I can think of are...
1. Sink the boats. Once immigrants realize this, they will go to the EU instead of risking this.
2. Deduct the money it costs to patrol and handle immigrants from foreign aid, and if that is not enough, play hardball and add the cost to exports to the country or region the immigrant comes from.
A 3 can of course be to lower the cost of handling them. That is, water and bread, no hotels, immediate shipment to rwanda,
@h4890 @kibcol1049 Two much cheaper alternatives to "stop the boats":
(1) Send someone to Calais to hand out ferry tickets. This will cost peanuts.
(2) #RejoinEU . This will *make* billions.
@TimWardCam @kibcol1049 Small boat crossings started in 2018, and has grown since then. This is a trend that is unrelated to brexit.
If you have a nation, protecting your borders is just part of the package, and that you need to do as an island nation regardless of if the EU exists or not.
Also note that before the boat crossings, the preferred means was trucks, ferries and the Channel Tunnel.
@kibcol1049 @TimWardCam Blaming brexit for this is nonsense. This is a trend that UK politicians have known about, yet have done nothing about. I consider it an example of a lack of political leadership, rather than an effect of brexit, since the trend started before brexit, and grew up to ,and past brexit.
@h4890 @TimWardCam 😃👍