Ukraine

So what happened in a Rochdale was wrong from end to end: groups of Muslim men abusing children - with plenty of non-Muslim British guys involved too of course. With impunity. The unbelievably inadequate police and social services response (disbelieving victims or worse, believing them but just deciding that that they weren’t worth protecting); the subsequent victimising of the whole Muslim community and violence against Muslims on the street - particularly post Brexit - with almost no police response. It’s been a disaster. And then the simplification of this to one homogenous group (which doesn’t actually exist)…

For poverty stats we used UN stats for the UK. For crime stats we used the ONS. We found, and the Rowntree foundation - which is significantly more credible than we were - said the same: adjust for poverty and immigration status disappears. The problem is - it’s massively complex… and the subject doesn’t really take well to reduction.

overall though immigrants have contributed significantly to our economy (I do t think that’s a controversial claim?) and culturally.

could we do more to integrate immigrants? We certainly could…

Should we keep them all out? Personally - and it’s my view only of course- I’d say we have no moral basis to do so.

 

And yes - let’s record stats as we need to, to understand what’s going on…

 

There’s so much here I agree with entirely. Eventually I come down to wanting a fair and balanced society and the things which prevent that don’t look like immigrants to me - but rather the Uber wealthy and corrupt who were here already. I’d also note that perception is very deliberately - and profoundly inaccurately - manipulated to blame immigrants deeply unfairly. When I worked in this field I used to want to scream when I saw the outrageously dishonest headlines…

 

Answer my question please, @JimmyB.

Nick

 

I presume the pilots can travel overland to the polish border and then flown to Germany.

The Reason they are sending MIG 29s from Poland is because they are trained in the use of those planes, I think the US will supply American planes to Poland as replacements.

I think there is always a sub out there somewhere.

 

There's a joke in there somewhere.
A Scotsman, an Irish man and an Englishman..
It's likely that our "indigenous" population is quite a mixture of original Celts with Danes/Romans/Norman's etc. Arguably I'd guess the Scots and Irish are likely to be the most original. There's no doubt we've got issues with integration in certain quarters and that's not about poverty, that's directly an attitude problem.
Ukraine is the big issue right now and I hope we can help a few more of the refugees who are mostly women and children. It's unlikely they'll cause trouble here and we'd have to be pretty mean to turn them away. The one's that ask to come here will be largely English speaking and let's be honest, we need desperately Nurses/Doctors/Carers/Lorry drivers etc etc (don't mention fruit pickers)

 

Just written 3 different posts and deleted all of them before pushing the button.
This could go on and on but really most of it is off topic any way.

 

Excellent article this morning exploring why sanctions aren't quite as effective as we want them to be: The sanctions strategy is flawed. To defeat Putin, you have to know how the Kremlin works | Olga Chyzh

I see the points made, but I'd also ask - what else could be done, if we do not want world war?

 

Seems like the Pentagon has pulled back on the Polish plane deal.

 

Why on earth are fighter planes debated publically and not kept secret?!.. Surely it should have been a case of cleaning off the identity markings and then the first time the Russians should have known about it would be when the unmarked planes turn up shooting.
But it's futile anyway because the Russians would blow away any airfield that accommodates them.