Operation Stack

We have just come back from France via Cherbourg/ Portsmouth and chose this to avoid the Dover/Calais route. I feel so sorry for families committed to their Dover crossing and the Freight companies who are losing so much money by having their carriers stuck on the M20 .
I feel sorry for the French, especially the residents of Calais. What it has done to house prices there doesn't bear thinking about.
But I am equally frustrated as I cannot see any feasible solution to the Migrant problem.
I don't want this post to get banned because we cannot discuss this grave matter correctly please,
Jenny

 

It really is a nightmare @Jenny namaste. You can't blame the immigrants for wanting to come, they are human & like any other human want the best for themselves & their families, we would be the same if the shoe was on the other foot.
I also feel so sorry for the lorry drivers & the haulage companies, if an immigrant manages to get on /in to a lorry why should the lorry driver get fined? It's very unfair, I know some lorry drivers are corrupt & would smuggle immigrants in for financial reward but I bet the majority wouldn't.
I will say here that I do have an interest in property & I do have WORKING legal foreignets renting some of them, I have no problems with them & in fairness they are actually very respectful & cause me no problems, however I do believe they shouldn't be able to come here not work, bring their families, get medical care & benifits without working a certain amount of years first. Just my opinion & Im NOT racist.

 

Your opinions are balanced and worthy of comment on this thread Beckie. My OH thinks France should be doing more to track down the organisers of the movement of Immigrants getting as far as Calais. Surely, the immigrants could not afford the fare from south to north?
I don't envy France their problem,
Jenny

 

Will cost lots of money if they miss there booking times where they deliver too, some times they will have to rebook if they miss the first one, then the driver will have to wait a few more days for a new booking, not unusual to wait a week at the delivery point, then wait a week for a return load if things go belly up, even in this country you can wait a day or two when things go wrong

 

Saw signs on motorways the other day, up to nearly 200 miles North of Dover, warning about Operation Stack, sounds like a nightmare. If my parents were still alive they'd be hoping that truckloads of those awful tasting French golden delicious apples would be rotting on the other side of The English Channel, secure in the knowledge that our lovely English Cox's would be OK for many months.

 

But why haven't the haulage firms abandoned the Dover/Calais run and taken their vehicles to other ports? Surely that would make sense.

 

Quite a lot are booked on the tunnel, would be my guess.

To then transfer to a ferry probably isn't that easy, especially bearing in mind that the M20 serves both the tunnel and Dover.
As I came off the M20 last night at the junction before stack starts I got stuck behind a Romanian artic, presumably trying to dodge stack, he went right into the town centre very slowly, you could tell he was lost.
My guess was he was looking for the A20 so he could dodge stack and join the motorway further down, but he went the wrong way, probably still wandering around now.

Its just chaotic for all concerned.

 

Probably very expensive to sail using other routes. Maybe 10 years ago we sailed from Poole to Cherbourg towing a caravan. It cost over £500, so would probably be quite a bit more today. From memory, the Dover - Calais route was maybe £100?

 

Other routes can be expencives, i went on the route from Harwich to Gothenburg in Sweden 20 years ago and it cost over a £1000 then and took 24 hours, i was the only lorry plus trailar to drive on and drive off as all the rest were RO RO which is just the trailars

 

But would it work out as expensive, knowing that the haulage companies are losing money while their loaded vehicles are sitting in a queue for who knows how long and not getting to there destinations. A vehicle that's not moving is losing money.

 

So simple to put an end to this nonsense but the British people/politicians havent got the guts to do it. Just send in the army to sort them out.
Send an army alsation into the back of a lorry and the migrants will be flushed right out. Job done.

 

I really think the French police/government need a good kick up the backside.

It's times like this when the EU should step in and demand France sorts out security on their side of the channel.
If not they should pay the UK for the loss of business involved, and right now, not 5 yrs time after dragging it through every court in Europe.
Is it any wonder an awful lot of people are very sceptical about the EU.

Its run by France and Germany, all the other members just seem to have little say in what goes on, or at the very least, are ignored.
Or maybe that is just how our media portray it?

The EU is far to big to work as it was originally intended, and includes far too many countries with very different rules and regulations and financial positions.

I think Obama pointed out what the EU is basically all about, stopping conflict in Europe, its political, and trading is secondary.

 

I'd not put a dog of mine in one of those trucks, knowing there was illegals inside.
Gas, maybe.

They are not asylum seekers or refugees, other wise they would have asked for asylum in the first safe country they landed in.

Personally i dont think they will give up until a lot more of them get killed in the process, I believe two fell of the axle of a lorry the other day, and another two were apprehended by a passing motorist on the M20.

Once in the UK they want to get picked up, at that point they know they are not going back, and their bread is buttered.