KentVillan

I didn't call you xenophobic or racist. I don't really know what narrative you think I'm trying to push. My point is just more a political / legal one, that these problems never really go away, and you have to just address them with coordinated action across different countries, instead of unilaterally trying to turn your country into an impregnable fortress or trying to make it a completely unattractive place for any foreigners to ever want to come to. The reason the fortress thing doesn't work is people can still overstay after entering the country legally... and there are so many different ways of entering the country illegally (lorries, boats, cargo ships, etc etc). I'm not saying for a moment that we should all be delighted that a 24 year old Albanian has arrived on a dinghy, helped by the Albanian mafia. But getting angry about stuff doesn't really change anything.

You don't really know what any of these words mean though, so your points don't make sense. There isn't really such thing as an "illegal immigrant". There is unauthorised entry into the UK (e.g. via a boat or whatever), but then these people can still claim asylum under longstanding international law. And you have people living in the UK without documentation / overstaying visas / etc, but they may have (usually have!) entered the country legally. Most so-called "illegals" are people who've come here on holiday or on a student visa or something like that, and overstayed or are working illegally. People going to the lengths of entering the country on a dinghy are more than likely going to claim asylum, and then they become... "asylum seekers". So what do you actually mean by illegals here? Do you mean bogus asylum seekers, or do you mean undocumented / false documented foreigners in the UK? They're not the same thing.

This is the thing. All these home truths from road life that are being dropped on the VT Wokerati, and it’s all stuff we all accept is true anyway.

This is the problem. Migration is a fact of life. It can be controlled to some extent, but it relies on cooperation between countries. Unilateral measures rarely work because if that means making the situation worse for a neighbouring country, they will retaliate. Which is basically what's happened with France.

Where has anyone on this thread said anything different. I think you just read what you think we are probably saying and respond to that, rather than actually taking the time to read it. Maybe because it's too hard for you to cope with, I don't know.

Listening to London Fields by Martin Amis on Audible. A bit too smug and Spectator-ish in parts, but gets away with it because it's so well written and dashes along at a nice pace.

They get a special Albanian Connections private jet from Tirana to Birmingham International that the Home Office pays for

You know a few Albanians. Amazing. Just incredible.

I don't think anyone here is idealising these migrants or saying there's nothing to worry about. Some of them are involved in organised crime, some of them could live in relative peace in their home country, etc. It unsettles communities who have to take lots of them in. All of this is true. But what bothers people is the idea being put forward by Braverman that these people only come here because of excessive wokery in British society, and that she has the answers to the problem (which has got worse on her watch!) that coincidentally make for punchy Daily Mail headlines.

It's already been said - relatives / connections here, English language, perception that London / other big cities might be easier to get by in as a foreigner... and coming from a position of having nothing. What's so hard to understand? People make desperate, dangerous journeys all the time for a better life. It's a 30 mile journey, and about 300 people have died attempting it in the last 20 years out of 100s of thousands of successful crossings. It's just not as horrifically dangerous as is being made out in the press. I'm struggling to understand which bit you're not having. You think there's some kind of additional hidden explanation that nobody knows about?

99.9% of people who attempt it make it across. People routinely take bigger risks with Covid, drugs, whatever. Some people have high risk appetite, and desperate people will naturally have a higher risk tolerance. It's the dream of a new life, isn't it. Same reason why people climb into the undercarriage of a plane and freeze to death in the sky.

That is a very recent development since May 2022, probably linked to the organised crime groups exploiting these routes being Albanian (plus huge exodus from Albania post Covid). Over the past 5 years, Albanians have been a relatively small proportion of the numbers - dominant countries have been Iraq / Syria / Iran / Afghanistan.

You’re assuming they have accurate info to hand on the risks of crossing. Most of the crossings happen in summer months when it is calmer; and most people make it across. Plus the coast guard have a duty to rescue. Throw in being able to speak English and not speaking French, maybe having relatives or contacts here already, and you can see how it might seem worthwhile? Edit: also as others have said, the vast majority of EU/UK asylum seekers are not taking this route. It’s big enough numbers to be a real issue, but most migrants do stop sooner in their journey through Europe. At the end of the day, there are a *lot* of asylum seekers in regions close to southern and Eastern Europe who make their way across the Mediterranean or over through Turkey, the Balkans, etc. No matter how hardline you go on this, some of them will want to come to the UK for whatever reason. You can stick your fingers in your ears and shout bollocks bollocks like @foreveryoungor you can acknowledge reality.

@foreveryoungI wasn’t even quoting any charities. I shared the Tory Govt’s own data on the increase in boat crossings and boat passenger nationalities, and a report by a Durham Law professor.

On an individual level maybe not, but the "popular" routes exist because someone involved does have a clue. Don't want to get dragged into this obvious Cruella dog whistle bullshit, but let's not pretend the laws and policies are completely irrelevant either. As with anything, people don't need a sophisticated legal or political understanding for trends to develop based on incentives and restrictions, and for organised groups to develop around that. The dramatic surge in number of small boat arrivals since Brexit was implemented is good evidence of this - it is happening because our brilliant Brexit negotiators didn't negotiate any means of returning these people to their last stop in the EU, which is how other countries are able to limit certain routes by disincentivising the risk. https://northeastbylines.co.uk/increase-in-small-boat-crossings-caused-by-no-returns-agreement-after-brexit/ (By a Law Professor at Durham.) You can clearly see this is a new phenomenon from the Govt's own statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-december-2022/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-december-2022 But what they refuse to explain to anyone is why it's happening. It's not as if the crises in the Middle East and Africa kicked off just last year. The turning point in all of this has been the implementation of Brexit, and that's why the Tory Brexiteers have to kick up such a fuss about it and try and turn it into a culture war issue, because it's a problem of their own making. So yes, Sunak and co are probably right that legal changes will have an impact and may even be necessary. But they've painted themselves into a corner because they refuse for any part of this solution to look like a compromise deal with the EU. Also to the point re "economic migrants"... most of these people are from Syria / Iraq / Iran / Afghanistan / various conflict zones in Africa. Most likely the reason they want to come to the UK instead of another country they passed through on the way, is that they speak a little bit of English or have a connection here and think this is their best chance of building some kind of life. It's not our world class cooked breakfasts, satellite TV, and beautiful women, despite what tabloids would have you believe.

Doesn’t really reference Liverpool’s industrial heritage in quite the same way, but I see what you did there

Spice boy docking

Yeah I agree, he has some serious entrepreneurial qualities - hyperactive work ethic, good sales / marketing / networking skills, he’s not dumb. But he is massively overrated as a guru I think. His latest ventures (Tesla etc) have very much been a product of the low interest rates + money printing + corrupt govts regime that has prevailed since the financial crisis… the way you make money in this environment is user acquisition and “disruption”, negotiate subsidies and tax breaks with govts, and normal concerns like profitability, moats / first mover advantage, genuine innovation, and stable infrastructure, etc fly out the window. Yes he made his wealth in the 90s with something that was genuinely useful and innovative, although it’s unclear how much that was just luck vs initiative? But the recent stuff has all been much more in the Richard Branson mould - selling hype and attaching your brand to other people’s work, and just riding a wave of dumb money.

One of the things I realised after working in software / data engineering for a few years is most self styled “tech bros” are massively clueless about developing software. You’re completely right. All mature software is affected by technical debt, poor documentation, clumsy design patterns and hacky solutions, but the idea you can change the tyre while the car is moving is pie in the sky. People always think new entrants will do it cleaner. And then within a couple of years their software is full of the same problems, because they ran into similar obstacles and had to turn around solutions quickly, and history just repeats itself. Plus the huge irony with all of this is Tesla software is buggy as hell, with actual life or death consequences.

Ironically this is called “docking”

Nice find, although I’d be amazed if any of these are accurate or a fair reflection of what’s actually happening at the business level. So many accounting tricks that can be used to increase “revenue” in an individual year, and there’s no real reason to single out wage costs when some clubs likely have other line items that are absolutely enormous.

I persevered with it and found it very funny in parts, but there was quite a lot of predictable material… also he seems a bit jaded from drugs / porn / life and his delivery isn’t as sharp as it used to be. I think the last but one Chapelle special (or maybe the one before that.. whichever one it is with the Kevin Spacey joke) is the best thing Netflix have put out. They seem to be really investing heavily in not very funny “I’m <race>, haha” comedians these days who make the same old jokes about being white / Black / Asian in America and then a lot of anti woke / shock comedy shit. Think the art of comedy where the subject matter is just a hook for them to drag you all over the place and make you laugh in unexpected ways is missing. Or maybe we’ve just watched too much comedy and can see the jokes coming from a mile off. There’s a bit in the Chris Rock special where he talks about abortion that I thought was genuinely good in this way.

It makes sense I think. The games where we dominate possession are against weaker and more defensive sides, and typically we lack a bit of cutting edge to break that down. The games where we’re out possessed are against stronger sides, but also play to our attacking strengths on the counter, so tend to be more goals at both ends. The thing with Emery is he doesn’t play a “park the bus” setup when he concedes possession. It’s conceding possession with a view to scoring goals - leaving players up, full backs overlapping on the counter, etc. That’s what makes it quite interesting. The setup where we try to play on the front foot is more conventional, and less exciting tbh. That could change with a bit more quality in the front 6 but for now I don’t think we scare teams when we control possession.

Just found out Ally McCoist had an affair with Patsy Kensit. How’s he done that

Not defending what’s going on at Wrexham, but the idea that one club can distort a lower division for longer than a couple of seasons is nonsense. They float up to their new financial level via promotion pretty quickly, and then you’re more or less back where you were.