Having been on a two day break in Kent when I was able to see first hand the road chaos, not just on the motorway but on the byroads which I coped with using local knowledge acquired by living in the county for the first 44 years of my life. I think this first Blog on my return should be about this.
It is not a crisis over lorries or even over migrants. It is a crisis of governments losing control of events and floundering about in the consequences, making puffed up statements, holding emergency meetings and proving incompetent to find a pathway towards resolution. The British government is as much to blame as the French, both are victims of EU discord and both have been responsible for making things worse. The toppling of Gaddafi was a lunatic act resulting in a failed state at the southern gateway to Europe. Various other foreign policies have contributed to the diaspora of the desperate. Accord among EU nations about how to help these helpless people is non-existent; much of that is the UK’s fault through its nihilist approach to a quota scheme, leaving Italy and Greece to cope with the brunt of the influx and Germany to make the best effort to accept them into her midst.
First of all France has to use troops if necessary to secure the Channel Tunnel and Britain should offer a brigade of its own troops to help. Permanent lorry parks on a grand scale must be established on both sides of the channel to provide holding arrangements to cope with this and future emergencies arising out of accident, strikes, breakdowns or other issues, including migrants. Proper camps must be set up on both sides of the channel to house thousands of refugees while decisions are made whether to admit or deport them.
The UK has to get its head round the realities of immigration. Legal EU migrants, whatever UKIP says, contribute more in tax than they take out in benefits by quite a margin so all this talk of taking control of our borders is posturing nonsense. The problem we have is with illegals actually coming here or trying to in massed assaults involving thousands. They try not because they want benefits, but because they want to work and the opportunities they aim for are in the black economy. And the reason they aim for the black economy in Britain is because it is the easiest in Europe to access. And why? Because we are the only advanced economy in Europe in which yo do not need to carry an identity card.
Think about that.