Were you offended?

If 7% entering this country are a swarm I would be interested to learn what Cameron calls the 40% entering Germany

roses phrase "get a grip" is more succinct and better, really, for what I mean.

gg, I thought most of the far right wing Tories had buggered off to Ukip.

I think everyone is at a loss about what to do with this problem, not just here, but all over Europe .Slinging stuff around about what the Nazis did will not do anything to help though, just the opposite.
I feel sorry not only for the migrants, but for the families left where they came from and also for the countries in Europe who are expected to house them, as more and more converge on Calais. You can call it a swarm, because it is now far more than a crowd.

thatbags migration is always a tough situation for both the migrant and the host countries.
Many governments/ countries have contributed to the situations that make people migrate but this is often sidelined. If countries in the 'west' could work together more collaboratively to support better economies in the 'migrants' ' home countries there may be less reason for war,fewer famines and better education. However the politics of sustainability are not immediately profitable so are rarely taken forward.

Indeed.

A bigger swarm, annieb.

Size isn't the only issue. Disruption of travel between Calais and Kent is a problem too, which I daresay you'd mind about if it had affected you personally.

Which is not a criticism of migrants, just a neutral comment about the problem a mass of people blocking a tunnel.

I thought most of the far right wing Tories had buggered off to Ukip.

I didn't thatbags

thatbags, but to put it bluntly, most gransnetters are grannies and white.
As I said upthread, just because gransnetters in the majority if that is true, dont think that what Cameron said was dehumanising, cannpot be said to be a true representation of the population as a whole.
Living in a gransnet bubble can lead to distortations of life.

What if there are 30 million people who think that what he said was dehumanising the migrants? That is not a majority either. But I think you would agree that that is a huge number.

A debate on gransnet where a majority of just those that speak, thinks one way, is really to be taken with a large pinch of salt.

thatbags,i have thought seriously about how I would feel if I were directly affected , I hope the same as I do now , if not it would mean I am a very shallow person

Like the comments of certain posters perhaps?

I will reiterate again what I said upthread, that I am not sure that David Cameron meant the word in the way it came across.
We may never know.

A lot of things have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

rosesarered, what is the number before a crowd of people ceases to be a crowd ?

A simple bad choice of words. most likely no more than that.

You could always Google it Annie.

Are you troll hunting again rosesarered?

For what it is worth, while yours and petras posts were getting deleted, I reported my post about pointing to the other thread to gransnet, to ask them if it broke thier guidelines and should be deleted.
But they havent deleted that one. So I presume it is ok, but as I said, I will try to remember not to do that again.
But my next post was deleted which I havent a clue what I said on it. Never mind.

There was a speaker on Radio 4 this morning who pointed out that the influx (that OK?) in Calais is nothing as numerous that in Italy or Greece, particularly the island of Lesbos. And both those countries are economically much worse off than the UK or France. The refugees who get to Calais are apparently not being 'processed' or dealt with in any official way as any immigrants would be if they managed to get to Dover. This is the real problem, not how Cameron spoke about it.

I assume that gransnet are now watching this thread very closely so we will leave it at that.

exactly Lilygran, it is a problem all over Europe , and as you say, that is the real problem.

Seem to have heard that before...

I suppose I could google it rosesarered , i asked you directly because to claim to know the answer

Mr Google always has the answers.

I was just thinking of the number of comments made on here to defend the "swarm" comment and wonder how it compared to the number of people who found the picture of a white van, outside a house, with three flags raised with no added comment, offensive.

This article www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=bellicose+meaning&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4SKPT_enGB412GB412&q=bellicose+meaning&gs_l=hp..1.0l5.0.0.0.4502...........0.gWFoYlfh9GA says much of what I wish I was able to say.

*Thatbags says "Disruption of travel between Calais and Kent is a problem too, which I daresay you'd mind about if it had affected you personally."

The article comments of the feeling that we should put the "well earned breaks" of people in this country ahead of the lives of migrants and asylum seekers. The author talks of the bellicose British and I do see an aggression against groups of people which I do not believe was so strong in the first twenty or thirty post war years. I feel sad and yes, I do feel I should flag up that, although you may currently not belong to one of the groups taking centre stage for opprobrium who is to say where a country that backs the vilification and abuse of other groups will go. I imagine many of use on this forum are older - what if that was the next group and the rules of how the UK sees humanity had been changed by some people's view of the current group.

Of course, it will never happen. It never has in the past has it.

on not of