Theresa May

My personal view is that if these were genuine migrants fleeing persecution and war they would be happy to just be in a safe place in any country and not causing mayhem, attacking lorry drivers trying to earn their living with knives and violence at Calais. They have passed through plenty of countries to get there. They are on French soil and in my opinion and plenty of others they need to deal with them. Too many bleeding hearts and do gooders who in real life just like the celebrity luvies who want to welcome them with open arms would have no contact with them when they move if they ever do to the UK but would be happy for them to be some other persons problem in a poor area of the country.

Firecracker you are obviously a charming and caring person who is beyond reproach and I'm sure you do your bit for those less fortunate than yourself (unlike the "bleeding hearts and do gooders" you condemn, who are a hypocritical bunch - including the 70 people who turned out yesterday afternoon in the pouring rain here, to load up a container of clothes etc for refugees in Lebanon) However, despite your concerned interest you might have missed the news that the Calais camp has been steadily destroyed by the French authorities in the last few months, driving refugees onto the streets of Calais. I hope that bit of news makes your day.

As for 'bleeding hearters and do gooders', the man who ran the school in Calais is the same man whom the Daily Mail described as 'headmaster who defied bolshie teaching unions to transform a failing school and became the head ever parent dreamed of.'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2952893/Super-headteacher-Rory-Fox-sacked-good.html

I once worked with this man and he's the last person in the world anybody could describe as 'bleeding hearter and do gooder'.

Firecracker at least get your terminology right-a migrant is anyone who moves form one area or country to another. a refugee is someone who is forced to leave their home because of war or persecution.
Have a look at The Truth About Refugees by Amnesty International
"Neither the 1951 Refugee Convention nor EU law requires a refugee to claim asylum in one country rather than another.

There is no rule requiring refugees to claim in the first safe country in which they arrive.

The EU does run a system – called the Dublin Regulations – which allows one EU country to require another to accept responsibility for an asylum claim where certain conditions apply.

The relevant conditions include that the person is shown to have previously entered that other EU country or made a claim there. This is supposed to share responsibility for asylum claims more equitably among EU countries and discourage people moving on from one EU country to another. But it doesn’t work.

It is clear the system greatly benefits countries like the UK and is very unfair to countries like Greece and Italy. That’s part of the reason Germany has just suspended the Dublin Regulations when dealing with people fleeing from Syria."

Trisher is right. In any case, the UK has agreed with France to take just over 150 specific children. The delay in handing over the children is the inefficiency of British bureaucracy.

I have no problem helping genuine migrants in Lebanon or elsewhere I am talking only about Calais. Does anyone in their right mind want knife welding migrant thugs coming to the UK, they need to be dealt with by the French authorities. The Calais Jungle has not been fully demolished yet. I believe charity begins at home. Don't try and take the high moral ground with me.

Why not? It seems it's not difficult to take the moral high ground.

Have you been to Calais and spoken to any of the people there? Do you know for a fact that they're all knife-wielding thugs? Do you know they're not genuine migrants?

The UK has agreed to take about 150 children, but isn't keeping to its side of the deal.

I was pleased to read in our local paper that the 5 families who were brought to live locally in December are now seeing their children happily settled into school. Another group of young single men are showing their gratitude by putting in a lot of work in the local area to such an extent that they have received Saltire awards for their service. All report feeling welcome and supported. Similar reports come from different parts of Scotland and I expect the same would be true throughout the UK.
Let's hear more of the positive aspects of communities welcoming (thoroughly vetted) refugees.

I didn't say they were all knife welding thugs, but while we are taking about them would you welcome them. The young men breaking into lorries, throwing bricks and lumps of wood which cause accidents to innocent motorists. What do you think should be done about them.

I think the ones causing criminal damage should be arrested and charged. If they're found guilty, they should be deported to one of the refugee camps in Turkey.

Yes, I would welcome the ones who don't break into lorries and throw bricks and lumps of wood.

Well said, mcem. I understand that Scotland has taken proportionately more refugees than England.

My local authority is supposed to be taking five individuals (not families), but they still haven't arrived.

I remember talking to a young refugee from Somalia who had taken part in a writing event. He had left behind all his family only because he would have been killed or forced to fight. Why do people imagine that these people have no feelings? Because they are young and male? They do not abandon those they love on a whim they have no alternative.

Well you are in the minority most people would not welcome them.

Fifteen families welcomed in Newcastle this year. Six families welcomed in Durham in August, all Syrian.
We are not all like you, Firecracker, fortunately.

By the way, I donated money to the Calais Kitchen today, because while people on here are debating whether they should be there or not, those refugees are there, and hungry.

The Dubs amendment and the latest petition was to ask that the refugees in Calais who had the right to come here be brought here before the new school year started.
Obviously something else Theresa May is still considering - ha ha!

Firecracker, are refugees only genuine when they are as far away from the UK as possible?
1.5 million of them in Lebanon, a quarter of the population.
I hope you are giving lots and lots of money to them!

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/syrian-refugees-government-secures-20000-local-authority-places-to-house-a7224291.html

This is funny.
Boris says Polish students will be welcome here in a few years time, after they have finished at school, but Theresa May says that those who live here already are not guaranteed to be able to stay.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/more-polish-immigrants-are-welcome-to-come-to-britain-boris-johnson-says-a7224956.html

We have our own homegrown teenage thugs, Firecracker, like those who killed the Polish man in Harlow.

You amaze me durhamjen I thought all British people were upstanding law-abiding citizens who do their bit for others, commit no violent crimes and pay their taxes.
If there was a way of people in Calais claiming asylum in the UK at the border - which is in Calais - then maybe there would not be a feeling of desperation over there. But we have it both ways don't we - the "border" is over there, but there is no way of claiming asylum until you have crossed the border and the channel.

It's like all those special deals we negotiated, Jess.
Not part of the Schengen Area, because we don't want those pesky EU citizens or non-EU migrants coming here, polluting our language. We want the free trade but not the free movement of people. We want London to carry on being the centre of banking, but we want special tax arrangements so the bankers don't feel got at and move to another financial centre.
We want to have everything our own way and give nothing back.
Actually, it sounds just like the empire, doesn't it?

Firecracker if you lived closer to me you'd be the one in the minority. A different slant - my son has a temp job in a popular cafe owned and run by Polish residents. All 3 owners plus the chef have bought houses locally and 2 of the 3 have children in school. They employ not only my son but also a German girl and an American studying at uni here. Should we send them 'home'? They now see Scotland as home.

Theresa May hasn't decided yet, mcem.

More likely she doesn't want to make any statement right at this moment as agreement hasn't been reached on various points.

We all know how a hastily-made promise can come back to bite a unwary politician on the...rear!

The woman has only been PM for 2 minutes, why not wait and see what happens.

www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2016/sep/03/council-housing-benefits-landlord-dwp-rent

Here's another thing Theresa May needs to decide about.
Who'd want to be a housing benefit officer these days?