Foreigners

Housing need not be a problem and I support the private members bill to encourage all social tenants on benefits to take in at least 2 refugees or risk losing their homes

Tell me that is a joke

What about Dorneywood, Chevening, MPs second homes (paid for by us, the taxpayer which they can then keep)? Lily Allen has a few spare bedrooms too.

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I was going to say that many of these refugees are Muslim and will only eat certain foods, so that will be a problem.
But then I remembered that in WW2 thousands of Jewish children were placed with Christian foster parents in the UK. Somehow they managed with the dietary problems.
Adults would be more complicated.

TriciaF Food would be the least of the 'hosts' problems.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/19/calais-camp-charity-threatens-uk-with-legal-action-over-vulnerable-children

Jalima, my father was killed five weeks before I was born, like your FIL, defending this country and Europe from the evils of Hitler's Germany. I'm sure you can understand that that phrase does not sit well with me to say the least. I think a lot of people on here are just too young to understand. As I previously said some haven't got a clue!

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/19/gary-lineker-hits-back-at-online-abuse-over-hideously-racist-coverage-refugees

Nigglynellie

My granddad fought in WW2 . He spent the last year of the war in a hospital for tropical diseases and never fully recovered. His father before him fought and died in the Great War. My grandad never got over losing his father when he was very small.

I can't even begin to imagine where we would be today if people like my grandad and great grandad had took off and left, leaving the women and children at home to suffer whatever evil befell them.

gilly you must be young ( lucky you) as my Grandad fought in the first world war.Father in the second one.

I'm 54 roses . My grandad kept a framed photograph of his father which always had pride of place. I have inherited the photo. He was a very good looking young man and my grandad was his double. Seeing his picture so often I felt like I knew him.

Most of the British are not mean spirited. Some are, and their numbers have been swelled by unpleasant propaganda by an influential sectors of the press who continue to push a right-wing agenda.
I met a Syrian refugee yesterday who said he was very happy and relieved to find himself - after 5 years of awful experiences with his young family - in such a lovely place with such kind and friendly people. I'm sure he now looks a lot older than his years and his little son, about 7 years old, was very thin, with dark shadows under his eyes.
However our mean-minded government have behaved appallingly, fanning the flames of racism and resisting all boarders. We have taken hardly any refugees from Syria and other war-torn areas. Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have taken in millions from Syria. Lebanon is a county of less than 5 million and they have over 1 million refugees. And there are sordid camps all over Greece, containing many thousands of people of all ages who are stuck there as winter sets in. Germany has extended the hand of Christian charity while we have accepted a pathetic few hundred Syrians and 14 from Calais. Not impressive is it. But the press keep on banging the racism drum and people keep falling for it. The Calais camp is, to a large extent, our responsibility and the government have stood by while France send the bulldozers in. Thousands of children have disappeared from the Calais camp and nobody knows what has happened to them.
I would remind you that during the 1930s the same sectors of the press were campaigning hard against the UK accepting Jewish refugees. There was a limited scheme to admit children - but not their parents. We could have taken in many hard working adults who would no doubt have contributed to the future of the UK. But we didn't. And we know what happened to them. We do not have to have been alive in the 1930s and 40s to appreciate these facts and learn lessons for the future.

Thank you Ana, that was really kind of you. My Grandpa fought in and survived the first war, but died aged 56 of respiratory problems due to being gassed. You are young gillybob, I'm 73!! but feel 37!
I'm not going to argue about what the government should or shouldn't have done before WW11, all I do know is that this country gives more money in foreign aid including refugees than any other, so while of course like everywhere on this planet there are mean spirited people, I'm afraid I can't agree that we as a nation are mean spirited, because we are not and never have been.

The Home Office state that it's 'intrusive' to examine these children any further than looking at them and saying: oh yes, I think you look 14, there you go, we will look after you until your ( what age) as your considered a 'child' and your our responsibility.
Can you imagine how 1000s of sick and disabled people are feeling right now? These people who have to jump through every hoop imaginable to get what is rightfully theirs.
I see that the local council association have been complaining to HO for years on this age thing issue. It costs councils £1000s for every case.

Exactly niggly well said. The UK has kept up it's foreign aid budget, has given so much to the camps for Syrian refugees, and has a generous and tolerant attitude to all asylum seekers in the past, and refugees. What muddies the waters of thinking amongst some people is the fact that that there are many economic migrants trying to get in here( can't blame them for that) but the government have a duty to weed out the people who have no claim to be here.Those people are already in a country, France, where they could apply to stay.

The Calais camp is not our responsibility it's in France. It seems to me that a few on here despise their own country. Fortunately in the real world they are in the minority.

If there is doubt as to the age of 'children' and a quick dental check could be done, why is there a problem with that?No genuine child of under 18 would object to that.

It wouldn't single out anyone who is over that age by a few years, but could stop 28 year olds from masquerading as 17.

a quick dental check could be done,

Dentists (you know, those experts on teeth) say that it is unreliable.

Firecracker123 people on here who despise their own country fortunately they are in the minority, the referendum showed that, thank god.

I did say the word 'if'........ but if teeth are not a good indicator of age, then common sense on looking at a person should tell you. nobody of 30 looks like a Teenager.

Yes, I do wonder about the people who constantly belittle the UK, whilst enjoying all the freedoms and benefits of their own country.

I'm afraid that 'My country right or wrong' is not a particularly attractive sentiment for many of us.

From Twitter:

Alex Andreou ‏@sturdyAlex 23m23 minutes ago

This is what the amazing software @DailyMailUK used to age-check migrants makes of the England Under-17s.

I heard on Radio4 yesterday that dental age can only be given within five years either way so not really reliable.
Last week Bernard Cazenove a French Govt Minister said how the Calais migrants were the responsibility of both France and UK and that solving the problem is a joint one.
If the French had not agreed to have the border control at Calais these migrants would all have been allowed to travel and not been stopped until they reached Dover or Folkstone. I assume it will be up to the French Govt whether or not they allow this border position privilege to continue after the UK leaves the EU. I saw one report which has warned the UK Govt they need to start building areas at the ports to keep the lorries etc for Customs and other checks after Brexit.