Is it time to stop paying £££s millions to the French?

OwdGeezer

The gangs of young men around here, with nothing to do all day but sit in the local park smoking, drinking and shouting out goodness knows what to passing young women, is scary. It used to be a park where mums took their children to play in safety. Now it's a place to be avoided if you don't want your children to see the fights that break out daily between bored and angry young men.

OwdGeezer same in parts of my county.

Don’t expect a reply! 😉

Casdon

If we stopped paying France now to help control the number of boats crossing the channel we would have unfettered migration. Thousands of migrants every day, increasing as the gangs realised there was no deterrent. It seems some can’t see beyond the noses on the end of their faces.

Actually I didn’t think of the saved monies to ‘stop the boats’i was more thinking it could be used to ‘House the Migrants’.

glasshalffullagain

FriedGreenTomatoes2

We’ve had 2 big hotels taken over round here Shinamae.
The Cresta Court in Altrincham and Mersey Farm up the road from us, both 5 miles away and reported in our local newspaper.

Oh just a tiny point before I get on with my day.....No hotels have been " taken over"

The owners have seen the dollar signs and grabbed the money.

Amounts to the same thing really.
Locals cannot book the Cresta Court any more as a wedding venue.

^French police are now handing out life jackets to those crossing in small boats, far from stopping them.
I expect we’re paying for those or they wouldn’t be so generous^

I saw that. I had thought it was one of those idiot charity groups who had distributed them. Maybe that’s where they came from? 🤷‍♀️

You know - those ‘helpful’ charities who coach migrants on what best to say when they arrive.

Not enough!

Cossy

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Rejoining the EU would mean the Euro currency. I don’t think this will happen do you … really? We’ve moved on.

No it wouldn’t necessarily, we had the right to vetoe before and would, one assumes, negotiate this right again.

No Cossy not this time around.

However it’s academic.
We aren’t rejoining. Hallelujah!

Shinamae

Not enough!

That was in reply to
Do you know how many the French have prevented?

I strongly suggest a few hundred migrants are allocated to the sumptuous, spacious homes that government ministers have been given because "it goes with the job."

Perhaps living cheek-by-jowl with a few dozen of these types will motivate Sir Keir to get his skates on and do something concrete.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-december-2024/summary-of-latest-statistics

Interesting reading regarding numbers arriving and not returning far greater than I thought.

Last year 44,000 irregular arrivals, 37 thousand by small boats. Reading the statistics above, you realise these are just the tip of the iceberg.

I had promised myself not to engage with threads such as this, but I just have to call out the vile, racist, inhumane comments made by some posters.

Of course, there will now be a deluge of ‘horrified, victimised’ posters claiming they are not at all ‘vile, racist or inhumane’. Well, in my opinion their comments suggest otherwise.

LizzieDrip

I had promised myself not to engage with threads such as this, but I just have to call out the vile, racist, inhumane comments made by some posters.

Of course, there will now be a deluge of ‘horrified, victimised’ posters claiming they are not at all ‘vile, racist or inhumane’. Well, in my opinion their comments suggest otherwise.

That is why I’ve stopped posting.

Foul.

I thought it was a genuine question to ask. We pay the French an awful lot of money. Are we getting value for it?

I don’t think so.
It could perhaps be put to better use?

Maybe it's because I'm currently in France again, but I think it was an interesting OP that calls into question what goes on on both sides of the channel. We do pay the French an awful lot of money. I've said before about ridiculously nonchalant checks by security officials when leaving the French ferry ports, "Do you 'Ave any immigrés in you car?" Really?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

glasshalffullagain

FriedGreenTomatoes2

We’ve had 2 big hotels taken over round here Shinamae.
The Cresta Court in Altrincham and Mersey Farm up the road from us, both 5 miles away and reported in our local newspaper.

Oh just a tiny point before I get on with my day.....No hotels have been " taken over"

The owners have seen the dollar signs and grabbed the money.

Amounts to the same thing really.
Locals cannot book the Cresta Court any more as a wedding venue.

Hotels were requisitioned by the previous Government to house asylum seekers.
An upmarket hotel where we were supposed to stay a couple of years ago for a reunion was taken over completely and the booking for about 50 of us, deposits paid months in advance, was cancelled - without notice. It was only when the organiser phoned the week before that we found out.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I thought it was a genuine question to ask. We pay the French an awful lot of money. Are we getting value for it?

I don’t think so.
It could perhaps be put to better use?

No, we're not getting value for money.
Yes, the money could be put to better use.

The French are paying lip service to this problem.

In the meantime:
Mini-marts, barbers shops and vape shops in local high streets have been taken over by organised crime gangs, employing asylum seekers.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3677xzk56no

Thank you escaped for your (always) measured (and interesting) responses. Validation on my threads from you adds kudos.

I worry we’re doing too little too late Allira.
It really concerns me.

We don’t even have a robust plan and so I can envisage all this getting so much worse very quickly.

Summer and better weather will bring huge numbers. We cannot afford this madness. We desperately need a deterrent. Not a soundbite.

LizzieDrip

I had promised myself not to engage with threads such as this, but I just have to call out the vile, racist, inhumane comments made by some posters.

Of course, there will now be a deluge of ‘horrified, victimised’ posters claiming they are not at all ‘vile, racist or inhumane’. Well, in my opinion their comments suggest otherwise.

The only deluge will be those laughing at that post, as there are no vile ( a word well beloved on forums) or racist or inhumane comments, only practical and sensible ones.
What would your answers be to stop, as happened just the other day 600 men arriving here from the shores of France?

Thanks FriedGreenTomatoes2. I'm not on your thread to stir up anything, but just to tell what I pick up from the mood in France on this issue. And not as a tourist either, I have many years of living in France, as a child and later, to understand where the average Frenchman's attitude is coming from. Some posters might not like hearing it, but the UK is perceived over here as being more generous in what it hand outs.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Rejoining the EU would mean the Euro currency. I don’t think this will happen do you … really? We’ve moved on.

This idea really used to bother me - but do you know I have moved on too.

I don't care about this anymore.
I'd happily give up our currency - and 100% monetary independence for rejoining.

We'd never get the same amazing deal of course!

I hope Starmer can straddle both horses at present but if he had to choose I'd say Europe.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I worry we’re doing too little too late Allira.
It really concerns me.

We don’t even have a robust plan and so I can envisage all this getting so much worse very quickly.

Summer and better weather will bring huge numbers. We cannot afford this madness. We desperately need a deterrent. Not a soundbite.

Absolutely.
For a start getting the French police to earn the megabucks we’re paying them, and then getting all the ex military bases ready to receive men, not families, and that’s where they stay while all the very many false pleas for asylum are considered.
Stop the hand wringing and get on with it.

It seemed to be a fairly sensible, level-headed discussion as to the best course of action to me and there seemed to be no need for such remarks as that LizzieDrip.

But heigh ho, it seems it's not possible to discuss such an important issue which is affecting all of Europe in a rational way on GN.

From a French resident. No the French are not 'laughing at
the Brits'. If you look at the statistics you'll see France has
its own huge problem with immigration , hence the popularity of Marie le Pen.
The immigrants know there is no identity card in Britain and
they'll be well looked after. Talk about own goal.
Maybe withholding money to the French would show it had been working , it may at least hush the moaning

Oreo

LizzieDrip

I had promised myself not to engage with threads such as this, but I just have to call out the vile, racist, inhumane comments made by some posters.

Of course, there will now be a deluge of ‘horrified, victimised’ posters claiming they are not at all ‘vile, racist or inhumane’. Well, in my opinion their comments suggest otherwise.

The only deluge will be those laughing at that post, as there are no vile ( a word well beloved on forums) or racist or inhumane comments, only practical and sensible ones.
What would your answers be to stop, as happened just the other day 600 men arriving here from the shores of France?

I am neither vile, racist nor Inhumane..
You need to get a grip, Lizziedrip…
I find people tend to leave the thread when they are losing their argument…just saying’. 😉

Oreo

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I worry we’re doing too little too late Allira.
It really concerns me.

We don’t even have a robust plan and so I can envisage all this getting so much worse very quickly.

Summer and better weather will bring huge numbers. We cannot afford this madness. We desperately need a deterrent. Not a soundbite.

Absolutely.
For a start getting the French police to earn the megabucks we’re paying them, and then getting all the ex military bases ready to receive men, not families, and that’s where they stay while all the very many false pleas for asylum are considered.
Stop the hand wringing and get on with it.

Many military bases have housing as well as barracks so, if families arrive, they can be housed together in accommodation which was considered suitable for military families, so why it is not suitable for asylum seekers, I'm not sure.

Such accommodation near here has housed Afghan refugees and they were welcomed here.