Quote Originally Posted by On Balance View Post
Al, were you not against the idea of Universal Income. Surely Universal Income would assist the thousands of citizens you mention in attaining a decent living standard.

I don’t wish to pick, and I know you have mocked me for being a watcher and not posting, but you, a very long time ago, mocked people who shop at Aldi and Lidle. If those people are living on or below the poverty line and can’t afford to shop at Asda, Tesco, M&S etc. then credit to them. Some have to get food from food banks because they are that desperate. Thankfully there are people like yourself doing great charitable work.

Sadly children have always gone without. Often, not always, it is because of parents who waste their income on cigarettes, drink, drugs or gambling rather than feeding and or clothing the children. I understand that milk was often dispensed at schools years ago, because some children appeared undernourished. It has always been the same.

These immigrants are at life’s end. If getting into a dinghy is the only alternative they have then it shows their despair. As I said previously, I have twice witnessed people in these circumstances. Once was when 50, yes they were counted, men and women were sat shoulder to shoulder in a rubber dingy just after we had exited the Mediterranean Sea. Every vessel at sea is obliged to assist any vessel in distress no matter what the circumstances or who is in/on it.

It was absolutely heartbreaking to witness and I felt awful as they were pushed back out to sea after being given blankets and water etc. I could see the fear and hear the panic as they were pushed from the side of the vessel I was on. What they did not know, but we could see, was that a Spanish Coast Guard vessel was nearing their position from the starboard side of the vessel I was on and they’d only been let go so that that vessel could pick them up. As I say it is something I will never forget, seeing the fear and hearing their cries of desperation of those people and watching them being taken safely on board the Coast Guards vessel.

Going back to the original title of this thread, sadly there is no easy answer. As I posted at 16, ‘If anyone can provide an answer on how to dissuade immigrants wanting to come to the UK or provide an answer to how they should be dealt with once here, then I’m sure they would have a large audience very willing to listen.’
The simple but hard solution is stable government free from western interference, I can’t think of a single war in the Middle East that wasn’t kicked off through western meddling.