OT perspective/ Ukraine/Russia

[MadAmster]

I saw on the beeb this morning a Minister say that 50 visas have been granted and that more than 5000 others were being dealt with in Calais.

[Geoff Parkstone]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ervices-calais

Sets it out quite well. Scheme only up and running this weekend online and loads of "in progress" applications, but the turning away of people in person in Calais is of concern, although there has to be some sort of rudimentary "DBS check" I suppose.

How very unusual for the frogs to try to start up the blame the British lietmotif so quickly 😀

[Geoff Parkstone]

In a nutshell...no need for talk of ‘Frogs’ and ‘rubber boats’. There is a common enemy and what we need is unity.

Aye, just the sort of unity that Gerald Darmanin is fostering in this article by "having a go".... take your blinkers off for once and accept that not everything this country does is ****e

[ramAnag]

Now is not the time, Tricky...and where have I ever suggested ‘everything this country does is ****e’, GP?

I asked a question about us only providing for fifty refugees, thus far...and I queried the wisdom of yet more ‘foreigner bashing’ from the pair of you when what we need is unity. No real need for such ‘outrage’.

[Trickytreesreds]

Now is not the time, Tricky...and where have I ever suggested ‘everything this country does is ****e’, GP?

I asked a question about us only providing for fifty refugees, thus far...and I queried the wisdom of yet more ‘foreigner bashing’ from the pair of you when what we need is unity. No real need for such ‘outrage’.

Not the time ?

So what do we do boot out all the ones here in limbo?

Arrest them on the beaches?
We need to help the Ukraines now.
They are not helping by blocking this.

[ramAnag]

Not the time ?

So what do we do boot out all the ones here in limbo?

Arrest them on the beaches?
We need to help the Ukraines now.
They are not helping by blocking this.

I meant, as you know...and as AF has actually already mentioned to you, that now is not the time for you to go off on yet another rant about other refugees/displaced people/migrants/rubber boaters coming across the Channel.

‘My beloved Guardian’, GP? You sound like your mate in disguise and I wasn’t aware that I was ‘moaning’...unless in your world ‘moaning’ and asking are the same thing.
Strangely exactly the same question I asked over breakfast this morning has just been asked again on Radio 5 - eight hours or more down the line.

I very much agree with the last eight words of you post...hopefully we’ll be able to step up and improve the situation asap...I appreciate the need for some degree of caution but, imo, we have to play our part and the last thing despairing refugees need is to be caught up in a web of bureaucracy and Patel’s pointless red tape.

[Andy_Faber]

I meant, as you know...and as AF has actually already mentioned to you, that now is not the time for you to go off on yet another rant about other refugees/displaced people/migrants/rubber boaters coming across the Channel.

‘My beloved Guardian’, GP? You sound like your mate in disguise and I wasn’t aware that I was ‘moaning’...unless in your world ‘moaning’ and asking are the same thing.
Strangely exactly the same question I asked over breakfast this morning has just been asked again on Radio 5 - eight hours or more down the line.

I very much agree with the last eight words of you post...hopefully we’ll be able to step up and improve the situation asap...I appreciate the need for some degree of caution but, imo, we have to play our part and the last thing despairing refugees need is to be caught up in a web of bureaucracy and Patel’s pointless red tape.

Yes come on chaps, let’s focus on Ukraine/Russia, TTR you’ve made your point, some here agree some don’t but it’s getting in the way of proper discussion here.

[Trickytreesreds]

Yes come on chaps, let’s focus on Ukraine/Russia, TTR you’ve made your point, some here agree some don’t but it’s getting in the way of proper discussion here.

I have made my point Andy, but the truth of the matter is relevent now. Where are these Ukranians going to go?
Some have family here, which is obviously a bonus to get things moving.
But for those that don't, where do they go?
Social housing availability is poor, to say the least. The government is currently spending £5 M a day on hotel fees alone. The Judges decreed that ex army barracks weren't good enough for 18-30 singe men.
So where/what are we going with women and children, never mind the old?

It's a valid fair point and seeing as I want the Ukraine victims helped, it is something that needs to be explained.

[Geoff Parkstone]

We are not "only providing for 50 refugees" - did you read the article on your beloved Guardian online - which states that there are over 11,000 internet visa applications in progress. over 5,500 applications completed and over 2,300 appointments made to submit applications. Plus a few applicants in person. All within 48 hours of the fast track systems being set up over a weekend, and no doubt with staffing having to be switched from one section to another and/or learning new procedures.

That's about 20,000 under review or where applications are incomplete, and they can only be processed as fast as they come in. We are not like Poland or Romania where people just walk over the border. I really don't understand what you expect and/or what you're moaning about now?

While I know you don't like anecdotal observation, but I was speaking with a Romanian colleague of mine this morning whose brother is still there and the numbers coming across that border are also vast. The local people are coming out in masses to help and offer food, accomodation etc. It all sounded wonderfully humane, not something one might typically associate: but such is the fear of being "us next" I suppose. Clearly we cannot live up to that one on one response, but hopefully we can help in other ways.

[Geoff Parkstone]

You obviously have a point...but what makes you think it’s any more of a problem for us than it is for those in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova or any of the Western European countries? Frankly I watched the 6.00 o’clock news tonight and felt ashamed.

So ashamed that I bet a philanthropic liberal, such as you are, phoned up and offered to accomodate a few of the refugees at ramAnag Towers? If so, then well done you, respect.