I have been lucky enough to enjoy a 57-year successful career in business. I was also a board member of Business for Sterling and of Vote Leave and before coming to the UK I had some experience in USA politics. One of the things I have learned over the years is that when things are not going well, you might be working on the wrong thing! Another valuable lesson is that you can learn a lot from watching dogs interact with each other and humans.
So, now please bear with me for a little imaginary story:
You bring your dog, and I will bring one of my dogs (I have five) and we will join two very intelligent friends of ours (with their dogs) at your village hall. We will have booked an empty good-sized room. In this room are four standard chairs and nothing else.
One of us waits outside with all the dogs and the rest go into the room and sprinkle sixteen dogs treats at the far end of the room. The three of us then have the challenge of arranging the four chairs in a way that will prevent the dogs from getting at the treats when they come in.
The answer is no one can possibly do it! - there is no way to arrange four chairs in a room that size (or any size for that matter) to prevent the dogs from getting the treats.
This story is to dramatize the problem with the UK's migration policy - we are working on the wrong things! (Or at least not working on some of the right things!)
How and why do you imagine thousands of people with virtually nothing, manage to find £10,000 to pay a smuggler to get them to the UK. To get here they travel through several other very nice countries; they are already there but… they don't stop there!?
The answer is that the UK is a fantasy paradise for these people when compared to their lives before. This is true for the genuine refugees and, also for those who come to take advantage of us. Where else in the world can they get free housing, free meals, free medical and dental care, and above all FREE LEGAL REPRESENTATION, in case someone tries to send them back to where they came from?
With our thousands of miles of coastline and our still many miles of open country, there is no armed force in the world that could possibly prevent some illegal access to the UK. What the UK must do, is do both. We must shut down the main route of access (presently from France), but we also (and much more importantly!!) must remove the luxury incentives for every refugee and illegal migrant to want to come to the UK as their goal.
There are UK citizens who homeless veterans who have served the UK in the armed forces --- living on the streets. I know of divorced mothers with small children who are being legally harassed by their ex-husbands who have the resources to do it and, yet, the mother cannot qualify for legal aid because "it is a children's matter." So, we refuse housing to our veterans, we refuse legal aid to our citizen taxpayer who has no other resources, but we provide millions in housing and legal aid to who knows who from who knows where who comes who knows why to the UK!
Just stop for a moment and think, not about what you know about what we have been doing, but how you would view the situation as a total stranger who was hearing the story for the first time. Is there any possibility at all that you would conclude that "policing" the border is the only answer or even the best answer???
Of course, I am in favour of "policing" the border, but I do not think any amount of that policing will "solve" the problem.
The solution is to pick all the treats up off the floor and control how and when they are available to the dogs.
[Just in case you might think my illustrative parable is comparing undocumented immigrants to dogs, I am not - in fact in my case comparing someone to a dog would be the highest compliment, as anyone who knows me would know.]
PS - In case you are not fully aware of the benefits that individuals get just for managing to get to the UK just follow this link:
Some additional thoughts to ponder:
If you agree with this view, let your MP know. In this WOKE world of today, it is important that clear thinkers have the courage to speak up!
