BBC Migrant (FB 26th June 2015)

I can't be bothered to rephrase my Calais lorry-jumpers piece from tonight as standalone so I'll begin with the post that prompted my response. It was a Public post so I am not breaching any confidences and I shan't attribute it to avoid its author embarrassment:

They wrote:

" Last night on the BBC news, they interviewed a Sudanese migrant in Calais. He's trying to make his way to the UK. He's taught himself impeccable english, and he's made his way across Africa and Europe to try and make his dream come true.
Some people think we should move heaven and earth to stop him. I disagree.
A man with that much motivation, drive, and talent should be welcome here. He's shown more resourcefulness and resilience than I think most of us could in his situation, and with all that going for him he's going to be an asset to the country.
So what do we do? We spend millions of £ to stop him.
Smart move."

I replied:

English is one of the two official languages in Sudan so it is no great surprise he is fluent.

If he had entered the EU legally he would already have a visa that entitled him to come here. I guess he doesn't so he has illegally entered and crossed a large number of countries, those of which are in the EU having the same human rights legislation as we do.

The UK, as is recently widely reported, is on average the most expensive place in Europe in which to rent accommodation and as he presumably has no funds he is presumably intending to be supported by the UK as he has no job ready and waiting for him.

The key to what makes the UK an attractive destination for illegal migrants over other European countries is that if one does qualify for asylum here and finds even a low paid job one's earnings are topped up by Tax Credits, which are an unquestionable burden on those taxpayers in the UK who do not qualify for them.

And, of course, if he intends to cross on a lorry he is also putting the livelihood of the driver of that lorry at risk. I believe the fine is some £2000 or so per person discovered on, in, under or otherwise aboard a vehicle but not on the ticket or with the correct documentation.

Had he real drive and motivation to become an upstanding and contributing member of our society he would have done all he could to qualify for legal entry. He might also, were he not criminally selfish, have thought to stay closer to home to help sort out the problems within his own country.

So, in summary, he is someone who has no respect for the law in the countries he has already crossed without the appropriate permissions and has no respect for UK law as it is his intention to enter the UK illegally. That he has not expired yet would imply he has either illegally worked along the way or has stolen enough to sustain himself. He also chose to run away, much further than is necessary to achieve safety for himself, rather than address problems for the greater good of his fellow Sudanese.

I fail to see how all that renders him a potential asset to our country? He may have been a refugee from Sudan a while ago but right now he's nowhere near Sudan, has no need to flee anymore and he is just another illegal resident in France, which, as it happens, is not a dangerous war zone. I am there at the moment and would have noticed.

Air Products, Lyon / US Police (FB 28th June 2015)

In Lyon, a couple of days ago, a troubled individual beheaded his boss, took and sent via a social media messaging service a selfie of himself with the head he had just separated from its owner and impaled the head on the railings of an Air Products factory before he, thankfully inexpertly, attempted to get the factory to explode.

That he sent the selfie to a number in Canada, from where, it is unclear as yet to where, it was forwarded, suggests he took the selfie as proof of his macabre act.

I am somewhat doubtful that if this scenario had played out in the US, the home country of Air Products, the individual would be in custody answering questions as he is now.

French police carry guns as a matter of course, I still find it a little distracting to see them carrying what I assume to be assault rifles when they pop in to the bakers, but they don't use them if there is a safe option not to.

May the US please observe and learn. With the proper training and discipline such that security service personnel enter dangerous situations with appropriate caution but not fear, it is quite possible to respond to those situations with a clear head and to respond only as is necessary.

I am not of the opinion that the majority of US policepeeps are in the job just to kill folk of any shade or hue, it isn't as if you need a badge to get hold of a gun so killing sprees are not exactly hard to organise, I believe the problem lies in a lack of education that results in officers being placed in circumstances they are ill prepared for and too often on their own.

Be it the response to a domestic dispute or a vehicle stop or a teenage party that gets out of hand, the news footage we see more and more of appears to show a lack of awareness of how to properly contain people or circumstances without being scared of them or angry with them, a lack of confidence, if you like.

Naturally, we never get to see or hear about the incidents during which nothing bad happens and no one does anything wrong and in which people do not get unnecessarily killed or otherwise damaged and these are the vast majority of police attendances, but those we do see do seem to share a common characteristic of the placement of poorly prepared people reacting as those of us who are untrained might and making very unfortunate mistakes.

It is no different from someone having spent their life becoming expert in any field but mine not spotting flaws in commercial contracts or proposals. With the correct training and the thirty years of my experience they could be just as able as I am.

I know I could never be a policeperson or a member of any armed service as I do not have the correct temperament for it but I can wrestle spreadsheets into submission and wade through reams of terms and conditions with relish and without breaking into a sweat.

We all have differing abilities. Just because someone wants to do a job and applies for it doesn't mean it is the right job for them. In my field it just means someone loses a few quid and it isn't terminal or likely to cause civil disturbance and while I often piss people off I am not going to be setting elements of any community violently against any other element of that community.

I don't live in the US and am increasingly unlikely to visit as I am extraordinarily happy to be where I am, but I have a friend or two there and would like them and their fellow countryfolk to be as safe as I feel here.

It might take something as simple as more effective weeding out of even the most enthusiastic of applicants for policing roles. It would certainly be worth a try. By the time they are sent to do something they get wrong it is too late.

Happy everyday.

I am used to returning from France (FB June 30 2015)

I am used to returning from France to relatively inclement weather but, humidity aside, today's is looking to turn out not much different from my last Tuesday as it seems many of the Celcius I was enjoying there have also traveled broadly north and are now visiting these shores. Hurrah!

What strikes me on this occasion is not what there is more of in France and less of here but what I hadn't noticed had been absent from my everyday in France but is unavoidably noticeable by its abundance here in Seaside City.

I am writing, of course, of litter and dog poo. Sad but true. Not just small villages but towns and the two cities I visit, Anguoleme and Perigueux, too, are a lot cleaner and tidier than here.

There are students at university in both these French cities and there is a lot of social housing in each as well, so it isn't a matter of age or of how well-to-do people are. It must just be attitude.

For a citizenry that claims to be so enthusiastic about "the environment", it seems to include a relatively high number of folk who are more than able to overlook the environment in which they actually live and work and which they genuinely can make a difference to the taking care of and improving.

It must be enormously frustrating for parents here who try to educate their children that dropping litter or leaving dog poo about the place is naughty when the children are presented daily with evidence suggesting doing so is quite normal. I have enormous respect for those who do achieve it under these conditions.