Refugees

HIDGE yu can't say there is no room for people. Have you ever flown over the UK. its green and empty spaces as far as the eye can see. Its not Indonesia!
You compare the UK to Australia. In comparison there are hardly any people living there. they have more sheep than people.

There are so many on GN who go on about WW2 and all that Britain achieved in that perilous time and before that, that huge Empire.
The Uk can't just sit back and pretend its some little island.
You know from TV programmes that left to themselves so many goods and food products would be missing in the Uk shops and supermarkets and 65 milion people to feed.
You can vote in 1917 to leave Europe but for the sake of your grandchildren and their work opportunities, it would be better to stay in where the work is.

The country don't pay for nurses and doctors to train, they pay university fees just like anyone else.
If you realized he working conditions and pressure they are now put under by a government that is actively changing the NHS into a private healthcare institution you would maybe understand their reason for leaving ( economic and better lifestyle migration)

I think the UK should close its borders for the time being. I have always been against joining the EU and think it was the worst thing we ever did was to build the Euro tunnel. Keep our island to ourselves and take a leaf out of the book of Australia. They have got it right. It isn't that I have no sympathy for these poor unfortunate people but we are only a small island with no room for any more people. The situation needs to be tackled at source and it is up to the governments of EU to get together and find the way forward to getting rid of these tyrants who terrorise people to get power.

There is no 'would have fought', they did fight.

The same as those brave men and women fought in their respective countries by joining resistance groups to fight for their country and families future as best they could.

The same as men, women and young girls and boys have joined groups to fight IS in Turkey, Iraq , Syria too but that point doesn't get an airing.

I entirely agree it is ridiculous to persist in comparing this war to WW2. It is completely different and as I have stated on other threads old rules for old wars don't fit this one. I was simply stung by comments that I thought cast doubts on the bravery of people like my father and his ilk who would most definitely have fought to the death. My great uncle and many others did.
This war is different and so extremely complex and with such potentially complex ramifications that simplistic solutions like just throwing open our doors could lead to much further trouble for all. Its going to go on for years I suspect. We'd better brace ourselves.

Well said Nellie, we had one enemy and they were not of this country

Nellie,i understood you were not accusing thr Irish, I though you were quoting a post and couldn't find it , sorry again x

We didn't defend the channel islands

Jane10 to the death no doubt. The German blitzkrieg war machine was very powerful.
The British fighters almost certainly would have fought, but the woman and children and elderly would have fled as this group usually do.
They have no alternative and trying to protect the children makes complete sense in any survival situiation.

As for the disabled. Well we know what the 3rd Reich would have done with them.
We were determined in WW2 but also very very lucky.

What do you mean "we would have fought"?

It is ridiculous to keep comparing the situation in Syria - a civil war with the complication of ISIS and various rebel groups which may or may not be affiliated with ISIS or Assad - to that in Britain during WWII.

For Britain there was a clear common "enemy" who had already invaded many parts of Europe and who were intending to invade Britain.

I don't agree nelliemoser we would have fought.

Nellie. I was just trying to up the stupidity sakes following on from Ethel's post, ie, I know someone who knows someone.
And the island is protected from land and sea.

Anniebach I didn't see your "apology"either.

Merlotgran where would we Brits have gone? The Republic of Ireland?
Shetland islands, who knows? That is the problem and in a way the whole story of the plight of most refugees.

Our island status really helped protect us from invasion but if we had been invaded we would have been really stuffed.

If we think of the refugees as the modern equivalent of Jews fleeing the Nazis, then we might be a bit more compassionate. And let's face it, ISIL is every bit as vicious and murderous as the Nazis - they just don't have industrial scale mass murder to the extent of Nazi extermination camps - but they are trying their best.

I never thought there would be evil organisations in the world to compare with the Nazis, but it never ends - Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Slobodan Milosovic and other Balkan mass murderers, Boko Haram, Al Qaida, the Taliban, and now ISIL.

No wonder people flee. No wonder the world is inundated with refugees. And we in the comfortable Western democracies simply cannot pretend it isn't happening and isolate ourselves.

Anniebach in case of any doubt, my Irish remarks were intended as irony.
They were virtually blamed for their plight as well. Why did they not stay in Ireland and just plant more potatoes?

Yes I agree Jingle, why would anybody stay and fight for a tyrant. What a choice - Assad or ISIS - absolutely no choice.

I think if I were a Syrian mother I would tell my son to get the hell out and not worry about me.

Awful to think of young families being torn apart though.

I heard on the radio this morning that many of the young men coming here have just received their call-up papers and do not want to become cannon fodder for Assad. They hate that regime anyway so why risk life and limb for it. Sounds reasonable to me.

Who wants facts? Hearsay and panic-mongering are far more interesting? Well, here is a link that might give us all something to think about.

So CBS news reporters follow the refugees and film them at sea in a boat that is not seaworthy, in my book they exploited them for a news story. Why aren't they telling them not to risk their lives ?

Sorry, I thought I had missed a post, am half asleep, sorry Nellie

Wasn't that just a bit of irony ?

Who has blamed the Irish?

Armed men in speedboats cut fuel lines to refugees' boats, leaving them adrift.

www.cbsnews.com/news/uniformed-men-accost-refugees-leave-them-adrift-at-sea/

Quite shocking.

Good post nellie