Here in Ghana people are stunned by the announcement that a bond of £3,000 will have to be submitted by visa applicants to the UK, redeemable on return.
It is unpleasant for a nation to be singled out as comprised of particularly untrustworthy individuals against whom special measures are needed. Theresa May appears quite deliberately to be singling out countries whose citizens are normally black or brown – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Nigeria. They are all citizens with extremely close ties to the UK. For example, all of those countries supplied large numbers of men to British armed forces in two World Wars; with little resulting gratitude.
The true level of Britain’s regard for the Commonwealth is disclosed in all its arrogance; citizenship of the Commonwealth countries with the longest link to the UK will become a positive disadvantage in visa application. Israeli settlers living in Occupied Palestine on the West Bank, incidentally, will still be allowed to enter the UK without any visa at all, despite membership of neither Commonwealth nor EU. Paradoxical, isn’t it?
The measure shows the arrogant British disdain for these countries – of which India pre-eminently but also Ghana are fast growing and important trading partners. Undoubtedly Ghana will retaliate with measures which hurt British businesses; many of my good friends are senior Ghanaian politicians, and they are all furious. The rhetoric the British employ about transformation from colonial status to a modern partnership of equals is exposed for the tissue of lies it has always been. This is a straightforward racist measure, aimed at securing the racist vote to the Tories.
Not does it make any sense. If you are intending to enter the UK under false pretences, and have the intent illegally to settle and start a new life there, then £3,000 is scarcely a deterrent given the substantial economic gains you intend to make over the long period you intend to stay. It will rather seem a good investment; people will find the money. The people it will deter are those who never intended to overstay. The extra cash upfront, to the businessman for a business trip, for the student coming to study, for the tourist will drive them to go elsewhere, to the UK’s net loss.
More cruelly it will deter decent middle class people from coming to see grandchildren in the holidays, from going to the niece’s wedding, from going to graduation. Those things will become the prerogative of the wealthy, those with plenty of cash to spare.
This does nothing to deter illegal immigration. It merely demonstrates populist racism, demonstrates contempt for some of the UK’s best-disposed friends, and demonstrates that the government thinks the right to travel is only for the rich. It is contemptible.
It’s most certainly not a Guy Fawkes mask.
Hi Ben, yes “..a father who faces the spectre of never seeing his son again.” exactly the emotional tool the players will use to terrorize Edward/Lonnie. Hence my crudity…
Thanks for sharing some racist anti-Semitic statements Flaming June.
The mind truly boggle at what you define as excellent.
“I might think it was unjust and undignified but I wouldn’t claim that my humans rights were being violated.”
Like I said before, you’re not too hot on human rights; I guess you still don’t understand why the Sus laws were scrapped, or why we have the 2010 Labour’s Equality Act, which actually makes it illegal to do to UK nationals that what this money bond proposal will do to foreign visitors, namely enable wholesale discrimination.
“You would need a visa to visit Russia. A Cuban would not. Would you feel that this was discrimination that violated your human rights?”
I repeat, normal established visa controls are one thing, but this new concept of being automatically classed as a lawbreaking ““high risk” & financially impeded so as to dissuade & make it very difficult to visit Britain, not because of anything relating individually to yourself, but simply because of what nationality you are, is contrary to the notion of universal human rights & equality. Can you really not see this ? !
No hook for your bait, this time.
Still, progress, or should I say enlightenment is being made; he has now admitted that the proposal is “discriminatory”, “unjust and undignified”, yet he still seeks to defend it !! How peculiar is that ?!
Jaysus Mark. It’s difficult to understand the level of that kind of evil. As cynical as I get, the lack of familiarity with naivete makes it difficult for me to recognize it. You are right. I think they are filling him with all kinds of scenarios, including charges against him. For what, you say? ‘Aiding and abetting’, unless you agree to become a confidential informant, that is.
This is a pattern with these people.
Macky,
FFS! Go a tad easier on Habbabkuk and Villager will ya? Youre whipping those guys too easily and so much its almost pitiful to witness.
It must be like shooting fish in a barrel for you.
Why do they stay for the swatting you deliver them??
Its hilarious really.
Most Good Faith posters here come singularly yet it takes 5 or 6 of them to try but still fail epically in their well-funded mission.
Cant stop laughing at their uselessness.
🙂
One can always tell when theyve taken a resounding beating.
They pull a couple off the lesser-spotted subs off the bunch..
Now,who was it who posted a link to Collective Narcissism the other day?
ROFLMAO.
Mark
‘The City of London is protected by obedience…’
and I had always thought it was bought by cash …
‘Hi Ben, yes “..a father who faces the spectre of never seeing his son again.” exactly the emotional tool the players will use to terrorize Edward/Lonnie. Hence my crudity…’
Mark Many fathers in the ME did not see their sons (or daughters) again, nor the sons and daughters their fathers. Just as mothers and daughters have been lost to each other.
Did you hear the British general saying that we should have talked to the Taliban ten years ago? Quite so. Wonder why B.Liar and Bush kept going. Silly question I know.
The CE ‘anti-Semitic’
Not at all. I think you should check on what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians (semites) on a daily basis.
Zionism in practice – Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property
24 hours to 8am
24 June 2013
3 air raids – 2 attacks – 25 raids including home invasions – 1 beaten – 1 injured – 3 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage – 23 taken prisoner – 9 detained – 112 restrictions of movement
/..
http://www.sapienspromise.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2819
The daily log
http://www.sapienspromise.org/modules/news/
There are 562 pages there going back to 2005, each page containing records of 5 days’ atrocities.
Habakkuk said ‘citizens of Israel can travel to the UK and indeed to any other EU member state without a visa because Israel is not on the EU’s “common visa list”’. But according to Mark Harper’s reply to Andrew Smith’s second question about Entry Clearance Visas, Israelis do need ECVs and “visit visas”.
See:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm130624/text/130624w0002.htm#1306253000034
I WISH SOMEONE COULD CLARIFY THIS!
How wonderful for the Anwricans to be so universally loved that they encounter another no-go area.
US travel warning over Egypt clashes
President Muhammed Morsi’s opponents protest in Alexandria. Photo: 28 June 2013
The US warns Americans not to travel to Egypt and has told non-emergency diplomatic staff to leave, as deadly clashes continued in the country.
~~~
The boy Hague in the Yorkshire Post.
William Hague: Putting Western values at heart of a networked world
Published on the27 June
2013
08:45
Email thisPrint this
WE are immensely proud of our alliance with the United States, and what our two nations stand for and have achieved together. We remember Churchill and Roosevelt, and the triumph over Nazi tyranny. And we think of Thatcher and Reagan, when the fall of the Berlin Wall unleashed the 20th century’s single greatest advance in human freedom.
Nevertheless we are living through an exceptionally turbulent and unpredictable period in world affairs, which may endure for decades to come.
/..
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/debate/columnists/william-hague-putting-western-values-at-heart-of-a-networked-world-1-5799809
So true William, in that second paragraph, while your lot are in charge. Sent any weapons to Syria lately?
Blast! How wonderful for the Americans…….
It was me, Jives. But I guess you missed reading another link I posted on ‘Introspection Illusion’ that was subsequently drone-zapped. I thought it was rather instructive and relevant. You might have learned something.
. . . .
I think Habbabkuk has convincingly extricated the issue of ‘human rights’ from the topic of this particular immigration control. The word ‘right’ is itself highly debatable. Perhaps this is the nexus of this particular disagreement. You might have a human right to potable water but that doesn’t help you when you’re stuck in the desert without anything to drink. Reminds me of a man’s ‘right’ to have babies – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c
People here seem to be unaware that this problem (overstaying + demanding bonds) is an indirect result of global over-population. You can expect many more ‘unfair’ and discriminatory policies of your govt over the next few decades as increased demand for the good life impinges on your self-imposed moral obligation, and naturally limited capacity, to deliver it to people who want it.
As far as principles vs laws goes, if the latter fails to meet the expectations of the former then the law needs to change. You can’t run a system on generalised principles alone given the myriad exceptions and dilemmic conflicts that abound within simplified ideals.
“FFS! Go a tad easier on Habbabkuk and Villager will ya? Youre whipping those guys too easily and so much its almost pitiful to witness.”
I know it’s a bit cruel, like mocking the afflicted, but they can have a respite for most of the weekend, as I’m off now to Paris, to see the one & only Boss !
@ Elizabeth Morley :
That’s interesting, and I agree that it would be good to get some clarity in this. But I would point out that it’s not really directly relevant to the subject of this thread, which is about the bond scheme for visitors from 6 countries (I’m guessing that Craig just chucked it into his lead-in post mainly for polemical emphasis)
@ Macky. 8 05am
Ce que le flot dit aux rivages,
Ce que le vent dit aux vieux monts,
Ce que l’astre dit aux nuages,
C’est le mot ineffable : Aimons !
For once I won’t mess with someone else’s poem.
Enjoy the break. You sure earned it.
@ JON (Mod)
pls refer to the post by Trowbridge Ford at 09h38, thnx.
[Mod: 4 items removed, thanks]
Is ‘Trowbridge Ford’ at 9.38am yet another impersonation? The language is way over the top – and deplorable, in case I have to spell that out for anyone.
[Mod: 4 items removed, thanks – yes, looks like an impersonator]
“Sometimes I’m a black. Not everyone realizes blackness has to be conferred upon you again and again.”
― Laura Yes Yes, How to Seduce a White Boy in Ten Easy Steps
“Transcripts released this week by the Irish Independent record conversations in 2008 between leading Irish bank executives, joking about how they had scammed billions of euros to bail out the now-defunct Anglo-Irish Bank.”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/29/bank-j29.html
@Dreoilin
Is ‘Trowbridge Ford’ at 9.38am yet another impersonation? The language is way over the top…
I agree. Trowbridge doesn’t talk like that. It feels like a crude parody of the mild paranoia that informs many of his posts. (Paranoia which may, of course, be entirely justified.)
“Is ‘Trowbridge Ford’ at 9.38am yet another impersonation? The language is way over the top – and deplorable, in case I have to spell that out for anyone.”
I didn’t see anything wrong with the posts last night.
I just assumed that as they didn’t know what an ellipsis was they were probably only a child themselves.
@Roderick Russell
Just read your essay on psycopathy and the super-rich. I enjoyed it very much, thanks. It’s also true, is it not, that those born to positions of tremendous privilege and wealth are mandated by their own egos to believe that they are innately different in order to be able face themselves in the mirror each morning? To acknowledge the truth, namely that they drew one of the winning tickets in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Lottery would require them to confront some uncomfortable facts and hand out some of their loot. That’s a hell of a conjuring trick performed by the ego there. Prince Charles, for example, must know in his heart that he is a plonker, but still no doubt believes the preposterous opulence of his life is justified by his genealogy.
@ KoWN
re last sentence : I wonder if it would be possible to be aware of the first thing while being unaware of the second. But, thank God, I’m not a shrink.
Flaming June 29 Jun, 2013 – 7:00 am
“Did you hear the British general saying that we should have talked to the Taliban ten years ago?”
He also admitted the taliban will be back in control within months of the US withdrawal. Many of us were predicting that before the first american bomb dropped. What a murderous waste. What a discrace.
Steve 28 Jun, 2013 – 11:22 pm
“Overstating is a crime and millions commit it every year.”
You won’t, not in a kerzillion years, find any overstating on this blog.