The #Ukip 'Securing Our Borders' Mantra, Busted.

It's a very standard Ukip catchphrase, and a very good soundbite for TV: 'Securing Our Borders'.

It suggests that our security is damaged by the inability to stop EU nationals from migrating at will to the UK.

And it's at worst, wrong .. at best, debatable but irrelevant.

Four good reasons:

1. If we left the EU, we surely would not bar EU nationals from visiting or studying in the UK.
   
   Migrating? Living? Working? Maybe. (Perhaps they would qualify anyway, under this mythical 'Points System; that Ukip mention but fail to detail.)
   
   So if there is a security threat from EU nationals - or anyone given temporary right to move within EU nations (and that's a debatable 'if') then it can only be countered by a complete ban on all movement of all EU Nationals to the UK for any reason. Any reason at all. Which may well be desirable to Ukip .. but not to our Tourist Industry, our Educational Establishments and our entire Economy.
    
2. The best way to deal with the security threat is co-operation with other European Agencies. This is on-going, and will not be affected either way by Brexit.
   
   And if we continue to be a part of this, by the way, we need to part-fund it, like the many other European / EU Organisations we actually want to be a part of: which also puts the 'getting back all our EU cash' Myth into the long grass.
    
3. To say we cannot deport EU nationals is false. We do not have to allow criminals into the UK. Any EU citizen can be refused entry to any EU nation if they are considered to be a threat, any kind of threat. How do we know if they're a threat? By co-operation with other EU nations, of course.
   
   Ukip of course know this, but they continue to propagate the lie, which is a very Ukip thing.
   
   We have the right to deport them, too, for many reasons.
   
   The fact that the current Government do not put the required resources in to do so, is clearly not the fault of the EU.
    
4. If Ukip or Brexiteers consider that entry to the UK for EU Nationals without a visa is a security risk, consider this:
   
   57 non-EU Nations - with over 1.1 billion residents - have the right to visa-free travel to the UK. These are often from nations with whose Security Services we have little organizational information exchange; so often, no or little data on the threat that each individual may pose, and no background checks.
   
   It seems that Ukip want a full background check and security clearance on, say, someone from Portugal - but are happy for a Botswanan or El Salvadorian to saunter through. Ukip don't want visa-free travel for a Frenchman - but a Malaysian or Namibian can walk right on in.
   
   This policy, of course, is nothing to do with the EU and is the responsibility of the UK Government in toto.

Nations who's citizens can just come to the UK without a visa.

So the 'security threat' that Ukip mention in relation to visa-free EU travel, if genuine, needs to be extended (on Ukip's logic) to ...

... every nation on the planet, apparently.

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A Poem By Somali Poet, Warsan Shire #Immigration #Refugees #Ukip

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
your neighbours running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.
no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied
no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough
the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off
or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here.

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Farage, Caught Lying. Again. To National Media. Plus Ca Change.

ICYMI: One of our little videos ...

When Ukip's Nigel Farage lied "I never said Britain is Full" .. er, yes, you did, actually. Often.

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Opinion: Brexit Questions - We Need Answers

We are - as stated before - as a team, split on Brexit. What we will challenge, though, without fail, is bullshit - from both sides.

The British people have a key decision to make. That decision has to be made on fact, not rhetoric. On cold, hard data, not emotion or principle. And on the real upsides and downsides of both options, not misinformation and fear.

The problem is, there are no facts, as yet. Granted, the Campaign officially hasn't even started yet, but the scrabbling for position has, in earnest.

So here are the key questions that this Slat Team Member wants the answers to.

Where is the Economic Consensus that shows Brexit will be Detrimental / Beneficial to our Economy?

Both sides are happy to very often publicise viewpoints from individual economists, industries and commentators about how Brexit will affect our economy. Neither have provided any expert, independent economic consensus.

Probably there is no consensus either way.

After all, even if you laid every British Economist end to end, they still wouldn't reach a conclusion.

So we'll settle for a majority. We've looked - and there is none. So, to both sides; Don't try to claim your option will be best for our economy unless you can prove it, which you can't.

How Will Brexit Halt or Reduce Immigration, while still Retaining Single Market Access?

The #Ukip war-cry is 'Control Our Borders'. Farage means EU Migrants, of course.

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PegidaUK - Openly Welcoming EDL Support

Any possible doubts that Far Right Extremist Group PegidaUK are simply The English Defence League reborn, can be confirmed from this tweet. Just a few short weeks ago, as 'leader' Tommy Robinson (who co-leads along with Anne Marie Waters of Ukip) posted this.

And there was us thinking Tommy had 'cut all ties' with the English Defence League. Clearly not, indeed, he welcomes the support of a group he left, voluntarily, due to it's extremism, public drunkeness, criminal behaviour and racist chanting.

But Tommy has not changed his view, clearly. Just yesterday came this:

Remember, this is the new 'reformed, peaceful, reasonable' Tommy Robinson. However that quotation, and that sentiment, comes straight from his days of leading the English Defence League - the dreaded spectre of 'Forced Repatriation'.

His co-leader, Ukip's Anne Marie Waters, has yet to comment on this. Her struggle to muzzle or house-train Tommy is failing.

Clearly this weekend's PegidaUK 'Silent March' in Birmingham will tell us whether PegidaUK is indeed (as they claim) a peaceful pressure group ... or just another bunch of drunken Neo Nazi thugs intent on Hate.

We suspect the latter. "New Era", eh? Looking suspiciously like the 'Old Era'.

From an article on IndyMedia - @IndyMediaUK on Twitter.

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