I sometimes wonder...

Reading the news today there is a big story about the UK e-borders scheme.  The bit that really made me chuckle was the statement from Immigration Minister Mark Harper - who says...

"We have the best coverage of any country in Europe but we are working to improve our coverage further."

I think his title should be Minister of the Bleeding Obvious.  Could it be that we have the best border system in Europe as we are pretty much the only country that has a border?  The map below shows the Schengen Area - those countries with no border controls between them (those in green are going to join those in blue in due course)

The Schengen Area
The Schengen Area

Still Mr Harper will no doubt be pleased to see that quote over the press in a time when the press continually seem to tell us we should be concerned with immigration...

The other immigration related story that caught my eye was - Jack Wilshere says only English players should play for England.  Mr Wilshere is stating only people born in England should play for England - but that isn't what the rules say live here for 5 years continuously and you are in, my son could have been elligble to play for Wales on the RFU rulling of 3 years).  I suggest Mr Wilshere looks at other sports - we have been celebrating Mo Farrah's success (born in Somalia), Chris Froome's Tour De France win (born in Nairobi), a bunch of Rugby Players (Brad Barritt - Durban, Alex Corbisiero - born in USA, Vunipola - Australia, Marlon Yarde - St Lucia)...   I won't go on I'll be here all night...   These people come to the UK and settle here and chose to be here and part of our country, they have every right to represent us.  I just don't understand this way of thinking - we're a multi-cultural society, we have been for 100s of years - I mean the monarchy has routes from France and Scandinavia via good old William The Conqueror, Scotland - King James I (or VI) when the crowns of Scotland and England united, Germany via the Hanoverian's blah blah - I mean the Duke of Edinburgh is Greek and he seems to represent the country.  When Mo won at London I think the one thing it showed about the UK is that we will welcome, support and nurture those that come to us from places of real hardship in the world and we will embrace them, rightfully, as one of us when they pay that back to us with success in any field be it sport, science, art or simply being a cog in our wheel of commerce in some way.

I get annoyed with all this stuff - people are people, some come from here , some from there, we feel an allegiance to where we live and where we are brought up etc. however at the end of the day this is all just artificial nonsense, the lines on a map that denote my town from your town, my country from your country are just that - arbitrary lines drawn by someone for convenience they mean nothing in grand scheme of things.

Comments

  1. SoberMomWrites9 October 2013 at 17:51

    Oh but those lines DO mean something...they mean money. Taxes. Revenue. That's why they were originally drawn, "if you fall within these lines you owe me $$$."

    At the end of the day it's not love that makes the world go round...it's money.

    Sherry

    ReplyDelete
  2. John Going Gently11 October 2013 at 00:19

    Looking at your map
    I started whistling the theme from dad's army

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Furtheron11 October 2013 at 08:10

      Haha that made of laugh. Flanagan and Allen how English is that!!

      Delete
  3. Judith11 October 2013 at 05:47

    That idea if elitism snacks of fear to me. Otherwise, like you said, people are just people. Let's celebrate their successes rather than try to exclude them. We get some of that nonsense in the US too and it bugs me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Suburbia13 October 2013 at 21:22

    I think they call it the fear of 'The Other'. It happens more in a recession as the perception is there are less resources to go around. Small minded thinking in my opinion!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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