Tag Archives: bottle

Message in a bottle begs for help for Manston concentration camp inmates

Message in a bottle: the imagery could not be stronger – these people consider themselves castaways on a hostile island. They are desperate for help but all they have received is cruelty.

The war of words over conditions at the Manston “migrant processing centre” in Kent has intensified after a young girl threw a message in a bottle – begging for help – over the fence.

It was picked up by a PA news agency photographer and may be read in the video clip below (with commentary by Professor Tim Wilson):

The claim that migrants are being kept from talking to journalists seems borne out by this comment from the Mirror:

Witnesses have said they have seen security guards at the site ushering detainees inside when journalists approach the fence.

The young girl reportedly broke past security and ran to the fence to toss the bottle.

At least one government minister has admitted that the Manston camp is not being operated legally – with people detained longer than the 24 hours that the law allows. This tends to confirm the refugee girl’s claim that it is a prison:

Climate minister Graham Stuart admitted that the situation is unacceptable to the people of the UK.

But he insisted on blaming illegal gangs who exploit refugees, rather than admitting that his government has cut off legal routes for them to get into the UK and claim asylum.

And he had nothing to say about the simple fact that people would not want to come to the UK if conditions were safe in their own countries. The Tory government has absolutely no interest in helping to change that situation and stop people from trying to get here.

Sadly, there is a lot of misinformation about the number of asylum applications here. George Eaton on Twitter reckons the number of applications the UK receives are among the lowest in Europe…

… but this is not borne out by the actual numbers. Cyprus has a very low population so despite the high number of applications per 10,000 population, its 30,000+ refugees are not more than the UK’s 57,000+.

Austria has only 38,000+ applicants.

Germany, on the other hand, has a massive 190,000+ applicants – nearly four times as many as the UK.  France has nearly 120,000 – nearly twice as many as the UK.

It is only as a proportion of the population that the number of asylum applications to the UK is among the lowest in Europe.

So there is a large number of applications and we should not let anyone abuse the different between percentages and real numbers to tell us otherwise.

But that does not mean that the asylum seekers themselves should be blamed for their plight.

That is what racist Tories – and their followers among the general population – are trying to tell us and it is a message that must be rejected out-of-hand.

Yes, criminal gangs who exploit refugees for money need to be tackled. But when was the last time you heard a news report saying any of them had been caught? The Tories aren’t doing anything about it at all.

And it is vital that the situation in the refugees’ home countries must be addressed. Again, there’s no interest in that direction from your government.

Persecuting innocent people like the child who sent the message is nothing but racist cruelty. Tim Wilson is right – it is disgusting and brings shame down on us all.

Source: Girl throws message in a bottle over fence of Manston migrant facility begging for help – Mirror Online

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Hapless Conservative chairman donates ‘Partygate souvenir’ to charity

Perhaps it’s right that the Conservative Party should have a hapless fool like Oliver Dowden as its chairman – he reflects the state of the organisation he runs.

Dowden’s latest blunder is his donation of a bottle of champagne signed by Boris Johnson to a Hertfordshire charity, for inclusion in a fundraising auction.

That organisation cannily listed the item as follows [boldings mine]: “A bottle of champagne signed by Boris. Hugely valuable as a souvenir of partygate and the examplary behaviour and morality of our dear leader!”

See for yourself:

A spokesperson for Dowden said, “this item was donated in good faith several months ago” and “this is obviously not his view” after the auction leaflet was shared on Twitter.

Of course it doesn’t matter if the bottle was donated several months ago – the Covid-19 lockdown-busting Downing Street parties had been taking place under the prime minister’s nose since April or May 2020.

Whether Dowden knew about it at the time he passed on the bottle is more debatable. But we have video evidence of Allegra Stratton laughing and joking about a party that took place on December 18, 2020 (and for which 50 people have just been fined), that was taken four days later.

If Dowden didn’t know about this, then he’s clearly unfit to do his job, and nor was his immediate forerunner, Amanda Milling, if she did not have that information to pass on to him.

Then there’s the question of Dowden’s reaction to the way the lot was accepted by the charity:

Probably more damning still is this observation:

So we have a Tory chairman who should have known about the Partygate allegations at the time, donating a bottle of champagne signed by Boris Johnson that he should have known – or should have been advised – could cause embarrassment to his party and government, to a charity that greeted the donation with hilarity (indicating that this happened after the scandal became public knowledge); he apparently did nothing to counter that response at the time.

And now he’s complaining about the way it has been marketed in a fundraising auction.

This man is too stupid for words.

If the Tory leadership – Johnson – had any teeth, Dowden would be heading for the backbenches with his tail between his legs, there to stay for the rest of what we should expect to be a mercifully short career.

But it is a sign of the weakness of Johnson’s team that this embarrassment to the name of Conservatism will probably go unpunished in any way.

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

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