2 DECEMBER 2021
FEATURE 35
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From the front line… Let’s hope for a season of goodwill. We’ve waited long enough! BY JACQUELINE CURZON The debacle of the cross-channel migrants continues apace. I have to ask why Britain has not only promised France £54 million to intercept the boats leaving their shores, and has paid the first instalment of this, whilst the French are holding back until they have the full amount? We read frequently that French beach patrols watch the proceedings, practically waving ‘au revoir et bon voyage,’ watching inflatables no better than paddling pools and severely overloaded, taking to their waters. This lack of interception is surely criminal in itself, for they have no idea how many will be alive should the dinghies reach the other side. The tragedy which happened just last week in which 27 people died - not so much from drowning - but through being left stranded in perishing channel waters till they were finally overcome with hypothermia, was a classic example of the French refusing to show due diligence. One of the few survivors said they had called the British authorities, who refused to come, and the French who responded, ‘we’re not coming because you’re in UK waters!’ ‘UK’ waters only seems to apply if it concerns a sinking boat full of migrants, not if it’s a fishing dispute, then it’s British waters, with ‘international’ rights. Macron has a nerve, pointing fingers at Boris Johnson and effectively blaming the British for the death of migrants. He commented very recently, ‘the British want us to do what we were doing before Brexit,’ forgetting they actually weren’t doing much of a job then either. At the beginning of November an Irish ferry, the Isle of Ishinore, threw ropes to 13 migrants in a sinking dinghy and pulled them on board, then returned them to France. In a totally separate incident, an overcrowded wooden boat with 99 migrants was rescued by a team from Medecins sans Frontieres off the Libyan coast earlier in the week. Ten people were found dead crammed at the bottom of the boat, probably as a result of fume poisoning in the confined hold space, said MSF. The point remains - to the evil traffickers, the migrants and victims are not people, they are money. Now on a practical level, these dinghies must have a do-not-exceed limit of passengers, probably not more than 7-10 per dinghy, but the mercenary traffickers pack them in, many without life vests, often showing violence to those who refuse. At Calais asylum seekers told reporters that some people were kneecapped (shot in both knees) for refusal to get on board. Neither unfortunately will the French intervene, even when seeing the boats are double or triple safe capacity. This ‘turning a blind eye’ is also criminal. Maybe Macron should just invest the £54 million into providing a ferry and bring them safely to the UK - at least that would be transparent and save people from his complicity in reckless endangerment.
Jacqueline Curzon PHOTO: LARA MINSKY PHOTOGRAPHY
I realise the French carry guns, so why don’t they simply fire at the inflatables and render them useless, thereby thwarting the traffickers plans? That would send a no-nonsense message. Should the traffickers then show violence, they would risk being shot too. Rather a bullet in a dinghy than a torn or deflated inflatable in the middle of the English Channel with innocent lives lost. Surely! With numbers reaching Britain tallying 500 a day, often far more, we could easily expect anything up to 50 - 100,000 incomers a year which would be impossible to absorb nor sustain. We do have an absolute right to send migrants back to their point of origin, or at least the first safe country they passed through, but many don’t want to go, but want to continue on to the UK. WHY? Language must be one of the factors - English is a ubiquitous language, spoken internationally, unlike French, German or Polish. Lukashenko also has a lot to answer for, regardless of who is pulling his strings. Encouraging migrants with a ‘we want to help you reach your dream’ along with very relaxed visa controls, is merely a scurrilous trick of depopulation, often bringing nothing but misery to those who fail, for many of the migrants being pushed over the Belorusian border will end up in France and finally on a wee boat in the middle of a dangerous shipping lane heading for England. Macron and Lukashenko are effectively brothers-in-arms, born with the same callous indifference to human life. I determined I would not dedicate this week’s column to covid, but of course the emergence of the omicron variant is slightly worrying. For the present we must take the advice of Sergeant Jones [Dad's Army] whose mantra was, ‘don’t panic!’ Despite no indication by scientists or health professionals that omicron is of any more concern than other variants, new covid rules have just been enshrined in law, a path that Conservative MPs described as ‘a path towards hell.’ We will now be forced to self-isolate for 10 days if we are pinged as having come into
contact with someone with omicron, even if fully vaccinated. This rule is to last until March, and it remains a distinct possibility that the festive season will be wrecked by further restrictions, and possibly education too. Across the border 9 cases of omicron have been discovered in Lanarkshire, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, however their FM underplayed the threat as no Scottish cases have required hospital treatment. Scots are however being recommended to take a covid test every time they meet someone from another family (household). The FM also called for the PM to extend the self-isolation period for those returning or entering the UK until a negative result on day 8, rather than day 2. She is demanding more funding for business support, should she decide to impose further restrictions. Her ‘demands’ show utter hypocrisy when we recall her hatred of being connected by the union's umbilical cord: happy to be bailed out by the UK when it suits her, but will shout ‘Foul, Ref!’ at all other times. Hmm. This might be just about reasonable were she following central government guidelines or initiatives, but I think in the absence of any sisterly love, there should be no more furlough or business bailout - let her show her leadership, management and superlative financial nouse and balance her own books. For once. In other news, a pedestrian stabbed a car driver, who had been forced to make an emergency stop to avoid running him over. James Stokoe (40) who had his four-year-old son in the car, shouted at Alexander Layton (34) who had jaywalked into the road. During the verbal altercation, Layton pulled out a carving knife and stabbed Stokoe repeatedly, causing him to die within minutes. In the hours before the attack, he had threatened to murder someone who owed him money, and apparently had a history of mental health issues. The judge said that was no excuse for stabbing Mr Stokoe four times, causing him to die at the scene. Murder is by no means the prerogative of adults and youth crime is another particularly ugly subject. Peer pressure, social media, truancy and turf wars all contribute to motivation for the most awful juvenile crimes. The recent murder of Keon Lincoln (15) has made for very unsettling reading. He was chased from outside his home by a gang of five boys, aged between 14 and 17, and not content with stabbing him eight times with machetes and knives - enough to send him to hospital, if not the morgue - he was then shot by Yussuf Mustapha (14) for no apparent reason. Keon’s mother ran out to find her son dying on the pavement. At sentencing, as Mustapha was given a life sentence, she described the killers as ‘heartless, evil monsters.’ What I found particularly sad was the attitude of the killer's father, who remarked, ‘I came to Britain because… I wanted my family to have a good life. Now I regret that.’ I’m sure Keon’s parents also regret his decision, after all they would have simply settled for Keon having a
life! We do have to take some responsibility for how our children turn out, and not just wave away a lack of morals or ethics as an unconnected result of social circumstance. I’m sure we also join with the nation in condemning the murder of 12-year-old Ava White, a schoolgirl from Liverpool, whose attacker has been formally charged with murder. The 14-year-old, unnamed for legal reasons, will be held in secure youth detention until trial at the Crown Court. Further troubles are brewing over in the east, where Dmytro Kubela, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, has called on the west to prepare economic sanctions should Moscow decide to invade Ukraine. He has asked NATO for increased defence and security support in this eventuality, a not unimaginable possibility, given around 115,000 Russian troops have amassed near its borders. Lukashenko has however pledged to stand with Putin if war breaks out. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s Secretary General, has said Ukraine cannot rely on assistance, even though Europe and the US are in favour of supporting the country beleaguered in an ‘undeclared war’ since 2014. This might neatly end all hopes of my Trans Siberian trip for the second year running, after all I don’t need to travel to a war zone - I have enough aggravation at home, but if I do make it, my column will likely read, From the Frozen Front Line. Watch this space for updates. This week's ‘funny’ comes from Aberdeen University, my alma mater, where students have been warned that Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel ‘Kidnapped’ concerns abduction. Is it me, or are the staff getting stupider? Having confessed to being a bit of a hoarder I mention that I have an original Terry’s Chocolate Box from c.1958. This is no mere throwaway item like those currently found in the shops, but a proper box, with lift-up lid for the top layer, and two side-by-side drawers below. I believe I was given it by my aunt, and cannot of course remember the contents, but it has been the keeper of numerous diaries and trinkets over my lifetime and I’m loath to throw it away. You never know, my children might one day find something useful or valuable in it, although I doubt it will be a gold sovereign. On that sweet notion - a silver shilling struck in colonial America in 1652, has just made headlines after being found in a sweet tin. The coin belonged to William Wentworth, a British nobleman, and reached the princely sum of £264,000 at auction in London. Now I suppose you should get cracking and see what delights are hidden in your old biscuit boxes or sweet tins. Wishing you all a sweet and lovely end of Chanukah, and may we merit to see the miracles which it can bring. Love Jacqueline x
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