Breaking News

[John Arton]

Just on SKY and BBC now
32 Illegal immigrants, men women and children, have been found in a shipping container in Tilbury Docks. Unfortunately one of the 32 was dead. The container came from Zeebrugge in Belgium but as this port is a major transhipment port, it could have originated anywhere in Europe or even the world.
This discovery leads to a number of questions such as to how many illegals enter the country this way and also what diseases such as Ebola could these people carry. This method of transporting illegals has being going on for years and is the reason why many ports now have heat scanners fitted that scan all containers for heat sources prior to them leaving the dock. Back in the 80's when I was on the Canmar container ships we found 20 illegals in a container that had originated in ex. Yugoslavia and was bound for Canada. A stevedore had heard noises coming from the container prior to it being loaded and on opening the container found the 20 illegals lying stuffed on top of bags of foodstuff. As these containers are virtually air tight they were in a very bad way with, if I recall correctly, 5 of them dead from suffocation and dehydration.
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In another item, the Australian PM, Mr. Abbot, has come out against Scottish Independence saying that he thinks that an Independent Scotland would have few friends in the world. What he means by that and how much weight the Scottish people will give to his words, I don't know.
With the vote looming the debate is hotting up with a number of big companies reviewing whether to pull out of Scotland or stay in, the Nuclear Submarine base at Faslane will most probably be closed if the yes vote wins, yet it has been shown that moving this base to England could save some 25=45 million per year, so why has it not already been done.
The currency debate rages on with Mr. Salmond saying that if the yes votes prevail he will not honour Scotland's portion of the national debt, which is leading to a big debate in the rest of the U.K. as to the effect on the U.K. of an Independent Scotland.
On the plus side the rest of the U.K. could benefit from a number of major employers moving from Scotland to the rest of the U.K. but on the minus side, if Mr. Salmond does as he says and refuses to honour Scotland's part of the National debt, then that will fall on the rest of the U.K. which could lead to the rest of the U.K. becoming a bit pizzed off with Scotland for having to take over their part of the national debt.
rgds
JA

[Captain Kong]

Maybe, if it was possible, the containers should have inert gas in them, with appropiate danger warnings on of course. I have never sailed with containers so do not really know if it is practical or not.
Brian.

[j.sabourn]

Plenty of work for the Brickies and stonemasons rebuilding Hadrians Wall. Get a job on piece work and they will make their fortune. However if Scotland is relying on North Sea Oil, I hope they have done their sums right. JS

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Is also coming up to the time when a lot of platforms will have to be dismantled, being in Scottish waters they will have to pay for that, although might be good to retain for illegal immigrants to be housed. JS

[Peter F Chard]

John, People smuggling has been going on for a long long time. In the early sixties I was 2nd. engineer on a China Navigation Coy passenger/ cargo ship and in Sydney, having started in Hong Kong. On our second morning there the harbour Police found several bodies floating in the harbour, all were Chinese, male and female. Our ship was the obvious place to look for a reason these bodies were in the water -- the ship was searched by an army of police, customs and immigration officials. They eventually found a staircase from the passenger cabins leading to the restaurant a deck below had been recently panelled and completely hid the space below the staircase, and indications that people had been inside this space, food scraps, human waste etc. The police concluded that the panelling had been too efficient and that there was not enough fresh air for a large number of people to survive the voyage from HK to Sydney. Whoever was responsible for the deaths simply threw the bodies overboard, hoping that the tide would take them out to sea !! We never heard if the police ever solved that little puzzle, regards Peter in NZ

[Louis the Amigo]

hi shipmates,illegals are big business, so are slaves, I came across one a few years ago name of albert, he was African and a gentleman , he was owned by some asian for family debts he worked for someone I knew, for a few weeks when he found out that he was a slave he to tryed to rescue him, but his owners got wind of it, and he was never seen in Cardiff again, We looked all around Cardiff for him for a couple of weeks but no luck I often wonder what happen to him? this is very common many asian have slaves today in the U.K. who work long hours for no wages thats the reason they import them and for the sex trade. Our government dont give a monkeys, only a few charitys help them it is very widespread in all the main citys

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI John.
On the news here about our esteemed leader mouthing off about Scotland when he can't even get his bills through Parliament here, he's grasping at anything to try and boost his low polls.
As for those container emigrants there was talk that being they can no longer reside in Aus the people smugglers are offering container berths to NZ, all found.
Cheers Des

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[happy daze john in oz]

There is obviously big money in peole smuggling as it was rife here until the end of last year. Thsi gov has stopped the boats so no more coming in by sea. Unfortunaely it will not be so easy in EU to stop them, the French and afew other countries are more than willing to allow these people to be smuggled out of their country. hat way they do not pose a problem for them.

As to Salmond, somehow I cannot see how Scotland can do much alone, a poll here in Oz of ex pats from Scotland shows that it will not go ahead, but time will tell.


T

[John Arton]

Re those found in the Container.
Initial reports said they were from the Indian continent, which seemed strange at the time as persons from that place seem to be able to get into the U.K. without the need to resort to being trafficked into the country.
This has now been corrected and apparently those concerned are from Afghanistan.
rgds
JA

[John Pruden]

john there will be a long line of spivs in pin stripe suits to represent them to try and keep them here with right to live and human rights and all the other tree huggers. doesn't we british have a right to live here?jp

[John Arton]

john there will be a long line of spivs in pin stripe suits to represent them to try and keep them here with right to live and human rights and all the other tree huggers. doesn't we british have a right to live here?jp

JP
I'm getting the impression that we are loosing our rights to live in our country.
As Wolfie said "Up the Revolution" in the BBC sitcom of years ago.
rgds
JA