6 days ago
Risk and reward, Trump's Mini-Me and planting trees for the planet
Three readers (MetroTalk, Thu) debate why migrants run the risk of crossing the Channel in dinghies to get to Britain.
To answer one point, migrants do claim asylum in safe countries in Europe, but if they are rejected they try again in the UK as we are no longer subject to the EU Dublin III agreement to automatically reject them.
Others come as they speak English so have a better chance here. Single young men come – as they have throughout history – as they are most likely to survive dangerous travel, intending to settle and then send for their family.
Allowing applications in France and a more thorough removal of failed claimants would discourage crossing attempts. Lewis Gibson, Birmingham
I totally agree with Guy Wilkins (MetroTalk, Thu). Nigel Farage is Donald Trump's Mini-Me from the Austin Powers film and follows him without question, even wearing his 'Morons And Gormless of America' hats.
Farage, like Trump, will make ridiculous promises with no possible way of achieving them.
Facts and the truth are totally irrelevant to him, he incites fear and loathing of various groups and fails to condemn violence by the far right.
They both live for publicity and adoration from the media. Farage would go to the opening of an envelope if a camera was present and without constant unjustified newspaper articles he would crumble as Dracula in sunlight. A Lloyd, Liverpool
In response to my point that Jeremy Corbyn's new party will score an 'own-goal' by splitting the far-left vote and benefiting Reform, James Freeman (MetroTalk, Tue) and Brian Dooley (Wed) insist Labour could have avoided this by catering more for the leftist voter.
However, neither mention that when Labour did this previously, they quickly became unelectable.
As party leader, Corbyn's aspirations reduced Labour to its worst General Election defeat since 1935, giving Boris Johnson a landslide victory in 2019.
Labour's previous experiment with socialism under Michael Foot resulted in Labour's 1983 pre-election manifesto being described as 'the longest suicide note in history' and gifted a huge majority to Margaret Thatcher.
Labour has little to fear by losing the niche hard Left and should let Corbyn and his disciples get on with it.
Labour must stop terrifying the wealth creators in this country with counterproductive policies and focus on gaining centrist support while masses of the electorate feel uneasy about the rise of Reform and exasperated by the deficiencies of Conservative and the Lib Dems. Robert Hughes, London
We hear much about the catastrophic effects of carbon on our climate but few people talks of the effect of expanding deserts. More Trending
Expanding deserts are a threat to many countries – but there are signs of a fightback. The Great Green Wall is a project by the African Union to restore degraded land across 22 countries in the Sahel region. But its great success in planting trees – which will also act as a carbon sponge – will not help us as much as benefit the southern Sahara.
Italy has recently suffered temperatures as high as 45C, which can be fatal. This heat comes from northern Africa. The way to reverse climate change in Europe is to emulate the Great Green Wall scheme by planting trees in northern Africa. Such a project would be more beneficial to us than the futile net zero programme, which is destroying whole industries and thousands of good jobs. Mark Hardinge, Worcester
There can be no excuses for the levels of violence carried out by Mohammed Fahir Amaaz at Manchester Airport against the police and a member of the public (Metro, Thu). The guilty verdicts were correct and I look forward to robust sentencing shortly.
You cannot attack any emergency worker just because you don't like them doing their duty. I look forward to the retrial Amaaz and his brother face after the jury could not reach a verdict on the charge they assaulted a male PC causing ABH. Robert Boston, Kent
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