Demolishing "The Jungle" in Calais.

[Workingman]

If he is true to his words then French President, Hollande, will have the camp demolished by the end of the year. Those in it will be taken to secure units where their asylum claims can be thoroughly checked. Any claimants found to be genuine will enter the system and be processed accordingly. Any illegal or bogus claimants will be deported.

Will all this happen? We will have to wait and see.

This is long overdue as it could have been done years ago, so the timing and the reasons for doing it are interesting. A few things spring to mind. There have been increasingly violent clashes between locals and lorry drivers against the camp's inmates, and vice-versa. The rise of FN, both locally and nationally, has put pressure on the main parties. The rise of anti-immigrant parties all over Europe, especially in the Franco - German alliance, is threatening to break down traditional (EU) politics . And finally, the UK's stance down the years, and which looks likely to harden following Brexit, is beginning to force the EU's hand regarding migration in all its forms.

Hollande could be genuine or he could be trying to secure his position in the upcoming 2017 elections, but if he does act will anybody really care which it is?

My thinking is that if one country in the Schengen are comes down hard on immigrants the rest could follow. Where that will lead is anybody's guess.

[Suff]

It is the end result of two things in parallel WM, you mention both but not in concert.

Brexit is forcing the French to realise that the UK is never going to take these people and our borders are only going to get stronger not weaker. The French always played the EU game and expected that, eventually, we'd get some dweeb of a PM in (likely Labour), who would take at least half of these refuges in return for some totally useless EU give away that we would either not need or would probably have got anyway.

So now the French know that the UK is, in no way, taking these people and the chances of being stuck with them forever, in ever increasing numbers, is a stark reality. Forget the posturing of Sarko, we'll never set up a reception centre on UK soil for illegals who have been allowed into Schengen.

Add to that the fact that there is a Presidential election next year and the whole thing is dynamite. What was not reported in the UK press was that Sarko burned out hundreds of illegal Gypsy camps in France in the lead up to his last election. Hollande thinks he will do the same. Just like Sarko, Hollande has no chance of this turning the tide of ill will he has generated by promising things he was never going to be able to deliver then reneging on them in spectacular fashion.

Going back to the first point, the realisation that the UK is leaving and that the UK taking these illegals is moving further away, not nearer, means that the French have got to look at more drastic solutions and the main parties are not talking their language. Essentially get rid of them and get rid of them NOW. Only Le Pen is doing that talking and people are starting to listen.

When history is written they may just write that Brexit was caused by and the eventual solution to, the illegal immigration crisis.

I wonder when it will enter the consciousness of those pushing our ships into the Med to "rescue" the illegals and bring them to the EU, that there are 1.3bn people in Africa, the vast majority of whom live in abject poverty, kept there by their governments and that at least 1bn of them would come to the EU if they thought they could do it easily and without risk.

What made my blood boil was the Independent article bleating about the "children" who had no solution when the Jungle was dismantled. Their EXAMPLE? The 17 year old "child" who had spent the entire extended families free cash on a desperate bid to reach the UK illegally so the whole family could come over after 6 months to a year. The Independent line? It was criminal that the French were not putting in place special solutions for these "helpless children".

Grinding my teeth to keep my mouth shut.

[Workingman]

I don't disagree, Suff, but I was thinking of another thing as I posted.

So, Hollande bulldozes the Jungle. Many of its inmates flee to the Belgian ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge. It now becomes a Belgian problem, so it shuts the border before doing the same as France.....

Meanwhile, down in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire area of influence and also in the Balkans, this "Close the borders, round 'em up and move 'em out" idea takes hold, after all if the if French and Belgians can do it so can we.

It leaves Schengen, free movement and open borders dead in the water.

I can hear the head scratching from Brussels here in Leeds.

[Suff]

I can hear the head scratching from Brussels here in Leeds.

They're clueless most of the time, living in their ivory towers. When the bigger players start to apply the law and give the finder to Brussels it's all going to unravel pretty quickly.

Elections. Pretty cool things for pressurising politicians.

[cromwell]

What I don't understand is Hollande implying that the UK has some sort of obligation to the people in the jungle. No, we really don't.

[Workingman]

What I don't understand is Hollande implying that the UK has some sort of obligation to the people in the jungle. No, we really don't.

He might be implying it but I think that, in law, he knows that we have no obligations whatsoever and will not fold, so he has to try something else.

The problem he has is that his 'something else' could cause the EU dominoes to fall.