“For every 1 that wants to come to the UK there are 10 that want to go to Germany”
Quite so, Eddie. And we saw what happened there on New Year’s Eve as a result of their influx. Germany is now turning back migrants entering from Austria.
“Sweden, much smaller than the UK, has 6 x as many immigrants. How would you feel if you lived there?”
I would be absolutely appalled at the recklessness of my government. The situation in Sweden has now developed into a crisis (as I think I detailed in an earlier question). Malmo is a vast transit camp; private property is being compulsorily requisitioned to accommodate the influx; the country faces a financial crisis because of the cost of it all. Sweden has now imposed border controls with Denmark.
There seems to be a body of opinion here in the UK that suggests that because other countries are far more badly affected by the migrant influx than we are that we should relax our controls to accommodate more incomers. This is a very strange stance which essentially suggests that all European nations should take its fair share of illegal immigrants. The UK, along with the Republic of Ireland, has the blessing of the English Channel separating it from the mayhem that is being played out on Mainland Europe. This, coupled with a rare moment of wisdom from the UK government on matters European when they opted out of Schengen gives the UK (and Ireland) a considerable advantage in dealing with this problem. There is no doubt that without these two (in particular the first) the UK would face a similar invasion of illegal migrants. To say that because it is worse elsewhere we should somehow be grateful is very strange indeed.
Mainland European countries cannot help their geography. But they can help the control they have over their borders (both internal and external). Dire warnings of the follies of Schengen were voiced before it was implemented. They were brushed aside and opponents called xenophobes, racists and worse. Mainland Europe is now reaping what it sowed when it abandoned its borders and allowed - and in many cases actively invited - all manner of waifs and strays to enter and plunder its wealthand wellbeing and jeopardise its stability. The UK should fiercely guard the advantages that it has by virtue of its geography and its occasionally wise politicians and it should not pander to calls to take a share of the misery that other European governments have foisted on their hapless populations.