Bibby Stockholm : the welcoming speech in full

'I would like to extend the hand of friendship to our 500 new neighbours in their temporary home moored such a short distance from the mainland they have struggled so hard to reach. I would also wish that all 427 of them will be comfortable with their on-board accommodation and dockside facilities.'

'It is my belief that these 350 odd new Portlandians will be inspired by our world-class sailing set-up and water-sports activities, and that many of the 287 would-be citizens will be impressed with the public and private transport links that provide access to local - and not so local - commercial and historic sites which this area of the country has in abundance.'

'I am sure that the 197 residents of the Bibby Stockholm will find their stay liberating, fruitful and satisfying, and that many of the 80 or so 'guests' will make a significant impact on our little island community before moving on to greater things.'

'In conclusion, may we open our hearts to these couple of dozen souls whose journey to this country has been perilous indeed, and wish that this bare handful of brave individuals will ultimately achieve their goals.'

'As a last gesture, I would like to present a plaque marking the occasion to our new friend Tariq - oh, he's gone'

'If we make the UK rubbish enough, maybe they won't come?'

The government is staking its reputation on stopping asylum seekers crossing the channel in small boats. The latest government initiative is to provide asylum seekers with more realistic information about life in Britain, in the hope that this will encourage them to look elsewhere. A spokesman said that negative posts about Britain on social media will act as a huge deterrent.

For example, asylum seekers will be told that public housing in Britain is not all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, much of it is actually cracked. While the space standards in public housing are great (because only the government follows its own advice on room sizes, etc), much of it is old, damp, mouldy, energy inefficient, full of lino and formica. Or they might be housed in unsafe tower blocks with flammable cladding or a clapped out holiday camp which bears no resemblance to Hi-di-Hi. Asylum seekers will be targeted with social media clips of crappy housing in grim Northern towns, Grenfell tower and vox pops with impoverished leaseholders who are stuck in properties they can’t get out of.

On transport, the government will publicise the big reductions in bus services, rail strikes, cost of fuel, the state of the roads, cycle lanes that are only two metres long, and so on.

Health will be treated in a similar vein (sic). Asylum seekers will be told about the failing NHS, queueing ambulances, 999 call delays, bed blocking, surgical errors, inadequate social care, diminishing numbers of GPs and the various maternity, heart hospital and children’s hospital scandals. There is plenty of material to draw on. At long last the problems in the NHS turn out to have a silver lining.

A government comms expert was ecstatic about the plans. She said that everyone in government communications loved social media campaigns, because they can legitimately fool around on TwitSpace, InstaGuff, TwitTok and FaceBlah all day – and get paid for it, and probably get overtime. She said, off the record, that the budget would be huge and no-one would ever be able to tell what had been achieved. ‘This sort of campaign is gold dust – jobs for life for everyone in comms. We will have to post across dozens of different social media sites, and in dozens of languages. It’s a digital gravy train!’

To ensure that the messages reach their target audience the government is planning to hand out free mobile phones, with all-you-can-eat data plans, to potential asylum seekers in and around Calais, Albania, Afghanistan and other locations still to be finalised.

The government is expecting results quickly and ideally before the next election.

Image: geralt | Pixabay

Government records show migrant crisis started in 1940

A spokesman for Home Secretary Suella Braverman has defended the Home Secretary's approach to 'illegal migrants' claiming grandfather rights, literally.

'We have evidence that thousands of migrants landed in the UK in hundreds of small boats from France as long ago as May and June 1940, and just like the jokers arriving every day now they were all predictably making a fuss about being persecuted, victims of an oppressive state, escaping tyranny, yada yada yada; but when you drill down into the details they were predominantly young males and many even had the gall to be carrying weapons!

'We didn't do anything about them then and it's still going on now. We should have sent them back to bloody Dunkirk,' he added.

Image: Photos.com Photos | FreeImages

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