36 minutes ago, Ani said:

Tice now being investigated for non declaration of interests

For consistency should nt he now resign and force a by election so the British public can have their say ?

Count Binface will need to find another candidate for his party. At this rate they’ll have more MPs than Reform soon.

41 minutes ago, Ani said:

Tice now being investigated for non declaration of interests

For consistency should nt he now resign and force a by election so the British public can have their say ?

Hang on. Is this not just another attempt by 'the establishment' to pull the rug from under the feet of an honest, working class, man of the people?

PS - the timing of Richard Tice's weird appeal yesterday is now starting to make a little more sense.

PPS - Farage in Dover today apparently, talking about putting the Royal Navy in the channel to turn back migrant boats.

@bolty58 , I know you want Farage in power, but, do you think he could/should be merging with Restore, as Lowe is now talking about - or do you think he'll have enough to sweep him into #10 without the merger?

47 minutes ago, kent_white said:

PPS - Farage in Dover today apparently, talking about putting the Royal Navy in the channel to turn back migrant boats.

More pie in the sky (or should I say sea?). How is that remotely workable? Good luck getting the navy to do that

3 minutes ago, jmjhb said:

More pie in the sky (or should I say sea?). How is that remotely workable? Good luck getting the navy to do that

He's made a fairly bold statement, that will appeal to his followers

I am entirely confident that under a Reform government, within a fortnight, there would be no more boats,' he told a press conference in Westminster

9 minutes ago, jmjhb said:

More pie in the sky (or should I say sea?). How is that remotely workable? Good luck getting the navy to do that

I'm not sure the Navy can refuse can they?

It's more how the French react. Can you imagine the Royal Navy towing a migrant boat into a French port and dropping them off?

Maybe it might be more feasible if the French had their own hard right party in charge and came to spend sort of hardliner agreement. But not as things stand.

45 minutes ago, kent_white said:

I'm not sure the Navy can refuse can they?

It's more how the French react. Can you imagine the Royal Navy towing a migrant boat into a French port and dropping them off?

Maybe it might be more feasible if the French had their own hard right party in charge and came to spend sort of hardliner agreement. But not as things stand.

Armed forces can not be forced to follow an illegal order, not sure how that applies if it is maritime law.

Checked Ai - No, military personnel are not forced or required to follow an illegal order; in fact, they have a legal duty to disobey commands that violate domestic or international law

So instruct the Navy to stop the boats and just take them back to France is not a legal option.

Maybe @royal white can say what would happen in a British military vessel with marines on board sailed uninvited and unwanted into French harbours on a regular basis.

I know people compare to the Aussie situation but there boats are coming from further and can be picked up miles out. It is just over 20 miles to France, the crossing takes about 6 hours, you are going to have military vessels patrolling the channel 24/7.

I have no idea how easy it is for a warship to actually stop a dinghy and turn it round.

It is just another sound bite to distract from the sleaze.

They interviewed a senior Royal Navy officer on Radio 4 this morning who pointed out that a frigate costs a billion quid, so questioned wether having a few billion quids worth of vessels sat in the channel would be a sensible idea, given that they're all quite busy seeing off Russian submarines and stuff at the moment.

22 minutes ago, Ani said:

It is just another sound bite to distract from the sleaze.

100% that

26 minutes ago, Ani said:

Armed forces can not be forced to follow an illegal order, not sure how that applies if it is maritime law.

Checked Ai - No, military personnel are not forced or required to follow an illegal order; in fact, they have a legal duty to disobey commands that violate domestic or international law

So instruct the Navy to stop the boats and just take them back to France is not a legal option.

Maybe @royal white can say what would happen in a British military vessel with marines on board sailed uninvited and unwanted into French harbours on a regular basis.

I know people compare to the Aussie situation but there boats are coming from further and can be picked up miles out. It is just over 20 miles to France, the crossing takes about 6 hours, you are going to have military vessels patrolling the channel 24/7.

I have no idea how easy it is for a warship to actually stop a dinghy and turn it round.

It is just another sound bite to distract from the sleaze.

I think it's down to the individual to refuse the order if it's illegal isn't it? Rather than the Royal Navy itself?

7 minutes ago, kent_white said:

I think it's down to the individual to refuse the order if it's illegal isn't it? Rather than the Royal Navy itself?

Well the Royal Navy as entity does not have a brain, so yes it comes down to the individual (or more realistically individuals as Captain Hadock saying we are going ahead does not compel Seaman Staines given the order is illegal) .

Suppose the reality would be some type of legal case. Farage would in theory be asking the King as Head of the Armed Forces to instruct the Navy to undertake illegal actions !

I would guess more lawyers would get rich than boats would get stopped.

46 minutes ago, Ani said:

Armed forces can not be forced to follow an illegal order, not sure how that applies if it is maritime law.

Checked Ai - No, military personnel are not forced or required to follow an illegal order; in fact, they have a legal duty to disobey commands that violate domestic or international law

So instruct the Navy to stop the boats and just take them back to France is not a legal option.

Maybe @royal white can say what would happen in a British military vessel with marines on board sailed uninvited and unwanted into French harbours on a regular basis.

I know people compare to the Aussie situation but there boats are coming from further and can be picked up miles out. It is just over 20 miles to France, the crossing takes about 6 hours, you are going to have military vessels patrolling the channel 24/7.

I have no idea how easy it is for a warship to actually stop a dinghy and turn it round.

It is just another sound bite to distract from the sleaze.

Farage is Papping shite. My eyes are bleeding at some of the comments on Facebook “just tow them back” “dock in France then disembark them” 🤦🏻 you’ve got a boat full of folk wanting to leave France to get here. They could easily get into our waters as they’re not going to be shot at. Once in, if the navy tell them to turn around all they simply have to do is jump in the water, then maritime law kicks in. It’s then the navy bringing them ashore and not the RNLI

20 minutes ago, Ani said:

I would guess more lawyers would get rich than boats would get stopped.

That's my feeling on it too. Another couple of years arguing about bullshit instead of getting on and helping the country!

49 minutes ago, royal white said:

Farage is Papping shite. My eyes are bleeding at some of the comments on Facebook “just tow them back” “dock in France then disembark them” 🤦🏻 you’ve got a boat full of folk wanting to leave France to get here. They could easily get into our waters as they’re not going to be shot at. Once in, if the navy tell them to turn around all they simply have to do is jump in the water, then maritime law kicks in. It’s then the navy bringing them ashore and not the RNLI

but Australia.....or something

1 hour ago, royal white said:

Farage is Papping shite. My eyes are bleeding at some of the comments on Facebook “just tow them back” “dock in France then disembark them” 🤦🏻 you’ve got a boat full of folk wanting to leave France to get here. They could easily get into our waters as they’re not going to be shot at. Once in, if the navy tell them to turn around all they simply have to do is jump in the water, then maritime law kicks in. It’s then the navy bringing them ashore and not the RNLI

Thought it was bollocks but appreciate you probably have a better view.

One woman was saying have hundreds of drones patrolling the sky with teams of enforcement officers ready to launch and turn them back. It sounded more like British Bulldog in the sea than a plan to stop the boats.

Is there any "international waters" between us and France? Or does it literally switch straight from French to British at the half way point?

If so I'd imagine the Royal Navy couldn't do anything until any vessels had crossed into British waters this narrowing the times even further.

11 minutes ago, frank_spencer said:

Is there any "international waters" between us and France? Or does it literally switch straight from French to British at the half way point?

If so I'd imagine the Royal Navy couldn't do anything until any vessels had crossed into British waters this narrowing the times even further.

Yes and no - none at the narrowest points, as usually you have 12 nautical miles (I think a nautical mile is a lot longer than a "land" mile as well) as your territorial waters.....the narrow point they do the crossings from is generally only around 24/25 miles isn't it?

I know that there are certainly sections where it's either "ours" or "theirs" - presumably if the Navy kept, uninvited, encroaching in their waters it could be seen as provocation or an act of war (if you take it to the extreme)

As RW says above, no way are the Navy going to be towing anybody back to France. The boats will just get "in distress" and then they'll have to be rescued and brought to the UK

Zia been giving interviews today explaining why this is important as it is covered by the ECHR. They have no shame.

Also supporters of Reform are saying lots of ex military folk think it is a good idea whilst the current leaders will only agree with the Govt.

Reform are looking increasingly desperate and that leads to stupid statements like they have made today and the downward spiral continues.

Once they have finished debating with the Bin they will get onto the Governments of Western Europe.

Jeez. They could only intercept with Royal Marine launch ribs. They pull alongside and someone pulls a knife to at best puncture their own dinghy. What’s the bootneck supposed to do then?

5 hours ago, jmjhb said:

More pie in the sky (or should I say sea?). How is that remotely workable? Good luck getting the navy to do that

France hits out at Reform UK plan to return migrants using Royal Navy - BBC News

Andrew Serdy, an expert on the public international law of the sea at the University of Southampton, argued Reform's proposals "would require the agreement of France, which is a bold assumption to make, as there is no reason to expect it to agree."

James Turner KC, a lawyer at Quadrant Chambers with expertise in maritime issues, told BBC Verify that UNCLOS gave states rights to prevent infringement of immigration laws in a "contiguous zone" up to 24 nautical miles from their coasts.

However, he added this did not entitle a country to "collect asylum seekers in its contiguous zone - or anywhere else - and take them back to the state they set off from".

So its a 'no' then

Stop the incentive not the boats.

Bring back hovercrafts so that we can drop them off on any French beach 😁😂

25 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Stop the incentive not the boats.

Said it before. Straight to one of those Scottish islands or a big detention centre in the middle of no where. The men have to go working everyday, community type work, under supervision. The women can stay at the centre cleaning and preparing meals. Kids can do Hyrox outside.

29 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Stop the incentive not the boats.

Yep

reform stopping the boats is like 350m a week going back into the nhs

Farage makes promise to get votes

wins election

can't deliver promise

he blames everyone else

voters blame everyone else

farage better off

voters not

but at least they won