The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1071
Summary
A new way to understand legal migration, Elon Musk's meltdown over H1B visas, and whether the future of social media is in danger. And I also have an announcement to make about the Gold Tier Zoom call.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Eaters for the 3rd of January 2025. I had to
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look down to make sure that was right because it's a new year. It's the first podcast I've
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hosted and the first one I've been on since. And today I'm joined by Beau and Harry. Hello.
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And we're going to be talking about a new way to understand legal migration, Elon Musk's
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meltdown over H1B visas and whether X, formerly Twitter, is in danger. And I also have an
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announcement to make and that is the Gold Tier Zoom call is going ahead at 3pm UK time. And
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so if you want to talk to Carl, who I'm assured is going to be on this one, I think also you
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and I are on it, aren't we? Yes. And so if you want to talk to us for whatever reason,
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come along. But anyway. You're really selling it to them there. Well, they want to talk to
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Carl, they don't want to talk to me. I know that much. Josh just wants to scroll his Twitter,
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that's all. No one wants to talk to me. Now they're going to ask me questions out of sympathy.
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I don't need your pity. No, he does, he does. I actually do. He's a very sorry person. He
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is correct. Starting off the new year very positively. But anyway. So recently some figures
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came out about illegal migration in the UK. And I'm going to use this not only as a means
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of talking about the nature of illegal migration across all different Northern Hemisphere countries,
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because let's be honest, it's not going on in the Southern Hemisphere because no one wants
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to live there, maybe other than Australia, of course, and New Zealand. With those exceptions
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aside, I have spotted a trend. And I think it's a very useful way of understanding illegal
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migration. And I'm going to lay down some of the facts about the UK situation. And then
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we're going to use that as an example to understand illegal immigration elsewhere. But you don't
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necessarily need to follow the numbers or even be invested in the UK situation necessarily
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to find this useful. And the figures that actually came out were these over 36,000 migrants crossed
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the channel into Britain in 2024, marking a 25% increase compared to the previous year.
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But the record number was actually 2022, in which 2024 was a 20% decrease. So I suppose that's
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a slight silver lining, I guess. But because of this, there was recently a calculation done towards
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the end of December of last year, that found that since 2018, there has been 150,243 illegal crossings
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from, I imagine, the boat people, but also, obviously, heavy goods vehicles taking the channel tunnel as
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well. And that's just the ones that they know about. Obviously, there's going to be a lot more than that.
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And that's only what they can measure right. And so it's always worth mentioning that when these
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figures are taken, they're only an approximation, and there'll no doubt be a much grander scale to
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the problem in the first place. And so let's go on to this. It's worth mentioning as well that actually
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the Labour Party has been much better at getting rid of asylum seekers than the previous incumbent
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Conservative Party. And they've supposedly expelled a record 13,500 asylum seekers. And of course,
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this doesn't go nearly far enough, because obviously, we've seen the numbers. And this is a
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drop in the ocean compared to who's actually here already. And that's not to mention all the legal
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people who, you could argue, contribute nothing to the UK. And it's worth also mentioning as well
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that illegal migration usually is much, much smaller than the legal migration. And many of the problems
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we experience are because of legal migration. And the two should be part of the same discussion
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about, you know, maintaining one's nation. I think, I think that that's what most of us believe,
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that low-to-seaters, you know, it's very rare that we all agree on something, but that's one of them.
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It does annoy me when people on the centre-right, or even Labour people trying to garner some sort of
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support, talk about deporting foreign criminals. Yeah, that's, that's not even scratching the tip
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of the iceberg. Deporting illegal immigrants. Yeah, 100%, all of them on day one. Now let's talk
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Yeah, exactly. And of course, there are many people that are sponging off the state, don't contribute
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anything, or their main contribution is crime, which, you know, we produce enough of domestically
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already. We don't need any more foreign criminals. Yeah. I mean, we've touched on this quite a lot,
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so I'm not going to dwell on it. The hundreds of thousands of people have come here completely
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legally and committed no crime. A lot of them still need to go back to their countries of origin,
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though, don't they? No, I very much agree, yes. Demographics are destiny. Mm-hmm. And I don't
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want to become, like, an India or Turkish. Mm-hmm. Because a nation is made up of its people,
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and if, you know, what made Great Britain great was its people. And, uh, it's worth mentioning
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as well. Um, I think, yes, I should be going down to, all the way down to figure five, because
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when we look at the breakdown of who's actually coming, we get a bit more of a complete picture.
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So, here we are. This is by nationality. Iran is number one, then Afghanistan, Iraq, Albania,
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Syria, Eritrea, Sudan, Turkey, and then Vietnam, which is a bit left of field. But, um, a lot
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of these countries, they're the last places you would want people from if you wanted a safe country,
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say. So, a lot of these countries are Islamic or some of the closest to being the most third world
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possible. I'm thinking Eritrea, Sudan, you know, that part of the world, Ethiopia. It's very, very,
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very poor. How are they going to, yeah, how are they going to contribute to a modern economy? I don't
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think they can. Their cultures are completely antithetical to ours. Exactly. Not only are they not
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able to economically contribute, but they're also going to erode our culture. And, um, this gives us
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a sort of idea of how, um, the backgrounds of these people shape the nature of their illegal and
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both legal migration, because many of these countries also export legal migrants to us as well.
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And, of course, um, people advertise this, and this will tie in quite nicely, um, to this new trend
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that I've spotted in illegal migration. So, it's worth mentioning. One advert removed earlier this
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year said in Albanian, interesting that it said in Albanian, isn't it? It's almost like they're running
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this whole operation, isn't it? We take people to the UK by speedboat. It is a done deal. Within 45
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minutes, the crossing is 100% guaranteed safe, which I don't know how they can guarantee that. Do they know
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the weather in advance? I think they might be lying. I think you might be right. Um, but yes, um, all of this
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is advertised on platforms like TikTok and Facebook and Instagram, and we've covered this before.
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This isn't necessarily that new, and it's worth mentioning as well that Albanians, largely speaking,
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are operating a large degree of our criminal gangs, both drug gangs and people smuggling,
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and it's led to a situation where they're 0.05% of the UK population, but 1.6% of all prisoners,
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which is 32 times overrepresented, um, the largest number of foreign prison population at 14%,
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of course, they, um, by spending a year in prison, they're costing on average £51,000 a year,
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which is above the average salary of a UK, um, taxpayer, um, and as of March of 2023,
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we actually pay them if they agree to deportation, and, uh...
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Yes, and in, of course, doesn't create, uh, an incentive not to come back, does it?
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You get imprisoned, and then you get paid to go home again, and you do it all again.
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I mean, that sounds like a scam all in and of itself, doesn't it?
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And in 2022, there were, um, 28% of illegal immigrants, so that's a very significant portion,
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um, they're largely involved in the people smuggling in the first place,
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and then 27% of their asylum applications are granted, even though Albania is not at war with anyone.
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Um, I don't know what grounds they have for that, and, uh, it's also worth mentioning as well,
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um, Afghans are doing it as well, and they also abused the child migrants, the young boys, um, as they were doing so.
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Um, so, who's actually paying attention to the story about our Channel Crossings?
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Because this gives us a really good window into who has a vested interest in this,
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and so, there are countries like Germany, for example,
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here's some of the German media talking about it,
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and they have lots of illegal migration, much the same,
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and so it makes sense that they're interested in our situation.
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and in fact, to emphasise just how much, um, Germany, um,
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In 2023, Germany reported the largest number of non-EU citizens found to be illegally present.
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Um, almost, well, just over a quarter of a million individuals in one year,
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Germany received about 20% fewer asylum applications compared to the same period in 2023,
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which also mirrors, um, Britain's situation as well.
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So, it's not necessarily that we've been doing anything different,
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it just seems like, uh, things are organically slowing down for whatever reason.
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I'm not, I've not been able to get to the bottom of that quite yet.
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Either that, or they've changed how figures are measured,
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uh, because that's always worth bearing in mind.
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France as well has been talking about it, um, uh,
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as has Portugal, which actually received far less,
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And it's worth mentioning that Ireland has the highest rate of illegal migrants per capita in the EU,
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That's the first full year, we don't have the 2024 figures,
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um, with 28.9 illegal migrants per thousand inhabitants.
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And, um, in the 12 months leading up to April 2024,
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Ireland experienced a 17-year high in immigration,
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with nearly 150,000 people entering the country.
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So, it makes sense that all of these countries are concerned.
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Well, they're the largest foreign-born, uh, group by country of birth.
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Um, they're almost numbering a million residents in Britain.
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And, of course, not all of them can meet the very low criteria
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in which, um, we allow them to migrate here legally.
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And so, potentially, a legal migration is a consideration.
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This is a Pakistani outlet, um, that's talking about it.
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And, of course, Pakistanis, um, are the third, um, most populous nation in Britain.
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but for a very different reason, I think, than the European countries.
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Because, of course, the European countries are interested
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But, why would an Indian care about the integrity of the border?
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are very patriotic about the British people, is it?
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Well, they have a massive, uh, from a top-down perspective,
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They can afford to lose a couple of million people,
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Another country that's very significant in this story is Turkey.
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But this outlet was talking about, um, migration.
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I don't know why it's talking about, um, space travel or whatever.
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was talking about number of migrants arriving in the UK.
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And, um, this is because they play a key role in people smuggling.
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And, um, here's a video showing people from Afghanistan,
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I don't want to hear the noise, but you get the idea.
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They, they, they show the flag of Afghanistan to Turkey, to the EU.
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And you see lots of people trekking through the desert.
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And Turkey has been using the, the, the migration of people trying to break into Europe,
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um, to its advantage because they don't like the Greeks, do they, famously?
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And, you know, they, there's a, a dispute between the Greek-controlled and, uh,
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And lots of tensions between the Turkish and Greek borders.
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Because, of course, long and historic, uh, conflicts.
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And, uh, so they have been using migrants, uh, to, uh, basically torment the Greeks.
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and the EU makes, the Greeks share the burden of these migrants,
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then it, it means that the rest of Europe has to also pick up the slack to a certain extent.
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Although many of them are getting into Europe and then migrating to their country of choice.
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Normally either Germany or the UK, because we offer them, uh, the best financial benefits.
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And, you know, it's very revealing that these two countries,
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the ones that offer them most, are the ones that they choose to go to, isn't it?
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You'd think that perhaps they would be a bit more discriminatory.
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But no, they are, they're going to the ones that give them the most money.
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Which kind of reveals their motivation in the first place, doesn't it?
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But the fact that Turkey's talking about this a lot
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suggests that they are, in some part, complicit in this.
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And, uh, so are Pakistanis, at least their state and the way they govern.
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And we can see other countries as well, unsurprisingly.
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The Afghani, uh, press is talking about this as well.
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because, of course, lots of people, as we saw from the chart,
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Which is a bit more worrying, because we were only in their country
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So, of course, there's a lot of potential for terror.
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And by following which countries are talking about your news,
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It's a bit more difficult if you're America, of course,
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But, um, there are, there are lots of countries that haven't talked about this.
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But many of the ones you have are either European,
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or are actively involved in the migrant crisis in the first place.
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Obviously, Morocco doesn't care about Britain's borders.
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They're talking about it from, because there's interest in moving here to Britain.
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And again, Sudan, they don't care about the UK,
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except if they can move here to make more money.
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And, uh, I suppose, what are your thoughts on this?
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Because this is a sort of novel way that I've come up with
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to figure out who is benefiting from this sort of thing,
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And it could be a potential way of predicting, um,
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you could easily have just one person monitoring
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and preemptively stopping it before they even leave.
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I'll just say that I'm not prepared to call these people economic migrants.
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But the point being that they're not refugees, are they?
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That's why I'm highlighting the economic aspect, is that...
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these are essentially acting as a large advertisement
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to make money elsewhere and then send the money back home
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or just, you know, involve themselves in criminal trade,
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if the first thing they're thinking about doing
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If a media outlet is reporting on this, you know,
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They know now which articles gain the most interest.
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And so the fact these outlets are running these stories
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suggests that there is interest in the home countries about this.
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and finding, you know, that they're better off.
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They're going to be looking at these sorts of stories
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And I think it's worth drawing attention to it.
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And I think this can be best illustrated by this article.
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So there was recently released some official files
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that talked about how Tony Blair dealt with migration.
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And here's The Independent, which is left-leaning.
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And I'm just going to read a little bit from the start
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Tony Blair's government pressed ahead with plans
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despite mounting concerns among senior ministers,
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Papers released at the National Archives in Kew, West London,
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have revealed how Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott
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and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw both urged delay warning
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of a surge in immigration unless some controls were put in place.
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to a major increase in immigration in the years that followed,
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It is feared to have helped fuel the anti-EU sentiment
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in some way, be held culpable to a certain degree,
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I think Tony Blair was the one that opened the floodgates.
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And they've correctly identified it stemming with him
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And it's interesting here that they're framing it
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even though this is talking about Eastern Europeans,
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which I think most of us have no issue with really.
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And I think it's particularly Polish people who came here.
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And I still don't want them coming over in huge numbers.
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But Polish people are very different than Pakistanis.
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My experience of Polish people is they integrate very well,
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Maybe that's just the Polish people I've come across.
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I have a different experience with Polish people.
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but they do still form their own ethnic enclaves.
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For instance, a lot of the corner shops in my town
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that are not owned by Indians are owned by Poles
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who explicitly brand themselves as Polish shops
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of separating themselves from the native population
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when they're in great enough numbers are not integrating.
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I mean, there is a reason that a lot of people,
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had a lot of problems with Poles leading up to Brexit.
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Obviously, those problems have been sidelined now
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which wasn't as much of a problem before the Boris wave.
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are in the midst of Africans and Southeast Asia.
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Well, basically, you know, subcontinentals and sub-Saharans.
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It's just that a lot of them have been scrounging off of the dole
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well, some of my family friends have worked for the Home Office
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That's what Eastern Europeans are pretty bad for.
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And in fact, I want to send lots of people home.
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they're brilliant, they're helping the country,
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hundreds of thousands or a million Poles in Britain.
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Well, the Poles aren't going to come here anymore anyway
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So if anything, we're going to be going over there
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and doing their electrical work and taxi driving.
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You're thinking as a British tourist now, aren't you?
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I don't know, I'm thinking back to the Top Gear episode
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where they went to Albania and it looked horrible.
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but the actual civilisation there did not look very nice.
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and I think you've got, is it Montenegro on the other?
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But you've got lots of nice countries in the Adriatic there
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that will not do anything to stop illegal immigration
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no tariffs or removing foreign aid to use as persuasion
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oh, we're going to need to deport a few thousand people
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so it looks like we're actually doing something
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that Starmer would actually do something about this.
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Sure, they've deported a few more than the Tories were
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forever, he will actually be strong on borders.
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It's like squirting a water pistol at a house fire, isn't it?
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He's not going to do anything in the grand scheme of things.
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He'll present like he's being strong on borders