Mark Goldfinch

35 years Arabic and MENA specialist | Author | Speaker | Possibly Railways... | All views my own of course | العربية | Français

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@DrChrisParry Yes, I first met Mike at a hustings in Kingsdown before the 2024 election. I specifically said ‘The Tories have left a national security disaster: what are you going to do about it?’ Smash the gangs, said the robot. I was massively underwhelmed. He has never redeemed himself.

[BootneckMajor 🇬🇧 @BootneckMajor]

IT’S NOT A NEW LANDING STRATEGY.

IT’S A NEW LAUNCHING STRATEGY.

Let’s take a tactical and business-like approach to this.

Because.. well… it’s tactics and business. Actually.

Let’s be clear. The intention is not to cross the English Channel unaided and land on a chosen British beach.

The intention is to escape France, reach UK waters and be picked up by British authorities.

Getting away from France is the challenge.

So, in priority order, why are boats now appearing as far west as Portsmouth?

1. A lower risk of interception in France

This is the principal reason. Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne are heavily watched. Moving west into Normandy gives the traffickers quieter beaches and a better chance of launching before French police can intervene.

2. Reaching UK waters triggers the rescue operation

Once an obscenely overcrowded boat reaches UK waters, British maritime authorities are effectively compelled to intervene. Where the passengers eventually come ashore is largely irrelevant to the smugglers.

3. A wider coastline stretches enforcement

Launching farther west forces French and British authorities to monitor hundreds of additional miles of coastline, diluting surveillance, patrols and response capability.

4. “Mega-dinghies” make longer routes possible

Larger boats carry more passengers and fuel. They also allow the gangs to make vastly more money from each successful launch.

5. Portsmouth is a consequence, not necessarily the destination

The vessel was intercepted and its occupants brought ashore by the rescue services. Portsmouth was the receiving port, not necessarily the traffickers’ planned landing point.

The smugglers have traded a longer, more dangerous sea journey for a lower chance of being stopped in France.

That is the tactical change. This is business risk management. Simple.

Illegal migration 101.

[Nick Dixon @NickDixon]

The problem with the phrase ‘taking the law into their own hands’ as an automatic pejorative is that it assumes the law is legitimate.

Former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption once said that although we have a legal obligation to follow the law, which is a tautology, we don’t have a moral obligation to follow bad laws.

It is very hard for the government to justify what it’s doing (and not doing) in moral terms. We know these aren’t real asylum seekers, we know some will commit crimes, some may even be terrorists, and at best they’ll cause massive social unrest. Thus the government is failing in its basic duty to keep citizens safe.

Even if all that wasn’t true, the British people have clearly expressed for years that they don’t want these migrants here, so the government is also ignoring the will of the people.

Hence if what the government is doing is legal, then clearly those laws are wrong. It can’t in any meaningful sense be legal to flood the country with dangerous illegal migrants.

Obviously I’m not encouraging anyone to do anything, this is just a philosophical point.

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@BootneckMajor @DrChrisParry 😂👍👋

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@Cantwara_ As I remember William Cobbett in his ‘Rural Rides’ is absolutely castigating about the waste of taxpayers’ money building the Napoleonic defences (Royal Military Canal, fortifications at Dover Western Heights and others). There’s a Penguin Classic and it’s worth a read!

[Khaled Hassan @Khaledhzakariah]

I am very, very sorry to say this, but the Muslim Brotherhood is expanding its influence across Africa and Yemen—with Egypt enabling them in Sudan, and Saudi Arabia enabling them in both Sudan and Yemen.

And in the UK, the Brotherhood is also winning, thanks to the Labour Party.

This is a complete catastrophe.

Wherever the Muslim Brotherhood gains influence, instability, bloodshed and state fragmentation tend to follow.

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@JMcMurdockMP In Parliament, as elsewhere, we’ve noticed the process is the punishment. Meanwhile for actual wrong-doers in England there are never any consequences. I’m sorry for you James and hope you get beyond this nonsense.

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@Pyrrrhos 😂 you’ve followed his 🥴 career trajectory

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@RightUniteUK Very frustrating in Kingsdown… both Restore and Reform candidates were excellent local candidates. The Green is a retired local GP who talks about water quality, so also a good local candidate, but has a big Palestine flag outside her house in the village….

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@Arron_banks Our last Tory MP literally vanished and defected to Labour!! What are the odds of that? So we now have a total toss-pot Labour MP. This manoeuvre was obviously organised somewhere, didn’t happen by accident, and yet no media have ever covered the story 😳

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@tomhfh Too true Tom. There should be rolling programmes of railway electrification, SMRs etc. instead we have stop-go which is inefficient & expensive. My personal bugbear is Sunak cancelling t/ part of HS2 that made t/ whole project work for a conference speech that nobody remembers.

[Kelvin MacKenzie @kelvmackenzie]

This is totally wrong. Ex-police officer Stephen Gray had been convicted of sharing a post showing a piece of bacon alongside a man with a turban and a caption reading; “ Fun facts about bacon. People who eat bacon have less chance of marrying a 9-year-old.”
Gray,65, who spent three decades in Cleveland police, was found guilty and made to pay £1,000 in fines and costs for making a grossly offensive post on Facebook.
The disgraceful verdict was reported in The Telegraph.
This verdict is total crap. It’s not grossly offensive and the District Judge at Newton Aycliffe is an idiot.
Delighted to report that the Free Speech Union is going to fund his appeal. I’m sure he will win.
As Grsy says all he did was make a joke, an ironic joke, about Islam.
If this ludicrous conviction was to stand the UK would have introduced blasphemy by the back door.
The judge has made a serious error and he should be stood down.

[Ellie Rofe @eliotranch]

The issue is that nobody in the MSM is incentivised to promote the SDP.

We would take votes from Reform, Labour and even the Tories.

We would drag the Overton window even harder towards nationalism vs their preferred, kneejerk globalism.

We would hasten the realignment that the old parties have spent 20 years trying to clamp down.

And we don't have a large enough membership to be undeniable, nor news making personnel.

So we have to become undeniable via members, local elections, defections, growth, prominent supporters and - ultimately - Parliamentary representation by 2029.

There are a number of steps to take towards this. But they all require funds. Which is why we're trying to raise money - somewhat like a startup would. It's the only way forward.

We need to find the people who want to create a better future for their children. The people who know all the money in the world won't insulate their grandkids from a country in collapse.

We need to find donors who want Britain to be governed by people with a plan - who unashamedly, wholeheartedly love the country and view politics as service, not personal aggrandisement. Donors who know that delusional, insipid and stupid MPs, economic collapse and civil war are no way for such a wonderful and storied country to go out. Who want to help genuinely rebuild.

The work is underway. We don't know if it will succeed but we have to try.

[Ben Cobley @bencobley]

How the Muslim Brotherhood has embedded itself in Western societies - a follow-up to my long-read piece published by @unherd in May: https://t.co/xypw3zpyhB

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

I believe that this is very, very important

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@LeoKearse 🤣🤣

[Mark Goldfinch @mark3deal]

@CptHastings1916 😂😂😂

[Z Riboua @zriboua]

The big picture:

Any analyst examining the Sahel today and the expansion of Russian influence, the growth of terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram and JNIM, and the demographic and economic indicators of North Africa will see what is about to unfold.

A larger migration crisis at this point is not a question of if but when. For the moment, each episode can be presented as a dispute between Morocco and another country with conspiracy theories about why and how but there is a huge pressure on NATO South that people should keep in mind.

Problems on Europe’s external borders will persist, problems on North African countries who also are now destinations for migrants will also persist, and every weakness the EU displays through mass regularization programs, weak return policies, inconsistent border enforcement, or signals that irregular entry will ultimately be rewarded will invite exploitation by smugglers, hostile states, and ideological networks seeking to deepen political divisions across both shores of the Mediterranean.

[Charlotte Gill @CharlotteCGill]

“The more you follow these networks, the more you realise you are looking at a big unelected club, in my view trying to enact global socialism. Everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.”

My piece on Pedro Sánchez:

https://t.co/cdsHdBd1cw

[Giorgia Meloni @GiorgiaMeloni]

Le immagini che arrivano da Ceuta sono impressionanti e dimostrano, ancora una volta, che l’immigrazione clandestina fuori controllo rappresenta una minaccia concreta per la sicurezza dei confini europei.

Mi sono confrontata con il Ministro dell’Interno Matteo Piantedosi. L’Italia non resterà a guardare. Stiamo convocando gli organismi preposti, e all'esito di queste riunioni siamo pronti a intervenire anche con strumenti straordinari per difendere i confini e la sicurezza dei cittadini, come la sospensione dello spazio Schengen con la Spagna.

Sull’immigrazione clandestina non arretreremo di un millimetro: difendere i confini, fermare i trafficanti di esseri umani e garantire rimpatri efficaci continuerà a essere la linea di questo Governo.