Portsmouth: NOT a new Route for the Traffickers.

Well, there was a bit of argy-bargy in Portsmouth last night, Eastney to be precise. 

After the French Police had closed down the beaches closest to Britain, the traffickers tried a new route from the Cherbourg peninsula. 

Except this isn't a new route. 

I've documented before that I've personally seen strange small boats arriving in Langstone harbour at night. By strange, I mean not the usual boats you see if you live down at Eastney. And at one point I did virtually live down there as I had a yacht down there on a mud mooring. Anecdotal evidence of what those boats do when they eventually hit land at the top of the harbour is that men are bringing large heavy bags ashore and loading them into vans. Note they land at the top of the harbour, which is not on any of the Islands like Hayling or Portsea (Portsmouth) which have ANPR cameras on the limited routes onto the islands. Make of that what you will. 

Now what's in those bags, one can only speculate, but with crime comes weapons and drugs. Contacting the Police is pointless, because before you even get a response on the phone, the boats and the vans are gone.

So the route picked yesterday is a known route for the traffickers. They know how much extra fuel to carry to cover the extra mileage. This is no desperate slingshot across the channel. It has been done many times before, just not carrying people. 

Now, to the events of last night. 

Eastney lifeboat station is on the end of a peninsula served by just one road. It also has a pontoon for the ferry boat between Eastney and Hayling island on the other side of the harbour entrance. 

So the authorities made a bit of a strategic error getting the Bembridge lifeboat to land there. I see that there was time to get coaches to Eastney to pick up the illegal immigrants before the residents of Pompey closed the road. And set up tents. And supply care packages. Makes you wonder if the authorities already knew this was a trafficking route and had resources in place nearby, ready to deploy at a moment's notice.

Also the authorities underestimated the community spirit here. Plenty of people are motivated enough to turn up and protest, in numbers. And are quite happy to defy dispersal orders too. 

Also it seems that Danny Tommo's balaclava mob got the news via facebook and jumped on trains to Pompey from Dover to add to the crowd. Not that there's a shortage of balaclava-wearing blokes here in Portsmouth anyway. Also the Police had better watch out: Pompey lads are always up for a ruck. Heavy-handed Police tactics might backfire.

A word of warning to the authorities: Portsmouth is not the ideal location for this activity. It's an island city with only 3 roads onto the Island. As Portsmouth residents know all too well, those routes can quite easily be blocked and cause chaos across the city. There's more than one way to block the importation of more immigrants. And to prevent Police reinforcements from dispersing any protest. 

Just saying.

UPDATE:

After reviewing the videos on FaceBook from last night, I'm a bit confused. Basically the people of Portsmouth blocked the single road and the Police threatened to baton the protesters to clear the way. 

As I mentioned, this was an unsuitable place to land the immigrants. It was at the end of a peninsula, served by a single road. It was the first time the immigrants had been landed outside a controlled port area. Literally on the other side of Portsea Island was Portmouth Naval base. Why were the immigrants not landed there?

Considering the speed of the response regarding transport, tents clothing, etc. it has the hallmarks of a planned  exercise. After all, we are hours away from Dover by road, so the resources must have been housed locally. 

If it was a planned exercise, then the use of an unsecured landing area was planned. One thing I have learned since I came to Portsmouth is that it has a very close sense of Community. As soon as one person sees and hears the activity (many listen to Marine VHF as a matter of course, so would have known in advance what was going on) it was sure to start swelling numbers even just to see what was going on. 

I have a niggling feeling that this was orchestrated, to provide the circumstances to create the large protest and difficulties for the authorities, such that there would be a public order issue and therefore the dispersal order. Unfortunately for the authorities the crowd largely complied, avoiding the confrontation they desperately wanted.

Next time is going to be interesting. 

Why Conscription up to 65 Won't Work.

This weekend I turned 64. Rather than the usual trip up North to visit parents, as they have now shuffled off to join the Choir Invisible I decide to celebrate doing something different.

I went camping with the extended family. Kids Grandkids and the single great-grandkid. All in about 6 tents. 

But the weekend just hit home how stupid the recall of ex-military up to the age of 65 is. 

I was crippled. Just by sheer dampness. I mean, modern tents go up in minutes. A 4-berth inflatable tent like ours is up in 10 minutes and completely guyed out in 20.

Setting up inside takes a little longer, but prioritising the kitchen means you can be having a cuppa in half an hour. 

The bed inflates itself from the power pack, as do the chairs. 

Camping is not as hard as I remember it was back when I was a kid. 

But the weather beat me. My joints were racked by the damp. Not the cold. It was far from cold. But it was relentlessly damp.

If I was a 64 year old reservist deployed to some moist part of Europe, there's no way I could defend myself or my colleagues effectively. It would take me a couple of minutes to get up, let along dash to some muster point, or some fire pit ready to repel some foreign army. 

By the time my joints had complied with some semblance of flexibility without pain, we'd be overrun.

An that's the reason why Recall up to the age of 65 won't work, not for the military. There's a reason that you can pension out at an early-ish age. It's because your body can't do the things it did when you were in your twenties. 

I suppose you could be recalled and used here in the UK to fill logistics roles, or maybe some home defence type of role. 

But home defence? Using what exactly? 

It's just pie in teh sky. I don't know what the MOD were thinking, or smoking. But they should lay off it and come back to some for of realism.

TikTok: Why Do All the Crazes End Up Killing People?

Well, the question my Mum used to ask me has been answered: yes, there are a bunch of kids that will jump off a cliff if someone else told them to do it.

We had the Blackout craze, where kids choked themselves to unconsciousness. Kids were dying because they effectively hanged themselves.

One of the latest is the Benadryl challenge. A girl has already died after a fatal overdose of Benadryl.

Now the latest challenge is to drive up motorways or dual carriageways the wrong way. Basically a game of chicken. 

The thing that gets me is these are young adults. To get your licence in the UK you have to be at least 17. Yet you're still doing stupid TikTok fads at that age? <rolls eyes>

It was bad enough when it was the stupid kids offing themselves, but now we have a craze that will potentially kill other people. 

At that point, I think things have gone too far. 

Sadly I can't condone censoring TikTok completely, because it's mostly innocuous. But I do condone parents having the "would you jump off a cliff?" talk to their teenage kids. 

Because as it stands, there are a huge number of kids that would jump off a cliff if dared to. Or even just for likes on social media.

Not that you'd be able to enjoy your minute of social media fame if you are dead.