Opinion: Emma Little-Pengelly's common sense reaction to the chaos, violence and protests.
Just listened to the BBC Radio Ulster interview with the Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland, Emma Little-Pengelly. I think it was a good response as she was condemning violence, but also acknowledging the problem and catalyst (a lack of social housing) and started talking about how she'll try and work to create more social housing so people aren't displaced by migration, etc. I think this was a common sense approach instead of just simply encouraging violence or declaring war on the rioters, which I feel like would just make things worse.
It is true, we should expand social housing. I think everyone can agree with that.
Theresa May introduced the Hostile Environment, and Priti Patel made it even more strict. If the Home Office could refuse asylum applications for any reason whatsoever, they would. Despite that, the vast majority of asylum applications are successful.
So they are not cheating the system and they do have the right to be here.
Besides which, how many people do you think we're talking about? Small boats. The clue is in the name. It's not like Dunkirk out there.
How is their claim not valid if the Home Office allowed it? You think Priti Patel was like "oh, go on then, I'll turn a blind eye just this once" ?
It isn't the case that they have to claim in the first country they come to. That's just misinformation.
If they spoke French, they would probably claim there. France takes more asylum seekers than the UK, so why would they risk their lives? We didn't even take our interpreters from Afghanistan.
You'd think that Nigel Farage would be as informed as anybody on these topics and he's getting his information from Andrew Tate. I repeat: they do not have valid concerns; they are just racists rioting.
I agree with the helping people who helped us in Afghanistan. No reason why we should inflict on ourselves the same problem france has. We don't want teachers being beheaded here.