Off Topic The Politics Thread

I care about all of them. The picture of this drowned 'stupid kid' might just have opened some eyes around the world that were previously closed.

People like yourself will never understand, but others do.

 

I think they had applied for asylum in Canada, but had been rejected.

 

They all belong in a asylum

 

so how were they planning on getting to Canada from greece
why were they rejected

how is anyone planning on doing security checks on the tide of apparently fit young men piling up in hungary

 

I know that they'll be some that will claim that it's a hollow statement; and others that prefer to keep politics and religion separate from the beautiful game.

If it can use the global appeal of English football to save just one life and offer hope and opportunity to persecuted families, then I'm in favour.

I wonder whether, like Swindon and Aston Villa, the club are considering where this fits alongside their existing CSR and outreach work.

On balance, I guess it's probably better left as a supporter initiative. (Akin to those supporters that held up 'Je Suis Charlie' banners).

http://www.theguardian.com/football...ll-supporters-groups-refugees-welcome-banners

 

English football supporters’ groups to show ‘Refugees Welcome’ banners

• Aston Villa and Swindon Town fans first to follow German counterparts
• Stan Collymore: ‘Our great club could and should do our bit to help’

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People hold up a ‘Refugees Welcome’ banner in Germany, where football fans have inspired their English counterparts to show their support for those fleeing war zones for Europe. Photograph: Oliver Killig/dpa/Corbis

Supporters’ groups in England are looking to follow the example set by their German counterparts in holding aloft “Refugees Welcome” banners at home matches in response to the crisis gripping Europe.

Inspired by support and offers of practical help from fans across Germany in recent weeks, Aston Villa and Swindon Town fans became the first to say they planned to hold aloft such banners amid attempts to coordinate support via social media. Villa supporters plan to send a message supporting refugees during their televised match at Leicester City on Sunday week when the teams meet after the international break. Similar banners have already been spotted at non-league matches involving Kingstonian and Dulwich Hamlet, as well as at FC United games. The Premier League said there was nothing in its rules to prevent clubs from welcoming the banners into their stadiums.

The former Aston Villa striker Stan Collymore is among those supporting the campaign to show solidarity with those entering Europe after fleeing war zones in Syria and elsewhere. “I remember Doug Ellis and our team taking aid to Bucharest in 1997 ahead of playing Steaua, and also Birmingham is a vibrant multicultural community,” he said. “I think our great club could and should do our bit to help.”

The organisers of a campaign on Facebook and Twitter (@RefugeesEFL) said they had been directly inspired by the images in Germany. “The German fans using “Refugees Welcome” banners was a big inspiration,” said Dena Nakeeb, who is organising the Facebook campaign. “It’s not just the imagery behind manly blokes holding banners supporting an issue which is so poignant at the moment. It’s the fact we as the British public are showing solidarity.”

Clubs across Germany have organised schemes to invite refugees to come and watch matches and collect clothes and donations, while banners calling for understanding and integration have become a regular feature in the Bundesliga at almost every club. On Thursday Germany’s biggest club Bayern Munich announced it would raise €1m to help refugees arriving in Europe and set up a training camp for those arriving in the city. Munich train station has become one of the main points of entry for those entering Germany through Hungary and Austria.

“FC Bayern sees it as its social responsibility to help those fleeing and suffering children, women and men, to support them and accompany them in Germany,” said the club’s chief executive, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Bayern’s youth academy will set up the training camp for children, in conjunction with the city of Munich. Apart from football training, it will also offer meals and German language classes.

First-team players will be accompanied by refugee children when they enter the pitch for Bayern’s next home game against Augsburg, with the club also planning a friendly with the aim of raising €1m. “FC Bayern is taking a stand and I am happy about the club’s involvement,” said the Munich mayor, Dieter Reiter. “That is why I happily approved the city’s support.”

Inspired by their German counterparts, English fans are using Facebook and Twitter to try to follow suit. In Scotland Celtic’s foundation said it would donate a portion of the proceeds from a weekend of events to mark the 30th anniversary of Jock Stein’s death. Among other events, a team of Celtic Legends will play Dunfermline at East End Park on Sunday.

“Having seen the effects of this humanitarian crisis unfold in recent days, we felt as a club we should help in any way we can,” said Celtic’s chief executive, Peter Lawwell. “Celtic was established as a football club to help people in need and this ethos remains a fundamental part of our club almost 130 years after our formation. None of us can understand the true horrors of this situation but as a club we wanted to show our support for those affected.”

Across Germany Bundesliga clubs have launched a range of schemes to try to foster understanding. Borussia Dortmund invited 220 refugees to watch a Europa League match as part of the city’s “Angekommen in Dortmund” (Arriving in Dortmund) campaign. Schalke invited 100 refugees to their first home game and released a video showing one of their best-known former players, the Ghanaian Gerald Asamoah, talking about the importance of tolerance and understanding. Bayer Leverkusen have started a project called “Bayer 04 macht Schule” (Bayer 04 does school) where the focus is on helping refugee children to join the club. Werder Bremen have founded a “Bleib am Ball” (Stay on the Ball) project to help refugees in the region, while both Hannover and Hoffenheim have delivered kits and shoes.

Germany’s national team also released a video to show their stance against violence and racism, with the team manager, Oliver Bierhoff, saying they were keen to send a message.

Meanwhile the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and shadow culture secretary, Chris Bryant, said they had written to national cultural, religious and sports organisations to ask them to play their part in welcoming more refugees to Britain in light of the escalating crisis.

 

Not sure of the objective in England - the Germans have plenty of real refugees to welcome, is it meant to be to lobby government to let more in here?

If it is done without conflict, great.

 

sku is another one who hates what was once Great Britain.
He wants us to be the dustbin of the world and have nutters on the streets demanding mental law changes.
He wants British people kicked out of their council houses a couple of weeks after someone becomes widowed, because there is not enough people left in the house.
He wants the National Health Service to become a thing of the past and people to pay private or suffer if they cannot afford it.
What a nutter.

 

Thanks fellow!

I don't think I'm that radical! If at all.

The photo of the lad on the beach, coupled with reports of young children arriving in Kent all alone and hungry, struck a chord with me; especially when I reflect on my own kids and their hopes and dreams.

If I was in their shoes, with a choice of dying in fear and persecution in a place I once called home, or saving my family by risking everything to go to a place I know little of, no doubt I'd be doing the same.

There's no easy answers, I agree.

I'm still not sure that tying politics with football is right too; but the article stirred me enough to post it nonetheless.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...t-apply-to-sponsor-family-in-canada-1.3214517

 

You're right about the effect of a photograph, Strolls. But it worries me when 70 die (including children) with little reaction and then there's an outcry over a 71st because the body has been photographed. How easily we're manipulated.

Cameron is right to take in a few thousand (admittedly after having his arm twisted) and to select them from mainland Middle East and not those that paid people traffickers. Germany is wrong imo and is acting largely in self interest. Nevertheless, Mrs Merkel is playing a dangerous game because already in Eastern Germany, normal civilians are going on marches with neo-Nazis...

There may be a lull soon in the numbers of migrants crossing the Med due to winter weather. The EU will have six months to get its act together and present a united front. It's been all over the place recently. I can see big arguments coming up between old Europe with Schengen (France, Germany, Italy) and the east European members who want their country to stay Christian and will not want to take a quota of Muslim refugees/ economic migrants.

 

You will, of course, be able to produce proof (not anecdotal) that this is the case. Otherwise we can all dismiss it as reactionary nonsense.

 

I think you have to be careful with political statements at football matches. It invites trouble if others feel strongly against the banner. If the club doesn't have a policy on this, they may have to get one soon!

 

I do think it's a bit inconsistent. If clubs organised banner displays urging withdrawal from the EU or criticising some of the Government cuts I rather suspect they would be fined - this is still a political statement but seems to be being actively encouraged.

I expect us to keep giving aid and to take some in but don't really feel the need to wave a banner at a football match. Still, I appreciate society is changing and ultimately this initiative means well.

 

**** politics..................................it is simply the decent thing to do and I am all for it.

These poor , poor people.

Religion has a lot to answer for

 

Go and have a brisk rub down with a damp copy of the Daily Mail in a darkened room and you will soon feel much better

 

I will leave that to you.
I am more interested in facts.

 

We are a small north european island...............I wonder what screening will be done? Lets let millions in and when there is no space and no jobs and eventually race/religion riots and even civil war then the so called do gooders will wonder why

 

I dont take the Daily Mail.