Refugees and a Red Carpet

Hi Everyone

A few years ago, I researched my family tree. I got back to 1710 when Matthew Mate married Ann Biker at a church about 20 miles from where we now live. Unfortunately, I was not able to trace his father because he was an immigrant who crossed the English Channel to find a better life here in England. In the late sixteen hundreds, the Huguenots were persecuted for their beliefs and fled in their thousands, mainly to here in England. They brought their skills in lacemaking and glass manufacture, and no doubt many of them worked hard and prospered despite the fact that they would be treated with suspicion and resentment. Of course, there would be criminals among those thousands. Now, almost 350 years later, immigrants are still crossing the English Channel for what they think will be a better life. Now, as then, there will be people of great benefit to our country and a few people who will break our laws and take advantage of what we offer. The difference now is that, all those years ago, they immediately had to find a way to survive rather than having to be processed, with some waiting for months before it is decided whether they can stay and work at our expense. Some time ago, I said that all immigrants, both legal and illegal, should sign a paper on entering the country stating that if they are convicted of a crime, they should be immediately deported. This week, our government appears to agree with me, but how long it will be to become law is anybody's guess.  The Senior Partners family originally came to this country as a result of the potato famine in Ireland in the 1800s, so for those who have extreme views on this matter, just remember that somewhere in your family history, you are likely to have descendants who came to England to seek a better life. 

If you are a regular Rubbish reader, you will know that I started my working career as a draughtsman/surveyor at a timber and joinery company. You know, I got the job because I could multiply two and a half by two and a half. About three weeks later, a new office boy appeared, his first job straight from school so he would be about three years younger than me. He was a likeable lad, but he had two problems: very large feet, so he kept tripping over things and a sniff. As he was in the next office to me and the door was always open, so after an eight hour working day the sniff was irritating and at the end of a five and a half day working week, intolerable. Anyway, the reason that I am telling you all this Rubbish is that this week I suddenly saw him ‘walking’ towards me. Now I was beginning to think that I had to seriously consider admitting that I had reached middle age. That meeting, however, convinced me that I still have some way to go before I finally reach that point in my life. The other good news was that as we chatted, he did not trip over anything, and thankfully, there were no sniffs.

On one occasion, when our late Queen visited Stoke on Trent, she came on the royal train. When the train door opened for her at the station, there was a sharp intake of breath by everyone as the red carpet for her welcome was some way down the platform. Last week, we had what I would describe as the disturbing sight of Trump and Putin, a convicted felon and a tyrant and dictator, greeting each other on the red carpet. I would love to have been at the end of it to pull the rug from under both of them. Probably under Trump and definitely under Putin, the person who made the error at Stoke station would have been in prison for life.

Just a Thought :

Why did Trump marry an immigrant? Another example of immigrants doing the jobs that no Americans want to do.

The office boy didn’t mind coming to work. It was the eight hours wait to go home that he couldn’t stand.

Who decided a carpet the colour of blood was the best for walking on?

Brian