Any Port In A Storm

It was not my intention to comment on the situation in and around the migrant camp at Calais because of the extensive coverage in the media and on the net.

It is the result of decisions made too late, that did not consider the realities of the developing crisis and was determined by dated beliefs and ideas rather than any proper analysis of the situation.

Calais was once English when The Pale was taken after the Battle of Crecy in 1346 as this list from Wikipedia of those appointed by the Crown to control the Pale of Calais shows.

It is a list of the great and the good, which suggests that it was a valued possession. During the time of King Henry VIII an ancestor was one of them, so this is personal.

The sorry story of its loss in 1558 under Queen Mary I, is told by this Wikipedia page if you are up for the history.  It is claimed that she said that when she died the name Calais would be found engraved on her heart again indicating its importance.

If the matter of who really owns Calais were to be put to the European Court of Human Rights by an interested party, given their unpredictable decisions there might be a chance of it being restored to England. But whose human rights?

This video and translation is around the web giving the view of a lady of Calais who is talking about the experience of herself and  other residents.  It is at odds with many media items and claims that the French citizens there are being told to stop complaining and to shut up.  They feel deserted by the Government of France.

It is a humanitarian disaster for them in that the destruction of their way of life and town has been imposed on it without their consent and that they have had the protection of ordinary policing and law withdrawn.  This could create an interesting situation.

Quite simply, if the citizens of The Pale wanted to submit to The Crown and become part of England and this could be brought about, then the migrants could be gone from their camps and to wherever they might go across The Channel without hindrance.

Perhaps a number could go up to Crewe to settle and to mediate between the Eastern Europeans and the natives, a complicated mixture of English, Welsh, Scots and Irish origin.