In the news

Lol, those fingers. Obvious AI art is obvious

Prior to the electronic passports coming in I don’t think notes were kept on who was coming in, and often you didn’t have to show ID when you left to an EU destination.

I thought passenger lists started to be collected not long after 9/11? It was around then you needed photo id for internal flights.

They’d check the airplane passenger lists against watch lists, but AFAIK immigration wasn’t keeping a central database of who came in and who came out, especially for sea travel. I don’t remember ever having to show a passport to roll off a ferry on a bike before Brexit, and I believe most cars were just waved through apart the unlucky few who got a spot check.

I remember being very carefully checked at Calais coming back to the UK around 2010 as they seemed to want to check the photo in my 1 year olds passport matched them rather than a.n.other fairly new born baby. Maybe I was unlucky and look dodgy.

Maybe they were on the alert for a kidnapped child that day?

But the long history of light touch border controls is precisely why the shift to actually checking everything produced such bedlam.

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/brexit-borders-dover

You still had to list who was travelling in the car to the ferry companies. As well as any pillion passengers on motorbikes.

You couldn't turn up and have more people than you listed.

…and yet in 2009 we have a story about the Home Office trying to create a database https://amp.theguardian.com/uk/2009/feb/25/data-surveillance-identity

…a project which was scrapped in 2014
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Borders

As a BBC write up of the NAO investigation into the failure of the project says:

But the National Audit Office says checks remain "highly manual and inefficient", and IT systems outdated.
The Home Office says all UK arrivals are checked against watch lists.

Which is what I’ve been saying: we have been checking people aren’t on a list of people we know we don’t want, but there isn’t yet a central database of everyone’s comings and goings - and there certainly wasn’t one in 2016.

I grew up in a country with ID cards and I've always enjoyed that there aren't any here. That is all.

BMW set upon and Asian men inside attacked - how violence surged in one city

This is crazy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj622z0w7n0o

So many racist twats are at the FO period of FAFO:

https://x.com/childcare/status/1820540614846586983

Reassuring to see NI's leylists embracing their Britishness by repurposing their usual season of anti-caflik riots to focus on anti-furrins.

The Beeb not holding back with the accusations either:

A man in a St George’s flag T-shirt can be seen trying to smash the BMW’s windows. Using facial recognition software and social media profiles, we have identified him as John Honey

Another man BBC Verify has identified as being present at the incident - using facial recognition tools and confirmed by comparison with social media profiles - is Connor Londesborough.

That seems problematic that they would do this.

FAFO

Surely they should be using the people are saying line? It works well for incitement, sorry impartial comment.

Disappointing to see some politicians mention "genuine concerns" no, this is thuggery and anti Muslim bigotry. And racist scum flying the UK and ire flags together is not the United Ireland we need ;)

Those scumbags are egged on by criminal groups and while that area has work to do they now happily undo the work of the local community groups.

I used to live there, yes there are issues but also people trying to improve it and now someone got seriously injured.

And people are living in fear, it's going to be hard to heal.

local community groups.

In Belfast... 🤣🤣🤣

The best thing, and a good illustration of the confusion that reigns, is surely the St George's flag with anarchist symbols sprayed on it.

Welby getting muddled up with his flag shagging narrative... WAC.

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Honestly, don't these Olympic athletes know anything?

Something told me: ‘I need to lean.’

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/04/noah-lyles-mens-100m-gold-narrowest-margin-olympic-final

Important correction on that article...

This article was amended on 5 August 2024. Noah Lyles “finished like a TGV train”, not an RER as an earlier version said.

Sounded like one had been arrested and the other admitted that they were there.

Turns out supporting racists doesn't make you immune from their shit...

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Maybe comes at a surprise but yes they exist. Bit sure keep thinking all of Belfast is just what some news tells you 🙄

I'm welk aware some are paramilitary fronts, but some are genuine groups running food clubs, art courses and employment classes.

Windsor women centre, gvrt, tree are genuine groups in that area.

Wouldn't drink in the Royal though dodgy AF