I have commented before about trying not to lie in bed, thinking about things, usually things that may not help with your mental health issues. The problem I have is that I never seem to follow my own advice, and I lie there hoping I will fall asleep, which does often happen, but at times it doesn’t.
My problem, however, is that that period from when I first wake until I do decide to get up can be strange times. I was on holiday today, a longer weekend than normal, and as I lay half awake, half sleeping, once again, there were these little pangs of anxiety – or at least I think they were. That must sound a bit strange. ‘I think they were?’ Because I sometimes wonder if they are real or if I’m dreaming them.
The mind is a strong and strange place, and it can play tricks on you, and I can vouch for that and this morning is an example of those little tricks, when you’re not quite sure what is real and what isn’t because you’re in that ‘half-asleep, half-awake’ zone, it’s your mind playing tricks.
My mind races at times and races with nonsense and the past, and the past isn’t a great thing, well, not for me anyway. I counter that by thinking about the good things in my life, which does help me and take me away from the not-so-good places, and it helps me relax. It is a good technique for anyone who struggles with their mind and mental health issues, including anxiety.
Good thoughts are positive, positive thoughts and attitudes can only help us, and that is why we need to ensure that when times are bad, we turn our minds to positive and good things and good times from our lives.
We have a timeshare in Malta, and a lovely place it is too. We have had many a good week in a beautiful country, and whilst it can be repetitive, my thoughts often go back to our resort as it is such a lovely relaxing place to be, and although repetitive, it is always bringing good thoughts into my head. And whilst many don’t have holiday memories, it doesn’t have to be that subject. It can evolve around anything, a day out, a concert, a pet, a friend or family member that you get on well, or anything that you think is good for you, a walk in the park, or any positive event. And when you are in your darkest place or at your lowest level, think good and think positive and keep doing it, which will help you.
I keep telling myself how lucky I am, and I know I am. I have never really had to go looking for things to make my life any better, well other than maybe changing jobs to earn a little extra or feel I was bettering myself or my career; there has been very little I needed to do, life has been good to me. We are just back from a weekend in Durham to watch the Rugby League Magic Weekend, at least one day to watch my beloved ST Helens, who got beat 30-31 with a last-minute drop goal, but rugby aside, what a great weekend and good memories.
So I look at the number of people entering our country every day, travelling over the busiest shipping lane in the world in the smallest of boats, and risking their lives for a better life, and I wonder what it is they have run away from? I have seen real poverty first hand; we have holidayed in The Gambia many times. When you get to know some of the locals that you can call friends, when you venture away from the tourist areas, and they start to show you a different world, you see sites that aren’t posted on the holiday websites or in the travel agents brochures, you see first-hand how poor people live. Corrugated sheets for walls and roofs, mounds of rubbish in the streets, dirty water in drains where people wash, and use as a latrine. You see people with nothing or very little and worse. But importantly, you still see people smiling, kids have nothing and play with twigs and coat hangers, yet they smile and laugh. No, not all of them, but many do, and that is why it is called ‘The Smiling Coast.’
Not all places can be like this, and other countries will be a much worse place to live, with political and military dictatorships, with more poverty than most of us will ever see. Still, I wonder what drives people to come to this country, so I’m going to be brutal here, but I am sure it will mainly be for free housing and a life on benefits.
That will sound cruel to some, it will sound horrible and nasty, spiteful and more, and on this occasion, I will apologise, but it is how I feel, and see things. Why haven’t they stopped in the first country they have landed in away from their homeland that they felt they needed to escape? Let’s take a look?
Let’s start with looking at where these people come from predominantly Africa, but every person coming to the UK from these countries, will have had to travel through another country and more to get to the UK, so why didn’t they stop off elsewhere once they had flown their homeland? Well, how many of those countries they travelled through offered them free housing and benefits once they had spent their time in a welcoming camp somewhere?
I want us to be able to help people, it is important that we do, but if the figures are correct, nearly 1,000 immigrants made their way across the channel yesterday. We as a country cannot sustain these figures, not that 1,000 will come every day, but even if it was to average out at 200 every day that is over 70,000 every year, multiply it by as many years as you want and do the sums and we cannot keep letting these people into our country. That 70,000 is a town the size of Stafford or Walsall.
We have just announced a rise in our taxes to help fund the NHS, something I personally don’t mind too much because of the way they have looked after me recently and more importantly, my elderly parents; we can’t expect everything for free, well not unless you have come into the country illegally such as the people travelling across from France every day?
I say this because we know they are housed straight away, even in camps, in buildings purposely made for them, made up here in the West Midlands, in a factory I have visited myself through work! We pay for everything for them from minute one, accommodation, food, clothes and probably more we don’t even know about, how often do we see refugee’s with mobile phones as an example? From there, if they are allowed to stay, they will be given homes, and with a house to run, they will be given money and more.
Many of these people can’t speak English, so they cannot go
straight out to work, and many will never work at all, as they won’t be able to understand what to do, our language or our culture, although I am intrigued as to where they get the money to pay the traffickers in the first place.
And I don’t know because I don’t have the answers, but why is the UK giving the French Government £50m to help patrol their beaches to stop this flow of people to the UK? Why would France try to prevent too many of them from leaving? Because if they are in the UK, they are not Frances problem and not their financial burden, and this is another situation whereby I would love to be sitting around the table when these discussions are taking place. Still, I believe the UK would be better off putting the £50m into the NHS than in France’s pocket, as I don’t believe it will make much of a difference to the influx of people – money not well spent.
As mentioned, we must help people in need, but there must be other ways. There are world leaders, politicians, scientists, charities and others, and there must be a way of 
putting together some pretty big ‘think tanks’ to discuss and sort out this problem. To stop this continual movement of people that countries like the United Kingdom cannot sustain, we simply can’t keep doing it. We cannot keep adding (on average) Stafford into the United Kingdom every year; those figures were averaged in my head from the nearly 1,000 who made it over yesterday (a very large number), then I researched the statistics and found this, courtesy of migrationwatchuk.org:
‘However, from the available figures, just over 35,000 of this estimated illegal inflow is departing the country each year, meaning a net addition in the illegal population of 70,000 per year. The number of undetected entrants may mean that the figure is significantly higher
There is also my main concern in the post below, this doesn’t just apply to the world, but whichever country we live in.
Global Warming. The Real Reason – 2nd Edition!
So I hope that you can see this is not me being nasty or racist or even just downright horrible; it is me being concerned about our little country and the fact that it cannot cope with this continual influx of people. We nearly all have children and grandchildren to think about, and at times, first and foremost, we need to be looking after them, ourselves and our country.
Since writing this, I have heard that the UK is contemplating taking boats back to France, and as long as it is done safely and no one is hurt or worse, I believe it is the only way to get the message across to people that it is a waste of time trying to get to the UK, and if the message does work, I think we as a small country can only benefit.
Thanks for reading, and stay safe