A UKIP’ floating wall in Channel to stop migrants’ announcement has been met with the ridicule it deserves but there is even more to it.
The madcap scheme has been slammed but it also appears to be borrowed from a joke fundraiser!
So, the UKIP floating barrier in channel is not even a new idea.
Simon Harris wrote on X: “So here’s the situation.
“Three years ago, I created a joke fundraiser to build a floating wall in The English Channel to stop small boats. This included a fifteen-minute ‘Proof of Concept’ video where I used bath toys to make a working prototype. The money ended up going to a holiday hunger project.
“Today, UKIP tweeted to announce that if they were in government, they would build a floating wall in The English Channel to ‘stop small boats.’
“I then asked them if they had copied my idea, as there were a startling number of similarities between the two designs. They just blocked me.
“Lots of other people then asked them the same. They all got blocked too.
“Welcome to 2023 Britain.”
Joke
He had earlier written: “IT’S HAPPENED. IT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
“A little while ago I ran a joke fundraiser to build a wall in The English Channel to ‘stop the boats,’ made up a load of rubbish about how it would work, produced a prototype video with bath toys, and then gave all of the money raised to a local holiday hunger scheme.
“Now UKIP, bless them, have actually announced it as an official policy. Oh dearie me.
“Here’s my version with the video – https://gofund.me/2da9225c – the image below has been taken directly from their Twitter feed. I can assure you that they are deadly serious about it …”
He added a map!
UKIP Floating barrier in channel
It seems that the party did block him when he asked as you can see below.
UKIP shared ‘their’ new idea and wrote: “Another 218 migrants in six boats allowed in yesterday😡
“This government is wasting time. The only plan that will work quickly is to stop them coming in
“@UKIP will build a floating barrier in the #English Channel to keep them in #EU waters.”
Reactions
1.
“Please can you describe these “floating barriers” you are going to build in the channel. I’m intrigued
“You are beyond parody.”
2.
“I thought this was a parody but then looked on Neil Hamiltons twitter and saw he’d retweeted it. Beggars belief.”
3.
“Lucky there’s no big ships in the channel or storms, or ferries, … or cross channel swimmers come to that.”
Floating barriers been considered before?
Now this is where the plot thickens, or just goes even more crazy, like the end of Saw 145 (when it is eventually made).
The Home Office approached the trade group Maritime UK over the possible use of temporary “marine fencing”, in a request for ideas sent over the summer, reported the BBC in 2020.
“The government has looked at setting up a processing centre for asylum seekers on Ascension Island, 4,000 miles from the UK – or on disused ferries moored off the coast of England.
“Meanwhile, the Times has reported that other proposals drawn up by the Home Office include the use of a water cannon in the Channel to create waves to push back vessels.”
So with the Bibby Stockholm moored off our coast and the Rwanda scheme, perhaps the UKIP idea is crazy, but it doesn’t mean the government might not try it.
Related: Joe Lycett sent an open letter to Suella Braverman – reactions
